First wave of European colonization The first European colonization wave took place from the early 15th century ( Portuguese conquest of Ceuta in 1415 ) until the early 19th century ( French invasion of Algeria in 1830 ) , and primarily involved the European colonization of the Americas , though it also included the creation of European colonies in India and Maritime Southeast Asia . During this period , European interests in Africa were primarily focused on the establishment of trading posts there , particularly for the Atlantic slave trade . The time period in which much of the first wave of European colonization ( and other exploratory ventures ) occurred is often labeled the Age of Discovery . The second major phase of European colonization , which was primarily focused on Africa and Asia , is known as the period of the New Imperialism . The role of the Church . Religious zeal played a large role in Spanish and Portuguese overseas activities . While the Pope himself was a political power to be heeded ( as evidenced by his authority to decree whole continents open to colonization by particular kings ) , the Church also sent missionaries to convert to the Catholic faith the indigenous of other continents . Thus , the 1455 Papal Bull Romanus Pontifex granted the Portuguese all lands behind Cape Bojador and allowed them to reduce pagans and other enemies of Christ to perpetual slavery . Later , the 1481 Papal Bull " Aeterni regis " granted all lands south of the Canary Islands to Portugal , while in May 1493 the Spanish - born Pope Alexander VI decreed in the Bull " Inter caetera " that all lands west of a meridian only 100 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands should belong to Spain while new lands discovered east of that line would belong to Portugal . These arrangements were later precised with the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas . The Dominicans and Jesuits , notably Francis Xavier in Asia , were particularly active in this endeavour . Many buildings erected by the Jesuits still stand , such as the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Macau and the Santisima Trinidad de Paraná in Paraguay , an example of a Jesuit Reduction . Spanish treatment of the indigenous populations provoked a fierce debate at home in 1550 - 51 , dubbed the Valladolid debate , over whether Indians possessed souls and if so , whether they were entitled to the basic rights of mankind . Bartolomé de Las Casas , author of " A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies " , championed the cause of the natives , and was opposed by Sepúlveda , who claimed Amerindians were " natural slaves " . The School of Salamanca , which gathered theologians such as Francisco de Vitoria ( 1480 – 1546 ) or Francisco Suárez ( 1548 – 1617 ) , argued in favor of the existence of natural law , which thus gave some rights to indigenous people . However , while the School of Salamanca limited Charles V ' s imperial powers over colonized people , they also legitimized the conquest , defining the conditions of " Just War " . For example , these theologians admitted the existence of the right for indigenous people to reject religious conversion , which was a novelty for Western philosophical thought . However , Suárez also conceived many particular cases — a casuistry — in which conquest was legitimized . Hence , war was justified if the indigenous people refused free transit and commerce to the Europeans ; if they forced converts to return to idolatry ; if there come to be a sufficient number of Christians in the newly discovered land that they wish to receive from the Pope a Christian government ; if the indigenous people lacked just laws , magistrates , agricultural techniques , etc . In any case , title taken according to this principle must be exercised with Christian charity , warned Suárez , and for the advantage of the Indians . Henceforth , the School of Salamanca legitimized the conquest while at the same time limiting the absolute power of the sovereign , which was celebrated in others parts of Europe under the notion of the divine right of kings . In the 1970s , the Jesuits would become a main proponent of the Liberation theology which openly supported anti - imperialist movements . It was officially condemned in 1984 and in 1986 by then cardinal Ratzinger ( now ex - Pope ) as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , under charges of Marxist tendencies , while Leonardo Boff was suspended . Northern European challenges to Iberian hegemony . It was not long before the exclusivity of Iberian claims to the Americas was challenged by other European powers , primarily the Netherlands , France and England : the view taken by the rulers of these nations is epitomized by the quotation attributed to Francis I of France demanding to be shown the clause in Adam ' s will excluding his authority from the New World . This challenge initially took the form of privateer ing raids ( such as that led by Francis Drake ) on Spanish treasure fleets or coastal settlements , but later , Northern European countries began establishing settlements of their own , primarily in areas that were outside of Spanish interests , such as what is now the eastern seaboard of the United States and Canada , or islands in the Caribbean , such as Aruba , Martinique and Barbados , that had been abandoned by the Spanish in favour of the mainland and larger islands . Whereas Spanish colonialism was based on the religious conversion and exploitation