Today, the United States of America belong to the most influential nations of the world - politically, economically and culturally. While Native Americans have lived on its territory for millennia, the political predecessors of the U.S. are not much older than 400 years. It may be hard to believe, but it was not before 1607 that the Virginia Company of London established Jamestown, the first successfull British colony on the North American mainland. In the following one and a half centuries, different nations competed for the continent, while the new settlers pushed back the native population, referred to as "Indians".