What Caused Colonial America to Happen?

Maybe you've heard of the Roanoke story before. possibly even the founding of Jamestown. How about the Spanish colonies in North America, though? or the settlements of the French and Dutch?
Colonial America was populated by people from many different European countries who came to the New World and interacted with the Native Americans who already lived there. What sort of interactions did they have? Between all the groups that lived here, was there even a sense of peace?