North America is the northern continent of the western hemisphere. From 1492 to 1504, Columbus led the Spanish fleet to explore the West Indies four times and sailed to the Bahamas, Antilles and the coastal areas of the Central American isthmus four times.

1497, cabot and his son arrived in Newfoundland and went to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. About 40 years later, Cartier led the French army up the St. Lawrence River and arrived in Montreal.

After Europeans "discovered" the new continent, they successively occupied and colonized, brutally plundered and slaughtered Indians and drove them from their homeland to the arid areas in the west.

2, the history of the colonial period in North America:

/kloc-in the middle of the 6th century, the Spanish first established the colony of St. Augustine on the mainland north of the border between the United States and Mexico. /kloc-At the beginning of the 7th century, the French established the first settlement in Nova Scotia, which is now the east coast of Canada, and then established the Quebec colony. On this basis, they went up the St. Lawrence River, crossed the Great Lakes, went south along the Mississippi River and expanded to the coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico.

From 65438 to the beginning of the 7th century, Britain established its first permanent colony in Virginia. Since then, Holland, Finland and Sweden have successively colonized the Atlantic coast. By the beginning of the18th century, the colonial power in the North American continent was basically divided into three parts.

Britain occupied the Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia to Florida. France occupies a vast and fertile central plain from the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River basin. Spain occupied Florida, Texas, New Mexico and the vast far west from the west to the Pacific coast.

Extended data:

North America spans tropical, temperate and frigid zones, and its climate is complex and diverse. It is dominated by temperate continental climate and sub-frigid coniferous forest climate. The north is in the Arctic Circle, which is a world of ice and snow.

The southern Caribbean benefited from the equatorial warm current, but was hit by tropical hurricanes. The vast area in the middle of the mainland is located in the north temperate zone, which is suitable for crop growth and human survival.

Because all the mountains are north-south or close to north-south, moist air from the Pacific Ocean only reaches the western coastal areas. Cold air from the Arctic Ocean can cross the central plain southward.

The humid air blown from the tropical Atlantic can also penetrate deep into the north through the central plain, so the climate in North America is very unstable, sometimes cold and sometimes thawed in winter, while in the subtropical areas along the Gulf of Mexico, it will be cold and snowy in winter.

Baidu Encyclopedia-North America