North America, South America, Africa, Asia, & Australia. In 1500 CE Cabral claimed the region of modern-day Brazil, and a colony would be established there by 1530 CE. Ancient History Encyclopedia Foundation is a non-profit organization. Knowing perfectly well that the world was round, Christopher Columbus sailed w… The European and Asian lifestyle included a long history of sharing close quarters with domesticated animals such as cows, pigs, sheep, goats, horses, and various domesticated fowl, which had resulted in epidemic diseases unknown in the Americas. He has taught history, writing, literature, and philosophy at the college level. England and France attempted to plant colonies in the Americas in the sixteenth century, but these met with failure. by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (Public Domain). This settlement was temporary, however, and the Norse left to return to Greenland after a little over a year, inspiring no further expeditions to the site. Rolfe was correct, and the tobacco crop not only saved the colony but encouraged others in England to come to the New World. They were met by Drake and others who sent flaming ships into their midst, firing their boats, and a sudden storm then broke their formations; only half of the fleet managed to return to Spain. Mark, published on 19 October 2020 under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. The European colonization of the Americas describes the Age of Exploration and the resulting conquest of indigenous lands. Indigenous populations in most areas of the Americas reached a low point by the early twentieth century, and in a number of cases started to climb again. To understand the influence of these forces, you will compare the differing ways that European nations developed political and economic influences, including trade and As the native populations declined (mostly from European diseases, but also and significantly from forced exploitation and careless murder), they were often replaced by Africans imported through a large commercial slave trade. Afterwards, low on food and outnumbered by the natives, the colonists accepted a ride back home with Francis Drake who was passing by after another raid on the Spanish. English colony of Roanoke in North America established and fails. De La Warr prevented the desperate colonists from leaving and organized the colony while Gates handled daily administration and Rolfe introduced a new seed blend of tobacco he felt would do well in the Virginian soil and be popular back in Europe. In an action with enduring historical import, Balboa claimed the Pacific Ocean and all the lands adjoining it for the Spanish Crown. Roman Catholics were the first major religious group to immigrate to the New World, as settlers in the colonies of Portugal and Spain (and later, France) were required to belong to that faith. Although Norse artifacts have been found along the east coast of North America – suggesting further explorations – this has not been established as evidence of a widespread Norse presence in the Americas. The colony of New France was founded in modern-day Canada by the French explorer Jacques Cartier (l. 1491-1557 CE) in 1534 CE. Farming was set up primarily to provide subsistence only, although cod and other fish of the Grand Banks were a major export and source of income for the French and many other European nations. The Dutch Republic of the Netherlands founded the colony of New Netherland in North America (present-day region of the states of Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and surrounding environs) in 1614 CE, and Sweden had established their own, New Sweden, in part of modern-day Delaware by 1638 CE. The history of the conquest and colonization of the Americas was later written by the victors, which cast their efforts in a noble light in the interests of exploration, civilization, and conversion of the indigenous people to Christianity. In America, all these groups gradually worked out a way to live together peacefully and cooperatively in the roughly 150 years preceding the American Revolution. Other European nations soon disputed the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas, which they had not negotiated. Mark, Joshua J. Based on this Treaty, and the claims by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa to all lands touching the Pacific Ocean, the Spanish rapidly conquered territory, overthrowing the Aztec and In… Mark has lived in Greece and Germany and traveled through Egypt. I know we have. There was hope, however, as 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. The Portuguese had no more regard for the indigenous people of the region than Columbus had earlier and almost instantly enslaved them. Some of these were on Caribbean islands, which had often already been conquered by the Spanish or depopulated by disease, while others were in eastern North America, which had not been colonized by Spain north of Florida. As more Europeans arrived, more land was required by them, steadily forcing Native Americans onto reservations as the immigrants enlarged their settlements. Baptists, Quakers, and German and Swiss Protestants flocked to Pennsylvania. Mann resists the temptation to romanticize regarding depicting "Indians as green role models," commenting that "native American interaction with their environment were as diverse as Native Americans themselves. Many of these settlers had almost utopian visions of constructing a better world. The European colonization of the Americas is one of the more controversial events in American history. