The Oxford Handbook of the Atlantic World, c. 1450‐c. 1850

If we go back to colonial days there is a good case for viewing Europe and the Americas as essentially one. All the territory from Hudson's Bay to Tierra del Fuego had a European face for hundreds of years. Starting in the late fifteenth century and growing steadily, huge tracts of land were sucked into the European orbit – Paris, London, Lisbon and Madrid. But to consolidate their hold, the conquistadores often killed or enslaved the indigenous people – all in the name of Christian civilization. Aztec and Inca power was destroyed. But “New Spain” was so enormous it could...