After King Philippe II/III forced the Treaty of London (1604) down every-body's throat the European development of the Americas began for real. France had Canada. Russia had the NW. Spain had most of North America. The English were kinda sorta given the East Coast from Nova Scotia (a Franco-Scottish deal) down to wherever La Florida ended.
The Spaniards actually laid out bench marks over a considerable bit of North America to serve as future sources for any surveys that needed to be made to subdivide the place for development.
The English zone ended at the Easternmost cordillera of the Appalachians!
I'd always thought it was strange that many of the first people brought to formerly Spanish America/now English America were from Eastern and Central Europe. Then, studying how it came to be that the Spanish actually let England set up colonies I suddenly realized that those people must have been Protestants living in lands the Hapsburg Empire thought best served by having only Catholics.
English North America became the Hapsburg's Protestant Ghetto!
Kind of sends a chill up your spine.
One evening recently I spent most of the evening reading and digesting the text of the Treaty of London (1604). It explained every single thing I needed to know about why my ancestors moved here rather than someplace else ~ and even why those who were captives were brought here and not just worked to death in Swedish or Russian workcamps.
A sobering experience.
Oh, yeah, the treaty applied to everybody but the Dutch.
Tried to look up the T of L, but couldn't find much. Do you have a link?
Russia had the NW.
Didn't get to AK till over a century and a half later.
In 1604 nobody could have split up N. America in the way you say since nobody really knew the size and shape of the continent.
It is correct that Spain was still dominant in Europe, but ominous signs were building up.