![]() ![]() In North America, the European colonization started during the 17th century, mainly led by England and France, before undergoing a rapid expansion during the 18th century, an era also marked by massive importation of African slaves. (*) These two figures include Indigenous Americans, European settlers and African slaves brought by force.Ĭalculations of Eric Toussaint based upon Angus Madison, 2001 ![]() ![]() Table 1.Ĭomparison between the evolution of the population in Western Europe and Latin America between 15 (in millions) A convenient justification for exploitation and extermination. It is worth recalling that during a long period of time, Europeans, supported by the Vatican, did not consider indigenous people from the Americas as human beings. In the case of most islands of the Caribbean Sea, the whole indigenous population had been wiped out. One century later, only around 8 million inhabitants were left (including European settlers and the first African slaves). In 1500, just at the beginning of the brutal intervention of the Spaniards and the Portuguese in Central and South America, this region had at least 18 million inhabitants (some authors put forward much larger figures of close to 100 million ). The first voyage of Christopher Columbus is the starting point of a brutal and bloody intervention of the European powers in the history of the peoples of the ’Americas’
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