View source for European colonization of the Americas

{{Short description|15th–19th century colonization}}
{{Redirect|Conquest of America|other uses|Conquest of America (disambiguation)}}
{{Redirect|Colonization of the Americas|the initial prehistoric migration from Asia|Peopling of the Americas}}
{{Euromericas}}

During the [[Age of Discovery]], a large scale [[European colonization|colonization]] of the [[Americas]], involving European countries, took place primarily between the late 15th century and early 19th century. The [[Norse settlement of North America|Norse settled]] areas of the North Atlantic, colonizing [[Greenland]] and creating a short-term settlement near the northern tip of [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] circa 1000&nbsp;AD. However, due to its long duration and importance, the later colonization by Europeans, after [[Voyages of Christopher Columbus|Christopher Columbus’s voyages]], is more well-known.<ref name="Ostler 2015"/><ref name="Whitt-Clarke 2019"/><ref name="Stannard 1992"/><ref name="Thornton 1987"/> During this time, the European colonial empires of [[Spanish Empire|Spain]], [[Portuguese Empire|Portugal]], [[British Empire|Great Britain]], [[French colonial empire|France]], [[Russian Empire|Russia]], the [[Dutch colonial empire|Netherlands]], [[Danish overseas colonies|Denmark]], and [[Swedish overseas colonies|Sweden]] began to [[Discovery doctrine|explore and claim]] the Americas, its natural resources, and [[human capital]],<ref name="Ostler 2015" /><ref name="Whitt-Clarke 2019" /><ref name="Stannard 1992" /><ref name="Thornton 1987" /> leading to the displacement, disestablishment, [[Enslavement of indigenous peoples in North America|enslavement]], and [[Genocide of indigenous peoples#Indigenous peoples of the Americas (pre-1948)|genocide]] of the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous peoples]] in the Americas,<ref name="Ostler 2015" /><ref name="Whitt-Clarke 2019" /><ref name="Stannard 1992" /><ref name="Thornton 1987" /> and the establishment of several [[Settler colonialism|settler colonial]] states.<ref name="Ostler 2015" /><ref name="Whitt-Clarke 2019" /><ref name="Stannard 1992" /><ref name="Thornton 1987" /><ref name=":42">{{Cite book |last=Resendez |first=Andres |title=[[The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America]] |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |year=2016 |isbn=9780544602670}}</ref>

The rapid rate at which some European nations grew in wealth and power was unforeseeable in the early 15th century because it had been [[Crisis of the Late Middle Ages|preoccupied with internal wars]] and it was slowly recovering from the loss of population caused by the [[Black Death]].<ref name="Taylor 20012">{{cite book |last=Taylor |first=Alan |year=2001 |url=https://archive.org/details/americancolonies00tayl |title=American Colonies |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |isbn=978-0-14-200210-0}}</ref> The [[Ottoman Empire]]'s domination of [[Spice trade|trade routes to Asia]] prompted Western European monarchs to search for alternatives, resulting in the [[voyages of Christopher Columbus]] and his accidental arrival at the [[New World]]. With the signing of the [[Treaty of Tordesillas]] in 1494, Portugal and Spain agreed to divide the Earth in two, with Portugal having dominion over non-[[Christianity|Christian]] lands in the world's eastern half, and Spain over those in the western half. Spanish claims essentially included all of the [[Americas]]; however, the Treaty of Tordesillas granted the eastern tip of South America to Portugal, where it established [[Colonial Brazil|Brazil]] in the early 1500s, and the [[East Indies]] to Spain, where It established the [[Captaincy General of the Philippines|Philippines]]. The city of [[Santo Domingo]], in the current-day [[Dominican Republic]], founded in 1496 by Columbus, is credited as the [[List of cities in the Americas by year of foundation|oldest continuously inhabited]] European-established settlement in the Americas.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/526/ | title=Colonial City of Santo Domingo | access-date=2023-03-07 | archive-date=2023-03-08 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308074327/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/526 | url-status=live }}</ref>

By the 1530s, other Western European powers realized they too could benefit from voyages to the Americas, leading to [[British colonization of the Americas|British]] and [[French colonization of the Americas|French]] colonization in the northeast tip of the Americas, including in the present-day [[United States]]. Within a century, the [[Swedish colonies in the Americas|Swedish]] established [[New Sweden]]; the [[Dutch colonization of the Americas|Dutch]] established [[New Netherland]]; and [[Denmark–Norway]] along with the Swedish and Dutch established colonization of parts of the [[Caribbean]]. By the 1700s, Denmark–Norway revived its former colonies in [[Greenland]], and [[Russian Empire|Russia]] began to explore and claim the Pacific Coast from [[Russian America|Alaska]] to [[History of California before 1900#Russian colonization (1812-1841)|California]]. Russia began [[Russian colonization of North America|colonizing the Pacific Northwest]] in the mid-18th century, seeking pelts for the fur trade. Many of the social structures—including [[Catholic Church and the Age of Discovery|religions]],<ref name="Corrigan-Neal 2010">{{cite book |editor1-last=Corrigan |editor1-first=John |editor2-last=Neal |editor2-first=Lynn S. |year=2010 |chapter=Religious Intolerance toward Native American Religions |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xiKib92zBzsC&pg=PA125 |title=Religious Intolerance in America: A Documentary History |location=[[Chapel Hill, North Carolina]] |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |pages=125–146 |doi=10.5149/9780807895955_corrigan.9 |isbn=9780807833896 |s2cid=183694926 |lccn=2009044820}}</ref><ref name="Pointer 2011">{{cite book |author-last=Pointer |author-first=Richard W. |year=2011 |chapter=Part III: The Boundaries of Tolerance and Intolerance in Early America – Native Freedom? Indians and Religious Tolerance in Early America |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2xCaQ7_H2kAC&pg=PA168 |editor1-last=Beneke |editor1-first=Chris |editor2-last=Grenda |editor2-first=Christopher S. |title=The First Prejudice: Religious Tolerance and Intolerance in Early America |location=[[Philadelphia]] and [[Oxford]] |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |series=Early American Studies |pages=168–194 |isbn=9780812223149 |lccn=2010015803 |jstor=j.ctt3fhn13.10}}</ref> [[Border|political boundaries]], and [[Lingua franca|linguae francae]]—which predominate in the [[Western Hemisphere]] in the 21st century are the descendants of those that were established during this period.

Violent conflicts arose during the beginning of this period as indigenous peoples fought to preserve their territorial integrity from increasing European settlers and from hostile indigenous neighbors who were equipped with European technology. Conflict between the various European colonial empires and the American Indian tribes was a leading dynamic in the Americas into the 1800s, although some parts of the continent gained their [[Decolonization of the Americas|independence from Europe]] by then, countries such as the United States continued to fight against Indian tribes and practiced [[settler colonialism]]. The United States for example practiced a settler colonial policy of [[Manifest destiny]] and [[Indian removal]]. Other regions, including [[California Indian Wars|California]], [[Conquest of the Desert|Patagonia]], the [[North-Western Territory|North Western Territory]], and the [[Sioux Wars|northern Great Plains]], experienced little to no colonization at all until the 1800s. European contact and colonization had disastrous effects on the indigenous peoples of the Americas and their societies.<ref name="Ostler 2015">{{cite encyclopedia |author-last=Ostler |author-first=Jeffrey |date=2 March 2015 |title=Genocide and American Indian History |url=https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-3 |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History |location=[[Oxford]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.3 |isbn=978-0-19-932917-5 |doi-access= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210810232132/https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-3 |archive-date=10 August 2021 |url-status=live |access-date=13 October 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Whitt-Clarke 2019">{{cite book |editor1-last=Whitt |editor1-first=Laurelyn |editor2-last=Clarke |editor2-first=Alan W. |year=2019 |chapter=Settler Colonialism and Indigenous Nations |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XimhDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA44 |title=North American Genocides: Indigenous Nations, Settler Colonialism, and International Law |location=[[Cambridge]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |pages=44–70, 71–100 |isbn=978-1-108-42550-6 |lccn=2019008004}}</ref><ref name="Stannard 1992">{{cite book |last=Stannard |first=David E. |author-link=David Stannard |year=1992 |chapter=Pestilence and Genocide |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cXQ8DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA57 |title=American Holocaust: Columbus and the Conquest of the New World |location=[[Oxford]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=57–146 |isbn=0-19-508557-4}}</ref><ref name="Thornton 1987">{{cite book |last=Thornton |first=Russell |author-link=Russell Thornton |year=1987 |title=American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History Since 1492 |chapter=Overview of Decline: 1492 to 1890–1900 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9iQYSQ9y60MC&pg=PA42 |location=[[Norman, Oklahoma]] |publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]] |series=The Civilization of the American Indian Series |volume=186 |pages=42–158 |isbn=0-8061-2074-6}}</ref>

== Western European powers ==
=== Norsemen ===
{{Main|Norse settlement of North America}}
[[File:Erikr-eng.png|thumb|Various sailing routes to [[Greenland]], [[Vinland]] ([[Newfoundland]]), [[Helluland]] ([[Baffin Island]]), and [[Markland]] ([[Labrador]]) travelled by the [[Sagas of Icelanders|Icelandic Sagas]], including in the ''[[Saga of Erik the Red]]'' and ''[[Saga of the Greenlanders]]'']]
[[Norsemen|Norse]] [[Vikings|Viking]] explorers were the first known Europeans to set foot in North America. Norse journeys to [[Greenland]] and Canada are supported by historical and archaeological evidence.<ref name="Price2015">{{cite book|author=T. Douglas Price|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IZ_KBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA321|title=Ancient Scandinavia: An Archaeological History from the First Humans to the Vikings|date=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-023198-9|page=321}}</ref> The Norsemen established a colony in Greenland in the late tenth century, which lasted until the mid 15th-century, with court and parliament assemblies (''[[Thing (assembly)|þing]]'') taking place at [[Brattahlíð]] and a bishop located at [[Gardar, Greenland|Garðar]].<ref name="WurmMühlhäusler1996">{{cite book|author1=S.A. Wurm|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=glU0vte5gSkC&pg=PA1048|title=Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas|author2=Peter Mühlhäusler|author3=Darrell T. Tyron|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|year=1996|isbn=978-3-11-013417-9|page=1048}}</ref> The remains of a settlement at [[L'Anse aux Meadows]] in [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]], Canada, were discovered in 1960 and were dated to around the year 1000 (carbon dating estimate 990–1050).<ref name="CordellLightfoot2008">{{cite book|author1=Linda S. Cordell|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=arfWRW5OFVgC&pg=PA82|title=Archaeology in America: An Encyclopedia: An Encyclopedia|author2=Kent Lightfoot|author3=Francis McManamon|author4=George Milner|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2008|isbn=978-0-313-02189-3|pages=82–|access-date=2016-03-26|archive-date=2023-04-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425150120/https://books.google.com/books?id=arfWRW5OFVgC&pg=PA82|url-status=live}}</ref> L'Anse aux Meadows is the only site widely accepted as evidence of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact. It was named a [[World Heritage Site]] by [[UNESCO]] in 1978.<ref name="Allen1997">{{cite book|author=John Logan Allen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7RGlz9a4wVYC&pg=PA27|title=North American Exploration|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-8032-1015-8|page=27}}</ref> It is also notable for its possible connection with the attempted colony of [[Vinland]], established by [[Leif Erikson]] around the same period or, more broadly, with the [[Norse colonization of the Americas]].<ref name="Kristinsson2010">{{cite book|author=Axel Kristinsson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9s2uzr47M-cC&pg=PA216|title=Expansions: Competition and Conquest in Europe Since the Bronze Age|publisher=ReykjavíkurAkademían|year=2010|isbn=978-9979-9922-1-9|page=216}}</ref> Leif Erikson's brother is said to have had the first contact with the native population of North America which would come to be known as the [[skræling]]s. After capturing and killing eight of the natives, they were attacked at their beached ships, which they defended.<ref>Keneva Kunz (Translator) The Saga of the Greenlanders, in The Saga of Icelanders (New York: Penguin Books, 2001). {{ISBN|0-670-88990-3}}</ref>

=== Spain ===
{{Main|Spanish colonization of the Americas}}
{{Further|First wave of European colonization|Spanish America|Spanish Empire}}
[[File:Viajes de colon en.svg|[[Christopher Columbus]] voyages|thumb|250px]]
[[File:Landing of Columbus (2) (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Christopher Columbus]] and his crew are landing in the [[West Indies]], on an island named [[San Salvador Island|San Salvador]], on October 12, 1492.]]
[[File:MHN Rugendas Descobrimento da América.jpg|thumb|The Discovery of America ([[Johann Moritz Rugendas]])]]
[[File:"America" (Engraving) Nova reperta (Speculum diuersarum imaginum speculatiuarum 1638).tif|thumb|[[Amerigo Vespucci]] wakes up "America" in ''Americae Retectio'', engraving by the Flemish artist [[Jan Galle]] (circa 1615).]]

