ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the causes, nature and legacy of European migration and colonization overseas in the period from about 1450 to 1750. It is an impossible task to condense into a single chapter a momentous episode of world history spanning 300 years and involving millions of people. The expansion of European culture overseas from its bases on the North Atlantic Ocean to encompass the whole world was a complex historical process that changed, directly or indirectly, the lives and landscapes of almost all the peoples of the earth. In this chapter we seek to highlight the nature of these changes in a general way with the aid of some concrete examples. The process of European expansion and settlement was carried out by different nations at various times and involved many different autochthonous peoples with a wide variety of social, technological and economic systems. Yet notwithstanding the enormous complexity of Europe’s encounters with the peoples and environments of other continents, some general patterns and consequences of those encounters can be described and analysed.