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Although there were contentions over these routes through the years, and different monarchies or tribes took control of them in whole or in part, they remained open, and goods traveled back and forth along them until the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans in 1453 CE; afterwards, the Ottoman Empire closed the Silk Road to the West. Indentured servitude provided the necessary labor for the crop at first but, when this proved problematic, was eventually replaced by institutionalized slavery. Europeans had grown used to the items from Asia, however, and so began to look for other routes to the East. European Colonization of Asia, Africa, and the Americas Enduring Understanding: European expansion during the 1600s and 1700s was often driven by economic and technological forces. The English understood, however, that it would be more efficient and effective to launch ships against the Spanish from the coasts of the Americas than their own and so Queen Elizabeth I of England (r. 1558-1603 CE), who had funded Drake’s missions, tasked her friend and confidante Sir Walter Raleigh (l. c. 1552-1618 CE) with sending an expedition to claim any lands in the Americas not yet under the flag of a European nation. The flow of benefit appears to have been one-sided, with Europe gaining more. The first settlement was established in 1585 CE on Roanoke Island, because the ships could not reach the mainland owing to a storm, under the leadership of Ralph Lane (d. 1603 CE). https://www.ancient.eu/European_Colonization_of_the_Americas/. European colonization of the Americas "American settlers" redirects here. European colonization of the Americas brought ruinous changes to the Indians and their ways of life. The total slave trade to islands in the Caribbean, Brazil, Mexico, and to the United States is estimated to have involved 12 million Africans. The first two colonies – Popham and Roanoke Colony – failed but the third, Jamestown, founded in Virginia in 1607 CE, succeeded. Spanish conquistador style armour. The French were not interested in enslaving the indigenous people since they already had learned by this time that they did not make good slaves and found it more profitable to have the natives work for them in supplying animal furs and other goods to be sold in Europe. Progressively the encomienda system, which granted land to European settlers, was set in place. To catch the latest History With M video, make sure to subscribe! Ancient History Encyclopedia. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. Mexico was conquered by Hernán Cortés in 1519-1521, while the conquest of the Inca, by Francisco Pizarro, occurred from 1532-35. The Aztecs ruled the land of Mexica, The Inca Empire stretched from modern day Columbia to Chile, and the Mayan … Political map of the Americas in 1794. The History Of European Colonization Of The Americas. Mark, Joshua J. Start studying European Colonization of the Americas. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here: The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia: Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed. Mann discusses the cultural arrogance that allowed the European settlers not only to exploit the Americas but to deny that before 1492, the Americas "had no real history," being "empty of mankind and its works." He returned in 1535 CE with three ships, the two sons (who had been allowed to be taken by their father in return for various goods), and plans for settlement which were fully implemented on his third voyage in 1541 CE. He named the new territory Canada from an Iroquois word (Kanata) for “village”. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 19 Oct 2020. The first major encounter they had was when Christopher Columbus arrived on the shores of Bahamas in 1492. Ten years after Columbus's discovery, the administration of Hispaniola was given to Nicolás de Ovando of the Order of Alcántara, founded during the Reconquista. Two years later, Charles V signed the New Laws (which replaced the Laws of Burgos of 1512) prohibiting slavery and the repartimientos, but also claiming as his own all the American lands and all of the autochthonous people as his own subjects. The first conquests were made by the Spanish and the Portuguese. [4] Michno estimates 21,586 dead, wounded, and captured civilians and soldiers for the period of 1850–1890 alone.[5]. (2020, October 19). European colonization of the Americas resulted in the killing of so many native people that it transformed the environment and caused the Earth’s climate to cool down, new research has found. Most American school children learn to recite this little phrase: 'In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.' Eventually, the entire Western Hemisphere would come under the domination of European nations, leading to profound changes to its landscape, population, and plant and animal life. Cite This Work Colonization of America The famous European explorers came from England, Spain, Italy, Portugal and France - Refer to the French in America and the Spanish in America. Sometime during the 11th century was the first of many European colonization endeavors. The European colonization of the Americas was the process by which European settlers populated the regions of North, Central, South America, and the islands of the Caribbean. Amerigo Vespucci, working for Portugal in voyages from 1497 to 1513, established that Columbus had discovered a new set of continents. 