Systematic European colonization began in 1492. A [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]] [[Columbus's first voyage|expedition]] sailed west to find a new trade route to the [[Orient]], the source of spices, silks, porcelains, and other rich trade goods. Ottoman control of the [[Silk Road]], the traditional route for trade between Europe and Asia, forced European traders to look for alternative routes. The [[Republic of Genoa|Genoese]] mariner [[Christopher Columbus]] led an expedition to find a route to East Asia, but instead landed in [[The Bahamas]].<ref name="DavidannGilbert2019">{{cite book |last1=Davidann |first1=Jon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8f6GDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT39 |title=Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern World History, 1453–Present |last2=Gilbert |first2=Marc Jason |publisher=Routledge |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-429-75924-6 |page=39 |language=en}}</ref> Columbus encountered the [[Lucayan people]] on the island [[Guanahani]] (possibly [[Cat Island, Bahamas|Cat Island]]), which they had inhabited since the ninth century. In his reports, Columbus exaggerated the quantity of gold in the [[East Indies]], which he called the "[[New World]]". These claims, along with the slaves he brought back, convinced the monarchy to fund a second voyage. Word of Columbus's exploits spread quickly, sparking the Western European exploration, conquest, and colonization of the Americas.

[[File:SpanishPacific.svg|[[Ferdinand Magellan]] and other explorers of the Pacific|thumb|250px]]

Spanish explorers, conquerors, and settlers sought material wealth, prestige, and the [[spread of Christianity]], often summed up in the phrase "gold, glory, and God".<ref>[https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/gold-god-and-glory] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709183717/https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/gold-god-and-glory|date=2021-07-09}}, "Gold, God, and glory". accessed 6 July 2021.</ref> The Spanish justified their claims to the New World based on the ideals of the Christian Reconquista of the [[Iberian Peninsula]] from the Muslims, completed in 1492.<ref>Seed, Patricia. ''American Pentimento [electronic Resource] : The Invention of Indians and the Pursuit of Riches / Patricia Seed.'' Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001. Print.</ref> In the New World, military conquest to incorporate indigenous peoples into Christendom was considered the "spiritual conquest". In 1493, [[Pope Alexander VI]], the first Spaniard to become Pope, issued a series of [[Papal bull|Papal Bulls]] that confirmed Spanish claims to the newly discovered lands.<ref name=":1">Bonch-Bruevich, Xenia. "Ideologies of the Spanish Reconquest and Isidore's Political Thought." ''Mediterranean Studies'', vol. 17, 2008, pp. 27–45. ''JSTOR'', www.jstor.org/stable/41167390. Accessed 12 Nov. 2020.</ref>

After the final [[Reconquista]] of [[Iberia]], the [[Treaty of Tordesillas]] was ratified by the Pope, the two kingdoms of [[crown of Castile|Castile]] (in a [[personal union]] with other kingdoms of Spain) and Portugal in 1494. The treaty divided the entire non-European world into two spheres of exploration and colonization. The [[Longitude|longitudinal]] boundary cut through the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern part of present-day Brazil. The countries declared their rights to the land despite the fact that Indigenous populations had settled from pole to pole in the hemisphere and it was their homeland.

After European contact, the native population of the Americas plummeted by an estimated 80% (from around 50 million in 1492 to eight million in 1650), due in part to Old World diseases carried to the New World. [[Smallpox]] was especially devastating, for it could be passed through touch, allowing native tribes to be wiped out,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Frontier |first=Notes From The |date=2020-05-03 |title=Smallpox, The Deadliest Killer of Native Americans |url=https://www.notesfromthefrontier.com/post/smallpox-the-deadliest-killer-of-native-americans |access-date=2024-01-22 |website=Frontier |language=en}}</ref> and the conditions that colonization imposed on Indigenous populations, such as forced labor and removal from homelands and traditional medicines.<ref name="Histoire">"La catastrophe démographique" (The Demographic Catastrophe) in ''[[L'Histoire]]'' n°322, July–August 2007, p. 17</ref><ref name=":42" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Ostler|first=Jeffrey|title=Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to bleeding Kansas|date=2019|isbn=978-0-300-24526-4|location=New Haven|publisher=none|oclc=1099434736}}</ref> Some scholars have argued [[Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas|that this demographic collapse]] was the result of the first large-scale act of [[Genocide of indigenous peoples|genocide]] [[Genocides_in_history_(before_World_War_I)#1490_to_1914|in the modern era]].<ref name="Stannard 1992"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Forsythe|first=David P.|title=Encyclopedia of Human Rights, Volume 4|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-19-533402-9|page=297}}</ref>
[[File:Capitulo-CIX.jpg|thumb|The silver mountain of [[Potosí]], in what is now Bolivia. It was the source of vast amounts of silver that transformed the [[world economy]].]]
For example, the labor and tribute of [[Taíno people|inhabitants of Hispaniola]] were granted in [[encomienda]] to Spaniards, a practice established in Spain for conquered Muslims. Although not technically slavery, it was coerced labor for the benefit of the Spanish grantees, called ''[[encomenderos]]''. Spain had a legal tradition and devised a proclamation known as [[Spanish Requirement of 1513|The Requerimento]] to be read to indigenous populations in Spanish, often far from the field of battle, stating that the indigenous were now subjects of the Spanish Crown and would be punished if they resisted.<ref>Seed, Patricia. Ceremonies of possession in Europe's conquest of the New World, 1492–1640. United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 1995.</ref> When the news of this situation and the abuse of the institution reached Spain, the [[New Laws]] were passed to regulate and gradually abolish the system in the Americas, as well as to reiterate the prohibition of enslaving Native Americans. By the time the new laws were passed, in 1542, the Spanish crown had acknowledged their inability to control and properly ensure compliance with traditional laws overseas, so they granted to Native Americans specific protections not even Spaniards had, such as the prohibition of enslaving them even in the case of crime or war. These extra protections were an attempt to avoid the proliferation of irregular claims to slavery.<ref>Suárez Romero. LA SITUACIÓN JURÍDICA DEL INDIO DURANTE LA CONQUISTA ESPAÑOLA EN AMÉRICA. REVISTA DE LA FACULTAD DE DERECHO DE MÉXICO TOMO LXVIII, Núm.270 (Enero-Abril 2018)</ref> However, as historian [[Andrés Reséndez]] has noted, "this categorical prohibition did not stop generations of determined conquistadors and colonists from taking Native slaves on a planetary scale, ... The fact that this other slavery had to be carried out clandestinely made it even more insidious. It is a tale of good intentions gone badly astray."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Resendez|first=Andres|title=The Other Slavery The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|year=2016|pages=7}}</ref>

A major event in early Spanish colonization, which had so far yielded paltry returns, was the [[Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire]] (1519–1521). It was led by [[Hernán Cortés]] and made possible by securing indigenous alliances with the Aztecs' enemies, mobilizing thousands of warriors against the Aztecs for their own political reasons. The Aztec capital, [[Tenochtitlan]], became [[Mexico City]], the chief city of the "[[Viceroyalty of New Spain|New Spain]]". More than an estimated 240,000 [[Aztecs]] died during the [[Fall of Tenochtitlan|siege of Tenochtitlan]], 100,000 in combat,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Russell|first1=Philip|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m7VmCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT49|title=The Essential History of Mexico: From Pre-Conquest to Present|date=2015|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-01721-7}}</ref> while 500–1,000 of the Spaniards engaged in the conquest died. The other great conquest was of the [[Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire|Inca Empire]] (1531–35), led by [[Francisco Pizarro]].

[[File:Spanish North America.png|thumb|Spanish historical and territorial presence in [[North America]]]]
During the early period of exploration, conquest, and settlement, {{Circa}} 1492–1550, the overseas possessions claimed by Spain were only loosely controlled by the crown. With the conquests of the Aztecs and the Incas, the New World now commanded the crown's attention. Both Mexico and Peru had dense, hierarchically organized indigenous populations that could be incorporated and ruled. Even more importantly, both Mexico and Peru had large deposits of silver, which became the economic motor of the Spanish empire and transformed the world economy. In Peru, the singular, hugely rich [[Cerro Rico|silver mine of Potosí]] was worked by traditional forced indigenous labor drafts, known as the [[mit'a]]. In Mexico, silver was found outside the zone of dense indigenous settlement, so laborers migrated to the mines in [[Guanajuato]] and [[Zacatecas]]. The crown established the [[Council of the Indies]] in 1524, based in Seville, and issued [[laws of the Indies]] to assert its power against the early conquerors. The crown created the [[viceroyalty of New Spain]] and the [[viceroyalty of Peru]] to tighten crown control over these rich prizes of conquest.

=== Portugal ===
{{Main|Portuguese colonization of the Americas}}
{{Further|First wave of European colonization|Portuguese America|Portuguese Empire}}

[[File:Pedro-e-297-a 0001 1 p24-C-R0150 cropped.jpg|thumb|[[Discovery of Brazil]]]]

Over this same time frame as Spain, [[History of Portugal|Portugal]] claimed lands in North America (Canada) and colonized much of eastern South America naming it [[History of Brazil|Santa Cruz and Brazil]]. On behalf of both the Portuguese and Spanish crowns, cartographer [[Amerigo Vespucci]] explored the South American east coast and published his new book ''Mundus Novus'' (''New World'') in 1502–1503 which disproved the belief that the Americas were the easternmost part of Asia and confirmed that Columbus had reached a set of continents previously unheard of to any Europeans. [[Cartography|Cartographers]] still use a [[Latinization (literature)|Latinized]] version of his first name, ''America'', for the two continents. In April 1500, Portuguese noble [[Pedro Álvares Cabral]] claimed the region of [[History of Brazil|Brazil]] to Portugal; the effective [[colonial Brazil|colonization of Brazil]] began three decades later with the founding of [[São Vicente, São Paulo|São Vicente]] in 1532 and the establishment of the system of [[Captaincies of Brazil|captaincies]] in 1534, which was later replaced by other systems. Others tried to colonize the [[Atlantic Canada|eastern coasts]] of present-day Canada and the [[Río de la Plata|River Plate]] in South America. These explorers include [[João Vaz Corte-Real]] in Newfoundland; [[João Fernandes Lavrador]], [[Gaspar Corte-Real|Gaspar]] and [[Miguel Corte-Real]] and [[João Álvares Fagundes]], in Newfoundland, Greenland, Labrador, and Nova Scotia (from 1498 to 1502, and in 1520).

