Americas

== History ==
{{Main|History of the Americas}}

=== Pre-Columbian era ===
{{Main|Pre-Columbian era}}
[[File:CPN WEST COURT 01.jpg|thumb|The Plaza Occidental in [[Copán]], [[Honduras]]]]

The pre-Columbian era incorporates all [[archaeology of the Americas|period subdivisions]] in the [[history of the Americas|history and prehistory of the Americas]] before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the [[migration to the New World|original settlement]] in the [[Upper Paleolithic]] to [[European colonization of the Americas|European colonization]] during the [[Early Modern period]]. The term ''Pre-Columbian'' is used especially often in the context of the great [[List of pre-Columbian civilizations|indigenous civilizations of the Americas]], such as those of [[Mesoamerica]] ([[Olmec]], [[Toltec]], [[Teotihuacano]], [[Zapotec civilization|Zapotec]], [[Mixtec civilization|Mixtec]], [[Aztec]], [[Maya civilization|Maya]]) and the [[Andean civilizations]] ([[Tahuantinsuyu|Inca]], [[Moche (culture)|Moche]], [[Chavín culture|Chavín]], [[Muisca people|Muisca]], [[Cañari]]).

Many pre-Columbian [[civilization]]s established characteristics and hallmarks which included permanent or urban settlements, agriculture, civic and monumental architecture, and [[Complex society|complex societal hierarchies]]. Some of these civilizations had long faded by the time of the first permanent European arrivals ({{Circa|late 15th}}–early 16th centuries), and are known only through [[archaeology|archeological]] investigations. Others were contemporary with this period, and are also known from historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Maya, had their own written records. However, most Europeans of the time viewed such texts as pagan, and much was destroyed in Christian pyres. Only a few hidden documents remain today, leaving modern historians with glimpses of ancient culture and knowledge.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mann|first=Charles C.|title=1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus|title-link=1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus|publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf|Knopf]]|year=2005|isbn=978-1-4000-4006-3|location=New York|oclc=56632601|author-link=Charles C. Mann}}</ref>

==== Settlement ====
{{Further|topic=theories of Paleo-Indian migration|Peopling of the Americas}}
[[File:Spreading homo sapiens la.svg|thumb|upright=2|Map of [[early human migrations]] based on the [[Recent African origin of modern humans|Out of Africa theory]]<ref>{{cite book|first=Göran |last=Burenhult|title= Die ersten Menschen|publisher= Weltbild Verlag|year= 2000|isbn= 3-8289-0741-5}}</ref>]]

[[Paleo-Indians|The first inhabitants]] migrated into the Americas from Asia. Habitation sites are known in [[Alaska]] and [[Yukon]] from at least 20,000 years ago, with suggested ages of up to 40,000 years.<ref>{{cite web|title=Introduction |work=Government of Canada |publisher=Parks Canada |url=http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/docs/r/pfa-fap/sec1.aspx |year=2009 |access-date=January 9, 2010 |quote=Canada's oldest known home is a cave in Yukon occupied not 12,000 years ago like the U.S. sites, but at least 20,000 years ago |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110424103401/http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/docs/r/pfa-fap/sec1.aspx |archive-date=April 24, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Pleistocene Archaeology of the Old Crow Flats |publisher=Vuntut National Park of Canada |url=http://yukon.taiga.net/vuntutrda/archaeol/info.htm |year=2008 |access-date=January 10, 2010 |quote=However, despite the lack of this conclusive and widespread evidence, there are suggestions of human occupation in the northern Yukon about 24,000 years ago, and hints of the presence of humans in the Old Crow Basin as far back as about 40,000 years ago. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081022085345/http://yukon.taiga.net/vuntutrda/archaeol/info.htm |archive-date=October 22, 2008 }}</ref><ref name="kind">{{cite web|url=http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/|title=Journey of mankind|work=Brad Shaw Foundation|access-date=November 17, 2009}}</ref>
Beyond that, the specifics of the [[Paleo-Indian]] migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are subject to ongoing research and discussion.<ref name="national">{{cite web|url=https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html?era=e003|title=Atlas of the Human Journey-The Genographic Project|date=1996–2008|publisher=National Geographic Society.|access-date=October 6, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501094643/https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html?era=e003|archive-date=May 1, 2011}}</ref> Widespread habitation of the Americas occurred after the [[Late Glacial Maximum#North America|Late Glacial Maximum]], from 16,000 to 13,000 years ago.<ref name="kind" /><ref>{{cite journal|last2=Salzano|first2=FM|year=1997|title=A single and early migration for the peopling of the Americas supported by mitochondrial DNA sequence data|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|publisher=National Academy of Sciences|volume=94|issue=5|pages=1866–71|doi=10.1073/pnas.94.5.1866|pmc=20009|pmid=9050871|last1=Bonatto|first1=SL|bibcode=1997PNAS...94.1866B|doi-access=free}}</ref>

