Beginning with the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus and continuing for over three centuries, the Spanish Empire would expand across the Caribbean Islands, half of South America, most of Central America and much of North America.

The Spanish Empire, also known as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy [1][2][3] was one of the largest empires in history and one of the first global empires in world history. [4] Soon after the Reconquista, Spain became the biggest global empire.

The Spanish campaign against the Aztec Empire had its final victory on 13 August 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish forces and native Tlaxcalan warriors led by Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured the emperor Cuauhtémoc and Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire.

Spanish men and women settled in greatest numbers where there were dense indigenous populations and the existence of valuable resources for extraction. [1] The Spanish Empire claimed jurisdiction over the New World in the Caribbean and North and South America, with the exception of Brazil, ceded to Portugal by the Treaty of Tordesillas. Other ...

Dec 14, 2024 · A colonial period of nearly three centuries followed the major Spanish conquests. The empire was created in a time of rising European absolutism, which flourished in both Spain and Spanish America and reached its height in the 18th century. The overseas colonies became and remained the king’s private estate.

Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar conducts the Spanish conquest of Cuba. The Spanish first settle on Cuba. The audiencia is formed in Santo Domingo, the first in the Spanish empire. The Laws of Burgos set out how indigenous peoples should be treated within the Spanish Empire.

Feb 7, 2024 · In this gallery of seven maps, we examine the vast overseas territories of the Spanish Empire from the late 15th century to the 19th century. The empire reached its height during the Age of Exploration and included regions in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.

The Spanish Empire in Latin America originated in the voyages of Christopher Columbus through the West on his quest for spice-trade. Columbus discovered the New World for The Castile Crown.

New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Spanish: Virreinato de Nueva España [birejˈnato ðe ˈnweβa esˈpaɲa] ⓘ; Nahuatl: Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl), [4] originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain.It was one of several domains established during the Spanish conquest of the Americas, and had ...

Nov 15, 2021 · The Spanish Empire began when separate kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula united to form the Kingdom of Spain. The empire reached its zenith in the mid-to-late 16 th century. In the 19 th century, however, Spain’s empire began to decline rapidly as its colonies became independent countries.