During this time, the Portuguese gradually switched from an initial plan of establishing trading posts to extensive [[colonization]] of what is now Brazil. They imported millions of slaves to run their plantations. The Portuguese and Spanish royal governments expected to rule these settlements and collect at least 20% of all treasure found (the ''[[quinto real]]'' collected by the ''[[Casa de Contratación]]''), in addition to collecting all the taxes they could. By the late 16th century [[silver]] from the Americas accounted for one-fifth of the combined total budget of Portugal and Spain.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Spain|encyclopedia=MSN Encarta|url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761575057_13/spain.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028035130/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761575057_13/Spain.html|archive-date=2009-10-28|url-status=dead}}</ref> In the 16th century perhaps 240,000 Europeans entered ports in the Americas.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/data/art/AXTELL01.ART|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080317092614/http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/data/art/AXTELL01.ART|url-status=dead|title="The Columbian Mosaic in Colonial America" by James Axtell|archive-date=March 17, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The Spanish Colonial System, 1550–1800. Population Development|url=http://www.bartleby.com/67/908.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090204221411/http://bartleby.com/67/908.html|archive-date=February 4, 2009|access-date=4 October 2014}}</ref>

=== France ===
{{Main|French colonization of the Americas}}
{{Further|French America|French colonial empire}}
[[File:Nouvelle-France map-en.svg|thumb|Map of territorial claims in [[North America]] by 1750, before the [[French and Indian War]], which was part of the greater worldwide conflict known as the [[Seven Years' War]] (1756 to 1763). Possessions of Britain (pink), France (blue), and Spain. White border lines mark later Canadian Provinces and US States for reference.]]
France founded colonies in the Americas: in eastern North America (which had not been colonized by Spain north of [[History of Florida|Florida]]), a number of Caribbean islands (which had often already been conquered by the Spanish or depopulated by disease), and small coastal parts of South America. Explorers included [[Giovanni da Verrazzano]] in 1524; [[Jacques Cartier]] (1491–1557), and [[Samuel de Champlain]] (1567–1635), who explored the region of Canada he reestablished as [[New France]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Grenon |first1=Jean-Yves |title=Pierre Dugua De Mons: Founder of Acadie (1604–05), Co-Founder of Quebec (1608) |translator-first=Phil |translator-last=Roberts |location=Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia |publisher=Peninsular Press |date=2000 |isbn=978-0-9682-0162-6}}</ref>

The first [[French colonial empire]] stretched to over {{convert|10,000,000|km2|abbr=on}} at its peak in 1710, which was the second largest colonial empire in the world, after the [[Spanish Empire]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Western-colonialism|title =Western colonialism - European expansion since 1763|website= Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=2021-08-20}}</ref><ref>Havard, Vidal, Histoire de L’Amérique française, Flammarion, 2003, p. 67.</ref>

In the French colonial regions, the focus of the economy was on [[Sugar plantations in the Caribbean|sugar plantations]] in the [[French West Indies]]. In Canada the [[North American fur trade|fur trade]] with the natives was important. About 16,000 French men and women became colonizers. The great majority became subsistence farmers along the [[St. Lawrence River]]. With a favorable disease environment and plenty of land and food, their numbers grew exponentially to 65,000 by 1760. Their colony was taken over by Britain in 1760, but social, religious, legal, cultural, and economic changes were few in a society that clung tightly to its recently formed traditions.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Eccles |first1=W.J. |title=The Canadian Frontier, 1534–1760 |year=1969}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Choquette |first1=Leslie |title=Frenchmen into peasants: modernity and tradition in the peopling of French Canada |year=1997}}</ref>

=== British ===
{{Main|British colonization of the Americas}}
{{Further|British America|British Empire}}

British colonization began in North America almost a century after Spain. The relatively late arrival meant that the British could use the other European colonization powers as models for their endeavors.<ref name="Haring, Clarence H. 1985">Haring, Clarence H. ''The Spanish Empire in America''. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985. Print.</ref> Inspired by the Spanish riches from colonies founded upon the conquest of the [[Aztec Empire|Aztecs]], [[Inca Empire|Incas]], and other large Native American populations in the 16th century, their first attempt at colonization occurred in [[Roanoke Colony|Roanoke]] and [[Newfoundland Colony|Newfoundland]], although unsuccessful.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|date=2020-05-19|title=Motivations for Colonization|url=http://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/motivations-colonization/|access-date=2020-10-13|website=National Geographic Society|language=en|archive-date=2020-12-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201203110447/https://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/motivations-colonization/|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1606, [[James VI and I|King James I]] granted a charter with the purpose of discovering the riches at their first permanent settlement in [[Jamestown, Virginia]] in 1607. They were sponsored by [[common stock]] companies such as the chartered [[London Company|Virginia Company]] financed by wealthy Englishmen who exaggerated the economic potential of the land.<ref name="Taylor 20012"/> 
[[File:James_II_(1685).jpg|thumb|[[James II of England|James II]] established the [[Colony of New York]] and the [[Dominion of New England]]. ]]
The [[Reformation]] of the 16th century broke the unity of [[Western Christianity|Western Christendom]] and led to the formation of numerous new religious sects, which often faced persecution by governmental authorities. In England, many people came to question the organization of the [[Church of England]] by the end of the 16th century. One of the primary manifestations of this was the [[Puritan]] movement, which sought to purify the existing Church of England of its residual Catholic rites. The first of these people, known as the [[Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)|Pilgrims]], landed on [[Plymouth Rock]] in November 1620. Continuous waves of repression led to the [[Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640)|migration of about 20,000 Puritans to New England]] between 1629 and 1642, where they founded [[New England Colonies|multiple colonies]]. Later in the century, the new [[Province of Pennsylvania]] was given to [[William Penn]] in settlement of a debt the king owed his father. Its government was established by William Penn in about 1682 to become primarily a refuge for persecuted English Quakers, but others were welcomed. [[Baptists]], [[Protestantism in Germany|German]] and [[Protestantism in Switzerland|Swiss Protestants]], and [[Anabaptists]] also flocked to Pennsylvania. The lure of cheap land, religious freedom and the right to improve themselves with their own hand was very attractive.<ref>{{cite book|author=John Chester Miller|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Oadlu2cSFUC&pg=PA80|title=The First Frontier: Life in Colonial America|publisher=University Press of America|year=1966|isbn=978-0-8191-4977-0|page=80}}</ref>

[[File:Thirteencolonies politics cropped.jpg|thumb|right|[[Thirteen Colonies]] of North America:<br> Dark Red = [[New England Colonies|New England colonies]].<br> Bright Red = [[Middle Colonies|Middle Atlantic colonies]].<br> Red-brown = [[Southern Colonies|Southern colonies]].]]
Mainly due to discrimination, there was often a separation between English colonial communities and indigenous communities. The Europeans viewed the natives as savages who were not worthy of participating in what they considered civilized society. The native people of North America did not die out nearly as rapidly nor as greatly as those in [[Latin America|Central and South America]] due in part to their exclusion from British society. The indigenous people continued to be stripped of their native lands and were pushed further out west.<ref name=":22">"Native Americans, Treatment of (Spain vs England)." ''Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History''. Ed. Thomas Carson and Mary Bonk. Detroit: Gale, 1999. N. pag. ''World History in Context''. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.</ref> The English eventually went on to control much of [[British America|Eastern North America]], the [[Caribbean]], and parts of South America. They also gained [[British Florida|Florida]] and [[Province of Quebec (1763–1791)|Quebec]] in the [[French and Indian War]].

[[John Smith of Jamestown|John Smith]] convinced the colonists of Jamestown that searching for gold was not taking care of their immediate needs for food and shelter. The lack of [[food security]] leading to an extremely high mortality rate was quite distressing and cause for despair among the colonists. To support the colony, numerous [[Jamestown supply missions|supply missions]] were organized. [[Tobacco]] later became a cash crop, with the work of [[John Rolfe]] and others, for export and the sustaining economic driver of [[Colony of Virginia|Virginia]] and the neighboring colony of [[Province of Maryland|Maryland]]. [[Plantation economy|Plantation agriculture]] was a primary aspect of the economies of the [[Southern Colonies]] and in the [[British West Indies]]. They heavily relied on African slave labor to sustain their economic pursuits.

From the beginning of Virginia's settlements in 1587 until the 1680s, the main source of labor and a large portion of the immigrants were [[Indentured servitude in British America|indentured servants]] looking for a new life in the overseas colonies. During the 17th century, indentured servants constituted three-quarters of all European immigrants to the [[Chesapeake Colonies]]. Most of the indentured servants were teenagers from England with poor economic prospects at home. Their fathers signed the papers that gave them free passage to America and an unpaid job until they came of age. They were given food, clothing, and housing and taught farming or household skills. American landowners were in need of laborers and were willing to pay for a laborer's passage to America if they served them for several years. By selling passage for five to seven years worth of work, they could then start on their own in America.<ref>{{citation |last=Barker|first=Deanna|date=10 March 2004|title=Indentured Servitude in Colonial America|publisher=National Association for Interpretation, Cultural Interpretation and Living History Section}}.</ref> Many of the migrants from England died in the first few years.<ref name="Taylor 20012"/>

Economic advantage also prompted the [[Darien scheme]], an ill-fated venture by the [[Kingdom of Scotland]] to settle the [[Isthmus of Panama]] in the late 1690s. The Darien Scheme aimed to control trade through that part of the world and thereby promote Scotland into a world trading power. However, it was doomed by poor planning, short provisions, weak leadership, lack of demand for trade goods, and devastating disease.<ref>John Prebble, ''Darien: the Scottish Dream of Empire'' (2000)</ref> The failure of the Darien scheme was one of the factors that led the Kingdom of Scotland into the [[Act of Union 1707]] with the [[Kingdom of England]], creating the united [[Kingdom of Great Britain]] and giving Scotland commercial access to English, now British, colonies.<ref>Brocklehurst, "The Banker who Led Scotland to Disaster".</ref>

===Dutch===
{{Main|Dutch colonization of the Americas}}
{{Further|Dutch America|Dutch Empire}}
[[File:GezichtOpNieuwAmsterdam.jpg|thumb|[[New Amsterdam]] on lower Manhattan island, was captured by the English in 1665, becoming [[History of New York City (1665–1783)|New York]].]]

The Netherlands had been part of the [[Spanish Empire]], due to the inheritance of [[Charles I of Spain|Charles V]] of Spain. Many Dutch people converted to [[Protestantism]] and sought their political independence from Spain. They were a seafaring nation and built a global empire in regions where the Portuguese had originally explored. In the [[Dutch Golden Age]], it sought colonies. In the Americas, the Dutch conquered the northeast of [[Dutch Brazil|Brazil]] in 1630, where the Portuguese had built sugar cane plantations worked by black slave labor from Africa. Prince [[Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen]] became the administrator of the colony (1637–43), building a capital city and royal palace, fully expecting the Dutch to retain control of this rich area. As the Dutch had in Europe, it tolerated the presence of Jews and other religious groups in the colony. After Maurits departed in 1643, the [[Dutch West India Company]] took over the colony until it was lost to the Portuguese in 1654. The Dutch retained some territory in [[Surinam (Dutch colony)|Dutch Guiana]], now [[Suriname]]. The Dutch also seized islands in the [[Dutch Caribbean|Caribbean]] that Spain had originally claimed but had largely abandoned, including [[Sint Maarten]] in 1618, [[Bonaire]] in 1634, [[Curaçao]] in 1634, [[Sint Eustatius]] in 1636, [[Aruba]] in 1637, some of which remain in Dutch hands and retain Dutch cultural traditions.

