This question can be answered in several ways depending on how the phrase “first settlers” is interpreted. If “first settlers” means the first people to ever settle in Maryland, it would be the Paleo-Indians, who arrived more than 10,000 years ago. The first European to visit Maryland was an Italian explorer named Giovanni da Verrazzano, who came around 1524. Bartholomew Gilbert and John Smith were the first explorers from England to arrive in the early 1600s, while William Claiborne established the first English settlement in Maryland in 1631.
Maryland eventually became a British colony when the British king, Charles I, granted Lord Baltimore a tract of land in 1632. When Lord Baltimore died shortly after he received the land, the land was passed on to his son, the second Lord Baltimore. It was his younger brother who developed the colony and became its governor. Maryland became one of the proprietary colonies and was known for offering its settlers religious freedom. Farming was the main occupation of the people who settled in this colony.
The history of Maryland is traced back to 1498 after Giovanni da Verrazano, the first European explorer, visited the coast of North America. Soon after, more English settlers occupied the region. In 1632, Sir George Calvert was granted the colonial Province of Maryland by King Charles I.
The settlement was established with religious freedom since Calvert was a devoted Catholic. Besides, the territory was given the name Maryland in honor of Henrietta Maria, the wife of King Charles I. Like many other British colonies in the Chesapeake Bay region, Maryland based its economy on tobacco which relied on hard labor. However, numerous Maryland planters freed their slaves after the Revolutionary War as the economy changed.
During the precolonial era, Native Americans who were primarily hunters and gatherers inhabited Maryland.
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