"Pre Exploration"

About 35,000 native Indians, belonging to about 30 different tribes, lived in the North Carolina region when the first white men arrived. The most prominent tribes were the Cherokee in the western mountains; the Hatteras along the coast; amd the Catawba, Chowanoc, and the Tuscarora of the coastal plain in the Piedmont.

"Exploration and Settlement"

The first Europeans to visit the North Carolina coast were French explorers led by Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524. In 1526 a group of Spanish sailors established a temporary colony of more than 500 persons, probably at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. A 1540 expedition by Hernando de Soto crossed what is now western North Carolina before turning west to discover the Mississippi River.

It was the English, however, who made the first permanent European settlements in North Carolina, and the Roanoke Island settlement (1585-86) of Sir Walter Raleigh was the first English colony in the New World. A second group set sail from England in 1587 but had vanished by 1590 when a supply ship arrived. No one knows what happened to the more than one hundred men, women and children of what has come to be called The Lost Colony. Among the settlers was the first child born of English parents in America, Virginia Dare.

More than 150 years passed before settlers moved inland across the state from the northeast corner in 1670 to the westernmost tip in 1820. The early European settlers came in contact with a number of Indian tribes as settlement spread westward, the most numerous groups encountered being the Tuscarora. The natives occupied parts of the coastal plain and fiercely resisted the whites before being defeated in 1713, after which they returned to New York, their ancestral home. The Catawba of the southern Piedmont were friendly. The Cherokee, living in the Appalachian Mountains, were the last major tribe to be confronted by the settlers.

"Proprietary Period"

The colonial period from 1663 to 1729, known as the proprietary period, began when Charles II regranted the Carolina to eight of his favorite nobles. He made them Lord of Proprietors of the colony. The proprietors divided the Carolina into three counties. Albemarle, in the northern part; Clarendon, in the Cape Fear region; and Craven, in what is now South Carolina.

Political strife and Indian wars slowed the colony's growth, however, and as the Charleston settlement grew more rapidly, the territory began to be known as North and South Carolina. The northern territory was made a separate colony in 1712 and had its own governors until 1829. This boundary was not established until 1735, nor fully surveyed until 1815. This period was characterized by misgovernment, turmoil, and slow growth. Piracy and disputes with Virginia over tobacco shipments through Virginia ports hampered trade. Bath, near the mouth of the Pamlico River, was the first town to be incorporated in 1705. Settlement was generally confined to the coastal areas.

"Royal Colony"

In 1729, North Carolina became a crown colony when George II purchased the shares of Carolina from all the lords proprietors except Lord Granville. Until the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, a more efficient government brought about increased settlement and greater prosperity. The population increased from about 30,000 in 1729 to 265,000 in 1775, and settlement extended to the Blue Ridge Mountains and beyond. With this transmontane movement came the deep-seated differences between east and west that have continued to the present day. The colonial government was dominated by the eastern planters, and the more egalitarian and poorer west suffered from corrupt government and excessive taxes. The conflict resulted in the War of Regulation, in which the western insurgents were crushed by Gov. William Tryon (1729-88) at the Battle of Alamance Creek on May 16, 1771.

In 1747-48 the Spanish attacked the North Carolina coast. Troops from North Carolina assisted British troops in the capture of Fort Duquesne during the French and Indian Wars (1754-63) and fought the Cherokee on the western frontier in 1760. Yet, North Carolina was among the leaders in resistance to British rule in the 1760s, and in 1765-66 its armed citizens prevented enforcement of the Stamp Act in the colony.

"The American Revolution"

British rule came to an end in North Carolina when Gov. Josiah Martin fled New Bern in May 1775. The Second Provincial Congress in 1775 established two regiments and a state government. The first battle of the Revolution in North Carolina was fought against Scottish Loyalists at Moore's Creek Bridge on Feb. 27, 1776. Later that year the Fifth Provincial Congress adopted a state constitution and elected Richard Caswell the first governor. North Carolina was the first colony to declare officially its readiness for independence and in April 1776 furnished ten regiments to the Continental army, as well as thousands of militiamen. At the same time, it helped defeat the Cherokee and suppressed the Tory residents who made the revolution virtually a civil war in North Carolina. Despite its leadership in the Revolution, North Carolina was the next to last of the 13 original states to ratify the federal Constitution (November 1789). In 1789, North Carolina ceded its western territory, present-day Tennessee, to the federal government.

"The Nineteenth Century"

The period from 1815 to 1835 was one of political and economic stagnation, with the oligarchic east in power at the expense of the more reform-minded west. The state's convention of 1835 resulted in a reapportionment that gave the west control of the state house of representatives, leaving the east in control of the senate. From 1835 until 1860 progress in transportation, education, tax reform, and women's rights movements, as well as agricultural expansion and greater prosperity, reversed the downward political and economic spiral and halted emigration west or south.

The War Between the States brought this improving trend to an end. North Carolina, though sympathetic to the South, was the next to last state to secede, on May 20, 1861. The battles of Fort Hatteras, Plymouth, Fort Fisher, and Bentonville, as well as Sherman's 1865 invasion and Johnston's surrender to William Tecumseh Sherman near Durham on Apr. 26, 1865, were the most notable war events in the state. Wartime political and social disruptions were exacerbated during Reconstruction.

In 1880 the state began to industrialize and to urbanize for the first time. The new industrialization (called the First Cotton Mill Campaign) brought additional jobs to the Piedmont and agricultural production increased. By the turn of the century, major advances were made in the educational system, which had virtually collapsed during Reconstruction. World War I boosted the economy and led to the establishment of important military bases, including Fort Bragg.

"Twentieth Century"

During the early 1920s an exodus of textile mills from New England to the Carolinas took place, reforms in state government were instituted, and extensive construction projects began. Even during this period of prosperity, however, personal income still lagged, averaging only about half of the national mean.

The Depression of the 1930s struck North Carolina early, and New Deal programs, particularly farm price supports, were important to economic recovery. World War II also gave the state's economy a boost.

North Carolina has profited in recent years from its location in the Sun Belt. Population growth rates above the national average that began in the 1970s have continued into the 1990s. In 1994, the Raleigh-Durham area was ranked the best place to live in the United States.