02 Dec 2020. When in May 1493, the Pope Alexander VI enacted the Inter caetera bull granting the new lands to the Kingdom of Spain, he requested in exchange an evangelization of the people. The wealth Spain acquired from their colonies and the enslavement and sale of indigenous people encouraged England to establish their own presence in the New World. With these events sea power shifted from the Mediterranean to the … To reward their troops, the Conquistadores often allotted Indian towns to their troops and officers. England, impressed by the wealth Spain was able to acquire from the New World, considered establishing their own colonies there but, first, found it easier to have privateers (state-sponsored pirates) stop Spanish vessels returning from the Americas and seize their cargo, among them Sir Francis Drake (l. c. 1540-1596 CE), known to the Spanish as “the Dragon” for the ferocity of his attacks on settlements in Panama and continual strikes against their ships. Thus, during Columbus's second voyage, Benedictine friars accompanied him, along with twelve other priests. Among the most significant plants introduced by the indigenous people to the colonists of North America was tobacco which, because it was labor-intensive and required considerable arable land to cultivate, resulted in hostilities between the Europeans and natives as more and more land was taken, deforestation as land was cleared, and the institutionalization of slavery by c. 1640 CE, already established by the Spanish in Central and South America earlier as part of the feudal encomienda system of forced labor. The start of the European Colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492, although there was at least one earlier colonization effort. "European Colonization of the Americas." Once the indigenous people had been killed, sold into slavery, or otherwise removed, Spanish colonists established themselves on their lands. The Spanish followed with the enslavement of local aborigines in the Caribbean. Columbus, as per his agreement with Ferdinand and Isabella, became governor of the new colony and established the encomienda system whereby Spanish settlers marked out a sizeable tract of land and offered the Native Americans protection, primarily from themselves, in return for labor. Some of those who settled saw their new societies as tabula rasa, where the principles of justice and equality could be put into practice, without first having to dismantle existing, non-egalitarian, unjust systems. One of the causes for the delay which prevented White from returning sooner was the threat of Spanish ships which were under the directive to end the privateering of Englishmen like Drake. A variety of ideas and technologies fueled the European colonization and conquest of North America. European colonization of the Americas started with an attempt by the Vikings who came from Scandinavia, the north end of Europe around the year 1000.They explored and settled awhile in the colony they called Vinland in what was later called Newfoundland.However, they abandoned it. More people have been linked together across the globe. The indigenous people were, at first, friendly, but when the colonists' supplies grew low and the natives had tired of helping them for nothing in return, Lane attacked and killed their chief. He was sure, based on what he thought Donnacona had said, that Canada was a land teeming with gold, and his reporting this to the French authorities (and finally kidnapping Donnacona so he could tell them himself) guaranteed more colonists and profiteers arriving in the region after 1542 CE. English and Dutch colonies, on the other hand, tended to be more religiously diverse. With the Spanish threat removed, new plans were underway to colonize the New World and two expeditions were launched in 1606 CE; one funded by the London Company (also known as the Virginia Company) and the other by the Plymouth Company, both of which received charters from King James I to establish colonies in separate regions of North America. The Speedwell was the English passenger ship which was supposed... Norse settlement established in Newfoundland, North America, by. Columbus, in fact, was just one of many explorers sponsored by European monarchs in the 1400s who were all trying to find a better, cheaper, faster route to Asia than their neighbors, in order to get an edge on the lucrative trade goods from the East Indies. A Norse colony in Greenland was established in the late 10th century, and lasted until the mid 15th century, with court and parliament assemblies (þing) taking place at Brattahlíð and a bishop located at Garðar. Columbus and his crew made the first voyage in three ships; he returned in 1493 CE at the head of 17 ships full of colonists, soldiers, priests, and large Mastiffs to intimidate the native people. [7] The Spanish Roman Catholic Church, needing the natives' labor and