The English established their first permanent colony in North America in 1607. However, twenty years prior, they had made several attempts to land on the continent, all of which failed.

In 1584, England sent its first expedition to the New World, but it was unable to establish a lasting settlement and ended in futility. In 1585, another expedition brought about 100 men to settle on Roanoke Island, off the coast of what is now North Carolina. These settlers were unable to survive, and within a year they returned to England. Another group arrived at Roanoke in 1586, facing similar difficulties.

In 1587, three ships set sail from London for Roanoke Island, only to find that the settlers from the previous year had disappeared. When a final relief ship arrived in 1590, not a single person could be found. Their fate remains unknown—some likely perished, while others may have assimilated into local Native American tribes.

These early British colonization attempts thus ended in failure. England realized that maintaining such distant colonies was prohibitively expensive. Queen Elizabeth I subsequently halted colonization efforts in the New World. It was only after her death in 1603 that England renewed its efforts to establish colonies on the American continent.

Looking back on these failed colonization attempts, it is clear how extraordinarily difficult it was to establish a foothold on a new and barren land.