European expansion did not begin with Columbus, and the economic organization of the Atlantic economy is not of northern European origin. European expansion started at the end of the eleventh century when Christians from southern and western Europe conquered and exploited economically the lands of Muslim Palestine. The wave of expansion moved from east to west, terminating in the New World; in form and content it was one continuous movement. Atlantic colonization cannot be understood without considering the late medieval colonies of the Mediterranean, the Atlantic archipelagoes, and a large part of Africa, as well as the American continent and the countries of northern Europe. The network of trade routes and of the international balance of payments joined Brazil with England, Madeira with Boston, Newfoundland with the Mediterranean, Holland with the West Indies, and Africa with northern Europe.