cooperation, evangelized in Quechua, Nahuatl, Guarani, and other Native American languages, contributing to the expansion of these indigenous languages and equipping some of them with writing systems. Hudson River Valley and parts of present-day New York State and Canada claimed by Henry Hudson for the Netherlands. Rum, guns, and gun powder were some of the major trade items exchanged for slaves. Of course, colonial rule qualified as unjust. These explorations were followed, notably in the case of Spain, by a phase of conquest: The Spaniards, having just finished the Reconquista of Spain from Muslim rule, were the first to colonize the Americas, applying the same model of governing to the former Al-Andalus as to their territories of the New World. Cortés & the Siege of Tenochtitlanby Unknown Artist (Public Domain). Based on this Treaty, and the claims by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa to all lands touching the Pacific Ocean, the Spanish rapidly conquered territory, overthrowing the Aztec and Inca Empires to gain control of much of western South America, Central America, and Mexico by the mid-sixteenth century, in addition to its earlier Caribbean conquests. Art, Music, Literature, Sports and leisure, The Story Of... Smallpox – and other Deadly Eurasian Germs, Espagnols-Indiens: Le choc des civilisations, History of "European Colonization of the Americas", https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=European_Colonization_of_the_Americas&oldid=1045594, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. [1] However, L'Anse aux Meadows in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador is much older. Some of the world's most stable democracies exist as a result of this transformative process. Other nations such as Russia, Germany, and Scotland also attempted to establish themselves in the New World without success. Start studying European Colonization of the America. Western colonialism, a political-economic phenomenon whereby various European nations explored, conquered, settled, and exploited large areas of the world.. Last modified October 19, 2020. On the other hand, many of those who settled in the New World were also social and political visionaries, who found opportunities there, on what for them was a tabula rasa, to aim at achieving their highest ideals of justice, equality, and freedom. Please help us create teaching materials on Mesopotamia (including several complete lessons with worksheets, activities, answers, essay questions, and more), which will be free to download for teachers all over the world. Our latest articles delivered to your inbox, once a week: Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University and Michigan State University and University of Missouri. While Native Americans resisted European efforts to amass land and power during this period, they struggled to do so while also fighting new diseases introduced by the Europeans and the slave trade. Have you ever looked at your teacher with a puzzled face when they explain history? The European Colonization of the Americas should be remembered as a tragedy, because of the spread of diseases, the amount of violence towards Native Americans, and it sparked the beginning of the slave trade in the colonies. Some geographers thought the world was so small, ships could sail west around the world to reach East Asia. The age of modern colonialism began about 1500, following the European discoveries of a sea route around Africa’s southern coast (1488) and of America (1492). In August … This population debate has often had ideological underpinnings. The extremely high mortality rate was quite distressing and cause for despair among the colonists. [3] This population loss and the cultural chaos and political collapses it caused greatly facilitated both colonization of the land and the conquest of the native civilizations. Pedro Álvares Cabral discovered Brazil for Portugal. The conquistadores replaced the native American oligarchies, in part through miscegenation with the local elites. • 986: Norsemen settle Greenland and Bjarni Herjólfsson sights coast of North America, but doesn't land (see also Norse colonization of the Americas). Columbus had promised Ferdinand and Isabella a wealth of gold from the New World which he had not delivered and so others were sent to find it. Europe had been preoccupied w In the French colonial regions, the focus of economy was the fur trade with the Amerindians. Learn more about the colonization of North America and the plight of Native Americans with these classroom resources. The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492... Civilization: A New History of the Western World, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. As in the Iberian Peninsula, the inhabitants of Hispaniola were given new landmasters, while religious orders handled the local administration. In the eighteenth century, Denmark–Norway revived its former colonies in Greenland, while the Russian Empire gained a foothold in Alaska. In 1492, a Spanish expedition headed by Christopher Columbus reached the Americas, after which European exploration and colonization rapidly expanded, first through much of the Caribbean region (including the islands of Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Cuba) and, early in the sixteenth century, parts