This chapter describes significant changes to settlement patterns in the Americas initi-

ated by the arrival of many Europeans and Africans after 1492. While Chapters 5 and 6

follow up on some of these early precedents with additional details and developments,

this chapter introduces the signature patterns of colonization and building associated with

those cultural groups who made the greatest impact on the environment. The information

in this chapter is designed to establish differences among them as much as to describe

their common goals of economic exploitation and territorial expansion. The convergence of

indigenous Americans, Western Europeans, and Africans after thousands of years of inde-

pendent historical development is one of the most interesting and multifaceted periods in

world history. Architecture and urbanism constitute only part of the larger story but cer-

tainly one of the most remarkable. The chapter begins with an overview of the key states

involved in the European expansion and a brief reflection on the basic motivation for those

voyages of discovery.