On the east coast of North America, the Dutch planted the colony of [[New Netherland]] on the lower end of the island of [[Manhattan]], at [[New Amsterdam]] starting in 1624. The Dutch sought to protect their investments and purchased Manhattan from a band of [[Metoac#Exonyms|Canarse]] from [[Brooklyn]] who occupied the bottom quarter of Manhattan, known then as the [[Manhattoes#Dutch settlement|Manhattoes]], for 60 [[Dutch guilder|guilders]]' worth of trade goods. Minuit conducted the transaction with the Canarse chief Seyseys, who accepted valuable merchandise in exchange for an island that was actually mostly controlled by another indigenous group, the [[Weckquaesgeek]]s.<ref>[http://www.americanheritage.com/content/24-swindle Benchley, Nathaniel. "The $24 Swindle: The Native Americans who sold Manhattan were bilked, all right, but they didn't mind – the land wasn't theirs anyway."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181128115246/http://www.americanheritage.com/content/24-swindle |date=2018-11-28 }} ''American Heritage'', Vol. 11, no. 1 (Dec. 1959).</ref> Dutch fur traders set up a network upstream on the [[Hudson River]]. There were Jewish settlers from 1654 onward, and they remained following the English capture of New Amsterdam in 1664. The naval capture was despite both nations being at peace with the other.

===Russia===
{{Main|Russian colonization of North America}}
{{Further|Russian America|Russian Empire}}
[[File:View of New Archangel, 1837.tif|thumb|right|New Archangel (present-day [[Sitka, Alaska]]), the capital of Russian America, in 1837]]

Russia came to colonization late compared to Spain or Portugal, or even England. [[History of Siberia|Siberia]] was added to the [[Russian Empire]] and [[Cossack]] explorers along rivers sought valuable furs of [[Stoat|ermine]], [[sable]], and [[fox]]. Cossacks enlisted the aid of [[Indigenous peoples of Siberia|indigenous Siberians]], who sought protection from nomadic peoples, and those peoples paid tribute in fur to the czar. Thus, prior to the eighteenth-century Russian expansion that pushed beyond the [[Bering Strait]] dividing Eurasia from North America, Russia had experience with northern indigenous peoples and accumulated wealth from the hunting of fur-bearing animals. Siberia had already attracted a core group of scientists, who sought to map and catalogue the flora, fauna, and other aspects of the natural world.

A major Russian expedition for exploration was mounted in 1742, contemporaneous with other eighteenth-century European state-sponsored ventures. It was not clear at the time whether Eurasia and North America were completely separate continents. The first voyages were made by [[Vitus Bering]] and [[Aleksei Chirikov]], with settlement beginning after 1743. By the 1790s the first permanent settlements were established. Explorations continued down the [[West Coast of North America|Pacific coast of North America]], and Russia established a settlement in the early nineteenth century at what is now called [[Fort Ross, California]].<ref>Black, Lydia. Russians in Alaska, 1732–1867. University of Alaska Press, 2004.</ref><ref>Postnikov, Alexey, and Marvin Falk. Exploring and Mapping Alaska: The Russian America Era, 1741–1867. University of Alaska Press, 2015.</ref><ref>Grinëv, Andrei Val'terovich. Russian Colonization of Alaska: Preconditions, Discovery, and Initial Development, 1741–1799. University of Nebraska Press, 2018.</ref> Russian fur traders forced indigenous [[Aleut]] men into seasonal labor.<ref>Veltre, Douglas W., and Allen P. McCartney. "Russian exploitation of Aleuts and fur seals: The archaeology of eighteenth-and early-nineteenth-century settlements in the Pribilof Islands, Alaska." Historical Archaeology 36.3 (2002): 8–17.</ref> Never very profitable, Russia sold its North American holdings to the United States in 1867, called at the time "[[Seward's Folly]]".

=== Tuscany ===
{{Main|Thornton expedition}}
{{Further|Grand Duchy of Tuscany|The Guianas}}
Duke [[Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany|Ferdinand I de Medici]] made the only Italian attempt to create colonies in America. For this purpose, the Grand Duke organized in 1608 an [[Thornton expedition|expedition]] to the north of Brazil, under the command of the English captain Robert Thornton.

Thornton, on his return from the preparatory trip in 1609 (he had been to the [[Amazon River|Amazon]]), found Ferdinand I dead and all projects were cancelled by his successor [[Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany|Cosimo II]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Paolo·Culture·|first=Michele|date=2020-07-24|title=An Italian Colony In America: A Forgotten Attempt|url=https://italicsmag.com/2020/07/24/an-italian-colony-in-america-a-forgotten-attempt-tuscany/|access-date=2022-01-13|website=Italics Magazine|language=en-US|archive-date=2022-01-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220113100558/https://italicsmag.com/2020/07/24/an-italian-colony-in-america-a-forgotten-attempt-tuscany/|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Religion and colonization ==
[[File:Sinagoga-kahal-zur-israel-recife.jpg|thumbnail|left|The [[Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue]] in Mauritsstad (Recife) is the oldest synagogue in the Americas. An estimated number of 700 Jews lived in Dutch Brazil, about 4.7% of the total population.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bloom|first1=Hebert Ivan|title=The Economic activities of the Jews in Amsterdam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries}}</ref>]]

[[Roman Catholics]] were the first major religious group to immigrate to the New World, as settlers in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies of Portugal and Spain, and later, France in [[New France]]. No other religion was tolerated and there was a concerted effort to convert indigenous peoples and black slaves to Catholicism. The [[Catholic Church in Spain|Catholic Church]] established three offices of the [[Spanish Inquisition]], in [[Mexico City]]; [[Lima|Lima, Peru]]; and [[Cartagena de Indias]] in Colombia to maintain religious orthodoxy and practice. The Portuguese did not establish a permanent office of the [[Portuguese Inquisition]] in Brazil, but did send visitations of inquisitors in the seventeenth century.<ref>Wadsworth, James E. Agents of orthodoxy: honor, status, and the Inquisition in colonial Pernambuco, Brazil. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2006.</ref>

English and Dutch colonies, on the other hand, tended to be more religiously diverse. Settlers to these colonies included [[Anglican]]s, Dutch [[Calvinists]], English [[Puritans]] and other [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformists]], [[Maryland Toleration Act|English Catholics]], Scottish [[Presbyterian]]s, French Protestant [[Huguenot]]s, German and Swedish [[Lutherans]], as well as [[Jews]], [[Quakers]], [[Mennonites]], [[Amish]], and [[Moravian Church|Moravians]].<ref>Patricia U. Bonomi, ''Under the cope of heaven: Religion, society, and politics in Colonial America'' (2003).</ref> Jews fled to the Dutch colony of [[New Amsterdam]] when the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions cracked down on their presence.<ref>Faber, Eli. A Time for Planting: The First Migration, 1654–1820. Vol. 1. JHU Press, 1995.</ref>

=== Christianization ===
{{Main|Catholic Church and the Age of Discovery|Christianization|Forced conversion#Christianity|Cultural assimilation of Native Americans}}
{{Further|Cultural genocide|Ethnocide|Forced assimilation|Religious persecution}}
[[File:13.- 50003 0004 - Alonso de Molina - Vocabulario en lengua mexicana y castellana c 1565.tif|thumb|Franciscan [[Alonso de Molina]]'s 1565 [[Nahuatl]] (Aztec) dictionary, conceived for friars to communicate with the indigenous peoples in central Mexico in their own language]]
[[File:John Eliot Bible, Cambridge, 1663.jpg|thumb|[[Eliot Indian Bible]]]]
[[File:Catedral_de_México.jpg|thumb|Catholic cathedral in Mexico City]]

Beginning with the [[first wave of European colonization]], the [[religious discrimination]], [[Religious persecution|persecution]], and [[Religious violence|violence]] toward the [[Native American religion|Indigenous peoples' native religions]] was systematically perpetrated by the European Christian colonists and settlers from the 15th–16th centuries onwards.<ref name="Whitt-Clarke 2019"/><ref name="Ostler 2015"/><ref name="Stannard 1992"/><ref name="Thornton 1987"/><ref name="Corrigan-Neal 2010"/><ref name="Pointer 2011"/>

During the [[Age of Discovery]] and the following centuries, the [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]] and [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] colonial empires were the most active in attempting to convert the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas]] to the [[Christianity|Christian religion]].<ref name="Corrigan-Neal 2010"/><ref name="Pointer 2011"/> Pope [[Alexander VI]] issued the ''[[Inter caetera]]'' bull in May 1493 that confirmed the lands claimed by the [[Kingdom of Spain]], and mandated in exchange that the Indigenous peoples be converted to [[Roman Catholic Church and colonialism|Catholic Christianity]]. During [[Christopher Columbus|Columbus]]'s second voyage, [[Benedictines|Benedictine]] friars accompanied him, along with twelve other priests. With the [[Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire]], evangelization of the dense Indigenous populations was undertaken in what was called the "spiritual conquest".<ref>Ricard, Robert.''The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico: An essay on the Apostolate and the Evangelizing Methods of the Mendicant Orders in New Spain, 1523–1572''. translated by Lesley Byrd Simpson. Berkeley: University of California Press 1966.</ref> Several mendicant orders were involved in the early campaign to convert the Indigenous peoples. [[Franciscans]] and [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]] learned [[Indigenous languages of the Americas]], such as [[Nahuatl]], [[Mixtec language|Mixtec]], and [[Zapotec language|Zapotec]].<ref>Burkhart, Louise. ''The Slippery Earth: Nahua-Christian Moral Dialogue in Sixteenth-Century Mexico''. Tucson: University of Arizona Press 1989.</ref> One of the first schools for [[Indigenous peoples of Mexico|Indigenous peoples in Mexico]] was founded by [[Pedro de Gante]] in 1523. The friars aimed at converting Indigenous leaders, with the hope and expectation that their communities would follow suit.<ref>Cline, Sarah. "The Spiritual Conquest Re-Examined: Baptism and Church Marriage in Early Colonial Mexico". Hispanic American Historical Review 73:3(1993)453-80</ref> In densely populated regions, friars mobilized Indigenous communities to build churches, making the religious change visible; these churches and chapels were often in the same places as old temples, often using the same stones. "Native peoples exhibited a range of responses, from outright hostility to active embrace of the new religion."<ref>Altman, Ida, et al. ''The Early History of Greater Mexico''. Pearson Education Inc. 2003, 117.</ref> In central and southern Mexico where there was an existing Indigenous tradition of creating written texts, the friars taught Indigenous scribes to write their own languages in [[New Philology (Latin America)|Latin letters]]. There is a significant body of texts in Indigenous languages created by and for Indigenous peoples in their own communities for their own purposes. In frontier areas where there were no settled Indigenous populations, friars and [[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]] often created [[Spanish missions in the Americas|missions]], bringing together dispersed Indigenous populations in communities supervised by the friars in order to more easily preach the gospel and ensure their adherence to the faith. These missions were established throughout [[Spanish America]] which extended from the [[Southwestern United States|southwestern portions of current-day United States]] through Mexico and to Argentina and Chile.

As [[Slavery in medieval Europe|slavery]] was prohibited between Christians and could only be imposed upon non-Christian prisoners of war and/or men already sold as slaves, the debate on Christianization was particularly acute during the early 16th century, when Spanish conquerors and settlers sought to mobilize Indigenous labor. Later, two [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] friars, [[Bartolomé de Las Casas]] and the [[philosopher]] [[Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda]], held the [[Valladolid debate]], with the former arguing that Native Americans were endowed with [[soul]]s like all other human beings, while the latter argued to the contrary to justify their enslavement. In 1537, the papal bull ''[[Sublimis Deus]]'' definitively recognized that Native Americans possessed souls, thus prohibiting their enslavement, without putting an end to the debate. Some claimed that a native who had rebelled and then been captured could be enslaved nonetheless.

