The document summarizes the colonization of North America by various European powers between the 15th-17th centuries. It discusses how Africans were largely used as slaves, transported via brutal conditions on slave ships. It also describes the Spanish conquest of Florida and Mexico, and their attempts to convert native populations to Catholicism, often violently. The French established themselves in Canada and Louisiana, while the Dutch set up the colony of New Netherlands. The English colonies expanded greatly, with the 13 colonies stretching from New England to the Chesapeake. Native Americans were the original inhabitants, having migrated over land bridges from Asia over 10,000 years ago.