Humans crossed the Beringia land bridge into the Americas thousands of years ago, followed by the Clovis and Woodland cultures, Mississippian societies, Maya civilization, and major cities such as Cahokia and Tenochtitlan. Norse settlers briefly reached North America around 1000, but sustained European colonization began after Columbus’s 1492 voyage. Spain, France, England, and the Netherlands established competing settlements, while Indigenous peoples resisted conquest, negotiated alliances, and suffered massacres and epidemics. Jamestown, Plymouth, Massachusetts, and other colonies developed new political institutions alongside racial slavery. By 1759, wars between European powers and their Indigenous allies had made North America a contested imperial frontier, setting the stage for revolution.