History of indigenous peoples of the Americas

Population figures for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas prior to colonization have been difficult to establish. By the end of the 20th century, most scholars gravitated toward an estimate of around 50 million—with some historians arguing for an estimate of 100 million or more.In an effort to circumvent the hold which the Ottoman Empire held on the overland trade routes to East Asia and the hold that the Aeterni regis granted to Portugal on maritime routes via the African coast and the Indian Ocean, the monarchs of the nascent Spanish Empire decided to fund Columbus' voyage in 1492, which eventually led to the establishment of settler-colonial states and the migration of millions of Europeans to the Americas.