Claim: South America has been colonized by multiple European countries.

The European colonization of the Americas describes the history of the invasion , settlement and establishment of control of the continents of the Americas by various European powers .   The first European colonisation in the Americas began in the 10th or 11th century , when West Norse sailors explored and briefly settled limited areas on the shores of present-day Canada . They settled in Greenland before sailing to the Arctic region of North America and south alongside Canada where they settled there . According to Icelandic Sagas , violent conflicts with the indigenous population ultimately made the Norse abandon those settlements .   Extensive European colonization began in 1492 , when a Spanish expedition headed by Christopher Columbus sailed west to find a new trade route to the Far East but inadvertently landed in what came to be known to Europeans as the `` New World '' . Running aground on the northern part of Hispaniola on 5 December 1492 , which the Taino people had inhabited since the 7th century , the site became the first European settlement in the Americas . European conquest , large-scale exploration and colonization soon followed . Columbus 's first two voyages -LRB- 1492 -- 93 -RRB- reached the Bahamas and various Caribbean islands , including Hispaniola , Puerto Rico and Cuba . In 1497 , sailing from Bristol on behalf of England , John Cabot landed on the North American coast , and a year later , Columbus 's third voyage reached the South American coast . As the sponsor of Christopher Columbus 's voyages , Spain was the first European power to settle and colonize the largest areas , from North America and the Caribbean to the southern tip of South America .   Other powers such as France also founded colonies in the Americas : in eastern North America , a number of Caribbean islands and small coastal parts of South America . Portugal colonized Brazil , tried colonizing the coasts of present-day Canada and settled for extended periods northwest -LRB- on the east bank -RRB- of the River Plate . The Age of Exploration was the beginning of territorial expansion for several European countries . Europe had been preoccupied with internal wars , and was slowly recovering from the loss of population caused by the bubonic plague ; thus the rapid rate at which it grew in wealth and power was unforeseeable in the early 15th century .   Eventually , the entire Western Hemisphere came under the ostensible control of European governments , leading to profound changes to its landscape , population , and plant and animal life . In the 19th century alone over 50 million people left Europe for the Americas . The post-1492 era is known as the period of the Columbian Exchange , a dramatically widespread exchange of animals , plants , culture , human populations -LRB- including slaves -RRB- , ideas and communicable disease between the American and Afro-Eurasian hemispheres following Columbus 's voyages to the Americas .