The recored History of Virginia began with settlement of the geographic region now known as the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States thousands of years ago by Native Americans. Permanent European settlement did not occur until the establishment of Jamestown in 1607, by English colonists. As tobacco emerged as a profitable export, Virginia imported more Africans to cultivate it and hardened boundaries of slavery. The Virginia Colony became one of the wealthiest and most populated British colonies in North America.