The Crazy Real-Life Story Of Explorer John Smith

The settlement that became known as Jamestown was officially established on May 13, 1607. It was named in honor of King James I, then king of England. It was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas and eventually became the first of thirteen colonies that broke away from Great Britain's control nearly two centuries later.

Jamestown was in Virginia on the banks of the James River, which was also named for the king. In the early 1600s, Virginia wasn't the state it is known as today. Instead, it was the name the Englishmen gave for the entire northeast coast above then-Spanish Florida, writes History. It was named for Queen Elizabeth I, the so-called Virgin Queen. The Virginia Company's goals in the region were to seek gold, silver, and a water route west to the Pacific Ocean for trade purposes.

In early 1607, however, Jamestown had a hard few months. Food shortages, unhealthy drinking water, squabbles over leadership, fights with local Native Americans, and disease all contributed to a difficult existence, writes the National Park Service. To make a bad situation worse, Captain Bartholomew Gosnold died during this time, so Jamestown was without a founder and innovator.

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