Pre-1600: Trade and Commerce: Chronology

IMPORTANT EVENTS TO 1600

IMPORTANT EVENTS TO 1600

2000? b.c.

• The indigenous peoples of northeast North America begin trading for copper with Old Copper culture Indians living in the upper Great Lakes region.

300 b.c. - 250 a.d.

• The rise of the Hopewell culture in the central Mississippi, Illinois, and Ohio River valleys leads to a large-scale, thriving trade in luxury goods.

1000?

• Anasazi Indians trade extensively with Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Toltec.
• The rise of Mississippian culture spurs trade in the Southeast.

1250?

• Pueblo Indians living in and near the Rio Grande valley develop a complementary trading relationship with Plains Indians.

1510?

• French, Spanish, Portuguese, Breton, and Basque fisherman initiate the fur trade with the Indians of Nova Scotia and Labrador.
• French privateers begin to attack Spanish treasure ships returning from the New World.

1521-1526

• During the first phase of the Hapsburg-Valois Wars French corsairs under the command of Jean Ango of Dieppe take a heavy toll on Spanish treasure ships.

1524

• While exploring the North American coast from Cape Fear to Nova Scotia for France, the Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazano trades with Narragansett and Abenaki Indians.

1525

• The Portuguese navigator Esteban Gómez trades with Native Americans while mapping the North American coast from Florida to Cape Cod.
• The Spanish begin to use convoys to protect their treasure ships from privateers.

1534

• Iroquois Indians’ first contact with Europeans occurs at Baie de Gaspé when they meet and barter with Jacques Cartier.

1535

• During Cartier’s second voyage Donnacona, the leader of the Stadacona Indians, attempts to monopolize the region’s fur trade by preventing the French from exploring further up the St. Lawrence River.

1539-1543

• Hernando de Soto leads an expedition across the American South in search of gold and silver.

1540-1542

• Francisco Vasquez de Coronado leads an expedition into the American Southwest in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola.

1541

• Jacques Cartier constructs the first French settlement in North America, Charlesbourg-Royal, near the site of present-day Quebec City, in hopes of trading with the Indians and discovering gold.

1542

• Facing constant attacks by the nearby Stadacona Indians, Cartier decides to abandon Charlesbourg-Royal.
• British privateer John Reneger seizes the Spanish ship San Salvador off Cape St. Vincent, initiating a lengthy period of poor relations between Spain and England.

1552-1556

• During the Hapsburg-Valois Wars French privateers prey upon Spanish treasure ships returning from the New World. Spain retaliates by attacking French fishing vessels off Newfoundland.

1559

• The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis ends the Hapsburg-Valois Wars.

1564

• French Huguenots under the leadership of René Goulaine de Laudonnière found Fort Caroline at the site of present-day Jacksonville, Florida, as a base from which French ships could raid the Spanish treasure fleet.

1565

• A Spanish expedition under the command of Pedro Menéndez de Aviles attacks and captures Fort Caroline.
• Menéndez founds St. Augustine to protect the Spanish treasure fleets from French, British, and Dutch buccaneers.

1567

• Spanish naval forces attack a British fleet commanded by John Hawkins off Vera Cruz, Mexico.

1572

• Francis Drake captures Nombre de Dios in present-day Panama and seizes the annual silver caravan as it arrives from Peru.

1578

• Humphrey Gilbert explores North America for England in a voyage designed, in part, to attack the Spanish fishing fleet off Newfoundland.

1580?

• The fur trade begins to alter the nature of the northeast Indians’ trade and economic system.

1581

• French ships begin sailing annually to the Montagnais trading center of Tadoussac on the St. Lawrence River.

1585

• Sir Walter Raleigh establishes the short-lived colony of Roanoke on North Carolina’s Outer Banks as a base from which privateers could attack the Spanish treasure fleets.
• En route home from Roanoke, the British ship Tiger under the command of Richard Grenville captures the Spanish vessel Santa Maria de San Vicente.

1586

• A British raiding fleet under Sir Francis Drake attacks and destroys the Spanish fort at St. Augustine and disrupts Spanish trading in the Caribbean.

1595

• Sir Francis Drake and John Hawkins lead a disastrous raid on Spanish colonies in the New World. Hawkins dies of illness in the Virgin Islands while preparing to attack Puerto Rico.

1596

• Sir Francis Drake dies of dysentery in the West Indies.

1598

• Holland and England agree to coordinate raids on the West Indies and attacks on the Spanish treasure fleet.