1562: French Huguenots established a colony on Parris Island near Beaufort, South Carolina, but abandoned it within two years.

1565: The earliest Hispanic settlers within the area of the United States settled Saint Augustine, Florida in 1565.

1598: Hispanics settled in New Mexico.

1607: Jamestown, Virginia, was founded by English colonists.

1614: The first major Dutch settlement was founded near Albany, New York.

1619: The first black slaves arrived at Jamestown.

1620: The Mayflower, carrying Pilgrims, arrived in Massachusetts.

1623: New Netherland (Hudson River Valley) was settled as a trading post by the Dutch West India Company.

1629-40: The Puritans migrated to New England.

1634: Lord Baltimore founded Maryland as a refuge for English Catholics.

1642: The outbreak of civil war in England brought a decrease in Puritan migration.

1648: The treaty ending the Thirty Years' War stipulated that only the Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed religions would be tolerated in Germany henceforth. Religious intolerance motivated large numbers of Germans belonging to small sects, such as Baptist Brethren (Dunkers), to leave for America.

1649: Passage of Maryland Toleration Act opened the door to any professing trinitarian Christianity.

1654: North America's first Jewish immigrants fled Portuguese persecution in Brazil, arriving at New Amsterdam.

1660: Acting on mercantilist doctrine that the wealth of a country depends on the number of its inhabitants, Charles II officially discouraged emigration from England.

1670: English courtiers settled the Carolinas.

1681: Quakers founded Pennsylvania based on William Penn's "holy experiment" in universal philanthropy and brotherhood.

1683: The first German settlers (Mennonites) arrived in Pennsylvania.

1685: Huguenots fleeing religious intolerance in France and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV settled in South Carolina.

1697: The slave trade monopoly of the Royal African Company ended and the slave trade expanded rapidly, especially among New Englanders.