Were there Spanish colonies in North America before Mayflower? Or French, Russian, or Danish?

Michael Barone is a senior writer for U.S.News & World Report and principal coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics. To get more answers, check out the complete Q & A archive. E-mail your questions or comments to Michael Barone: topdocuments@usnews.com.

Before the Mayflower landed in 1620, most of South America and all of Central America and Mexico were Spanish possessions, plus Cuba, Puerto Rico, other islands and Florida. France established its colony in Quebec in 1608. Portugal had possession of much of Brazil. In 1636 the Netherlands took possession of the islands of Curacao and Aruba from the Spanish, who had claimed them in 1499. The Russian colonies came later.

Did the Supreme Court ever rule that state does not have right to secede? Or must every state stay in the Union forever?

The Supreme Court has never ruled on whether a state has the right to secede. That question was eventually settled by the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln treated the southern states' assertion that they had seceded as null and void and said that they were in rebellion.