1) European colonization of the Americas in the 1500s onward resulted from overpopulation and poverty in Europe which exceeded available land. 2) Colonists were able to obtain new land and opportunities in places like America, but in the process they killed, enslaved, or displaced millions of native Americans and eventually brought African slaves to work on plantations. 3) Colonialism involved foreign groups coming to indigenous people's lands armed with superior weapons, killing or enslaving the locals, and crushing any resistance, ultimately replacing the original population.