There are two primary reasons for the European colonization of the New World--precious metals and religious persecution. (Lief Ericcson's crew may have found iron but they were also searching for gold.) Not long after Columbus' voyages, Martin Luther's objections to the Church in Rome were being mass-printed on his fellow German's (Gutenberg) printing press. And if you will recall the original purpose of Columbus' mission, he was to pioneer a trade route to the spice-rich shores of China and the Indies. By the 1530's, the Protestant Reformation was in full swing and Magellan's ship had circumnavigated the globe. The events of this brief period changed everything there is about the world and its people and there has never been another era to compare with it.[1]

It takes money to build navies, and when the Spanish found gold in Mexico, the conquest of the New World was on. In the ensuing century, the Spanish and Portuguese would claim and divide South and Central America as well as most of the western part of our nation. It took the Dutch, French, and English a while to catch up, but colonization of the eastern coast and the Great Lakes basin followed by 1600. The Spanish and Portuguese held true to the Church in Rome but other Europeans openly practiced religions that conflicted with the 'state-approved' religion. These rifts began the exodus to the New World.

Depending on where you look at the map, iron production developed at different times. As soon as the colonists located an iron ore deposit, they built a small iron smelter. Prior to this development, every piece of metal had to be shipped to North America. Wherever iron ore was found, a small industry began.[5]  And with these small steps, blacksmiths could start making tools, farm implements, muskets, cooking utensils, knives, and nearly all of the necessities (even sewing needles and fish hooks) that a sustainable pioneer village would need.

This is complicated time period to explain a blacksmith's work scope because, without a well-developed iron industry, the blacksmith was dependent on material shipped from Europe. Still, the blacksmith was of critical importance and he would have been called on to repair anything broken or worn in this time of shortages. For example, he would repair a plow or an axe, two of the most important tools that a settler owned. Horses are not native to the New World and even they came here on ships. Chances are that the horses that made it here did not get shod because horseshoes were bulky and expensive to ship from Europe. Without developed roads, there wasn't a great demand for wagons--wagon parts, springs, and hardware were built by blacksmith shops back then. So most colonists had ox carts or pony carts to haul their meager possessions and crops. And keep in mind that, without an iron industry, the blacksmith's tools and anvil also had to be imported. With the sailing ships that existed then, a few anvils added up to a considerably heavy cargo. 

By 1700, some areas were prospering and had many of the amenities that you would expect to find in any well-developed town or city. The Boston area is such an example. Though if you left Boston for the interior, you'd soon find yourself at the edge of western civilization. In 1700, the then-president of Harvard College was probably commissioning a blacksmith to make door hinges and chandeliers for a new academic building. Fifty miles away, however, another blacksmith was scouring the land for enough iron to make a farmer's plow. 

In parts of California and the west, we can still find the influence of the Spanish blacksmith. He left his mark on the churches. (The Spanish influence is also apparent in Florida.) As with the east, the church building was one of the first and most important public building in any settlement. The churches were adorned with architectural ironwork whose quality and design amaze us even today.