During the late 15th century, European explorers like João Fernandes Lavrador, Gaspar Corte-Real, John Cabot, Jacques Cartier and others began visiting the area.

From around the beginning of the 16th century, fishing vessels with English, Portuguese, French and Spanish crews started visiting on a seasonal basis.

The Beothuk gradually became extinct as a people, as they experienced a population decline as a result of infectious diseases introduced by European colonists and the loss of their ancestral territory due to colonial settlement.

[2] From 1610 onward, English colonists established colonial settlements in Newfoundland, led by proprietary governors, as England tried to create North American footholds.

In 1696, the French and allied Mi'kmaq armed forces wiped out all but a handful of English settlements on the island of Newfoundland.

After the American Revolutionary War ended in 1783 with the independence of the United States, Newfoundland Colony became part of British North America.

It became an official Crown colony in 1825, and Thomas John Cochrane, an officer of the Royal Navy, was appointed as its first governor.