Oxford Dictionary:
settlement
- 5 [countable] a place where people have come to live and make their homes, especially where few or no people lived before
● signs of an Iron Age settlement
● a mining settlement
- 6 [uncountable] the process of people making their homes in a place
● the settlement of the American West
http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/settl...Merriam-Webster:
settlement
3
- a : occupation by settlers
- b : a place or region newly settled
- c : a small village
Examples of SETTLEMENT
● English settlements in North America.
● This was the island's first colonial settlement.
● They came upon the ruins of an ancient settlement.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/settlement