It is believed that the name America was first used on a map of the New World created by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in 1507, reputedly in recognition of the Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, who had made a series of voyages to the region in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The earliest inhabitants of the north American continent can be traced back to Palaeolithic times. The Pueblo culture in modern-day Colorado and New Mexico flourished from the 11th to the 14th century AD. In the 12th century permanent settlements appeared in the east where cultivation and fishing supported major fortified towns. The first Europeans to make their presence felt were the Spanish, who based themselves in Florida before venturing north and west. Santa Fe in New Mexico was founded in 1610. But by the mid-17th century there was competition centred on Quebec from the French who colonized the banks of the St Lawrence River.