When the first [[Franciscans]] arrived in Mexico in 1524, they burned the sacred places dedicated to the [[Native American religion|Indigenous peoples' native religions]].<ref name="Histoire2">"Espagnols-Indiens: le choc des civilisations", in ''[[L'Histoire]]'' n°322, July–August 2007, pp. 14–21 (interview with Christian Duverger, teacher at the [[EHESS]])</ref> However, in [[Pre-Columbian Mexico]], burning the temple of a conquered group was standard practice, shown in Indigenous manuscripts, such as [[Codex Mendoza]]. Conquered Indigenous groups expected to take on the gods of their new overlords, adding them to the existing pantheon. They likely were unaware that their [[conversion to Christianity]] entailed the complete and irrevocable renunciation of their ancestral religious beliefs and practices. In 1539, Mexican bishop [[Juan de Zumárraga]] oversaw the trial and execution of the Indigenous nobleman [[Carlos Ometochtzin|Carlos of Texcoco]] for [[Apostasy in Christianity|apostasy from Christianity]].<ref>Don, Patricia Lopes. "The 1539 inquisition and trial of Don Carlos of Texcoco in early Mexico." Hispanic American Historical Review 88.4 (2008): 573–606.</ref> Following that, the Catholic Church removed Indigenous converts from the jurisdiction of the [[Inquisition]], since it had a chilling effect on evangelization. In creating a protected group of Christians, Indigenous men no longer could aspire to be ordained Christian priests.<ref>Poole, Stafford. "Church law on the ordination of Indians and castas in New Spain." Hispanic American Historical Review 61.4 (1981): 637–650.</ref>

Throughout the Americas, the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]] were active in attempting to convert the Indigenous peoples to Christianity. They had considerable success on the frontiers in [[New France]]<ref>McShea, Bronwen. Apostles of Empire: the Jesuits and New France. U of Nebraska Press, 2019.</ref> and [[Colonial Brazil|Portuguese Brazil]], most famously with Antonio de Vieira, S.J;<ref>Cohen, Thomas M. The fire of tongues: António Vieira and the missionary church in Brazil and Portugal. Stanford Univ. Press, 1999</ref> and in [[History of Paraguay|Paraguay]], almost an autonomous state within a state.<ref>Morner, M. "Preconditions and Methods of Evangelization in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Jesuit Missions of the River Plate Region." Swedish Missiological Themes 91.2 (2003): 275–296.</ref> The ''[[Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God]]'', a translation by [[John Eliot (missionary)|John Eliot]] of the gospel into [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]], was published in 1663.

==Disease, genocides, and indigenous population loss==
{{See also|Disease in colonial America|Native American disease and epidemics|Genocide of indigenous peoples#Indigenous peoples of the Americas (pre-1948)}}
[[File:Benton American Discovery Viewed by Native Americans.jpg|thumb|''American Discovery Viewed by Native Americans'', a 1922 painting by [[Thomas Hart Benton (painter)|Thomas Hart Benton]], now housed in the [[Peabody Essex Museum]] in [[Salem, Massachusetts]], United States<ref>{{cite web |last=Cardin |first=Dinah |date=14 August 2015 |title=Benton painting Native Americans |url=https://www.pem.org/blog/benton-painting-native-americans |url-status=live |website=www.pem.org |location=[[Salem, Massachusetts]] |publisher=[[Peabody Essex Museum]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930030008/https://www.pem.org/blog/benton-painting-native-americans |archive-date=30 September 2020 |access-date=21 February 2022}}</ref>]]
[[File:FlorentineCodex BK12 F54 smallpox.jpg|thumb|Drawing accompanying text in Book XII of the 16th-century ''[[Florentine Codex]]'' (compiled 1540–1585)<br />[[Nahua people|Nahua]] suffering from smallpox]]

The European lifestyle included a long history of sharing close quarters with domesticated animals such as cows, pigs, sheep, goats, horses, dogs and various domesticated [[fowl]], from which many diseases originally stemmed. In contrast to the indigenous people, the Europeans had developed a richer endowment of antibodies.<ref>{{cite book|author=Baten, Jörg |title=A History of the Global Economy. From 1500 to the Present|date=2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=163|isbn=978-1-107-50718-0}}</ref> The large-scale contact with Europeans after 1492 introduced Eurasian germs to the [[indigenous people of the Americas]].

Epidemics of [[smallpox]] (1518, 1521, 1525, 1558, 1589), [[typhus]] (1546), [[influenza]] (1558), [[diphtheria]] (1614) and [[measles]] (1618) swept the Americas subsequent to European contact,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kporterfield.com/aicttw/articles/disease.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214060648/http://www.kporterfield.com/aicttw/articles/disease.html|url-status=dead|title=American Indian Epidemics|archive-date=February 14, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/smallpox_01.shtml |title=Smallpox: Eradicating the Scourge |website=bbc.co.uk |access-date=2014-02-28 |archive-date=2021-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209082303/https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/smallpox_01.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> killing between 10 million and 100 million<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mann |first=Charles C. |author-link=Charles C. Mann |year=2005 |title=1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus |pages=[https://archive.org/details/149100char/page/106 106–109] |publisher=Knopf |isbn=978-1-4000-3205-1 |title-link=1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus }}</ref> people, up to 95% of the [[Indigenous peoples|indigenous population]] of the Americas.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/variables/smallpox.html |title=The Story Of... Smallpox |publisher=Pbs.org |access-date=2014-02-28 |archive-date=2010-01-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100116115810/http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/variables/smallpox.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The cultural and political instability attending these losses appears to have been of substantial aid in the efforts of various colonists in New England and Massachusetts to acquire control over the great wealth in land and resources of which indigenous societies had customarily made use.<ref>[[1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus]] ({{ISBN|1-4000-4006-X}}), [[Charles C. Mann]], Knopf, 2005.</ref>

Such diseases yielded human mortality of unquestionably enormous gravity and scale – and this has profoundly confused efforts to determine its full extent with any true precision. Estimates of the [[Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas|pre-Columbian population of the Americas]] vary tremendously. Others have argued that significant variations in population size over pre-Columbian history are reason to view higher-end estimates with caution. Such estimates may reflect historical population maxima, while indigenous populations may have been at a level somewhat below these maxima or in a moment of decline in the period just prior to contact with Europeans. Indigenous populations hit their ultimate lows in most areas of the Americas in the early 20th century; in a number of cases, growth has returned.<ref>Thornton, pp. xvii, 36.</ref>

According to scientists from [[University College London]], the colonization of the Americas by Europeans killed so much of the indigenous population that it resulted in [[Climate variability and change|climate change]] and [[Little Ice Age|global cooling]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Amos|first=Jonathan|date=February 2, 2019|title=America colonisation 'cooled Earth's climate'|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47063973|work=[[BBC]]|access-date=February 1, 2019|archive-date=January 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190131123238/https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47063973|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Kent|first=Lauren|date=February 1, 2019|title=European colonizers killed so many Native Americans that it changed the global climate, researchers say|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/01/world/european-colonization-climate-change-trnd/index.html|work=[[CNN]]|access-date=February 2, 2019|archive-date=August 13, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190813230231/https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/01/world/european-colonization-climate-change-trnd/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.12.004 |title=Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=207 |pages=13–36 |year=2019 |last1=Koch |first1=Alexander |last2=Brierley |first2=Chris |last3=Maslin |first3=Mark M. |last4=Lewis |first4=Simon L. |bibcode=2019QSRv..207...13K |doi-access=free }}</ref> Some contemporary scholars also attribute significant indigenous population losses in the Caribbean to the widespread practice of slavery and deadly forced labor in gold and silver mines.<ref>{{cite book|last=Reséndez|first=Andrés|date=2016|title=The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2gpCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA17|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]]|page=17|isbn=978-0547640983|author-link=Andrés Reséndez|access-date=2020-10-17|archive-date=2023-03-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316173811/https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2gpCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA17|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Treuer">{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-native-american-slavery-20160505-snap-story.html|title=The new book 'The Other Slavery' will make you rethink American history|last=Treuer|first=David|date=May 13, 2016|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=June 21, 2019|archive-date=June 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190623103420/https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-native-american-slavery-20160505-snap-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Hickel|first=Jason|date=2018 |title=The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions|publisher=Windmill Books|page=70 |isbn=978-1786090034|author-link=Jason Hickel}}</ref> Historian Andrés Reséndez, supports this claim and argues that indigenous populations were smaller previous estimations and "a nexus of slavery, overwork and famine killed more Indians in the Caribbean than smallpox, influenza and malaria."<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|last=Brockell|first=Gillian|title=Here are the indigenous people Christopher Columbus and his men could not annihilate|language=en-US|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/10/14/here-are-indigenous-people-christopher-columbus-his-men-could-not-annihilate/|access-date=2020-11-12|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=2020-11-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116131252/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/10/14/here-are-indigenous-people-christopher-columbus-his-men-could-not-annihilate/|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to [[the Cambridge World History]], the Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies, and the Cambridge World History of Genocide, colonial policies in some cases included the deliberate genocide of indigenous peoples in North America.<ref name=McNeill_Pomeranz_2015_p430>{{harvnb|McNeill|Pomeranz|2015|p=430}}: "That said, and ever since the initial Eastern seaboard settler wars against the Tsenacommacahs and Pequots in the 1620s and early 1630s, systematic genocidal massacre was a core component of native destruction throughout three centuries of largely 'Anglo' expansion across continental North America. The culmination of this process from the mid-1860s to mid-1880s ... native Araucanian resistance by the Argentinian and Chilean military in the Southern Cone pampas, primarily in the agribusiness interest. In Australia, too, 'Anglo' attrition or outright liquidation of Aborigines from the time of 'first contact' in 1788 reached its zenith in Queensland in these same decades, as a dedicated Native Mounted Police strove to cleanse the territory of indigenous tribes in favour of further millions of cattle stock. Undoubtedly, in all these instances, Western racism and contempt for natives as 'savages' played a critical role in psycho-cultural justifications for genocide"</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Bloxham|Moses|2010|p=339}}: "The genocidal intent of California settlers and government officials was acted out in numerous battles and massacres (and aided by technological advances in weaponry, especially after the Civil War), in the abduction and sexual abuse of Indian women, and in the economic exploitation of Indian child labourers."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Blackhawk|Kiernan|Madley|Taylor|2023|pp=27, 38}}: "More than any other work, Wolfe’s seminal 2006 essay, 'Settler colonialism and the elimination of the Native' established the 'centrality of dispossession' to our understandings of Indigenous genocide in the context of settler colonialism. His definition of 'settler colonialism' spoke directly to Genocide Studies scholars"; "With these works, a near consensus emerged. By most scholarly definitions and consistent with the UN Convention, these scholars all asserted that genocide against at least some Indigenous peoples had occurred in North America following colonisation, perpetuated first by colonial empires and then by independent nation-states"</ref> According to the Cambridge World History of Genocide, [[Spanish colonization of the Americas]] also included genocidal massacres.<ref>{{harvnb|Kiernan|Lemos|Taylor|2023|p=622}}: "These mass killings represent turning points in the history of the Spanish Atlantic conquest and share important characteristics. Each targeted Amerindian communities. Each was entirely or partially planned and executed by European actors, namely Spanish military entrepreneurs under the leadership of Friar Nicolás de Ovando, Hernán Cortés and Pedro de Alvarado respectively. Each event can be described as a 'genocidal massacre' targeting a specific community because of its membership of a larger group"</ref>

