A SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE
UNITED STATES

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_DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS_


CHAPTER I


EUROPE FINDS AMERICA

%1. Nations that have owned our Soil.%--Before the United States
became a nation, six European powers owned, or claimed to own, various
portions of the territory now contained within its boundary. England
claimed the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. Spain once held
Florida, Texas, California, and all the territory south and west of
Colorado. France in days gone by ruled the Mississippi valley. Holland
once owned New Jersey, Delaware, and the valley of the Hudson in New
York, and claimed as far eastward as the Connecticut river. The Swedes
had settlements on the Delaware. Alaska was a Russian possession.

Before attempting to narrate the history of our country, it is
necessary, therefore, to tell

1. How European nations came into possession of parts of it.

2. How these parts passed from them to us.