Northern European Colonization of the Americas

European Colonization

History

Colonization from Northern European Nations truly started in 1004 with Leif Erikson's settlement in Newfoundland. In Norse it was called Vineland and lasted only a short period of time. After the re-discovery of North America by Christopher Columbus in 1492, Other Northern European nations carved out small little stakes of the American continents. Most of these settlements did not last (the last being the Virgin Islands which were purchased by the U.S. in 1917).

Demographics

The population of Northern European colonizers largely consisted of White Anglo-Saxon soliders who were purchased by Scandinavian Kings to defend their stakes in the New World. Imperialist Russia established trade posts along the Aleutian Islands and employed native Aleutians and Inuits to work for them. Later these trade posts became established settlements. In the English and Dutch Colonies many Protestant Germans sought to find Religious Tolerance having been prosecuted in their various German States. Many Germans from the Palatine, Baden and Wurttemburg settled in Pennsylvania and led to the forming of settlements like, Mannheim, Lidiz, Strasbourg, Germantown and New Berlin.