of local populations via encomienda s ( many Spaniards emigrated to the Americas to elevate their social status , and were not interested in manual labour ) , Northern European colonialism was frequently bolstered by people fleeing religious persecution or intolerance ( for example , the Mayflower voyage ) . The motive for emigration was not to become an aristocrat nor to spread one ' s faith but to start afresh in a new society , where life would be hard but one would be free to exercise one ' s religious beliefs . The most populous emigration of the 17th century was that of the English , and after a series of wars with the Dutch and the French the English overseas possessions came to dominate the east coast of North America , an area stretching from Virginia northwards to New England and Newfoundland , although during the 17th century an even greater number of English emigrants settled in the West Indies . However , the English , French and Dutch were no more averse to making a profit than the Spanish and Portuguese , and whilst their areas of settlement in the Americas proved to be devoid of the precious metals found by the Spanish , trade in other commodities and products that could be sold at massive profit in Europe provided another reason for crossing the Atlantic , in particular fur s from Canada , tobacco and cotton grown in Virginia and sugar in the islands of the Caribbean and Brazil . Due to the massive depletion of indigenous labour , plantation owners had to look elsewhere for manpower for these labour - intensive crops . They turned to the centuries old slave trade of west Africa and began transporting humans across the Atlantic on a massive scale - historians estimate that the Atlantic slave trade brought between 10 and 12 million individuals to the New World . The islands of the Caribbean soon came to be populated by slaves of African descent , ruled over by a white minority of plantation owners interested in making a fortune and then returning to their home country to spend it . Rule in the colonies : the " Leyes de Burgos " and the " Code Noir " . The January 27 , 1512 " Leyes de Burgos " codified the government of the indigenous people of the New World , since the common law of Spain wasn ' t applied in these recently discovered territories . The scope of the laws were originally restricted to the island of Hispaniola , but were later extended to Puerto Rico and Jamaica . They authorized and legalized the colonial practice of creating " encomiendas " , where Indians were grouped together to work under colonial masters , limiting the size of these establishments to a minimum of 40 and a maximum of 150 people . The document finally prohibited the use of any form of punishment by the " encomenderos " , reserving it for officials established in each town for the implementation of the laws . It also ordered that the Indians be catechesized , outlawed bigamy , and required that the huts and cabins of the Indians be built together with those of the Spanish . It respected , in some ways , the traditional authorities , granting chiefs exemptions from ordinary jobs and granting them various Indians as servants . The poor fulfilment of the laws in many cases lead to inummerable protests and claims . In fact , the laws were so often poorly applied that they were seen as simply a legalization of the previous poor situation . This would create momentum for reform , carried out through the " Leyes Nuevas " ( " New Laws " ) in 1542 . Ten years later , Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas would publish " A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies " , in the midst of the Valladolid Controversy , a debate about the existence or not of souls in Amerindians bodies . Las Casas , bishop of Chiapas , was opposed to Sepúlveda , who claimed Amerindians were " natural slaves " . . . In the French empire , slave trade and other colonial rules were regulated by Louis XIV ' s 1689 " Code Noir " . Role of companies in early colonialism . From its very outset , Western colonialism was operated as a joint public - private venture . Columbus ' voyages to the Americas were partially funded by Italian investors , but whereas the Spanish state maintained a tight reign on trade with its colonies ( by law , the colonies could only trade with one designated port in the mother country and treasure was brought back in special convoys ) , the English , French and Dutch granted what were effectively trade monopolies to joint - stock companies such as the East India Companies and the Hudson ' s Bay Company . European colonies in India during the first wave of colonization . In 1498 , the Portuguese arrived in Goa . Rivalry among reigning European powers saw the entry of the Dutch , British , French , Danish among others . The fractured debilitated kingdoms of India were gradually taken over by the Europeans and indirectly controlled by puppet rulers . In 1600 , Queen Elizabeth I accorded a charter , forming the East India Company to trade with India and eastern Asia . The British landed in India in Surat in 1624 . By the 19th century , they had assumed direct and indirect control over most of India . Destruction of the Amerindian population . The arrival of the " conquistadores " caused the annihilation of most of the Amerindians . However , contemporary historians now generally reject the Black Legend according to which the brutality of the European colonists accounted for most of the deaths . It is now generally believed that