<P> The earliest known settlement was identified at Monte Verde, near Puerto Montt in Southern Chile . Its occupation dates to some 14,000 years ago and there is some disputed evidence of even earlier occupation . Over the course of millennia, people spread to all parts of the continents . By the first millennium CE, South America's vast rainforests, mountains, plains and coasts were the home of tens of millions of people . The earliest settlements in the Americas are of the Las Vegas Culture from about 8000 BCE and 4600 BCE, a sedentary group from the coast of Ecuador, the forefathers of the more known Valdivia culture, of the same era . Some groups formed more permanent settlements such as the Chibcha (or "Muisca" or "Muysca") and the Tairona groups . These groups are in the circum Caribbean region . The Chibchas of Colombia, the Quechuas and Aymaras of Bolivia and Perú were the three indigenous groups that settled most permanently . </P> <P> The region was home to many indigenous peoples and advanced civilizations, including the Aztecs, Toltecs, Maya, and Inca . The golden age of the Maya began about 250, with the last two great civilizations, the Aztecs and Incas, emerging into prominence later on in the early fourteenth century and mid-fifteenth centuries, respectively . The Aztec empire was ultimately the most powerful civilization known throughout the Americas, until its downfall in part by the Spanish invasion . </P> <P> With the arrival of the Europeans following Christopher Columbus' voyages, the indigenous elites, such as the Incas and Aztecs, lost power to the heavy European invasion . Hernándo Cortés seized the Aztec elite's power with the help of local groups who had favored the Aztec elite, and Francisco Pizarro eliminated the Incan rule in Western South America . The European powers of Spain and Portugal colonized the region, which along with the rest of the uncolonized world, was divided into areas of Spanish and Portuguese control by the line of demarcation in 1494, which gave Spain all areas to the west, and Portugal all areas to the east (the Portuguese lands in South America subsequently becoming Brazil). By the end of the sixteenth century Spain and Portugal had been joined by others, including France, in occupying large areas of North, Central and South America, ultimately extending from Alaska to the southern tips of the Patagonia . European culture, customs and government were introduced, with the Roman Catholic Church becoming the major economic and political power to overrule the traditional ways of the region, eventually becoming the only official religion of the Americas during this period . </P> <P> Epidemics of diseases brought by the Europeans, such as smallpox and measles, wiped out a large portion of the indigenous population . Historians cannot determine the number of natives who died due to European diseases, but some put the figures as high as 85% and as low as 25% . Due to the lack of written records, specific numbers are hard to verify . Many of the survivors were forced to work in European plantations and mines . Intermixing between the indigenous peoples and the European colonists was very common, and, by the end of the colonial period, people of mixed ancestry (mestizos) formed majorities in several colonies . </P>

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