European Colonization

In this experience, students learn how Spanish, French, and Dutch colonization of North America was shaped by each country’s goals for exploration. They also explore the lasting effects of colonization on Indigenous peoples and the environment.

This learning experience is designed for device-enabled classrooms. The teacher guides the lesson, and students use embedded resources, social media skills, and critical thinking skills to actively participate. To get access to a free version of the complete lesson, sign up for an exploros account.

Engage

Overview

In this experience, students examine Spanish, French, and Dutch colonization of North America by evaluating cause-and-effect relationships and considering how their efforts to colonize reflect the original goals for European exploration. First, students consider why countries would want to establish and control distant colonies. Next, students evaluate a secondary source to identify the reasons that Spain, France, and the Netherlands created colonies in North America. Then, they examine how the colonization of those countries impacted indigenous people. Finally, students are invited to explore the Dutch colony of New Netherland and consider how its establishment impacted the environment and people of the region.

Estimated Duration: 45–60 minutes

Vocabulary:

colonization: the process of a country taking control of land and people outside its borders, often by force, and sending its own people to live there.
colony: a land controlled by a foreign country, and occupied by people who have settled there from that country
convert: change one’s religious beliefs, usually by adopting a new religion or switching from one religion to another
Spanish mission: a religious settlement set up by Spanish missionaries and colonists to convert Indigenous people to Christianity and help Spain control new land in the Americas
settlement: a place where people from another area or country establish a community, usually with the goal of living there permanently and building homes, farms, or towns

Objectives:

Explain how the actions Europeans took to colonize North America reflected their original goals for exploration.
Describe the effects that Spanish, French, and Dutch colonization had on the Indigenous groups living in North America.

This experience focuses only on Spanish, French, and Dutch colonization. English colonization is addressed in a separate experience to help students better understand each group’s goals and impact. Because English colonies later became the foundation of the United States, they are explored in greater depth on their own.

You may choose to tell this to students before they start the experience.

The image shows a map of North American colonial territories: Spanish (yellow), French (blue), English (orange), and Dutch (green), with key early settlements marked. It illustrates the division of the continent among these European powers.

Territories of North American colonies

Once Europeans started exploring the Americas, they began to establish colonies on the continents. A colony is a land controlled by a foreign country and occupied by people who have settled there from that country. Like exploration, European powers share some similarities, but also differ, in their reasons for developing colonies in the Americas. In this lesson, you will learn about the reasons some European nations colonized North America and the lasting impacts it had on the Indigenous people living in the areas Europeans colonized.

Objectives:

Explain how the actions Europeans took to colonize North America reflected their original goals for exploration.
Describe the effects that Spanish, French, and Dutch colonization had on the Indigenous groups living in North America.

Why would countries want to create colonies in newly explored lands?

Post your answer

Before moving to the next scene, choose two to three interesting or exemplary responses and discuss them with the whole class.

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