6.1 European Colonization in the Americas

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Discuss the encomienda system
• Explain the motivations behind European settlements in North America
• Explain how climate, economics, and geography affected the founding and growth of colonial settlements
• Analyze Indigenous responses to European colonization in the Americas

In the early 1500s, Europeans began founding new settlements in the Americas. Some came to get rich, others to win glory for their empires, a few to spread their faith. Some settlements withered and died, but others became profitable centers for international commerce as goods and people flowed across the Atlantic Ocean. Each community of Native Americans made unique choices and decided for themselves whether to embrace or resist the changing world. Regardless of their choices, however, most Indigenous people suffered severely from European colonization. They could slow the European advance into their world, but they could not stop it.