The first permanent European colonies in the Americas were founded by

Systematic European colonization began in 1492, when a Spanish expedition headed by the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sailed west to find a new trade route to the Far East but inadvertently landed in what came to be known to Europeans as the "New World". He ran aground on 5 December 1492 on the island of Cat Island in The Bahamas, which the Lucayan people had inhabited since the 9th century; the site became the first permanent European settlement in the Americas. Western European conques