Roanoke Colony First Settlement

The earliest English attempt at colonization in North America was the Roanoke Colony of 1585–1587, established at Roanoke Island in the Croatan Sound and led initially by Ralph Lane, before being abandoned.

People involved

• Sir Walter Raleigh
• Ralph Lane

When this happened

Roanoke Colony First Settlement occurred in 1585–1587, during the colonial period period of American history. The event spanned from 1585 to 1587.

Where this happened

Roanoke Colony First Settlement took place in North Carolina. Explore the full history of North Carolina and primary source records from this era.

European colonization of North America accelerated after 1600, with England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands establishing competing settlements along the Atlantic coast, the St. Lawrence River, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Mississippi Valley. The first permanent English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia (1607) struggled with starvation and conflict; the Plymouth colony (1620) and the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630) followed. By the mid-1700s, thirteen English colonies stretched along the Atlantic seaboard, governed through a mix of royal charters, proprietary grants, and elected assemblies. The colonial economy depended on tobacco in Virginia and Maryland, rice and indigo in the Carolinas, and maritime trade in New England — all increasingly reliant on enslaved African labor after 1619. Conflict with Indigenous peoples over land was continuous, punctuated by major wars including King Philip's War (1675–1676) in New England and the Yamasee War (1715–1717) in the South. The French and Indian War (1754–1763), part of the global Seven Years' War, ended French power in North America and left Britain deeply in debt — triggering the taxation disputes that would lead to revolution.

Content adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source: Wikipedia: British colonization.