World's history (part 13): Portugal claimed Brazil. Spain claimed the rest ofSouth America,Mesoamerica, and southernNorth America. Britain colonized the east coast of North America, and France colonized the central region of North America. Russia made incursions onto the northwest coast of North America, with a first colony in present-day Alaskain 1784,[134]and the outpost ofFort Rossin present-dayCaliforniain 1812.[135]In 1762, in the midst of the Seven Years War, France secretly ceded most of its North American claims to Spain in theTreaty of Fontainebleau. Thirteen of the British colonies declared independence as the United States of Americain 1776, ratified by theTreaty of Parisin 1783, ending the American Revolutionary War.Napoleon Bonapartewon France’s claims back from Spain in theNapoleonic Warsin 1800, but sold them to the United States in 1803 as the Louisiana Purchase. InRussia,Ivan IV(“the Terrible”) was crowned (1547) the firstTsarof Russia, and by annexing the Turkic Khanates in the east, transformed Russia into a regional power. The countries of western Europe, while expanding prodigiously through technological advancement and colonial conquest, competed with each other economically and militarily in a state of almost constant war. Often the wars had a religious dimension, either Catholic versus Protestant, or (primarily in eastern Europe) Christian versus Muslim. Wars of particular note include the Thirty Years War, theWar of the Spanish Succession, theSeven Years War, and theFrench Revolutionary Wars . Napoleon came to power in France in 1799, an event foreshadowing the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century. Modern period[edit] Main article:Modern history Further information:18th century and 19th century TheScientific Revolutionchanged humanity's understanding of the world and led to theIndustrial Revolution, a major transformation of the world's economies. [113][136]TheScientific Revolutionin the 17th century had made little immediate impact on industrialtechnology; only in the second half of the 18th century did scientific advances begin to be applied significantly to practical invention. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britainand used new modes of production — thefactory,mass production, andmechanisation — to manufacture a wide array of goods faster and using less labour than previously. The Age of Enlightenment also led to the beginnings of modern democracyin the late-18th century AmericanandFrench Revolutions.Democracyandrepublicanismwould grow to have a profound effect on world events and on quality of life. After Europeans had achieved influence and control over the Americas, theimperialactivities of the West turned to the lands of the East and Asia. [137][138]In the 19th century the European states had social and technological advantage over Eastern lands.[139]Britain gained control of the Indian subcontinent,Egyptand theMalay Peninsula;[140]theFrench took Indochina; while the Dutch cemented their control over the Dutch East Indies. The British also colonizedAustralia,New ZealandandSouth Africawith large numbers of British colonists emigrating to these colonies. [140]Russia colonised large pre-agricultural areas of Siberia.[141][142]In the late 19th century, the European powers divided the remaining areas of Africa. Within Europe, economic and military challenges created a system ofnation states, and ethno-linguistic groupings began to identify themselves as distinctive nationswith aspirations for cultural and political autonomy. This nationalismwould become important to peoples across the world in the 20th century. During the Industrial Revolution, the world economy became reliant oncoalas a fuel, as new methods oftransport, such asrailwaysand steamships, effectively shrank the world.[136]Meanwhile, industrialpollutionandenvironmentaldamage, present since the discovery of fire and the beginning of civilization, accelerated drastically. The advantages that Europe had developed by the mid-18th century were two: anentrepreneurialculture,[139][143]and the wealth generated by the Atlantictrade[139](including theAfrican slave trade). By the late 16th century,silverfrom the Americas accounted for the Spanish empire's wealth. [144]The profits of theslave tradeand ofWest Indianplantations amounted to 5% of theBritish economyat the time of the Industrial Revolution.[145]While some historians conclude that, in 1750,labour productivityin the most developed regions of China was still on a par with that of Europe's Atlantic economy (see the NBER Publications by Carol H. Shiue and Wolfgang Keller [146]), other historians like Angus Maddisonhold that the per-capita productivity ofwestern Europehad by the lateMiddle Agessurpassed that of all other regions. [147]