After Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, European nations competed against each other to claim pieces of the new land. Before Columbus found this land, the sea separating the New World from Europe seemed endless and banal. Europeans were only interested in the lands to the east. But with the New World as a new hat thrown into the ring, Europeans threw aside their old toy to play with a new one. This period of conquest of the New World was known as the Age of Exploration, and they retained their gains into the 1700s. A New World meant more land to build homes and plant crops, and more money to be made by buying new homes and selling new crops grown on foreign soil. Spain claimed Mexico and the southwestern parts of what would be known as America. France got its hands on much of what is now Canada, as well as Louisiana. The Dutch set foot on a land they called New Amsterdam, however, the English, who had established their first colony in Jamestown, Virginia, drove out the Dutch and claimed New Amsterdam for themselves, later renaming it New York. The English claimed more and more land as time went on and eventually formed 13 different colonies in the eastern part of America. The English colonies were divided into 3 different regions. The New England Colonies (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire), the Middle Colonies (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware), and the Southern Colonies (Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia). The New England colonies were the first of the 3 regions, founded by English colonists seeking religious freedom. The Middle Colonies were also founded by settlers seeking religious freedom. The Southern Colonies,...... at the center of the newspaper......tedStefoff, Rebecca and Howard Zinn. The history of young people in the United States. New York: Seven Stories, 2007. Print.Linder, Doug. "The Nineteenth Amendment." The Nineteenth Amendment. University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School, 2001. Web. December 19, 2013. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/nineteentham.htm"Africans in America." PBS. PBS, 1998. Web. December 19, 2013. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2narr4.html"Economic State of the United States at the End of the Revolutionary War."Economic State of the United States at the End of the Revolutionary War." The Revolutionary War. MultiEducator, Inc., 1996. Web. 02 January 2014. http://www.historycentral.com/NN/economic/afterrev.htmlCarr, Karren. “Equal Rights for Some.” American History for Children! Kidipede, 2013. Web. January 3, 2014. http://www.historyforkids. org/learn/northamerica/after1500/government/excluded.htm