According to [[Adam Jones (Canadian scholar)|Adam Jones]], genocidal methods included the following:
{{blockquote|
* Genocidal massacres
* Biological warfare, using pathogens (especially smallpox and plague) to which the indigenous peoples had no resistance
* Spreading of disease via the 'reduction' of Indians to densely crowded and unhygienic settlements
* Slavery and forced/indentured labor, especially, though not exclusively, in Latin America, in conditions often rivalling those of Nazi concentration camps
* Mass population removals to barren 'reservations,' sometimes involving death marches ''en route'', and generally leading to widespread mortality and population collapse upon arrival
* Deliberate starvation and famine, exacerbated by destruction and occupation of the native land base and food resources
* Forced education of indigenous children in White-run schools ...<ref>{{harvnb|Jones|2023|p=138}}</ref>}}

==Slavery==
{{Main|Atlantic slave trade|European enslavement of Indigenous Americans}}
{{Further|Slavery in colonial Spanish America|Slavery in Brazil|Indian slave trade in the American Southeast|Slavery in the British and French Caribbean|Slavery in the colonial history of the United States|History of slavery#Americas}}[[File:Narratio Regionum indicarum per Hispanos Quosdam devastatarum verissima Theodore de Bry.jpg|thumb|Depiction of Spanish treatment of the indigenous populations in the Caribbean by [[Theodore de Bry]], illustrating Spanish Dominican friar [[Bartolomé de Las Casas]]'s indictment of early Spanish cruelty, known as the [[Black legend]], and indigenous barbarity, including human cannibalism, in an attempt to justify their enslavement]]
[[File:Triangle_trade2.png|thumb|[[Triangular trade]] between Europe, Africa, and the Americas]]
[[File:Tobacco cultivation (Virginia, ca. 1670).jpg|thumb|left|African slaves 17th-century in a tobacco plantation, [[Colony of Virginia|Virginia]], 1670]]

Indigenous population loss following European contact directly led to Spanish explorations beyond the Caribbean islands they initially claimed and settled in the 1490s, since they required a labor force to both produce food and to mine gold. Slavery was not unknown in Indigenous societies. With the arrival of European colonists, enslavement of Indigenous peoples "became commodified, expanded in unexpected ways, and came to resemble the kinds of human trafficking that are recognizable to us today".<ref name=":4">Reséndez, Andrés. ''The Other Slavery : The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America / Andrés Reséndez.'' Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016. Print.</ref>
While the disease was the main killer of indigenous peoples, the practice of slavery and forced labor was also a significant contributor to the indigenous death toll.<ref name=":1" /> With the arrival of Europeans other than the Spanish, enslavement of native populations increased since there were no prohibitions against slavery until decades later. It is estimated that from Columbus's arrival to the end of the 19th century between 2.5 and 5 million Native Americans were forced into slavery. Indigenous men, women, and children were often forced into labor in sparsely populated frontier settings, in the household, or in the toxic gold and silver mines.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=21544727&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA502506898&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs|title=The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America|first=Kevin|last=Waite|date=Sep 1, 2017|journal=The Journal of Civil War Era|volume=7|issue=3|pages=473–477|doi=10.1353/cwe.2017.0066 |s2cid=164320613 |accessdate=Jan 15, 2023|via=go.gale.com|url-access=subscription}}</ref> This practice was known as the [[Encomienda|''encomienda'' system]] and granted free native labor to the Spaniards. Based upon the practice of exacting tribute from Muslims and Jews during the [[Reconquista]], the Spanish Crown granted a number of native laborers to an ''encomendero'', who was usually a conquistador or other prominent Spanish male. Under the grant, they were theoretically bound to both protect the natives and convert them to Christianity. In exchange for their [[Forced conversion#Christianity|forced conversion to Christianity]], the natives paid tributes in the form of gold, agricultural products, and labor. The [[Monarchy of Spain|Spanish Crown]] tried to terminate the system through the [[Laws of Burgos]] (1512–13) and the [[New Laws]] of the Indies (1542). However, the encomenderos refused to comply with the new measures and the indigenous people continued to be exploited. Eventually, the encomienda system was replaced by the ''[[repartimientos|repartimiento]]'' system which was not abolished until the late 18th century.<ref>{{Cite web|title=encomienda {{!}} Definition & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/encomienda|access-date=2020-10-12|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|archive-date=2020-10-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022063405/https://www.britannica.com/topic/encomienda|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the Caribbean, deposits of gold were quickly exhausted and the precipitous drop in the indigenous population meant a severe labor shortage. Spaniards sought a high-value, low-bulk export product to make their fortunes. [[Cane sugar]] was the answer. It had been cultivated on the Iberian Atlantic islands. It was a highly desirable, expensive foodstuff. The problem of a labor force was solved by the importation of African slaves, initiating the creation of sugar plantations worked by [[chattel slaves]]. Plantations required a significant workforce to be purchased, housed, and fed; capital investment in building [[Engenho|sugar mills]] on-site, since once cane was cut, the sugar content rapidly declined. Plantation owners were linked to creditors and a network of merchants to sell processed sugar in Europe. The whole system was predicated on a huge, enslaved population. The Portuguese controlled the African slave trade, since the division of spheres with Spain in the [[Treaty of Tordesillas]], they controlled the African coasts. Black slavery dominated the labor force in [[Tropics|tropical zones]], particularly where sugar was cultivated, in Portuguese Brazil, the English, French, and Dutch Caribbean islands. On the mainland of North America, the English [[Thirteen Colonies|southern colonies]] imported black slaves, starting in [[First Africans in Virginia|Virginia in 1619]], to cultivate other tropical or semi-tropical crops such as tobacco, rice, and cotton.

Although black slavery is most associated with agricultural production, in Spanish America enslaved and free blacks and [[mulattoes]] were found in numbers in cities, working as artisans. Most newly transported African slaves were not Christians, but their conversion was a priority. For the Catholic Church, black slavery was not incompatible with Christianity. The [[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]] created hugely profitable agricultural enterprises and held a significant black slave labor force. European whites often justified the practice through the belts of latitude theory, supported by [[Aristotle]] and [[Ptolemy]]. In this perspective, belts of latitude wrapped around the Earth and corresponded with specific human traits. The peoples from the "cold zone" in [[Northern Europe]] were "of lesser prudence", while those of the "hot zone" in [[Sub-Saharan Africa|sub-Sahara Africa]] were intelligent but "weaker and less spirited".<ref name=":4" /> According to the theory, those of the "[[Temperate climate|temperate zone]]" across the Mediterranean reflected an ideal balance of strength and prudence. Such ideas about latitude and character justified a natural human hierarchy.<ref name=":4" />

African slaves were a highly valuable commodity, enriching those involved in the trade. Africans were transported to slave ships to the Americas and were primarily obtained from their African homelands by coastal tribes who captured and sold them. Europeans traded for slaves with the local native African tribes who captured them elsewhere in exchange for rum, guns, gunpowder, and other manufactures. The total [[History of slavery|slave trade]] to islands in the Caribbean, Brazil, the Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch, and British Empires is estimated to have involved 12 million Africans.<ref>{{cite book|last=Segal|first=Ronald|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780374524906|title=The Black Diaspora: Five Centuries of the Black Experience Outside Africa|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|year=1995|isbn=978-0-374-11396-4|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780374524906/page/4 4]|quote=It is now estimated that 11,863,000 slaves were shipped across the Atlantic. [Note in original: Paul E. Lovejoy, "The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on Africa: A Review of the Literature," in ''Journal of African History'' 30 (1989), p. 368.] ... It is widely conceded that further revisions are more likely to be upward than downward.|author-link=Ronald Segal|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|date=March 15, 2007|title=Quick guide: The slave trade|website=bbc.co.uk|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6445941.stm|access-date=2007-11-23|archive-date=2007-08-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070828121236/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6445941.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> The vast majority of these slaves went to sugar colonies in the Caribbean and to Brazil, where life expectancy was short and the numbers had to be continually replenished. At most about 600,000 African slaves were imported into the United States, or 5% of the 12 million slaves brought across from Africa.<ref>[[Stephen D. Behrendt]], David Richardson, and David Eltis, [[W. E. B. Du Bois Institute|W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research]], Harvard University. Based on "records for 27,233 voyages that set out to obtain slaves for the Americas". {{cite book|last=Stephen Behrendt|url=https://archive.org/details/africanaencyclop00appi|title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience|publisher=Basic Civitas Books|year=1999|isbn=978-0-465-00071-5|location=New York|chapter=Transatlantic Slave Trade|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/africanaencyclop00appi|url-access=registration}}</ref>

== Colonization and race ==
[[File:Cabrera Pintura de Castas.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Castas#Casta paintings of the 18th century|Castas]] painting depicting Spaniard and [[Mulatto|mulatta]] spouse with their ''morisca'' daughter by [[Miguel Cabrera (painter)|Miguel Cabrera]], 1763]]
Throughout the South American hemisphere, there were three large regional sources of populations: Native Americans, arriving Europeans, and forcibly transported Africans. The mixture of these cultures impacted the ethnic makeup that predominates in the hemisphere's largely independent states today. The term to describe someone of mixed European and indigenous ancestry is [[mestizo]] while the term to describe someone of mixed European and African ancestry is [[mulatto]]. The mestizo and mulatto population are specific to Iberian-influenced current-day Latin America because the conquistadors had (often forced) sexual relations with the indigenous and African women.<ref>Manning, Patrick. ''Migration in World History [electronic Resource].'' 2nd ed. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2012. Print.</ref> The social interaction of these three groups of people inspired the creation of a caste system based on skin tone. The hierarchy centered around those with the lightest skin tone and ordered from highest to lowest was the [[Peninsulares]], [[Criollo people|Criollos]], mestizos, indigenous, mulatto, then African.<ref name=":1" />

Unlike the Iberians, the British men came with families with whom they planned to permanently live in what is now North America.<ref name=":3" />
They kept the natives on the margins of colonial society.
Because the British colonizers' wives were present, the British men rarely had sexual relations with the native women. While the mestizo and mulatto population make up the majority of people in [[Latin America]] today, there is only a small mestizo population in present-day North America (excluding Central America).<ref name="Haring, Clarence H. 1985"/>

== Colonization and gender ==
By the early to mid-16th century, even the Iberian men began to carry their wives and families to the Americas. Some women even carried out the voyage alone.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2012/05/29/inenglish/1338297350_910456.html|title=The women who made America|publisher=El Pais|author=Tereixa Constenla|language=English|date=29 May 2012|access-date=19 September 2022|archive-date=20 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920171932/https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2012/05/29/inenglish/1338297350_910456.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Later, more studies of the role of women and female migration from Europe to the Americas have been made.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://aei.pitt.edu/34007/1/A484.pdf|title=1492: The Role of Women|publisher=1992|author=Paola Antolini|language=English|date=1992|access-date=19 September 2022|archive-date=20 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920170327/http://aei.pitt.edu/34007/1/A484.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> By the 19th century, the arrival of missionaries in Indigenous territories, along with the imposition of Western educational systems, had introduced colonial concepts of gender to the Americas.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is the Coloniality of Gender |url=https://www.sdcelarbritishmuseum.org/exhibitions/the-intimate-lives-of-wixarika-people/what-is-the-coloniality-of-gender/ |access-date=2025-04-19 |website=SDCELAR {{!}} Latin America at the British Museum |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Impact of colonial land ownership on long-term development==
Eventually, most of the Western Hemisphere came under the control of Western European governments, leading to changes to its landscape, population, and plant and animal life. In the 19th century, over 50 million people left Western Europe for the Americas.<ref>David Eltis ''Economic Growth and the Ending of the Transatlantic slave trade''</ref> The post-1492 era is known as the period of the [[Columbian exchange]], a dramatically widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations (including [[Atlantic slave trade|slaves]]), ideas, and [[Native American disease and epidemics|communicable disease]] between the American and [[Afro-Eurasia]]n hemispheres following Columbus's voyages to the Americas.

