After the arrival of Europeans in the fifteenth century the population of the Americas declined dramatically in the following decades. The Europeans contributed to this widespread death directly by exterminating and enslaving the native population, but the bulk of the damage was done by deadly contagious diseases that the European explorers and settlers brought with them. Diseases like smallpox were not native to the Americas and the local population had no natural resistance to the disease. By most historians’ estimates, within two centuries of the arrival of Europeans the population of the Americas had declined by ninety percent.

Christopher Columbus’ voyages to the new world were sponsored by the Spanish crown, which at the time was led by Ferdinand and Isabella.

The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved after Napoleon conquered it, and eventually replaced with the German Federation, which became the German Republic in 1918, and was divided into East and West Germany after World War II. The modern country of Germany was finally created with reunification in 1990, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. 

Italy is also a country with a complicated history, and might be a tempting answer for "Holy Roman Empire" due to Rome; however, after the collapse of the Roman Empire many distinct claims to its successor lived on, with the city of Rome, Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire, and the Germanic tribes that had conquered Rome in the Early Middle Ages. The latter is what eventually led to the Holy Roman Empire.

Although the arrival of Europeans led to widespread death and destruction in the Americas, the global population still rose significantly in this time period. This was caused by the exchange of native crops between the Old World and the New World. Crops like potatoes and corn, which were native to the Americas, could be used to sustain the population in unexpected parts of the world -like Ireland or Eastern Europe.

The Spanish were the first European settlers to settle in Florida. The Spanish colony of Florida was one of the earliest European colonies in the New World. It was established by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513.

James Cook, who was born in England and lived from 1728 until 1779, was the first European to reach Australia as well as New Zealand and Hawaii on his ship the HMS Bark Endeavor. He mapped large portions of the Pacific Ocean, including the eastern coastline of Australia and the entirely of the New Zealand coast.

During the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, tens of millions of Europeans migrated from Europe to colonies (and later countries) such as the United States, Brazil, Canada, Australia, and Argentina. The peak of this migration occurred during the mid 19th to early 20th centuries.

The population of Ireland before the Great Famine was just over 8 million people. The famine hit so hard that between the millions who starved and the millions who fled to the United States, England, Australia, and New Zealand by the time the famine ended the population of Ireland had fallen to 4 million. 

Malthus was an ardent student of population trends. He published many studies on how populations affected the economics of a given area or nation. He also looked at the trends of the populations of the world as a whole.

Liberia was founded in the early 1800's by freed slaves from the United States. They were part of the Back To Africa Movement of freed slaves. Therefore the U.S. felt the need to issue a hands-off warning to the European powers during the Scramble for Africa.