Native peoples like the Maya and the Olmec dominated the scene in pre-Columbian Central America. In the late 15th century, in the wake of Christopher Columbus's "discovery" of the Caribbean islands, the Spanish colonized the entire region. Their first settlement was in Panama in 1509, and in 1519 Pedro Arias de Avila began to explore to the north of Panama, into Central America. Herman Cortes continued the colonization in the 1520s and raided and occupied territory held for centuries