of the mainlands of North and South America. By the eighteenth century, the overwhelming number of black slaves was such that Native American slavery was less commonly used. The Virginia Company’s colony would become Jamestown, also founded in 1607 CE, which struggled but survived to become the first permanent English colony in North America. The Europeans accidentally introduced diseases to the Americas that decimated Indian populations. The Plymouth colony followed, founded in 1620 CE in Massachusetts and, afterwards, the basic regions of European control in the Americas, in spite or periodic conflicts, were established until the French and Indian War (1754-1763 CE) which resulted in significant reformation and English control of the entire eastern seaboard of the modern-day United States. It was 1517 before another expedition from Cuba visited Central America, landing on the coast of Yucatán in search of slaves. Colonization o the Americas Europeans and Native Americans have historically been separated from each other for over 10,000 years. "[2] Some of these captives were even forced to undergo human sacrifice under some tribes, such as the Aztecs. Some Rights Reserved (2009-2020) under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license unless otherwise noted. Map of New France, 1612 CEby Samuel de Champlain (Public Domain). The Plymouth Company’s expedition would found the Popham Colony in the region of modern-day Maine in 1607 CE, but it failed after a little over a year. Black African slaves were introduced to substitute for Native American labor in some locations—most notably the West Indies, where the indigenous population was nearing extinction on many islands. They were sponsored by common stock companies such as the chartered Virginia Company (and its offshoot, the Somers Isles Company) financed by wealthy Englishmen who understood the economic potential of this new land. In the sixteenth century perhaps 240,000 Europeans entered American ports.[8][9]. Inspired by the Spanish riches from colonies founded upon the conquest of the Aztecs, Incas, and other large Native American populations in the sixteenth century, the first Englishmen to settle in America hoped for some of the same rich discoveries when they first established a settlement in Jamestown, Virginia. The colonization is recognized as initiating the Columbian Exchange, a modern-day term coined in 1972 CE by the historian Alfred W. Crosby, jr. of the University of Texas at Austin, referring to the cross-cultural transmission of animals, crops, disease, technology, cultural values, and human populations between the Americas, West Africa, and Europe. Land was not "owned" by people; rather, the people were owned by the land, which was to be respected and looked after. In 1513, Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and led the first European expedition to see the Pacific Ocean from the west coast of the New World. Among the most significant plants introduced by the indigenous people to the colonists of North America was tobacco. They imported millions of slaves to run their plantations. Waves of repression led to the migration of about 20,000 Puritans to New England between 1629 and 1642, where they founded multiple colonies. Retrieved from https://www.ancient.eu/European_Colonization_of_the_Americas/. By this time (c. 1540 CE), between Columbus’ efforts and Cabral’s, an estimated 90% of the indigenous population was dead. Elizabeth I died in 1603 CE, and the throne was assumed by James VI of Scotland who became James I of England (r. 1603-1625 CE). However, the colonization and exploration of the Americas also transformed the world, eventually adding 31 new nation-states to the global community. The European colonization of the Americas describes the history of the settlement and establishment of control of the continents of the Americas by most of the naval powers of Europe.. In 1300s - 1400s people in western Europe searched for trading routes between the Indies and Europe, because the old spice trade route was too hard and too long. eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'newworldencyclopedia_org-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_3',167,'0','0']));eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'newworldencyclopedia_org-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_4',167,'0','1']));eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'newworldencyclopedia_org-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_5',167,'0','2'])); Slavery existed in the Americas, prior to the presence of Europeans, as the Natives often captured and held other tribes' members as captives. The Dutch would also lay claim to parts of lower Canada, as well as the modern-day region of the Hudson River Valley in New York State, through the efforts of the Dutch East India Company which, like the others, was seeking a route to Asia (this elusive route, never found because it did not exist, came to be known as the Northwest Passage) and colonized North America along the way. The European colonization of the Americas was the process by which European settlers populated the regions of North, Central, South America, and the islands of the Caribbean. Portrait of a Man, Said to Be Christopher Columbusby Sebastiano del Piombo (Public Domain). License. European Colonization of the Americas. