Leif Erikson arrived in Newfoundland briefly around 1000AD, but the longer-lasting Norse outposts are in Greenland and Iceland. Thus, the first contact between Europeans and native North Americans occurs between the Norse and the Inuit in the middle ages.
As early as the 14th century, Spain and Portugal are connecting with islands out in the Atlantic Ocean. Spain is active in the Canary Islands.
Meanwhile, Portugal expands this early into the Madeira Islands. By 1440, Portugal has expanded to the Azores Islands. The Azores are a big step in exploration, because they are so far out in the Atlantic Ocean.
By 1482, Portugal has explored the west coast of Africa. Tragically, this will be the beginnings of the African slave trade.
In 1492, Columbus sails to the canary islands and then shoots straight west across the expanse of the Atlantic ocean, in an attempt to reach India. He lands on San Salvador in the Bahamas.
Columbus returns the next year in 1493, sailing near Hispaniola--modern Haiti and the Dominican Republic--and Cuba. There are about 1 million natives on the island of Hispaniola at this time.
In 1497, the English commission John Cabot to sail directly west from England. He sights Newfoundland in Canada.
Also in 1497, Vasco da Gama clears the Cape of Good Hope around Africa, and navigates the eastern coast of Africa, finding an alterative route to India.
Columbus returns for a third voyage in 1498, and he sights the northern coastline of the South American continent.
Amerigo Vespucci, whose name--Amerigo--will christen the newly discovered continents, sails along the northeastern coast of South America in 1499.
Spain continues to dominate exploration. Ponce de Leon explores the eastern coast of Florida in 1513, and Balboa reaches Panama in the same year for Spain. Balboa will be the first European to see the eastern edge of the Pacific Ocean.
Cortes passes north of the Yucatan peninsula and lands in Mexico. there he encounters the mighty Aztec Empire in 1519, a civilization of millions. The Spanish find cities in Mexico bigger than the cities in Europe.
France enters the American exploration theatre in 1524. Verrazano sails up the Atlantic coast, the homeland of many Algonquian nations.
Cabeza de Vaca of Spain travels along the Gulf region from western Florida to near Galveston, Texas. He then spends time in the Texas interior of North America in 1528, moving among the native peoples there.
Further south, Spain conquers another powerful Native American civilization, the Incas. Francisco Pizarro brings Peru into the Spanish Empire in 1533.
Spain has established sugar colonies in the Caribbean. African Slaves are imported from West Africa to the sugar plantations of the Caribbean.
1535: The Frenchman Cartier sails directly west from northwest France across the Atlantic. He explores the lower St. Lawrence River in the north.
Spain is now active on the Pacific side of the American continents. In 1539 de You Oh-A sights the Pacific coastline of Mexico and Baja California.
Spain's reach into the interior of North America spreads wider. Between 1539 and 1542, de Soto travels widely through the future southeastern united states. His long journey begins in Florida and goes westward across the Mississippi River.
On the other side of north America, Coronado is simultaneously exploring the southwest between 1540 and 1542, finding the great pueblo civilization of the southwest.
1565: The Spanish form the colony of St. Augustine in Florida, the first permanent European settlement in the future united states.
By this time, many native American populations are crashing from smallpox, even before any direct contact is made with Europeans.
Sir Walter Raleigh establishes the first English colony at Roanoke in North Carolina in 1585. In a few years, the colony will vanish with only the word "Croatoan" scratched on a tree, a reference to a local native nation.
In 1588 Spain loses much of its fleet--the armada--in a thwarted invasion of England, and Spain's sea power dominance is now in question. England and France begin to find new openings.
France is finding its niche in the northeast. Samuel de Champlain explores the north between 1603 and 1609, pressing further down the St. Lawrence. His journey takes him to the the lake in New York State that bears his name. On the New York side of the St. Lawrence is the powerful Iroquois Confederacy. On the Canadian side of the St. Lawrence is the Huron nation.
English Jamestown is established in 1607.
French Quebec is established in 1608.
The Englishman Henry Hudson sails up the river in New York State that bears his name in 1609. The following year, 1610, Hudson explores the great Canadian bay that also bears his name.
The French also advance further into the north. Between 1615 and 1616, Champlain continues further into Huron country in Canada, sighting Lake Huron and Lake Ontario.
Film by Jeffrey Meyer
Satellite images from Microsoft Bing