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■ Monarchs, Empires, and Colonies Before nations were formed, most people were ruled by monarchs. They were subjects of a king, queen, prince, or other leader who inherited his or her authority. Often, people thought of themselves as subjects of a monarch, rather than citizens of a country. They were sometimes patriotic, in the sense of believing themselves to hold a particular nationality, though not always. National boundaries changed regularly as the result of wars and treaties, so a person could go to sleep in one country or empire and wake up in another. Monarchies throughout the world frequently expanded their territory by conquering neighboring lands. Often they would claim these lands as colonies. When many colonies were held by a monarch, they were then considered to be part of an empire. During the European Age of Exploration, from the 1400s through the 1600s, Europeans— especially those from Portugal, Spain, Holland, England, and France—sailed the globe looking for new lands. When they arrived in a new place, they would often claim it for their mother countries. This is how most of Latin America ended up in the hands of the Spanish and the Portuguese, and North America in the hands of the Spanish, French, and English. France, Great Britain, and Belgium divided up most of Africa. England, France, and the Netherlands claimed much of Asia. The Ottoman Empire, based in Turkey, ended up with most of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as a chunk of southeastern Europe. Many Europeans moved from their homelands to the new colonies. They built homes, plowed fields, and did their best to maintain their European way of life. They were not alone, though. People lived all over the world before European explorers arrived claiming land as their own. The process of colonization inevitably resulted in conflicts with the indigenous people. Colonists took several approaches to communicating with indigenous peoples. They often converted, or tried to convert, them to Christianity; missionary priests and ministers were always in the vanguard of colonists, and they went right to work spreading their religion. Colonists also might cooperate with indigenous people, learning from them. For example, the Thanksgiving celebrations in North America today are a result of positive early interactions between Native Americans and early settlers, even if many North American chroniclers have romanticized these early meetings to elevate the colonists. More often, however, these contacts caused conflict. Through force and treaty early Europeans, with the backing of their monarchs, took lands and livelihood from the indigenous people. The Europeans often forced them to work as slaves and denied them the rights due to citizens. Colonists relied on soldiers to keep the native people from rising up against them.

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