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. These were only a few of the reasons why the colonization of America should be remembered as a tragic event in history. On his first voyage, he and his crew kidnapped two of the sons of an Iroquois chief, Donnacona. The crop also, unfortunately, required extensive lands for cultivation for maximum profit and a later arrival, Sir Thomas Dale (l. c. 1560- 1619 CE), orchestrated the removal of the Powhatan tribe. The books and icons of the Maya of Yucatán, Mexico were burned by the bishop Diego de Landa at Mani in 1562 CE, and the holy book of the Quiché, the Popol Vuh, written c. 1554-1558 CE, states at the outset it is being written in secret to preserve what has already been lost to the Spanish conquerors. For the citizens of what became the United States, throwing off colonial governance was an opportunity to start again, to create a society based on human rights, freedom, and justice. European goods, ideas, and diseases shaped the changing continent. European exploration and expansion into the Americas began in 1492 with the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, who sailed west for Spain. Soon Spanish conquistadores and many other Europeans went to stay. Mann says that "what happened after Columbus was like a thousand kudzus everywhere." For prehistoric settlers of the Americas, see Settlement of the Americas. Later in the century, the new Pennsylvania colony was given to William Penn in settlement of a debt the king owed his father. The first known Europeans to reach the Americas are believed to have been the Vikings ("Norse") during the eleventh century, who established several colonies in Greenland and one short-lived settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in the area the Norse called Vinland, present day Newfoundland. A second expedition was sent in 1587 CE under a John White who brought his family along with 117 settlers, mostly families, all of whom were promised land. The first phase of European activity in the Americas began with the Atlantic Ocean crossings of Christopher Columbus (1492-1504), sponsored by Spain, whose original attempt was to find a new route to India and China, known as "the Indies." "Throughout the hemisphere," he wrote, "ecosystems cracked and heaved like winter ice. In the region of modern-day Venezuela, Francisco Pizarro (l. c. 1476-1541 CE), conquered the Inca in 1532 CE and the last of their resistance was crushed by 1572 CE. The Ancient History Encyclopedia logo is a registered EU trademark. The human genetic diversity of the Americas has been affected by several events of gene flow that have continued since the colonial era and the Atlantic slave trade. 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 servants looking for new life in the overseas colonies. Settlements in Greenland survived for several centuries, during which time the Greenland Norse and the Inuit people experienced mostly hostile contact. The colony was saved first by Captain John Smith (l. 1580-1631 CE), a soldier, sailor, and adventurer who famously pronounced “he who does not work, shall not eat” and managed to organize the survivors to fend for themselves while also establishing a cordial relationship with the indigenous people of the Powhatan tribe, without whose help the colonists would have starved to death. eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'newworldencyclopedia_org-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_6',169,'0','0'])); The lure of cheap land, religious freedom and the right to improve themselves with their own hand was very attractive to those who wished to escape from persecution and poverty. Thus, the large-scale contact with Europeans after 1492 introduced novel germs to the indigenous people of the Americas. Africans, who were taken aboard slave ships to the Americas, were primarily obtained from their African homelands by coastal tribes who captured and sold them. A ship, the Sea Venture, was en route to bring them aid when it was blown off course and wrecked in Bermuda in 1609 CE. The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492. Europeans also enslaved large numbers of Indians, seized … Later, the Valladolid controversy opposed the Dominican priest Bartolomé de Las Casas to another Dominican philosopher Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, the first one arguing that Native Americans were beings doted with souls, as all other human beings, while the latter argued to the contrary and justified their enslavement. The Portugal and Spanish royal governments expected to rule these settlements and collect at least 20 percent of all treasure found (the Quinto Real collected by the Casa de Contratación), in addition to collecting all the taxes they could. Mark, J. J. European colonization of the region is therefore cited as beginning with Christopher Columbus (l. 1451-1506 CE) whose voyages to the West Indies, Central and South America, and other islands of the Caribbean between 1492-1504 CE introduced the so-called New World to European interests. They hoped that at least some of the mistakes of the Old World could be left behind. They returned later that year and reported to Raleigh who told Elizabeth that they had found a bountiful land, filled with friendly natives, which he