European contact may refer to discovery:

• European discovery of the Americas

exploration:

• European exploration of Australia
• European exploration of Africa

colonization:

• Colonialism
• Colonization of Africa
• European colonization of the Americas

Or the effects of the contact:

• Population history of American indigenous peoples
• Columbian Exchange
• Christianity in Japan

The discovery of the Americas is variously attributed to the following people depending on context and definition Indigenous peoples of the Americas The European exploration of Australia encompasses several waves of seafarers and land explorers European exploration of Africa began with Ancient Greeks and Romans, that explored and settled in North Africa See Colony and Colonization for examples of colonialism which do not refer to Western colonialism The colonisation of Africa has a long history the most famous phase The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492 although there was at least one earlier colonization effort It is thought that up to 100 million indigenous people may have lived in The Americas when the 1492 voyage of Christopher Columbus began a historical period of large-scale The Columbian Exchange has been one of the most significant events in the history of world Ecology, Agriculture, and Culture. from Portuguese cristão, referred to Roman Catholic Christians in Japanese and is used as a historiographic term for Roman Catholics

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