<P> Other powers such as France also founded colonies in the Americas: in eastern North America, a number of Caribbean islands and small coastal parts of South America . Portugal colonized Brazil, tried colonizing the eastern coasts of present - day Canada and settled for extended periods northwest (on the east bank) of the River Plate . The Age of Exploration was the beginning of territorial expansion for several European countries . Europe had been preoccupied with internal wars and was slowly recovering from the loss of population caused by the Black Death; thus the rapid rate at which it grew in wealth and power was unforeseeable in the early 15th century . </P> <P> Eventually, most of the Western Hemisphere came under the control of European governments, leading to changes to its landscape, population, and plant and animal life . In the 19th century over 50 million people left Europe for the Americas . The post-1492 era is known as the period of the Columbian Exchange, a dramatically widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations (including slaves), ideas, and communicable disease between the American and Afro - Eurasian hemispheres following Columbus's voyages to the Americas . </P> <P> Norse journeys to Greenland and Canada are supported by historical and archaeological evidence . A Norse colony in Greenland was established in the late 10th century, and lasted until the mid 15th century, with court and parliament assemblies (þing) taking place at Brattahlíð and a bishop located at Garðar . The remains of a Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada, were discovered in 1960 and were dated to around the year 1000 (carbon dating estimate 990--1050 CE). L'Anse aux Meadows is the only site widely accepted as evidence of pre-Columbian trans - oceanic contact . It was named a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1978 . It is also notable for its possible connection with the attempted colony of Vinland, established by Leif Erikson around the same period or, more broadly, with the West Norse colonization of the Americas . </P> <P> Early explorations and conquests were made by the Spanish and the Portuguese immediately following their own final reconquest of Iberia in 1492 . In the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, ratified by the Pope, these two kingdoms divided the entire non-European world into two areas of exploration and colonization, with a north to south boundary that cut through the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern part of present - day Brazil . Based on this treaty and on early claims by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa, discoverer of the Pacific Ocean in 1513, the Spanish conquered large territories in North, Central and South America . </P>

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