Which came first: England’s thirteen colonies on the Atlantic coast or Spain’s colonies in the American Southwest?

The thirteen colonies that later became the United States began with the founding of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, England’s first permanent settlement in North America.

By that time, Juan de Ofiate had already been living in New Mexico for nine years. However, Spanish colonization was slow.

By the time San Francisco, California, was founded in 1776, England’s thirteen colonies had not only been founded: they had grown, flourished, and were declaring their independence from their mother country.