Map of the Thirteen Colonies, 1776.

The European colonization of the Americas began in 1492 when a Spanish expedition headed by the Italian explorer 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.” Though Columbus was not the first to visit the Americas, his discovery led to the settlement and establishment of control of the continents of the Americas by most of the naval powers of Western Europe.