[[File:Palazzo_Ferreria_statue_4_America.jpeg|thumb|left|upright|Statue representing the Americas at [[Palazzo Ferreria]], in [[Valletta]], [[Malta]]]]
The traditional theory has been that these early migrants moved into the [[Beringia]] land bridge between eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska around 40,000–17,000 years ago,<ref name="SpencerWells2">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WAsKm-_zu5sC&q=The%20Journey%20of%20Man&pg=PA138|title=The Journey of Man – A Genetic Odyssey|last2=Read|first2=Mark|publisher=Random House|year=2002|isbn=0-8129-7146-9|pages=138–140|format=Digitised online by Google books|first1=Spencer|last1=Wells|access-date=November 21, 2009}}</ref> when sea levels were significantly lowered during the [[Quaternary glaciation]].<ref name="national" /><ref name="Smithsonian">{{cite web|first1=Drs. William |last1=Fitzhugh |first2=Ives |last2=Goddard |first3=Steve |last3=Ousley |first4=Doug |last4=Owsley |first5=Dennis |last5=Stanford |url=http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmnh/origin.htm |title=Paleoamerican |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Anthropology Outreach Office |access-date=January 15, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090105215737/http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI//nmnh/origin.htm |archive-date=January 5, 2009 |url-status=dead }} 
</ref> These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct [[pleistocene megafauna]] along ''ice-free corridors'' that stretched between the [[Laurentide Ice Sheet|Laurentide]] and [[Cordilleran Ice Sheet|Cordilleran]] ice sheets.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.physorg.com/news169474130.html |title=The peopling of the Americas: Genetic ancestry influences health|work=Scientific American|access-date=November 17, 2009}}</ref> Another route proposed is that, either on foot or using [[boat#History|primitive boats]], they migrated down the Pacific coast to South America.<ref>{{cite journal|date=January 1979|title=Alternate Migration Corridors for Early Man in North America|volume=44|issue=1|pages=55–69|doi=10.2307/279189|jstor=279189|journal=American Antiquity|last1=Fladmark|first1=K. R.|s2cid=162243347 }}</ref> Evidence of the latter would since have been covered by a [[sea level rise]] of hundreds of meters following the last ice age.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/01/sea-will-rise-to-levels-of-last-ice-age/|title=68 Responses to "Sea will rise 'to levels of last Ice Age'"|work=Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University |date=January 26, 2009 |access-date=November 17, 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091027133849/http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/01/sea-will-rise-to-levels-of-last-ice-age/| archive-date= October 27, 2009 | url-status= live}}</ref> Both routes may have been taken, although the genetic evidences suggests a single founding population.<ref>{{cite journal | url = http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090108/full/news.2009.7.html | title = Earliest Americans took two paths | journal = Nature | last = Ledford | first = Heidi | date = January 8, 2009 | doi=10.1038/news.2009.7}}</ref> The [[Microsatellite (genetics)|micro-satellite]] diversity and distributions specific to [[South American Indigenous people]] indicates that certain populations have been isolated since the initial colonization of the region.<ref name="subclades">{{cite web|title=Summary of knowledge on the subclades of Haplogroup Q |url=http://64.40.115.138/file/lu/6/52235/NTIyMzV9K3szNTc2Nzc=.jpg?download=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510204204/http://64.40.115.138/file/lu/6/52235/NTIyMzV9K3szNTc2Nzc%3D.jpg?download=1 |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 10, 2011 |publisher=Genebase Systems |year=2009 |access-date=November 22, 2009 }}</ref>