diseases , such as the smallpox , brought upon by the Columbian Exchange , were the greatest destroyer , although the brutality of the conquest itself isn ' t contested . As late as in the 19th century , Juan Manuel de Rosas , Argentinian " caudillo " from 1829 to 1852 , openly pursued the extermination of the local population , an event related by Darwin in " The Voyage of the Beagle " ( 1839 ) . He was then followed by the " Conquest of the Desert " in the 1870 - 80s . The result was the death of a lot of the mapuche and arauccan population in the Patagonia . After the Amerindians ' quasi - total disparition , the mines and the sugar cane plantations thus led to the booming of the Atlantic slave trade , especially apparent in the Caribbean where the largest ethnic group is of African descent . Contemporary historians debate the legitimacy of calling the quasi - disparition of the Amerindians a " genocide " . Estimates of pre - Columbian population have ranged from a low of 8 . 4 million to a high of 112 . 5 million persons ; in 1976 , geographer William Denevan derived a " consensus count " of about 54 million people . David Stannard has argued that " The destruction of the Indians of the Americas was , far and away , the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world " , with almost 100 million Amerindians killed in what he calls the " American Holocaust " . Like Ward Churchill , he believes that the American natives were deliberately and systematically exterminated over the course of several centuries , and that the process continues to the present day . Stannard ' s claim of 100 million deaths has been disputed because he makes no distinction between death from violence and death from disease . In response , political scientist R . J . Rummel has instead estimated that over the centuries of European colonization about 2 million to 15 million American indigenous people were the victims of what he calls " democide . " " Even if these figures are remotely true " , writes Rummel , " then this still make this subjugation of the Americas one of the bloodier , centuries long , democides in world history . " Independence in the Americas . The Thirteen Colonies . After the conclusion of the Seven Years ' War in 1763 , Britain had emerged as the world ' s dominant power , but found itself mired in debt and struggling to finance the Navy and Army necessary to maintain a global empire . The British Parliament ' s attempt to raise taxes on the North American colonists raised fears among the Americans that their rights as " Englishmen " , particularly their rights of self - government , were in danger . A series of disputes with Parliament over taxation led first to informal committees of correspondence among the colonies , then to coordinated protest and resistance , and finally to the Declaration of Independence on July 4 , 1776 , by the Second Continental Congress . The Haitian Revolution and the abolition of slavery . The Haitian Revolution , led by Toussaint L ' Ouverture , led to the abolition of slavery in the colony and then to the founding of the world ' s first black republic . On February 4 , 1794 , nearly three years after the initial slave uprising in the colony , the French Republic announced a repeal of slavery , which had regulated by the 1689 " Code Noir " . The Abbé Grégoire and the Society of the Friends of the Blacks , led by Jacques Pierre Brissot , were part of the abolitionist movement , which had laid important groundwork in building anti - slavery sentiment in the metropole . The first article of the law stated that " Slavery is repealed " in the French colonies , while the second article stated that " slave - owners would be indemnified " , with a financial compensation . On May 10 , 1802 , colonel Delgrès signed a public notice , which was a call to Guadeloupe for insurgency against general Richepanse , sent by Napoleon to reestablish slavery . The rebellion was repressed , and slavery reestablished . It would be definitely abolished on April 27 , 1848 , by the decree - law Schœlcher under the Second Republic ( 1848 – 52 ) . Slaves were brought back to the colonists ( " Békés " in Creole ) and then freed by the state . Wars of Independence in Latin America . The Mexican War of Independence ( 1810 – 1821 ) and the various wars in South America ( Colombia , Argentina , Venezuela , Chile , Peru ) in the 1810s and 1820s led by famous " Libertadores " such as José de San Martín in the south and Simón Bolívar in the north , brought independence from Spain to most Latin American countries . As in North America , the independent territories still had to be fully explored . Thus , in Argentina , " caudillo " Juan Manuel de Rosas pursued the " conquest of the desert " from 1829 to 1852 , explicitly leading a " campaign of extermination " against the indigenous people ( source ? ) . The Empire of Brazil was proclaimed in 1822 by Dom Pedro I . The 1888 " Lei Áurea " abolished slavery , creating public uproar among Brazilian slave owners and upper classes , which was the immediate cause of the toppling of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic in 1889 . The 1898 Spanish - American War , during which the United States occupied Cuba and Puerto Rico , ended Spanish occupation in the Americas . Brazil . Coast discovered in 1500 AD onward , Colonisation began in 1533 – 1535AD , By 1780 AD Portuguese conquered all territory of modern Brazil , In 1822 Brazil declared independence from Portugal see Colonial Brazil