After Spain sent Columbus' on his first voyage to the New World in 1492,

other explorers followed. The Spanish set up small settlements in New Mexico
and Florida. France had several small settlements along the Mississippi River.
Successful English settlement on the eastern coast of North America began
with the Virginia Colony in 1607 at Jamestown and the Pilgrims' Plymouth
Colony in 1620. Early experiments in communal living failed until the
introduction of private farm holdings.[64] Many settlers were dissenting
Christian groups who came seeking religious freedom. The continent's first
elected legislative assembly, Virginia's House of Burgesses created in 1619,
and the Mayflower Compact, signed by the Pilgrims before disembarking,
established precedents for the pattern of representative self-government and
constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies.[65]
[66]