Many Europeans found new opportunities by crossing the Atlantic to settle in the Americans. Historians estimate that in some areas, 90 percent of native population was wiped out by European disease. At first the settlers forced the Indians to work for them. When rival European nation also began to an interest in the land, small bands of soldiers were sent to these regions to protect the claims. Today, St. Augustine is the oldest permanent settlement found by Europeans in the United States today. West sailors would have to sail to reach Asia or what monsters and terrors might await them far from Europe's shore. America led to explore and profit from the land they called the New World. As Europeans learned about the world beyond Europe, the became