ABSTRACT
The process of modern colonization occurred in a series of distinct phases. It began in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, with the conquest of Southern and Central America, including the Caribbean, by Spain and Portugal, the indigenous Amerindian civilization being destroyed and replaced by a new mixed, whitecreole-black, plantation and mining economy. This was
followed, during the 17th century, by the Netherlands' assertion of supremacy over the East Indies' 'spice islands', and the creation of British and French settlements in coastal North America.
