This document provides an overview of Native American groups in North America prior to European contact, including their similarities in diet, tools, and lack of writing systems. It then summarizes European exploration of the Americas beginning in the late 15th century led by Portugal and Spain, followed by England, France, and other nations in the 16th-17th centuries. Finally, it outlines the establishment and development of the original 13 British colonies in North America from the early 1600s through the American Revolutionary War in the late 1700s.