A second migration occurred after the initial peopling of the Americas;<ref name="Meltzer2009">{{cite book |last=Meltzer |first=David J. |title=First Peoples in a New World: Colonizing Ice Age America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rnc-bg2voI8C&pg=PA146|date=May 27, 2009|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-25052-9|page=146}}</ref> [[Na-Dene languages|Na Dene speakers]] found predominantly in North American groups at varying genetic rates with the highest frequency found among the [[Athabaskan languages|Athabaskans]] at 42% derive from this second wave.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Reich|first=David |date=August 16, 2012|title=Reconstructing Native American population history|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|volume=488|issue=7411|pages=370–374|display-authors=etal|doi=10.1038/nature11258|pmc=3615710|bibcode=2012Natur.488..370R|pmid=22801491}}</ref> [[Linguists]] and [[biologist]]s have reached a similar conclusion based on analysis of [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|Amerindian language groups]] and [[ABO blood group system]] distributions.<ref name="Meltzer2009" /><ref>{{cite book|title=An introduction to the languages of the world|first=Anatole |last=Lyovi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y6Y-L4ogfhIC&q=Indigenous+languages+of+the+Americas&pg=PA309|year=1997|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=309|isbn=0-19-508115-3 |access-date=March 25, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Mithun|first=Marianne|s2cid=146205659|year=1990|title=Studies of North American Indian Languages|journal=Annual Review of Anthropology|volume=19|issue=1|pages=309–330|doi=10.1146/annurev.an.19.100190.001521}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Vajda|first=Edward|year=2010|title=A Siberian link with Na-Dene languages|url=http://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:G4veoXaTjUAJ:scholar.google.com/|publisher=Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska|volume=5}} {{Dead link|date=November 2015}}</ref> Then the people of the [[Arctic small tool tradition]], a broad cultural entity that developed along the [[Alaska Peninsula]], around [[Bristol Bay]], and on the eastern shores of the Bering Strait {{circa|2,500 BCE}} moved into North America.<ref name="Fagan">{{cite book|last=Fagan|first=Brian M.|title=Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a Continent|edition=4|year=2005|publisher=Thames & Hudson Inc.|location=New York|pages=390, p396|isbn=0-500-28148-3}}</ref> The Arctic small tool tradition, a [[Paleo-Eskimo]] culture branched off into two cultural variants, including the [[Pre-Dorset]], and the [[Independence II culture|Independence traditions]] of Greenland.<ref name="YoungBjerregaard2008" /> The descendants of the Pre-Dorset cultural group, the [[Dorset culture]] was displaced by the final migrants from the Bering sea coast line, the [[Thule people]] (the ancestors of modern [[Inuit]]), by 1000&nbsp;[[Common Era]] (CE).<ref name="YoungBjerregaard2008">{{cite book|author1=T. Kue Young|author2=Peter Bjerregaard|title=Health Transitions in Arctic Populations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uTim7CZnKGEC&pg=PA121|date=June 28, 2008|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-9401-8|page=121}}</ref>