Most scholars writing at the end of the 19th century estimated that the [[pre-Columbian]] population was as low as 10 million; by the end of the 20th century most scholars gravitated to a middle estimate of around 50 million, with some historians arguing for an estimate of 100 million or more.<ref>{{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Alan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NPoAQRgkrOcC&q=pre-Columbian+population+million&pg=PA40|title=American colonies; Volume 1 of The Penguin history of the United States, History of the United States Series|publisher=[[Penguin Books|Penguin]]|year=2002|isbn=978-0142002100|page=40|access-date=7 October 2013}}</ref> A recent estimate is that there were about 60.5 million people living in the Americas [[Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas|immediately before depopulation]],<ref name="Brierley et al 2019">{{cite journal|last1=Koch|first1=Alexander|last2=Brierley|first2=Chris|last3=Maslin|first3=Mark M.|last4=Lewis|first4=Simon L.|year=2019|title=Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492|journal=Quaternary Science Reviews|volume=207|pages=13–36|bibcode=2019QSRv..207...13K|doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.12.004|doi-access=free}}</ref> of which 90 per cent, mostly in Central and South America, perished from wave after wave of disease, along with war and [[Slavery among the indigenous peoples of the Americas|slavery]] playing their part.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Maslin|first1=Mark|last2=Lewis|first2=Simon|date=June 25, 2020|title=Why the Anthropocene began with European colonisation, mass slavery and the 'great dying' of the 16th century|url=http://theconversation.com/why-the-anthropocene-began-with-european-colonisation-mass-slavery-and-the-great-dying-of-the-16th-century-140661|access-date=2020-08-20|website=[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]]|language=en|archive-date=2020-09-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200910163239/https://theconversation.com/why-the-anthropocene-began-with-european-colonisation-mass-slavery-and-the-great-dying-of-the-16th-century-140661|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Treuer" />

Geographic differences between the colonies played a large determinant in the types of political and economic systems that later developed. In their paper on institutions and long-run growth, economists [[Daron Acemoglu]], [[Simon Johnson (economist)|Simon Johnson]], and [[James A. Robinson (economist)|James A. Robinson]] argue that certain natural endowments gave rise to distinct colonial policies promoting either smallholder or coerced labor production.<ref>Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson, "Institutions as a Fundamental Cause of Long-Run Growth", Handbook of Economic Growth 1: 385–472. 2005.</ref> Densely settled populations, for example, were more easily exploitable and profitable as slave labor. In these regions, landowning elites were economically incentivized to develop forced labor arrangements such as the Peru [[mit'a]] system or Argentinian [[latifundias]] without regard for democratic norms. French and British colonial leaders, conversely, were incentivized to develop [[Capitalism|capitalist]] markets, [[property rights]], and [[democratic institution]]s in response to [[natural environment]]s that supported [[smallholder]] production over forced labor.

[[James Mahony|James Mahoney]] proposes that colonial policy choices made at critical junctures regarding land ownership in [[coffee]]-rich Central America fostered enduring [[path dependence|path dependent]] institutions.<ref>James Mahoney, "Path-Dependent Explanations of Regime Change: Central America in Comparative Perspective." Studies in Comparative International Development, 2001.</ref> Coffee economies in [[Guatemala]] and [[El Salvador]], for example, were centralized around large plantations that operated under coercive labor systems. By the 19th century, their political structures were largely authoritarian and militarized. In [[Colombia]] and [[Costa Rica]], conversely, liberal reforms were enacted at critical junctures to expand [[commercial agriculture]], and they ultimately raised the [[bargaining power]] of the middle class. Both nations eventually developed more democratic and egalitarian institutions than their highly concentrated landowning counterparts.

==List of European colonies in the Americas==
[[File:Santo Domingo - Fortaleza Ozama 0961.JPG|thumb|175px|[[Santo Domingo]], Dominican Republic. Founded in 1496, the city is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the New World.]]
[[File:Cumana Festung anagoria.JPG|thumb|[[Cumaná]], Venezuela. Founded in 1510, it is the oldest continuously inhabited European city in the continental Americas.]]

There were at least a dozen European countries involved in the colonization of the Americas. The following list indicates those countries and the Western Hemisphere territories they worked to control.<ref>Note that throughout this period, certain countries in Europe became united and also disunited (e.g.: Denmark/Norway, England/Scotland, Spain/Netherlands).</ref>
[[File:Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor, by William Halsall.jpg|thumb|Mayflower, the ship that carried a colony of English Puritans to North America]]

===British and (before 1707) English===
{{Main|British colonization of the Americas}}
{{see also|#Scottish colonization of the Americas}}
{{further|List of Hudson's Bay Company trading posts}}
* [[British America]] (1607–1783)
** [[Thirteen Colonies]] (1607–1783)
** [[Rupert's Land]] (1670–1870)
** [[History of British Columbia|British Columbia]] (1793–1871)
** [[British North America]] (1783–1907)
* [[British West Indies]]
* [[Belize]]

=== Duchy of Courland and Semigallia ===
{{Main|Courland colonization of the Americas}}
* [[New Courland]] ([[Tobago]], [[Trinidad and Tobago]]) (1654–1689); Courland is now part of Latvia

===Danish===
{{Main|Danish colonization of the Americas}}
* ''[[Danish West Indies|Dano-Norwegian West Indies]]'' (1754–1814)
* [[Danish West Indies]] (1814–1917)
* ''[[North Greenland|Dano-Norwegian North Greenland]]'' (1721–1814)
* ''[[South Greenland|Dano-Norwegian South Greenland]]'' (1728?–1814)
* [[Greenland]] (1814–1953)

===Dutch===
{{Main|Dutch colonization of the Americas}}
* [[New Netherland]] (1614–1667)
* [[Essequibo (colony)|Essequibo]] (1616–1815)
* [[Dutch Virgin Islands]] (1625–1680)
* [[Berbice]] (1627–1815)
* [[Tobago|New Walcheren]] (1628–1677)
* [[Dutch Brazil]] (1630–1654)
* [[Pomeroon (colony)|Pomeroon]] (1650–1689)
* [[Cayenne (Dutch colony)|Cayenne]] (1658–1664)
* [[Demerara]] (1745–1815)[[File:Tropenmuseum Royal Tropical Institute Objectnumber 60038552 Een gezelschap met gouverneur Van Hee.jpg|thumb|Baron [[Aarnoud van Heemstra]], the governor of the [[Dutch Empire|Dutch]] colony of [[Suriname (Dutch colony)|Suriname]], 1923]]
* [[Suriname (Dutch colony)|Suriname]] (1667–1954) (Remained within the [[Kingdom of the Netherlands]] until 1975 as a constituent country)
* [[Curaçao and Dependencies]] (1634–1954) (Aruba and Curaçao are still in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Bonaire; 1634–present)
* [[Sint Eustatius and Dependencies]] (1636–1954) (Sint Maarten is still in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Sint Eustatius and Saba; 1636–present)

===French===
{{Main|French colonization of the Americas}}
{{further|List of French forts in North America}}
* Present-day [[Canada]]
** [[New France]] (1534–1763), and nearby lands:
*** [[Acadia]] (1604–1713)
*** [[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]]
*** [[Hudson Bay]]
*** [[Saint Lawrence River]]
*** [[Great Lakes]]
*** [[Lake Winnipeg]]
*** [[Quebec]]
* Present-day [[United States]]
** The [[French colonization of Texas|Fort Saint Louis]] ([[Texas]]) (1685–1689)
** [[Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands]] (1650–1733)
** [[Fort Caroline]] in [[French Florida]] (occupation by Huguenots) (1562–1565)
** [[Vincennes, Indiana|Vincennes]] and [[Fort Ouiatenon]] in Indiana
** [[French Louisiana]] (23.3% of the current U.S. territory) (1801–1804) (sold by [[Napoleon|Napoleon I]]) (also see: [[Louisiana (New Spain)]])
*** Lower Louisiana
*** Upper Louisiana
** [[Louisiana (New France)]] (1672–1764)
* [[French Guiana]] (1763–present)
* [[French West Indies]][[File:The Pallisaded Village of Lachine 1689.jpg|right|thumb|[[Lachine, Quebec|Fort Lachine]] in New France, 1689]]
* [[Saint-Domingue]] (1659–1804, now [[Haiti]])
* [[Tobago]]
* [[History of the British Virgin Islands|Virgin Islands]]
* [[France Antarctique]] (1555–1567)
* [[Equinoctial France]] (1612–1615)
* [[French Florida]] (1562–1565)
* Present-day [[Dominican Republic]] (1795–1809)
* Present-day [[Suriname]]
** [[Tapanahony]] (District of [[Sipaliwini District|Sipaliwini]]) (Controversial Franco-Dutch in favour of the [[Netherlands]]) (25.8% of the current territory) (1814)
* Present-day [[Guyana]] (1782–1784)
* Present-day [[Saint Kitts and Nevis]]
** [[Saint Christopher Island]] (1628–1690, 1698–1702, 1706, 1782–1783)
** [[Nevis]] (1782–1784)
* Present-day [[Antigua and Barbuda]]
** [[Antigua]] (briefly in 1666)
* Present-day [[Trinidad and Tobago]]
** [[Tobago]] (1666–1667, 1781–1793, 1802–1803)
* [[Dominica]] (1625–1763, 1778–1783)
* [[Grenada]] (1650–1762, 1779–1783)
* [[Saint Vincent and the Grenadines]] (1719–1763, 1779–1783)
* [[Saint Lucia]] (1650–1723, 1756–1778, 1784–1803)
* [[Turks and Caicos Islands]] (1783)
* [[Montserrat]] (1666, 1712)
* [[Falkland Islands]] (1504, 1701, 1764–1767)
* [[Îles des Saintes]] (1648–present)
* [[Marie-Galante]] (1635–present)
* [[la Désirade]] (1635–present)
* [[Guadeloupe]] (1635–present)
* [[Martinique]] (1635–present)
* [[French Guiana]] (1604–present)
* [[Saint Pierre and Miquelon]] (1604–1713, 1763–present)
* [[Collectivity of Saint Martin]] (1624–present)
* [[Saint Barthélemy]] (1648–1784, 1878–present)
* [[Clipperton Island]] (1858–present)

===Knights of Malta===
{{Main|Hospitaller colonization of the Americas}}
* [[Saint Barthélemy]] (1651–1665)
* [[Saint Kitts|Saint Christopher]] (1651–1665)
* [[Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands|Saint Croix]] (1651–1665)
* [[Collectivity of Saint Martin|Saint Martin]] (1651–1665)

===Norwegian===
{{Main|Norwegian colonization of the Americas}}
{{Further|List of possessions of Norway}}
* [[Norse colonization of North America#Norse Greenland|Greenland]] (986–1408<ref>{{cite web
|url=  http://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/greenland/
|title=  The Fate of Greenland's Vikings
|publisher=  Archaeological Institute of America
|author=  Dale Mackenzie Brown
|date=  February 28, 2000
|access-date=  January 20, 2016
|archive-date=  January 20, 2014
|archive-url=  https://web.archive.org/web/20140120065212/http://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/greenland/
|url-status=  live
}}</ref>)
* ''[[South Greenland|Dano-Norwegian South Greenland]]'' (1728?–1814)
* ''[[North Greenland|Dano-Norwegian North Greenland]]'' (1721–1814)
* ''[[Danish West Indies|Dano-Norwegian West Indies]]'' (1754–1814)
* [[Cooper Island (British Virgin Islands)|Cooper Island]] (1844–1905)
* [[Sverdrup Islands]] (1898–1930)
* [[Erik the Red's Land]] (1931–1933)

