History of the Americas

North America encompasses the past developments of people populating the continent of North America.

Painting in the Americas before European colonization is the Precolumbian painting traditions of the Americas.

The Columbian Exchange was the widespread transfer of animals, plants, culture, human populations, technology, and ideas between the Americas and the Old World in the 15th and 16th centuries, related to European colonization and trade after Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage.

Available scientific evidence indicates that humanity emerged from Africa over 100,000 years ago, yet did not arrive in the Americas until less than 20,000 years ago.

The Treaty of Tordesillas (Portuguese: Tratado de Tordesilhas [tɾɐˈtaðu ðɨ tuɾðɨˈziʎɐʃ], Spanish: Tratado de Tordesillas [tɾaˈtaðo ðe toɾðeˈsiʎas]), signed at Tordesillas on June 7, 1494, and authenticated at Setúbal, Portugal, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Portugal and the Crown of Castile, along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa.

The history of Central America is the study of the region known as Central America.

A Jesuit reduction was a type of settlement for indigenous people in South America created by the Jesuit Order during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Paleoindians refers to the ancestral peoples of modern indigenous peoples of the Americas.

El Dorado (pronounced: [el doˈɾaðo], English /ˌɛl dəˈrɑːdoʊ/; Spanish for "the golden one"), originally El Hombre Dorado (the golden man), or El Rey Dorado (the golden king), was the term used by the Spanish Empire to describe a mythical tribal chief (zipa) of the Muisca native people of Colombia, who, as an initiation rite, covered himself with gold dust and submerged in Lake Guatavita.

A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool.

The history of the Caribbean reveals the significant role the region played in the colonial struggles of the European powers since the 15th century.

The archaeology of the Americas is the study of the archaeology of North America (Mesoamerica included), Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

Though slavery in the Spanish American colonies did not diverge drastically from slavery in other American colonies, the New Laws of 1542 which abolished the enslavement of indigenous people, more flexible attitudes towards both race and emancipation, as well as the Empire’s vast regional diversities gave it a different tenor to that of others.