So

why do they speak English in the USA?

The land you see to the left, which is today called
the USA, has had people living in it for over 13,000
years! There were all different kinds of people who
spoke many different languages. At one time there
were actually HUNDREDS of languages spoken in the
land that is today called USA! Today almost all of
those languages have died or stopped being used.

So maybe you know that today most people in the
USA speak English. Why is that? Why do people in the
England is
USA speak English? It is interesting that there have
on the
been people in this land for over 13,000 years, but for
other side
of the
most of that time NO ONE spoke English there. English
ocean from
is a language that comes from the country of England.
Mexico. So
how did
So how did it get to the USA?
Spanish get

to the USA?
It all started in the year 1607. At that time, most of
the people who lived in the land of the USA spoke many different languages. The King of
England, King James, sent an army of 104 people to a place they would name
Jamestown in a state that is today called Virginia. The people who were already there
were called the Algonquin, Iroquois, and Sioux people.
This map
shows

where
The Kings army chose a spot next a river to create a new
Jamestown
is, where
town for themselves. They planned to use the river to travel
English
further into the land and take over more land. Over time the
people first
came to the
King of England continued to send soldiers to fight and kill the
land that is
Algonquin, Iroquois, and Sioux people.
now the
USA.

King Jamess army was only the first of many armies to
come to the USA from England. Over time the people who were
already living there were killed or forced to move to land with less food for the new
English-speaking people that had come. They even took the children from many of their
families. Because of this the population in the USA changed from a people who spoke
many different languages to people who mostly spoke English, and they still speak
English today.

People
have lived
in the land
of the USA
for at least
13,000
years. But
they did not
always call
it America.