The most important contribution to European expansion was the search for new trade routes. Christopher Columbus in 1492 accidentally stumbled across the Americas on his way to<Tab/>India in search of foreign goods and a new, quicker path to get to them. The Europeans already had trade routes, but each of them had a flaw. Either the route was too long, too costly, or too long. The main countries of their …showed first 75 words of 481 total…

…showed last 75 words of 481 total…founded in 1607 in Virginia and it was called Jamestown. This was the first of the original 13 colonies that England would come to own. All of these expansions were owed to search for new trade routes and to Christopher Columbus for being the most successful failure of the c 1500. Portugal got Brazil and the eastern lands of Africa and India. Spain received Mexico and South America. Finally England expanded to what is now called the USA.