===Portuguese===
{{Main|Portuguese colonization of the Americas}}
* [[Colonial Brazil]] (1500–1815) became a Kingdom, [[United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves]].
* [[Labrador|Terra do Labrador]] (1499/1500–?) Claimed region (sporadically settled).
* [[Newfoundland (island)|Land of the Corte-Real]], also known as [[Bacalhau|Terra Nova dos Bacalhaus]] (Land of Codfish) – Terra Nova (Newfoundland) (1501–?) Claimed region (sporadically settled).
** [[Portugal Cove-St. Philip's]] (1501–1696)
* [[Nova Scotia]] (1519?–1520s?) Claimed region (sporadically settled).
* [[Barbados]] (c.1536–1620)
* [[Colonia del Sacramento|Colonia do Sacramento]] (1680–1705/1714–1762/1763–1777 (1811–1817))
* [[Cisplatina]] (1811–1822, now [[Uruguay]])
* [[French Guiana]] (1809–1817)

===Russian===
{{Main|Russian colonization of the Americas}}
[[File:View of New Archangel, 1837.tif|thumb|right|The [[Russian-American Company]]'s capital at New Archangel (present-day [[Sitka, Alaska]]) in 1837]]
* [[Russian America]] ([[Alaska]]) (1799–1867)
* [[Fort Ross]] ([[Sonoma County, California]])
* [[Russian Fort Elizabeth]] ([[Hawaii]])

===Scottish===
{{Main|Scottish colonization of the Americas}}
* [[Nova Scotia]] (1622–1632)
* [[Darien Scheme]] on the [[Isthmus of Panama]] (1698–1700)
* [[Scottish colonization of the Americas#Stuarts Town, Carolina (1684)|Stuarts Town, Carolina]] (1684–1686)

===Spanish===
{{Main|Spanish colonization of the Americas}}
{{see also|#Basque colonization of the Americas}}
* [[Hispaniola]] (1493–1697); the island currently comprising [[Haiti]] and the [[Dominican Republic]], under Spanish rule in whole from 1492 to 1697; under the partial rule under the [[Captaincy General of Santo Domingo]] (1697–1821), then again as the Dominican Republic (1861–1865).
* [[Puerto Rico]] (1493–1898); first as the [[Captaincy General of Puerto Rico]]
* [[Colony of Santiago]] (1509–1655); conquered by Britain in 1655, currently [[Jamaica]]
* [[Cuba]] (1607–1898); first as the [[Captaincy General of Cuba]]
* [[Viceroyalty of New Granada]] (1717–1819)
** [[Captaincy General of Venezuela]]
* [[New Spain|Viceroyalty of New Spain]] (1535–1821)
** [[Nueva Extremadura]]
** [[Nueva Galicia]]
** [[New Kingdom of León|Nuevo Reino de León]]
** [[Nuevo Santander]]
** [[Nueva Vizcaya, New Spain|Nueva Vizcaya]]
** [[The Californias|Las Californias]]
** [[Santa Fe de Nuevo México]]
** [[Captaincy General of Guatemala]]
* [[Louisiana (New Spain)]] (1769–1801)
* [[Spanish Florida]] (1565–1763, 1783–1819)
* [[Spanish Texas]] (1716–1802)
* [[Viceroyalty of Peru]] (1542–1824)
* [[Captaincy General of Chile]] (1544–1818)
* [[Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata|Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata]] (1776–1814)

===Swedish===
{{Main|Swedish colonization of the Americas}}
* [[New Sweden]] (1638–1655)
* [[Saint Barthélemy]] (1784–1878)
* [[Guadeloupe]] (1813–1814)

==Failed attempts==

===[[German colonization of the Americas|German]]===
* [[Klein-Venedig]] <small>([[Holy Roman Empire]])</small>
* [[Hanauish-Indies]]
* [[Saint Thomas (Brandenburg colony)|Saint Thomas <small>(Brandenburg colony)</small>]]
* [[German interest in the Caribbean]] <small>([[German Empire]])</small>

===[[Italy and the colonization of the Americas|Italian]]===
* [[Thornton expedition]] (now [[French Guiana]])

===[[Danish colonization of the Americas|Denmark]]===
*[[Jens_Munk|Nova Dania]] (now [[Churchill, Manitoba|Churchill]], Canada)

==Exhibitions and collections==
In 2007, the [[Smithsonian Institution]] [[National Museum of American History]] and the [[Virginia Historical Society]] (VHS) co-organized a traveling exhibition to recount the strategic alliances and violent conflict between European empires (English, Spanish, French) and the Native people living in North America. The exhibition was presented in three languages and with multiple perspectives. Artefacts on display included rare surviving Native and European artefacts, maps, documents, and ceremonial objects from museums and royal collections on both sides of the Atlantic. The exhibition opened in [[Richmond, Virginia]] on March 17, 2007, and closed at the Smithsonian International Gallery on October 31, 2009.

The related online exhibition explores the international origins of the societies of Canada and the United States and commemorates the 400th anniversary of three lasting settlements in [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]] (1607), [[Quebec City]] (1608), and [[Santa Fe, New Mexico|Santa Fe]] (1609). The site is accessible in three languages.<ref name="Smithsonian">{{cite web |url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/small_exhibition.cfm?key=1267&exkey=244 |title=Jamestown, Québec, Santa Fe: Three North American Beginnings |publisher=National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution |access-date=4 April 2012 |archive-date=15 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120615015509/http://americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/small_exhibition.cfm?key=1267&exkey=244 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Chronology of the colonization of North America]]
* [[Columbian exchange]]
* [[European colonization of the Southern United States]]
* [[European emigration]]
* [[Former colonies and territories in Canada]]
* [[Guaicaipuro]]
* [[History of the west coast of North America]]
* [[List of North American cities founded in chronological order]]
* [[Mennonites#Environmental impacts]]
* [[Romanus Pontifex]]
* [[Spanish conquest of Yucatán]]
* [[Timeline of the European colonization of North America]]
* [[Timeline of imperialism#Colonization of North America]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
{{Refbegin|30em}} 
* [[Bernard Bailyn|Bailyn, Bernard]], ed. ''Atlantic History: Concept and Contours'' (Harvard UP, 2005)
* Bannon, John Francis. ''History of the Americas'' (2 vols. 1952), older textbook
* {{cite book |title=The Cambridge World History of Genocide |volume=2: Genocide in the Indigenous, Early Modern and Imperial Worlds, from c.1535 to World War One |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=2023 |editor1-last=Blackhawk |editor1-first=Ned |editor1-link=Ned Blackhawk |editor2-last=Kiernan |editor2-first=Ben |editor2-link=Ben Kiernan |editor3-last=Madley |editor3-first=Benjamin |editor4-last=Taylor |editor4-first=Rebe |editor4-link=Rebe Taylor |isbn=978-1-108-76548-0 |doi=10.1017/9781108765480}}
* {{cite book | title=The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies |editor1-first=Donald |editor1-last=Bloxham |editor1-link=Donald Bloxham |editor2-first=A. Dirk |editor2-last=Moses |editor2-link=A. Dirk Moses |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 | isbn=978-0-19-923211-6 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199232116.001.0001 }}
* Bolton, Herbert E. "The Epic of Greater America", ''American Historical Review'' 38, no. 3 (April 1933): 448–474 [https://www.jstor.org/pss/1837492 in JSTOR]
* Davis, Harold E. ''The Americas in History'' (1953), older textbook
* Egerton, Douglas R. et al. ''The Atlantic World: A History, 1400–1888'' (2007)
* Eltis, David. ''The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas'' (2000).
* Fernlund, Kevin Jon. ''A Big History of North America, from Montezuma to Monroe.'' Columbia: University of Missouri Press. (2022).
* Hinderaker, Eric; Horn, Rebecca. "Territorial Crossings: Histories and Historiographies of the Early Americas", ''[[William and Mary Quarterly]]'', (2010) 67#3 pp.&nbsp;395–432 [https://www.jstor.org/pss/10.5309/willmaryquar.67.3.395 in JSTOR]
* {{cite book | last1=Jones | first1=Adam | title=Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction |edition=4th |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2023 |author-link1=Adam Jones (Canadian scholar) |isbn=978-1-000-95870-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JYbgEAAAQBAJ |doi=10.4324/9781003185291 }}
* {{cite book | title=The Cambridge World History of Genocide |volume=1: Genocide in the Ancient, Medieval and Premodern Worlds |year=2023 | publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |editor1-last=Kiernan |editor1-first=Ben |editor1-link=Ben Kiernan |editor2-last=Lemos |editor2-first=T. M. |editor3-last=Taylor |editor3-first=Tristan S. |isbn=978-1-108-65598-9 |doi=10.1017/9781108655989}}
* Lockhart, James, and Stuart B. Schwartz. ''Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil'' (1983).
* {{cite book|series=[[The Cambridge World History]]|volume=7|title=Production, Destruction and Connection, 1750-Present, Part 1, Structures, Spaces, and Boundary Making|editor1-last=McNeill|editor1-first=J. R.|editor1-link=J. R. McNeill|editor2-last=Pomeranz|editor2-first=Kenneth|editor2-link=Kenneth Pomeranz|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2015|issue=1|doi=10.1017/CBO9781139196079|isbn=978-1-108-40775-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SRL0CAAAQBAJ}}
* [[Merriman, Roger Bigelow]]. ''The Rise of The Spanish Empire in the Old World and in the New'' (4 vol. 1934)
* [[Samuel Eliot Morison|Morison, Samuel Eliot]]. ''The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages, A.D. 500–1600.'' (1971).
* Morison, Samuel Eliot. ''The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages, 1492–1616.'' (1971).
* Parry, J.H. ''The Age of Reconnaissance: Discovery, Exploration, and Settlement, 1450–1650.'' (1982).
* Pyne, Stephen J. ''The Great Ages of Discovery: How Western Civilization Learned About a Wider World.'' Tucson: University of Arizona Press. (2021).
* Sarson, Steven, and Jack P. Greene, eds. ''The American Colonies and the British Empire, 1607–1783'' (8 vol, 2010); primary sources
* Sobecki, Sebastian. "New World Discovery". Oxford Handbooks Online (2015). {{doi|10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935338.013.141}}
* Starkey, Armstrong (1998). ''European-Native American Warfare, 1675–1815''. [[University of Oklahoma Press]] {{ISBN|978-0-8061-3075-0}}
* Vickers, Daniel, ed. ''A Companion to Colonial America.'' (2003).
{{refend}}

==External links==
* {{wikiquote-inline}}
* {{Commons category-inline}}
* [https://vistas.ace.fordham.edu/themes/political-surveying/ "The Political Force of Images", Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520–1820.]

{{History of the Americas}}
{{European colonization of North America}}
{{Colonization}}
{{Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}
{{Americas topic|European colonization of}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:European Colonization Of The Americas}}
[[Category:European colonization of the Americas| ]]
[[Category:Age of Discovery]]
[[Category:Christianization]]
[[Category:Colonization history of the United States|Europe]]
[[Category:Former colonies in North America]]
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[[Category:Former British colonies and protectorates in the Americas]]
[[Category:History of Central America|European]]
[[Category:History of European colonialism|Americas]]
[[Category:History of Indigenous peoples of the Americas|European]]
[[Category:History of North America|European]]
[[Category:History of South America|European]]
[[Category:History of the Americas|European]]
[[Category:History of the Caribbean|European]]
[[Category:History of the United States by topic]]
[[Category:Western culture]]