In 1587, a group of 115 settlers from England arrived at Roanoke Island, which is off the coast of North Carolina. The governor of the colony, John White, decided to return to England that year to replenish supplies. However, a major war broke out in Europe, and White's return to Roanoke was delayed by three whole years.
It was a phrase used to justify European Imperialism in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The phrase implies that imperialism was motivated by a high-minded desire of whites to uplift people of color.
President Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803 and sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on an exploration to check out what the United States got.
