European colonization of the Americas

European colonisation of the Americas began after the voyages of Christopher Columbus, who reached the Caribbean in the service of Spain. Spanish conquistadors such as Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro overthrew the Aztec and Inca empires, and Portugal took control of Brazil. France, England and the Netherlands later founded colonies in North America and the Caribbean. The newcomers brought diseases such as smallpox, which devastated Indigenous populations, and the Atlantic slave trade forced millions of Africans to work on plantations and in mines. The exchange of crops and animals, called the Columbian Exchange, changed the world, and most colonies became independent in the following centuries.

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