European countries colonized other lands in the 1500s due to overpopulation and lack of resources at home. This allowed colonists to acquire new lands and opportunities but resulted in the genocide and enslavement of millions of Native Americans. European colonialism in the Americas was one of the bloodiest and most horrific periods in human history, as colonists not only killed and enslaved indigenous people but also brought African slaves to work on plantations after Native Americans died in slavery. Colonialism essentially meant death, slavery, and the destruction of entire communities for the expansion of colonial powers.

1. One reason many European countries
colonized other lands and people is
because many European countries were
running out of natural resources.

2. In Europe by the 1500's and on, there was much
deforestation and poverty, and the population
was becoming too great for the land and
government to handle.

3. By colonizing the Americans, for example, English,
French, portuguese, and Spanish colonists were
able to have new lands and opportunities, but in the
process millions of Native Americans were killed,
enslaved, intermarried, or forced to leave their land.

4. Indeed, the European colonization of the
Americans was perhaps the bloodiest and most
horrific time in human history.

5. Besides the genocide of Native Americans,
European colonists brought Africans slaves to the
Americas to work, especially after finding out that
Native Americans would just die in slavery.

6. Image this: men, who you've never seen before,
come to your house and your neighbors house and
they all have weapons as they can carry.

7. Then they start killing or
enslaving you, your family, and
your neighbors.

8. And you and your family and your neighbors fight
back but are crushed by the men's superior
weapons.

9. And soon, you and most of your family and your
neighbors are gone--killed, enslaved,
intermarried, or forced to live somewhere else

10. This is what colonialism is : it is death, it is
slavery; it is the end of one group and the
expansion of another group.