called Virginia in honor of Elizabeth, the virgin queen. Columbus landed in the Bahamas, believing the first island he claimed for Spain to be a part of a chain just off the coast of China. As before, the colonists began to run out of food, but this time the indigenous people were not so friendly, and no help was offered. The Age of Exploration represents the beginning of the establishment of Western European control in what is now considered North and South America. Systematic European colonization began in 1492, when a Spanish expedition headed by the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sailed west to find a new trade route to the Far East but inadvertently … For only $5 per month you can become a member and support our mission to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. Other explorers included Giovanni da Verrazzano, sponsored by France; the Portuguese João Vaz Corte-Real in Newfoundland; and Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635) who explored Canada. His next three voyages would include efforts at finding a sea passage in the region leading to Asia, but, after his first, Spain was just as interested in colonization and exploitation of the New World as a new route to the East. In 1532, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor imposed a viceroy to Mexico, Antonio de Mendoza, in order to prevent Cortes' independentist drives, who definitively returned to Spain in 1540. During this period, European interests in Africa primarily focused on the establishment of trading posts there, particularly for the African slave trade. For example, the Yanomamo people of the Amazon have lived for centuries in a way that "has not damaged the forest," using farming techniques that have kept "human groups sustainable within the rigid ecological limits of the tropics."[2]. The Jamestown colony barely survived the first few years, losing 80% of its population in only a few months, primarily because those who made up the expedition were either upper-class aristocrats who refused to work for their food or lower-class laborers who had no skill in farming. Most of the indentured servants were English farmers who had been pushed off their lands due to the expansion of livestock raising, the enclosure of land, and overcrowding in the countryside. In England, many people came to question the organization of the Church of England by the end of the sixteenth century. As Europeans moved beyond exploration and into colonization of the Americas, they brought changes to virtually every aspect of the land and its people, from trade and hunting to warfare and personal property. In the modern era, this narrative has been challenged and initiatives proposed to recognize the cultural losses and human rights abuses of the Native Americans and West Africans by the European colonizers but, so far, nothing significant has come of these efforts. The European colonization of the Americas was the process by which European settlers populated the regions of North, Central, South America, and the islands of the Caribbean. During the following century, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and British explorers continued to risk their lives seeking treasure and adventure in the New World. Francis Drake Portrait, Buckland Abbeyby Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (Public Domain). Some have argued that contemporary estimates of a high pre-Columbian indigenous population are rooted in a bias against aspects of Western civilization and/or Christianity. Continents where European colonization took place. In the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, ratified by the Pope, these two kingdoms divided the entire non-European world between themselves, with a line drawn through South America. The conquest continued elsewhere and in all directions as part of the ongoing European quest for gold, which eventually established Spanish claims from the present-day southern west regions of the United States through Central and South America. Its government was set up by William Penn in about 1682 to become primarily a refuge for persecuted English Quakers; but others were welcomed. In the past questions have been raised about the extent to which this topic has been talked about or the lack of accuracy, in terms of, the severity of the acts that had been committed during this time period. In the nineteenth century alone over 50 million people left Europe for the Americas. This unfortunate turn of events served as a push for thousands of people (mostly single men) away from their situation in England. With no help coming and no supplies, the colonists were going to abandon the settlement and return to England when, in 1610 CE, ships arrived carrying supplies and the three men who would turn the colony’s fortune’s around: John Rolfe (l. 1585-1622 CE, who would later marry the famous Pocahontas, l. c. 1596-1617 CE), Sir Thomas Gates (l. c. 1585-1622 CE, the future governor), and Thomas West, Lord De La Warr (l. 1577-1618 CE). A strong believer in the notion of the Divine Right of Kings, England's Charles I persecuted religious dissenters. One of the primary manifestations of this was the Puritan movement, which sought to "purify" the existing Church of England of its many residual Catholic rites that they believed had no mention in the Bible.