CONQUEST OF AMERICA: ANTECEDENTS, STAGES AND CONSEQUENCES - HISTORY - 2024

The conquest of America was the process that ranges from the discovery of the continent with the first voyage of Christopher Columbus to the taking of American territory by the Spanish conquerors. Exploration and conquest began systematically from 1492, when Columbus first arrived on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

This event triggered the European ambition to expand and its main exponents were the Spanish, who established the largest empire in the world. The four voyages that Christopher Columbus made served to determine the expansion of the continent almost in its entirety, although Columbus himself originally thought that he had reached Asia.

However, the locals presented high resistance and fought hard against the power that finally gave social, political, geographical and biological shape (through the exchange of plants and animals) to the new continent.

Background and history

At the end of the 15th century, when the European kingdoms were establishing new trade routes to increase their economic power, the Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus proposed to sail west to meet the Indies.

His idea was initially rejected by the Portuguese. Later she went to Spain to present the idea to Isabela I of Castile and Fernando II of Aragon, who had married to unify Spain. Columbus's plan went through a committee and was originally rejected again.

However, after the Spanish conquest of Granada (the last Arab-dominated province in the Iberian peninsula), Columbus was given the necessary funds to carry out his exploration.

The kings of Spain promised to grant Columbus the title of "admiral of the ocean" in case his voyage was successful. In addition, he was promised that he would be the governor of all the territories that he discovered in his travels. He also received a series of promises from the Spanish Crown that were ultimately not kept.

Why did the empire want to go west? Main causes

There were two definite reasons that finally caused the Spanish Crown to give Christopher Columbus the freedom to go on his voyages of exploration.

The first was the need to find a faster sea route to Asia; the second was the need of the Spanish to expand Catholicism to other lands.

Commerce

When Christopher Columbus originally set sail for Asia to establish new trade routes, the European powers of the time were trying to increase the profits from their commercial activities significantly.

When the first explorers arrived on the American continent, they realized all the riches that were in their lands.

Spain saw this as an opportunity to expand its economy, but since the natives were not going to let these be easily expropriated from them, the Spanish Empire raised its arms to appropriate the lands.

The American continent (in particular South America) had large quantities of gold and silver, highly valued minerals in the European commercial market.

Religion

The religious practices of the Native Americans in America were highly pagan by Catholic standards. The kings of Spain and the kingdom itself were highly believers in the Christian faith, so the imposition of this religion throughout the entire continent became a priority.

The Aztecs, Incas and Mayans carried out human sacrifices that were viewed as unacceptable by explorers.

However, the religious component was in the background, as it was used as a pretext to exterminate millions of natives who had occupied these lands full of wealth for several centuries.

Discovery

Christopher Columbus set sail with his three ships (La Pinta, La Niña and La Santa María) from Spain on August 3, 1492. His main objective was to reach the Indies (Asia), where according to the beliefs of the time there were unimaginable riches.

Columbus's calculations had not been accurate, as the distance he and his crew traveled was much greater than anticipated.

In fact, Columbus had two navigation books that showed different distances. One showed a fairly short distance traveled from Spain, which he showed his sailors to reassure them.

Columbus was close to returning home, as his crew was about to mutiny against him. However, after asking them to wait a few more days, they found solid ground.

The first island he saw, where the crew disembarked, was the current island of Guanahaní in the Bahamas. There Columbus gave gifts to the local population and they responded with the same reciprocity.

Columbus himself described the inhabitants as people who were completely naked, with well-defined bodies. In addition, he said that he did not see more than one woman on the visit to that first island.

Stages

First establishments

After sighting the island of Hispaniola on his first trip, Columbus founded the first town in an area that today belongs to Haiti. After the second trip, his brother founded Santo Domingo in 1496.

The first settlements on the continent itself occurred in 1500, when Nueva Cádiz was founded in what is now Cubagua, Venezuela.

However, in 1501 the first permanent establishment of any European nation was founded on American soil. This town is Cumaná, also located in Venezuela and present to this day.

Aztec conquest

The Aztecs were present in most of what is now Mexico. The conquest of this region was marked by the Spanish rule over the Aztec Empire, which lasted from 1519 to 1521.

This two-year campaign was led by Hernán Cortés, but it began with the arrival of the Spanish to the Yucatán Peninsula. The Spanish conqueror received help from many local tribes who opposed the Aztec rule of the time.

In fact, the last battle that marked the end of the war occurred in 1521, when Cortés and the leader of the Tlaxcala civilization conquered the Aztec capital and apprehended its emperor.

The importance of owning this region was one of the fundamental causes of the establishment of the viceroyalty of New Spain by the Spanish Crown.

Inca conquest

The Incas occupied the entire region of what is now Peru and its surroundings. The conquerors were advancing little by little through all the South American territory, destroying the Incas during their march.

