Spanish colonization of the Americas
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| Spanish colonization of the Americas |
| History of the conquest |
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Inter caetera |
| Conquistadors |
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Vasco Núñez de Balboa |
The Spanish colonization of the Americas began with the arrival in the Western Hemisphere of Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón) in 1492. From early small settlements in the Carribean, the Spanish gradually expanded their range to include Central America, most of South America, Mexico, and southern portions of today's United States.
The effect of European diseases and superior weapons on the native populations was often dramatic. Despite a long history of warfare and a developed warrior class among some of the native cultures, targeted native cultures were not able to withstand the Spanish conquest, and eventually succumbed. In some cases, the conquered peoples vanished, and in other cases they were incorporated into the colonial system.
The Spanish colonies in the New World gained independence from Spain in the Nineteenth Century, including Cuba and Puerto Rico in 1898 as a result of the Spanish-American War.
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[edit] Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas in 1492. He had been searching for a new route to the Asian Indies and was convinced he had found it. The Spanish Crown's search for this new route occurred in the context of the recently accomplished Reconquista pushing the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula. The Native Americans, similar to the remaining Moors in Spain, were considered without rights as long as they were not converted to Catholicism. Columbus was made governor of the new territories and made several more journeys across the Atlantic Ocean. He profited from the labour of native slaves, whom he forced to mine gold; he also attempted to sell some slaves to Spain. While generally regarded as an excellent navigator, he was a poor administrator and was stripped of the governorship in 1500.
[edit] Early settlement
Word of Columbus' discovery in 1492 caused tension between Spain and Portugal; this dispute was resolved in large part by Pope Alexander VI with the papal bull of 1493, and related bulls and treaties which followed. For example, the Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in 1494, was a further attempt to resolve this conflict. The combination of all these events divided the globe, including the mostly unknown New World, into two spheres of influence; however, once the division was fully charted, most of the New World fell into the Spanish sphere, Portugal keeping a small part of what became Brazil.
Early settlements by the Spanish were on the islands of the Caribbean. On his fourth and final voyage in 1502, Columbus encountered a large canoe off the coast of what is now Honduras filled with trade goods. He boarded the canoe and rifled through the cargo which included cacao beans, copper and flint axes, copper bells, pottery, and colorful cotton garments. He took one prisoner and what he wanted from the cargo and let the canoe continue. This was the first contact of the Spanish with the civilizations of Central America.
In 1513, Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, and led the first European expedition to see the Pacific Ocean from the west coast of the New World. In an action with enduring historical import, Balboa claimed the Pacific Ocean and all the lands adjoining it for the Spanish Crown. It was 1517 before another expedition from Cuba visited Central America, landing on the coast of the Yucatán in search of slaves. This was followed by a phase of conquest. The Spaniards, just having finished a war against the Muslim Moors in the Iberian peninsula, began toppling the local American civilizations, and attempted to impose Christianity.
It is important to distinguish between the Spanish conquest of Mexico and the Spanish conquest of Yucatán. Although the Yucatán Peninsula is part of the modern-day country of Mexico, the Spanish conquest of Mexico refers to the conquest of the Mexica/Aztec empire by Hernán Cortés from 1519–21. It is April 22, 1519, the day Hernán Cortés landed ashore and founded the city of Veracruz, that marks the beginning of almost 303 years of Spanish hegemony over the region. The Spanish conquest of Yucatán, on the other hand, refers to the conquest of the Maya empire from 1511–1697.
Ferdinand Magellan set foot in the Philippines in 1521.
[edit] Effect on natives
European diseases (smallpox, influenza, measles and typhus) to which the native populations had no resistance, and cruel systems of forced labor (such as the infamous haciendas and mining industry's mita), decimated the American population. The diseases usually preceded the Spanish invaders, and the resulting population loss (between 30 and 90 percent in some cases) severely weakened the native civilizations' ability to resist the invaders. After conquering an area, the colonists usually enslaved the native people, using them for forced labor. However disease continued to kill them off in large numbers, and so African slaves, who had already developed immunities to these diseases, were quickly brought in to replace them.
The Spaniards were committed to converting their American subjects to Christianity, often by force, and were quick to purge any native cultural practices that hindered this end. However, most initial attempts at this were only partially successful, as American groups simply blended Catholicism with their traditional beliefs. On the other hand, the Spaniards did not impose their language to the degree they did their religion, and the Catholic Church's evangelization in Quichua, Nahuatl and Guarani actually contributed to the expansion of these American languages, equipping them with writing systems. Many native artworks were considered pagan idols and destroyed by Spanish explorers. This included the many gold and silver sculptures found in the Americas, which were melted down before transport to Europe.
In some areas, particularly in Mexico, the Natives and the Spaniards interbred, forming a Mestizo class. These and the original Americans were often forced to pay unfair taxes to the Spanish government and were punished harshly for disobeying their laws. In other areas, the Natives stayed ethnically distinct, and continued to resist for more than two centuries. Nowadays, descendants of Native Americans constitute a major part of the population of the countries that comprised most of the Spanish Empire in America, with the exception of Argentina, Uruguay, Costa Rica and the countries of the Caribbean. Two Amerindian languages, Quechua and Guaraní, have reached rank of co-official languages in Latin American countries. There have been and are Latin American Presidents of Native American origin, such as Benito Juárez in Mexico, Alejandro Toledo in Peru, and Evo Morales in Bolivia.
