The Making of the 50 States: Maine
Part 1: In the Beginning The place we now call Maine was, of course, first inhabited by Native Americans, including the Micmacs and the Abenakis. The Micmacs were more warlike, and the Abenakis preferred peace, along with fishing and farming. The famous explorer Leif Erikson is thought to have explored the coast of Maine. The first known European to see the Maine coastline was John Cabot, who claimed the land for his ruler, King Henry VII, in 1497. Cabot didn't get out of his ship, though. The first European to set foot on Maine's coastline was Simon Ferdinando, a Portuguese navigator, in 1597.
In 1607, while English settlers were struggling to survive at the famous Jamestown colony down in Virginia, English settlers were also struggling to survive up in Maine, at a colony called Popham. Although Jamestown flourished, Popham did not.
Because Maine was so close to English and French settlements in Canada, the Maine area was a battleground during the French and Indian War. The English victory in that war ended all French claims to Maine. Next page > The Rest of the Story > Page 1, 2 |
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Ferdinando
didn't stick around, though, and so the first European
settlement was made up of French people, who settled at the
mouth of the St. Croix River in 1604. That year and the next,
the famous explorer 
English
settlers returned to Maine, as they did to other colonies up
and down the eastern seaboard; but the deadly combination of
harsh winters and attacks by Native Americans made
settlements in Maine few and far between. Sir Ferdinando
Gorges, a settler, gave the area its name in 1622. The area
was eventually part of Massachusetts in 1658, when that
colony officially took over all of Maine's present
lands.
Social Studies for Kids
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David White