Europe and the New World: During the 1500s, by setting out in ships to explore the New World, conquer alien people and establish Protestant and Catholic colonies in new lands, Europeans changed the world. From Columbus to Cartier, explorers had given Europe a fairly accurate idea of the coastline of North America and the Caribbean.Most subsequent explorers would operate on a more limited scale, filling in the details overlooked during the early voyages.

These voyages began a period in history of European expansion, conquest and settlement that would ultimately shape the futures of North and South America. Through the importation of new foodstuffs, raw materials, minerals, and unexpected knowledge of exotic land, peoples, animals and plants, life in European was altered. So too was Old World rivalries as European countries began to compete against each other for control over the new found riches of the New World.

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