==== Norse colonization ====
{{Main|Norse colonization of North America}}
Around the same time as the Inuit migrated into Greenland, Viking settlers began arriving in [[Greenland]] in 982 and [[Vinland]] shortly thereafter, establishing a settlement at [[L'Anse aux Meadows]], near the northernmost tip of [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Vinland|url=http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/education/teacher-resources/oracles/archaeology/rmcghee/vinland|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101110020418/http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/education/teacher-resources/oracles/archaeology/rmcghee/vinland|archive-date=November 10, 2010|publisher=Canadian Museum of Civilization}}</ref> Contact between the Norse colonies and Europe was maintained, as [[James Watson Curran]] states:{{blockquote|From 985 to 1410, Greenland was in touch with the world. Then silence. In 1492 the [[Holy See|Vatican]] noted that no news of that country "at the end of the world" had been received for 80 years, and the bishopric of the colony was offered to a certain ecclesiastic if he would go and "restore Christianity" there. He didn't go.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Curran|first=James Watson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eSxCAAAAIAAJ|title=Here was Vinland: The Great Lakes Region of America|publisher=[[The Sault Star|Sault Daily Star]]|year=1939|location=Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario|pages=207|language=en}}</ref>}}

=== Large-scale European colonization ===
{{Main|European colonization of the Americas}}
[[File:Landing of Columbus (2).jpg|thumb|[[Christopher Columbus]] leads expedition to the New World, 1492.]]

Although there had been previous [[Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories|trans-oceanic contact]], large-scale European colonization of the Americas began with the first voyage of [[Christopher Columbus]] in 1492. The first Spanish settlement in the Americas was [[La Isabela]] in northern [[Hispaniola]]. This town was abandoned shortly after in favor of [[Santo Domingo|Santo Domingo de Guzmán]], founded in 1496, the oldest American city of European foundation. This was the base from which the Spanish monarchy administered its new colonies and their expansion. Santo Domingo was subject to frequent raids by English and French [[Piracy in the Caribbean|pirates]].

On the continent, [[Panama City]] on the Pacific coast of Central America, founded on August 15, 1519, played an important role, being the base for the Spanish conquest of South America. Conquistador [[Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón]] established [[San Miguel de Guadalupe]], the first European settlement in what is now the [[United States]], on the [[Pee Dee River]] in [[South Carolina]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lucas-Vazquez-de-Ayllon |website=Britannica|date=January 2024 }}</ref> During the first half of the 16th century, Spanish colonists conducted raids throughout the [[Caribbean Basin]], bringing captives from Central America, northern South America, and [[Florida]] back to Hispaniola and other Spanish settlements.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/african_laborers_for_a_new_emp/the_spanish_and_new_world_slav|title=The Spanish and New World Slavery · African Laborers for a New Empire: Iberia, Slavery, and the Atlantic World · Lowcountry Digital History Initiative|website=ldhi.library.cofc.edu}}</ref>

France, led by [[Jacques Cartier]] and [[Giovanni da Verrazzano]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Giovanni da Verrazzano |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giovanni-da-Verrazzano |website=Britannica|date=January 2024 }}</ref> focused primarily on North America. English explorations of the Americas were led by [[John Cabot|Giovanni Caboto]]<ref>{{cite web |title=John Cabot |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Cabot |website=Britannica|date=December 14, 2023 }}</ref> and [[Sir Walter Raleigh]]. The Dutch in [[New Netherland]] confined their operations to Manhattan Island, Long Island, the Hudson River Valley, and what later became New Jersey. The spread of new diseases brought by Europeans and African slaves killed many of the inhabitants of North America and South America,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Thornton|first=Russell|year=1997|title=Aboriginal North American Population and Rates of Decline, c.a. A.D. 1500–1900|url=https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=intitle%3AAboriginal+North+American+Population+and+Rates+of+Decline%2C+c.a.+A.D.+1500+-+1900&as_publication=Current+Anthropology&as_ylo=1997&as_yhi=1997&btnG=Search|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328174355/https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=intitle%3AAboriginal+North+American+Population+and+Rates+of+Decline%2C+c.a.+A.D.+1500+-+1900&as_publication=Current+Anthropology&as_ylo=1997&as_yhi=1997&btnG=Search|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 28, 2022|journal=Current Anthropology|volume=38|issue=2|pages=310–315|doi=10.1086/204615|jstor=00113204|s2cid=143901232}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Crosby|first=Alfred W.|s2cid=44458578|date=April 1976|title=Virgin Soil Epidemics as a Factor in the Aboriginal Depopulation in America|journal=William and Mary Quarterly|volume=33|issue=2|pages=289–299|doi=10.2307/1922166|jstor=1922166|pmid=11633588}}</ref> with a general [[Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas|population crash of Native Americans]] occurring in the mid-16th century, often well ahead of European contact.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dobyns|first=Henry F.|year=1993|title=Disease Transfer at Contact|journal=Annual Review of Anthropology|volume=22|issue=1|pages=273–291|doi=10.1146/annurev.an.22.100193.001421|jstor=2155849|author-link=Henry F. Dobyns}}</ref> One of the most devastating diseases was [[smallpox]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Smallpox |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/smallpox |website=Britannica|date=January 2, 2024 }}</ref>

