# Canonical recap data for Discovery of the New World (1492)
# Source: https://recap.at/1492/columbus-discovery-americas
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: columbus-discovery-americas
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1492/columbus-discovery-americas"
title: Discovery of the New World
subtitle: Columbus's Atlantic crossing initiated European colonization, global trade networks, and the displacement of indigenous civilizations.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1492-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 1492
decade: 1490
country:
name: Spain
slug: spain
summaryShort: "During the Age of Discovery, a large scale colonization of the Americas, involving a number of European countries, took place primarily between the late 15th century and early 19th century. The Norse settled areas of the North Atlantic, colonizing Greenland and creating a short-term settlement near the northern tip of "
summaryLong: During the Age of Discovery, a large scale colonization of the Americas, involving a number of European countries, took place primarily between the late 15th century and early 19th century. The Norse settled areas of the North Atlantic, colonizing Greenland and creating a short-term settlement near the northern tip of Newfoundland circa 1000 AD. However, due to its long duration and importance, the later colonization by Europeans, after Christopher Columbus’s voyages, is better known. During this time, the European colonial empires of Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, France, Russia, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden began to explore and claim the Americas, their natural resources, and human capital, leading to the displacement, disestablishment, enslavement, and genocide of the Indigenous peoples in the Americas, and the establishment of several settler colonial states.
heroImageUrl: "https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52620821137_530dc336f2_b.jpg"
heroImageCredit: "\"NASA’s Webb Confirms Its First Exoplanet - transmission spectrum\" by James Webb Space Telescope is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/."
importance: 84
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts: []
timeline: []
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_colonization_of_the_Americas"
  title: Discovery of the New World
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
categories:
- war
metaDescription: During the Age of Discovery, a large scale colonization of the Americas, involving a number of European countries, took place primarily between the late 15th ce
wikidataQid: Q184716
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260705223118/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_colonization_of_the_Americas"
  capturedAt: 2026-07-05
  label: Discovery of the New World
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_colonization_of_the_Americas"
