Who were the initial settlers?

Answer 1

Christopher Columbus was one of the first settlers.

Answer 2

Obviously, the original residents of the USA are the North American Indians. Re. the first settlers, there is considerable evidence to support the suggestion that the Innuit tribes of the Polar North (the 'Eskimoes') settled parts of Canada and the far North of what is now the USA, as far back as prehistoric times. There is also evidence to suggest that during the period of time known in Europe as the Middle Ages, parts of the Southern US were settled to a limited extent by various Inca tribes, who travelled up through Mexico from Central America. Re. the first white settlers, there is some evidence that North America was actually discovered by the Welsh in the early 13th Century, nearly 300 years before Christopher Columbus. Prince Madog of Gwynedd is thought to have led several expeditions across the Atlantic, and to have established a number of Welsh-speaking settlements on the North-East Atlantic coast. This is backed up by the fact that the Mandan tribe of Indians, who enjoyed good relations with the Welsh settlers and traded extensively with them, learnt the language and were fluent Welsh speakers right up until most of them were wiped out by a cholera epidemic in the 18th Century- although some survived through into Victorian times. The first settlers to expand and develop their early footholds into what became, in time, the early USA, were English and Spanish immigrants. The English were either inspired by tales of exciting opportunity told by Sir Walter Raleigh, or (a bit later) fleeing religious persecution under Cromwell following the English Civil War. The Spanish contingent were subsidised by the Spanish government to develop economic interests that would be to Spain's advantage in it's wars with other European nations.