There was a battle that was fought in Peruvian territory that was decisive in weakening the Inca Empire: it happened in 1532, when Francisco Pizarro - leader of the Spanish forces - and his army managed to capture Atahualpa, the emperor of the great indigenous civilization.

The Incas had gone through a period of civil war shortly before the arrival of the Europeans, which put them at a greater disadvantage when fighting. Furthermore, their local enemies supported the Spanish and played a decisive role in the European victory.

The conflicts with the Incas lasted more than 40 years, until in 1572 the last stronghold of civilization fell and their territorial dominance in Peru ended.

Territorial domain

The only country that Spain never dominated in South America was Brazil, which from the beginning of the conquest belonged to the kingdom of Portugal. In addition, none of the Guianas became part of Spanish territory at any time in history.

By 1540 the colonies of Buenos Aires and Asunción had already been established, which became the capitals of Argentina and Paraguay respectively, after the independence of both nations.

The establishment of these territories was slowed by the intervention of local aborigines, who felt that they were being invaded. The area that today is Uruguay was defended to death by the Charrúa Indians.

Furthermore, during the first years of its establishment, both cities were incessantly attacked by the local aborigines. In fact, in 1541 Buenos Aires was abandoned for almost 40 years until its new foundation in 1580.

In 1543, the New Kingdom of Granada was established in what is now Colombian and partly Venezuelan territory, after ending the Muisca aborigines.

This was the region that years later became known as Gran Colombia, after the independence of Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador.

Organization

Having already colonized most of South America, all of Central America, and a part of North America, the Spanish had the largest amount of territory in the New World. Originally they divided their dominion in two viceroys: that of Peru (located in the south) and that of New Spain (located in Central America).

All the colonies were part of the domain of the Spanish Crown, although the viceroyalties and governorates had Spanish delegates who were in charge of exercising local control of the region.

In addition to the two originally established viceroyalties, additional ones were later created to accommodate the expansion of the colonies.

As a form of additional control, captaincies were also established, such as that of Cuba. New Spain also came to control the decisions of the Spanish colony in the Philippines until 1821.

Why was it a violent process?

The process of conquest and colonization by the Spanish was violent mainly due to the dominant attitude of the conquerors and the resistance offered by the indigenous tribes and the great civilizations of the continent in the presence of the invaders.

The Spanish took advantage of several aspects that harmed the indigenous people, such as the superiority of European weapons and the weakness that Native Americans had to diseases brought from the Old Continent, such as smallpox.

The natives were not going to give up their wealth easily. In fact, the Spanish expansion across the American continent was mainly due to the large amount of gold that was not only present in the islands, but also in the large continental regions.

The Inca, Mayan and Aztec civilizations opposed the Spanish occupation and were the ones that mainly caused problems in Mesoamerica and South America. The North American aborigines were not a clear threat to the Spanish conquerors, but they were to the English and the French.

On the other hand, the religious aspect of the Conquest was also related to the violence used during the Spanish advance. Priests were sent from Spain to educate the natives to the Catholic religion, but those who refused to convert were usually seen as enemies of the Crown.

Consequences

South American independence

The violence with which Spain expanded in the South American continent led to the use of excessive control laws that harmed those who inhabited the viceroyalties.

Although the colonial inhabitants were also considered Spanish, they had less privilege than those who lived in Europe.

During the Napoleonic invasion, government boards led by liberators emerged who used the resentment of the continent and the nationalist sentiment of its inhabitants to free the nations from Spain.

Spanish immigration

After the Conquest, millions of Spaniards left Spain to live in the colonies. These went on to make up a large part of the new population of the region.

Immigration increased significantly after the independence of Latin America, as millions more came to the continent to inhabit the new nations.

The decline of the Aboriginal population

The loss of aboriginal life was one of the strongest consequences of the time of the Spanish conquest. By the time the nations became independent in the early 19th century, the aboriginal population of what was once New Granada was no more than 100,000.

Before the arrival of Columbus and the Spanish conquest, it is estimated that there were more than six million Caribbean aborigines occupying the region.

According to calculations made with data from the time, the reduction of the indigenous population in the American continent was approximately 90%.

References

1. 1492: Spanish Conquest of America, Don Quijote Spanish Language Learning, (nd). Taken from donquijote.org
2. Spaniards in a new world: 16th century, History of Latin America in World History, (nd). Taken from historyworld.net
3. Christopher Columbus Discovers America, 1492, Eye Witness' History, (nd). Taken from eyewitnesshistory.com
4. Introduction to the Conquest of the Americas (Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries), Gale Encyclopedia of World History: War, 2008. Taken from encyclopedia.com
5. Spanish conquest and colonization of North America, Historia de El Nuevo Mundo in English, 2017. Taken from historiadelnuevomundo.com
6. Spanish Colonization of the Americas, Wikipedia in English, April 5, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org
7. European Colonization of the Americas, Wikipedia in English, April 9, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org