History
European colonization
of the Americas
History of the Americas
British colonization
Courland colonization
Danish colonization
Dutch colonization
French colonization
German colonization
Portuguese colonization
Russian colonization
Scottish colonization
Spanish colonization
Swedish colonization
Viking colonization
Decolonization
Main article: History of the Americas

[edit] Formation
South America broke off from the west of the supercontinent
Gondwanaland around 135 million years ago (Ma), forming its own
continent.[3] Starting around 15 Ma, the collision of the Caribbean
Plate and the Pacific Plate resulted in a series of volcanoes along
the border that created a number of islands. The gaps in the
archipelago of Central America filled in with material eroded off
North America and South America, plus new land created by continued
volcanism. By 3 Ma, the continents of North America and South America
were linked by the Isthmus of Panama, thereby forming the single
landmass of the Americas.[4]


[edit] Settlement
See also: Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Archaeological finds establish the widespread presence of the Clovis
culture in North America and South America around 10000 BCE.[5]
Whether this is the first migration of humans into North America and
South America is disputed, with alternative theories holding that
humans arrived in North America and South America as early as 40000
BCE.

The Inuit migrated into the Arctic section of North America in another
wave of migration, arriving around 1000 CE.[6] Around the same time as
the Inuit migrated into North America, Viking settlers began arriving
in Greenland in 982 and Vinland shortly thereafter.[7] The Viking
settlers quickly abandoned Vinland, and disappeared from Greenland by
1500.[8]

Large-scale European colonization of the Americas began shortly after
the voyages of Christopher Columbus in 1492. The spread of new
diseases brought by Europeans and Africans killed most of the
inhabitants of North America and South America,[9][10] with a general
population crash of Native Americans occurring in the mid-sixteenth
century, often well ahead of European contact.[11] Native peoples and
European colonizers came into widespread conflict, resulting in what
David Stannard has called a genocide of the indigenous populations.
[12] Early European immigrants were often part of state-sponsored
attempts to found colonies in the Americas. Migration continued as
people moved to the Americas fleeing religious persecution or seeking
economic opportunities. Many individuals were forcibly transported to
the Americas as slaves, prisoners or indentured servants.

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