Correct answer choice is :
D) All of the settlements were close to major bodies of water.
Step-by-step explanation:
The European conquest of the Americas represents the history of the agreement and establishment of control of the regions of the Americas by most of the naval authorities of Europe. Systematic European settlement began in 1492 when a Spanish company headed by the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus sailed west to find a new trade route to the Far East but accidentally arrived in what came to be known to Europeans as the New World. Running aground on the north part of Hispaniola on 5 December 1492, which the Taino people had occupied since the 7th century, the site became the first European settlement in the Americas.