[edit] Slavery
As large numbers of Indians died under the cruel working conditions in Spanish mines, ranches and encomiendas, and, as Bartolomé de Las Casas and others began to call attention to Spanish mistreatment of the natives, landowners in New Spain began to look for alternative sources of labor. Starting in the 1530s, black slaves from Africa began to be imported to the Spanish New World, especially to the Caribbean coasts and islands. The descendants of these slaves would become members of the African and mulatto (mixed-race) classes in Latin-American society. Some slaves escaped to form palenque communities, some of which survive to this day, with their own African-influenced dialects of Spanish. African spirituality and musical styles would influence the developing Latin-American culture.
[edit] Spanish colonies
Areas in the Americas under Spanish control included most of South and Central America, Mexico, parts of the Caribbean and much of the United States.
The initial years saw a struggle between the Conquistadores and the royal authority. The Conquistadores soldiers and officers were given vast territories and Indian labourers (Encomiendas and Repartimientos) in place of payment or loot. Rebellions were frequent (See Lope de Aguirre). The Spanish Crown resorted to several systems of government, including Adelantados, Captaincy General, Viceroyalties, Lieutenant General-Governors and others.
[edit] Caribbean
Spain claimed all islands in the Caribbean although they did not settle all of them. They had settlements in the Windward and Leeward Islands and:
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Cuba
- Hispaniola, the modern Dominican Republic and Haiti
- Jamaica
- Puerto Rico
[edit] South America
- Argentina - Buenos Aires founded in 1536. Re-founded in 1580 as it was forcefully abandoned in 1541; independence was formally declared in 1816.
- Bolivia - La Paz founded in 1548. Independent in 1825.
- Chile - In 1541, the Spanish conquered the Incas in Perú, opening the way to the South, however, Spain could only advanced as far as the Itata River, where they met the fierce Araucanians. Chile won its independence from Spain in 1818
- Colombia - In 1510, Spaniards founded Darien, the first permanent European settlement on the mainland of the Americas. In 1538, they established the colony of New Granada. Independence in 1810.
- Ecuador - Conquistador Francisco Pizarro conquered the land in 1532; left Spain in 1809 to form Greater Colombia.
- Paraguay - Asuncion, Paraguay was founded in 1537. Independent from 1811.
- Peru - Conquered from the Incas in 1531 by Francisco Pizarro. Peru won its independence from Spain in 1821.
- Uruguay - Taken by Spain from Portugal in 1778. Part of Brazil from 1821-1828. Independence in 1828.
- Venezuela - Caracas was founded in 1567. Independent in July 5, 1811.
[edit] Central America
- Costa Rica
- El Salvador
- Guatemala - Settled by Spanish in 1523,
- Honduras
- Nicaragua - Founded in 1524 by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba
These above countries became independent from Spain in 1821 during Mexico's war of independence.
- Panama - As part of Colombia, independent in 1821. Declared independence from Colombia in 1903.
[edit] North America
- New Spain: all or parts of today's Mexico, Texas, California (Alta California and Baja California), Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma and New Mexico. In the 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty Spain traded its claims in the Pacific Northwest north the 42nd parallel (today's northern border of California) to the United States, in exchange of the United States giving up its claims south of that line. The Treaty also established border lines along the Arkansas River and the Red River.
- Spanish Florida: Modern-day Florida including parts of modern-day Alabama and Mississippi.
- Louisiana, consisting of all or parts of the present-day U.S. states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Idaho: Spain owned this territory from 1762–1800 and based its administration in New Orleans. The north and interior was only sparsely settled by French inhabitants and new immigrants. Nomadic Indians, newly horsed, made up most of the new residents on the Great Plains where Spanish control was confined to the south. A system of forts and frontier posts, inherited from the French, protected Spanish interests along the Mississippi as far north as Michigan.
[edit] Independence
During the Peninsula War, several assemblies were established by the criollos to rule the lands in the name of Ferdinand VII of Spain. This experience of self-government and the influence of Liberalism and the ideas of the French and American Revolutions brought the struggle for independence, led by the Libertadores. The colonies freed themselves, often with help from the British Empire, which aimed to trade without the Spanish monopoly.
In 1898, the United States won the Spanish-American War and liberated Cuba and Puerto Rico from Spanish rule, ending Spanish occupation in the Americas. Still, the early 20th century saw a stream of immigration of poor people and political exiles from Spain to the former colonies, especially Cuba, Mexico and Argentina. After the 1970s, the flow was inverted. In the 1990s, Spanish companies like Repsol and Telefonica invested in South America, often buying privatized companies.
Currently, the Ibero-American countries and Spain and Portugal have organized themselves as the Comunidad Iberoamericana de Naciones.
[edit] Notes
[edit] Further reading
- David A. Brading, The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots, and the Liberal State, I492-1867 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993
[edit] See also
- Atlantic world
- Black Legend
- European colonization of the Americas
- Inter caetera
- New Spain
- Old Spanish Trail (trade route)
- Population history of American indigenous peoples
- Spanish conquest of Peru
- Spanish conquest of Yucatán
- Spanish conquest of Mexico
- Spanish Empire
- Valladolid debate
