National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: Three Worlds, Three Views
Essay examining the cultural and environmental changes spanning 300 years in the pre-Revolutionary South as three worlds, Native American, European, and African collide. Site includes guiding questions for student discussion and scholars...
Library of Congress
Loc: American Memory: Colonial Settlement 1600s 1763
The settlement of the colonies in America is the focus of this article. The course of events is divided into topics and time periods, making it easier to understand. Note is made of the effects to the already present Native Americans as...
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: Ap Us History Study Guide, Period Two: 1607 1754
[Free Registration/Login Required] Advanced placement U.S. History learning module on the emerging colonial and native societies between 1607-1754. Resources for students include video, essays, timeline and primary source documents.
Henry J. Sage
Sage American History: Introduction to American Colonial History
Introductory article on American Colonial History in which the author takes a look at the first European settlers who made the voyage to America and addresses the essential question of who they were as people and hence, why they made...
Tom Richey
Tom Richey: Ap u.s. History: Colonial America (1491 1754)
Tom Richey provides a collection of videos, lessons, and assignments to assist with teaching or studying pre-Columbian cultures in the New World through the beginnings of the French and Indian War.
Teachnology
Teachnology: Colonial America Teaching Theme
Enhance classroom teaching about Colonial America with these impressive resources including lesson plans, activities, interactive sites and more.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: America in Class: Successful European Colonies in the New World
Lesson using primary source material on European attempts to establish colonies in the New World and why some were successful but most failed.
Other
American Journeys: French and English Approaches to Exploration [Pdf]
A lengthy lesson plan that examines French and English approaches to exploration and colonization in reference to religious factors. Using primary sources from French missionary Gabriel Sagard and Wiliam Bradford, first governor of...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: The Colonies: Motivations and Realities
A collection of primary sources to explore the motivations and realities behind life in the American colonies.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Themepark: Liberty: United States Colonial History
Find a large collection of internet resources organized around colonial history. Links to places to go, people to see, things to do, teacher resources, and bibliographies.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: New World: Part Ii, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Two European maps of Florida and Roanoke, and a British and a French account-with associated engravings of these settlements-that promote a European interpretation of and claim over these areas.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Failed Colonies, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Three European accounts of the disappointments, challenges, and outright failures to establish early successful colonial outposts in North America.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: First Arrivals, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Numerous visual images of artifacts from English settlements at Jamestown and at Plymouth, and from Spanish settlement in Hispaniola, and three original accounts of each of those early settlements that describe the possibilities and the...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Hardships, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Three English, a French, and a Spanish primary account of the staggering losses, misery, and deprivation that characterized early European settlement as well as the resilience needed to overcome those challenges.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Instructions, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Three maps of European settlement in Virginia, the Pacific Northwest, and the Spanish New World, and the accompanying official instructions from lenders and monarchs about the obligations, opportunities, and hopes that those...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Go Ahead, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
A Spanish, an English, and a French account of the enormous challenges in maintaining a colonial presence in North America and of the potential national loss-of pride, wealth, and possibility for expansion-if nations abandoned these...
Digital History
Digital History: Overview of the Colonial Era
The year 1492 marks a watershed in modern world history. Columbus's voyage of discovery inaugurated a series of developments that would have vast consequences for both the Old World and the New. It transformed the diets of both the...
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: Colonization and Settlement
[Free Registration/Login Required] An overview of all the materials that are available to students to explore the colonization and settlement of the Americas.
Other
Memorial Hall Online Museum: In the Classroom
This site from the Memorial Hall Museum provides curricula, information and activities for teachers teaching social studies.
University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota: Sugar Trade in the West Indies and Brazil
Good overview of the development of the sugar trade in the New World and the use of slavery that "made sugar production the most profitable cultivation in either the Americas or Europe."
The History Cat
The History Cat: History of Colonial America
Information about the history of the colonization of America. Read about Jamestown, Plymouth, the Salem witch trials, colonial life, and the Thirteen Colonies.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Our Original Thirteen Colonial Settlements
After students have researched one of the thirteen original colonies, they will be asked to present a flyer encouraging others to come settle in their assigned colony. Oral presentations to the class must be accompanied by a written...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Creating the 14th Colony
After studying the 13 original colonies students will create their own colonies in cooperative groups. This will help students understand the difficulties the colonist had to endure in learning to work together. Students will have to...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Colonial Settlement: Interactive Timeline
In this interactive timeline see how other European nations, along with the British, colonized America and how events in Europe impacted colonization.