Because the people settle there. The land was “empty”, like it was “empty” for the settlers in the Americas. See first synonym below.
settler: noun
a person who moves with a group of others to live in a new country or area.
“the early European settlers in America were often fleeing from religious persecution”
Because the people settle there. The land was “empty”, like it was “empty” for the settlers in the Americas. See first synonym below.
settler: noun a person who moves with a group of others to live in a new country or area. “the early European settlers in America were often fleeing from religious persecution”
synonyms: colonist, colonizer, frontiersman, frontierswoman, pioneer, immigrant, newcomer, incomer, homesteader, habitant, redemptioner, squatter
I love how the first two synonyms are colonist and colonizer.