500 Years of Indigenous resistanceThe PeNeTra TION
OF NOrTh a mer IC a
While the Spanish were destroying the Caribbean and Mesoamerican re-
gion, the Portuguese were carrying out similar campaigns in Brazil. The
patterns established by the Spanish would be repeated by the Portuguese
during the 16th and 17th centuries in Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay.
By the beginning of the 17th century, the Spanish and Portuguese
had penetrated virtually every region in the southern hemisphere, estab-
lishing numerous settlements facilitated with the help of Jesuit and Fran-
ciscan missionaries, as well as mines, ranches, and plantations. Despite
all this, there were still large areas in which European claims to lands
remained a theoretical proposition; these areas remained outside of Eu-
ropean control with fierce Indigenous resistance. This was particularly so
in the southern regions.
During this period, French, Dutch, and advance elements of the
British also established settlements in the Caribbean.
In 1604, the French occupied the island of Guadaloupe, followed by
the island of Martinique and various smaller islands in the West Indies.
In 1635 they occupied what is now French Guiana.
Meanwhile, the Dutch occupied a coastal region that would eventu-
ally become Surinam (Dutch Guiana) as well as settlements established
by the Dutch West India Company in the area of Belize (which would
later become a British colony).
The Dutch, French, and British were relatively limited in their ex-
ploits in the South Americas, and it would be in North America where
their main efforts would be directed.
As has already been noted, French expeditions had penetrated the
north-eastern regions of what would become Quebec and the Atlantic prov-
inces, in the 1530s. In 1562 and 1564, the French attempted to establish set-
tlements in South Carolina and Florida, but were driven out by the Spanish
(who had claimed Florida in 1539 during de Soto’s perilous expedition).
In 1585 the British also attempted settlements, on Roanoke Island
in North Carolina, and again in 1586. Both attempts failed when the set-
tlers-to-be were unable to survive.