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. Millions of individuals were forcibly transported to the Americas as [[Slavery|slave]]s, prisoners or [[Indentured servitude|indentured servant]]s.

[[File:Americas independence map.PNG|thumb|right|Map showing the dates of independence from European powers. Black signifies areas that are [[dependent territory|dependent territories]] or parts of countries with a capital outside the Americas.]]

[[Decolonization of the Americas]] began with the [[American Revolution]] and the [[Haitian Revolution]] in the late 1700s. This was followed by numerous [[Latin American wars of independence]] in the early 1800s. Between 1811 and 1825, [[Paraguay]], [[Argentina]], [[Chile]], [[Gran Colombia]], the [[United Provinces of Central America]], [[Mexico]], [[Brazil]], [[Peru]], and [[Bolivia]] gained independence from Spain and Portugal in armed revolutions. After the [[Dominican War of Independence|Dominican Republic won independence from Haiti]], it was re-annexed by Spain in 1861, but reclaimed its independence in 1865 at the conclusion of the [[Dominican Restoration War]]. The last violent episode of decolonization was the [[Cuban War of Independence]] which became the [[Spanish–American War]], which resulted in the independence of [[Cuba]] in 1898, and the transfer of sovereignty over [[Puerto Rico]] from Spain to the United States.

Peaceful decolonization began with the United States's purchase of [[Louisiana Purchase|Louisiana from France]] in 1803, [[Adams–Onís Treaty|Florida from Spain]] in 1819, of [[Alaska purchase|Alaska from Russia]] in 1867, and the [[Treaty of the Danish West Indies|Danish West Indies from Denmark]] in 1916. [[Canada]] became independent of the United Kingdom, starting with the [[Balfour Declaration of 1926]], [[Statute of Westminster 1931]], and ending with the [[patriation of the Canadian Constitution]] in 1982. The [[Dominion of Newfoundland]] similarly achieved independence under the Balfour Declaration and Statute of Westminster, but relinquished self-rule in 1934.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/politics/commission-government.php | title=The Commission of Government, 1934-1949 |first1=Jeff A. |last1=Webb |date=March 2008 |website=Newfoundland Heritage |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231209010155/https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/politics/commission-government.php |archive-date= Dec 9, 2023 }}</ref> It was subsequently [[Newfoundland Act|confederated with Canada]] in 1949.

The remaining European colonies in the Caribbean began to achieve peaceful independence well after [[World War II]]. [[Jamaica]] and [[Trinidad and Tobago]] became independent in 1962, and [[Guyana]] and [[Barbados]] both achieved independence in 1966. In the 1970s, the [[Bahamas]], [[Grenada]], [[Dominica]], [[St. Lucia]], and [[St. Vincent and the Grenadines]] all became independent of the United Kingdom, and [[Suriname]] became independent of the Netherlands. [[Belize]], [[Antigua and Barbuda]], and [[Saint Kitts and Nevis]] achieved independence from the United Kingdom in the 1980s.