The one I always recommend: Colonization[0] from 1994. The translation of such a complex theme into a dynamic but believable game is genius IMHO. Nowadays I play only the open source[1] remake: Freecol[2][3].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Colonization

[1] https://github.com/FreeCol/freecol

[2] https://www.freecol.org/about.html

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeCol