what region did the spanish colonize

Spain Colonization

• Introduction. The Spanish colonization of the Americas started under the Crest of Castile and was led down by the Spanish conquistadors.
• Timeline of Spanish Colonization. Christopher Columbus arrived at the Caribbean islands and assumed that he had gotten the East Indies in Asia.
• Facts. ...

Full Answer

Where were the first Spanish colonies located in the New World?

The correct answer is - West Indies. The first Spanish colonies were set on the land of the West Indies, or more specifically, on the island of Hispaniola, nowadays divided into Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The first Spanish settlement was named La Navidad, but it didn't lasted for long because it was destroyed by the local Taino people.

Where in America did the Spanish explorers settle?

Spanish Exploration and Settlement

• Columbus finds the " East Indies "
• Christopher Columbus
• Spanish Abuses of Native Americans
• New World Named for Vespucci
• Conquistadors invade Mexico and Peru
• They Came from the East
• Balboa Sees Pacific Ocean
• Spanish move into Southeast
• Stranded party explores Southwest
• De Soto lured to La Florida

More items...

Who governed the Spanish colonies?

The Spanish Empire (Spanish: Imperio Español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy (Spanish: Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy (Spanish: Monarquía Católica) during the early modern period, was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predecessor states between 1492 and 1976.

What were the Spanish colonies in North America?

The Spanish in North America. Although Spain established colonies in North America in the seventeenth century, by 1750, most remained small military outposts. In Florida, the principal Spanish settlements were located at St. Augustine, Apalachee Bay, and Pensacola Bay.

What regions did the Spanish colonize?

Beginning with Columbus in 1492 and continuing for nearly 350 years, Spain conquered and settled most of South America, the Caribbean, and the American Southwest.

What countries in the Americas did Spain colonize?

The first European countries to begin colonizing the Americas were Spain and Portugal. Spain claimed and settled Mexico, most of Central and South America, several islands in the Caribbean, and what are now Florida, California, and the Southwest region of the United States.

Who was Spain colonized by?

… conquest and colonization by the Spaniards and Portuguese from the late 15th through the 18th century as well as movements of independence from Spain and Portugal in the early 19th century. Even since independence, many of the various nations have experienced similar trends, and they have some awareness of a…

How many countries were Colonised by Spain?

Spain once had up to 35 colonies throughout the world, some of which it still governs today....Former Spanish Colonies of the World.RankFormer Spanish ColoniesYear Independence from Spain11Ecuador182012El Salvador182113Equatorial Guinea196814Florida (United States)1821 (Became a US territory, then a state in 1845)31 more rows•Aug 29, 2020

Did Spain colonize Mexico?

The ancient civilizations of Mexico lasted about 2500 years. Then, in the 15th Century, a group of Spanish explorers arrived in the newly discovered continent of America. They were under orders from the Spanish Crown to turn what is today's Mexico territory into a Spanish colony.

What countries did Spain colonize in Asia?

The territories ruled included present-day Philippines, Guam and the Mariana Islands, as well as Palau, part of Micronesia and for a brief period Northern Taiwan and parts of North Sulawesi and the Moluccas. Cebu was the first seat of government, which later transferred to Manila.

When did the Spaniards colonize our country?

In 1521, the Spaniards, led by Ferdinand Magellan, discovered the islands. The Spanish conquistadores established a colonial government in Cebu in 1565.

What is the longest colonized country?

The Philippines was under Spanish rule for over 333 years. After the Battle of Manila Bay and the Treaty of Paris (1898), rule of the Philippines was transferred from Spain to the USA. From a brief period between 1942-1945, the Philippines was under Japanese rule.

Where did the Spanish first settle in America?

Even before Jamestown or the Plymouth Colony, the oldest permanent European settlement in what is now the United States was founded in September 1565 by a Spanish soldier named Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in St. Augustine, Florida.

Why did Spain conquer the Americas?

Motivations for colonization: Spain's colonization goals were to extract gold and silver from the Americas, to stimulate the Spanish economy and make Spain a more powerful country. Spain also aimed to convert Native Americans to Christianity.

Who colonized Latin America?

SpainHistory. Latin America came to fruition in the 1500's after European “discovery” of the New World. Countries such as Spain, France and Portugal colonized the region. Although most of Latin America was colonized by Spain, the countries of Portugal and France also had major influences on the region.

How did Spain conquer the Americas?

In 1492, explorer Christopher Columbus discovered the islands now known as the Bahamas. This marked the beginning of the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

Where did Spain colonize in the Americas?

Spain colonized all of South America (except for Brazil), most of the large Caribbean islands, Central America, Florida, and the North American Sou...

What were the main goals of Spanish colonization?

The initial goal of Spanish colonization was to find a route to East Asia. When they realized they had discovered a new continent, Spain's focus qu...

Who did Spain colonize?

Spain colonized native peoples all over the Americas, Western Africa, The Philippines, as well as North Africa. By colonizing them, they forced the...

What was the Spanish colony of the Americas?

e. The Spanish colonization of the Americas began under the Crown of Castile, and was spearheaded by the Spanish conquistadors. The Americas were invaded and incorporated into the Spanish Empire, with the exception of Brazil, British America, and some small regions in South America and the Caribbean. The crown created civil and religious structures ...

What was the Spanish empire's territory?

Beginning with the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean and gaining control over more territory 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.

What was the Spanish expansion?

The Spanish expansion has sometimes been succinctly summed up as "gold, glory, God." The search for material wealth, the enhancement of the conquerors' and the crown's position, and the expansion of Christianity. In the extension of Spanish sovereignty to its overseas territories, authority for expeditions ( entradas) of discovery, conquest, and settlement resided in the monarchy. Expeditions required authorization by the crown, which laid out the terms of such expedition. Virtually all expeditions after the Columbus voyages, which were funded by the crown of Castile, were done at the expense of the leader of the expedition and its participants. Although often the participants, conquistadors, are now termed “soldiers”, they were not paid soldiers in ranks of an army, but rather soldiers of fortune, who joined an expedition with the expectation of profiting from it. The leader of an expedition, the adelantado was a senior with material wealth and standing who could persuade the crown to issue him a license for an expedition. He also had to attract participants to the expedition who staked their own lives and meager fortunes on the expectation of the expedition’s success. The leader of the expedition pledged the larger share of capital to the enterprise, which in many ways functioned as a commercial firm. Upon the success of the expedition, the spoils of war were divvied up in proportion to the amount a participant initially staked, with the leader receiving the largest share. Participants supplied their own armor and weapons, and those who had a horse received two shares, one for himself, the second recognizing the value of the horse as a machine of war. For the conquest era, two names of Spaniards are generally known because they led the conquests of high indigenous civilizations, Hernán Cortés, leader of the expedition that conquered the Aztecs of Central Mexico, and Francisco Pizarro, leader of the conquest of the Inca in Peru.

What was the result of the Spanish American wars of independence?

In the early 19th century, the Spanish American wars of independence resulted in the secession and subsequent division of most Spanish territories in the Americas, except for Cuba and Puerto Rico, which were lost to the United States in 1898, following the Spanish–American War.

Where was the debate held in the Spanish colony of Valladolid?

Held in the Colegio de San Gregorio, in the Spanish city of Valladolid, it was a moral and theological debate about the colonization of the Americas, its justification for the conversion to Catholicism and more specifically about the relations between the European settlers and the natives of the New World.

When was Venezuela first visited?

Venezuela. Venezuela was first visited by Europeans during the 1490s, when Columbus was in control of the region, and the region as a source for indigenous slaves for Spaniards in Cuba and Hispaniola, since the Spanish destruction of the local indigenous population.

Which country was the viceroyal state of South America?

Until the eighteenth century, there were just two viceroyalties, with the Viceroyalty of New Spain (founded 1535) administering North America, a portion of the Caribbean, and the Philippines, and the viceroyalty of Peru (founded 1542) having jurisdiction over Spanish South America.

What countries did the Spanish have?

In Europe it had part of the north and all of the south of Italy (mainly Sicily, Naples, the Duchy of Milan and Sardinia), the Spanish Netherlands (today Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and parts of northern France and Germany), parts of the south and west of France and Andorra.

Which countries have Spanish as their first language?

Jamaica, the Philippines, and Trinidad, where English is now the official language and Spanish is no longer widely spoken; all the countries where Spanish is still an official first language today: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala.

What were the parts of the United States that were once part of Mexico?

Also, parts of the United States (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California) were also once part of Mexico, and were thus also formerly part of the Spanish colonial world.

Which islands are still in the Canary Islands?

Today it still has the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla.

Which European country was able to colonize Africa?

However, in the late 19th century, when European powers scrambled Africa for themselves, in order to colonise the territories which were still free, Spain (already in big decline) was able to colonise some smaller territories compared to Britain, France…. These included Morocco, Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea.

Which country could explore, trade and conquer the rest of the world, which included Africa?

With that treaty, called Tratado de Tordesillas Spain got America (except for Brazil), and Portugal could explore, trade and conquer the rest of the world, which included Africa. Like that, Portugal could claim territories such as Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Mozambique….

Where is Spain located in Africa?

Another Spanish territory geographically located in Africa is the Canary Islands. There are other minor territories belonging to Spain in northern Morocco, but they are not inhabitated, except for some military garrisons. I refer to Chafarinas Islands, Alhucemas Islands and other little territories.

What was the first Spanish settlement in the Americas?

Of these, the first Spanish settlements in the Americas was La Navidad, a make-shift settlement that some of Columbus' crew had built when one of their ships ran aground and there was not enough space on the remaining ships to house all the crewmen. After returning a year later, Columbus found the settlement completely burnt down. The crew had murdered some of the native men and the tribe retaliated by eliminating the entire settlement.

What did Spain do to the natives?

Spain colonized native peoples all over the Americas, Western Africa, The Philippines, as well as North Africa. By colonizing them, they forced them to work for the profit of the Empire.

What was the result of the Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal?

Once Columbus found land, still thinking it was Asia, Spain scrambled to claim as much land as possible. This resulted in the Pope issuing the Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal, and the beginning of Spanish colonization. In 1494, the treaty gave Spain claim to all lands west of the 46th meridian. This line cuts straight through modern-day Brazil and leaves almost all of the western hemisphere in the hands of Spain. This also meant that Portugal, not Spain, was allowed to colonize Africa.

What was the first colony of the Americas?

Spanish Colonization of the Americas began with Christopher Columbus' first voyage in 1492, during which he landed on the island of Hispaniola. This island is controlled by Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the 21st century, but at the time, tribes such as the Arawak people inhabited the island. Upon making first contact, this tribe was incredibly generous, offering parrots, cotton, weapons, and glass beads to the strangers. However, Columbus saw this generosity as a sign of weakness, and told Ferdinand and Isabella when he got back to Spain that they were so naïve that he would be able to take as much gold and enslave as many of them as desired. The Arawak people and all other peoples that Columbus encountered suffered extreme tragedy, either at the hands of the ruthless crew, or from the many diseases that the Europeans brought with them.

How did European exploration begin?

European exploration began as a way to find a way around trading with the Ottoman Empire. Spain became involved in exploration after destroying Granada, when King Ferdinand of Castile and Queen Isabella of Aragon funded Christopher Columbus ' trip to East Asia. Claim to the New World was divided between Portugal and Spain by the Treaty of Tordesillas. Columbus and succeeding conquistadors, including Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro, stole resources from the native people of the New World, and the diseases they brought with them made this conquest even easier. Highly developed civilizations were destroyed and the native people found themselves at the bottom of society. Spanish exploration led the way for the expansion of Western ideas and enabled Spain to grow in power for more than a hundred years.

Why did Columbus establish a third settlement on the other side of the island?

This settlement was also almost completely destroyed as a result of Spanish aggression towards the native people. This led to Columbus establishing a third settlement on the other side of the island.

Why did Columbus and the Spanish Crown hope that he had reached East Asia?

Columbus and the Spanish Crown hoped that he had reached East Asia, because that would have been immediately valuable as a way to circumvent the Ottoman Empire. However, once people in Spain recognized that an entirely new continent was being explored, it was not obvious that it would be valuable. Besides a hope to find gold and silver, their was no obvious benefit to putting so many resources into establishing colonies in the New World.

Spanish Colonies

Identify the main Spanish American colonial settlements of the 1500s and 1600s, and the motives for establishing them

St. Augustine, Florida

Figure 3. In this drawing by French artist Jacques le Moyne de Morgues, Timucua flee the Spanish settlers, who arrive by ship. Le Moyne lived at Fort Caroline, the French outpost, before the Spanish destroyed the colony in 1562.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Further west, the Spanish in Mexico, intent on expanding their empire, looked north to the land of the Pueblo Indians. Under orders from King Philip II, Juan de Oñate explored the American southwest for Spain in the late 1590s.

What was the name of the Spanish empire that was part of the New World?

The territories that became part of the Spanish empire were called New Spain. At its height, New Spa in included all of Mexico, Central America to the Isthmus of Panama, the lands that today are the southwestern United States and Florida , ...

Who was the first Spanish explorer to build an empire in the New World?

Spain's mission to build an empire in the New World began with the expeditions of a Genoan seafarer named Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), who convinced the Spanish royalty he could find a western route across the Atlantic Ocean to the Indies (Asia).

What did the Conquistadors do after winning the battles?

After winning the battles, the conquistadors killed the leaders of each civilization and took over their leadership, demanding obedience, labor, and conversion to Christianity of the survivors. The Spanish sought wealth in the New World.

What was the impact of the Spanish conquistadors on the Americas?

Its conquest of American natives happened within a few decades. Spanish conquistadors , or conquerors, destroyed the two most powerful civilizations of the New World, the Aztecs in present-day Mexico in 1521 and the Incas in Peru in 1535. After winning the battles, the conquistadors killed the leaders of each civilization and took over their leadership,

How did the Spanish influence the New World?

(See Epidemics in the New World .) In some tribes, the death rate reached 90 percent (nine out of ten people died). This catastrophic death rate disorganized Native American cultures, wiping out political and religious leaders, family life, trade, farming practices, military defense, the arts, and other aspects of their social systems. The Spanish, still requiring laborers, began to import people kidnapped into slavery from Africa.

How many people lived in New Spain in the nineteenth century?

The last years of the empire. By the early nineteenth century, New Spain was large and well populated, with slightly over six million people. This was only one million fewer than the population of the United States. Mexico City was the largest city in the Americas. In Spain, only Madrid was larger.

How much gold did Spain carry?

Historians estimate that between 1500 and 1650 Spain carried more than 180 tons of gold and 16,000 tons of silver from New Spain to Europe.

What was the Spanish colonization?

Spanish colonization It was the expansion of the Spanish Empire in search of new territories and resources in different regions of America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. That was the path that many other nations in Europe followed in the historical period between the 16th and 19th centuries, undertaking a process of colonization.

What territories did the Spanish conquer?

Spanish Louisiana, ceded to Spain by France in 1762 and preserved until 1801, it encompassed the current US territories of Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, Missouri, and Iowa.

What was the Viceroyalty of New Spain?

The Viceroyalty of New Spain, founded in 1519 after the defeat and conquest of the Aztecs and the other Mesoamerican and Aridoamerican aboriginal nations, encompassed the current territories of Mexico and the United States provinces of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Utah, Florida, Nevada, and part from Colorado, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma.

What was the role of the American territories in the organization of the Spanish Empire?

The American territories played a key role in the organization of the Spanish Empire, serving as a bridge between Asia and Oceania, and the European metropolis. Likewise, the African coasts and especially the Canary Islands were a key point of communication between Europe and America.

What language is spoken in the Spanish colonies?

Currently, Spanish is the second language with the most speakers in the world, after Mandarin Chinese.

Why did Spain stumbling over the American continent?

The need to find new trade routes to China and other eastern territories, which did not subject Spain to transit through the territories of other rival powers, pushed them to explore unknown seas, thus stumbling over the American continent in a fortunate mistake.

How did the economic rules that governed the colonies benefit Spain?

The economic rules that governed the colonies benefited Spain peninsular, to the detriment of the interests of colonial citizens. Despite the fact that the society was ethnically stratified, the Spanish whites born in the colony were seen as second-class citizens compared to the Spanish born in Europe.

What was the purpose of the Spanish and Portuguese explorers in the second half of the fifteenth century?

During the second half of the fifteenth century, while searching for a path to China through the Atlantic, Spanish and Portuguese explorers quickly realized that several islands that they encountered on the way provided an ideal ground for planting highly lucrative sugar cane or for accessing timber. Slave labor was key to this master plan—with most of the captives being brought from the West African mainland.

How did the Spanish colonial administration manage to extract cash crops from the island?

The Spanish colonial administration managed to extract cash crops from the island by means other than plantation cultivation or the direct coercion of indigenous Bubis and migrant workers. Catholic education and land distribution were two other policies used to control the Bubis. They were mostly planned by Catholic missionaries (the Claretians) and by the Patronato de Indígenas (1904), an institution modelled on the colonial regime in South America. The Bubis, like indigenous people in the Americas, were treated as legal minors, or wards of the colonial regime. The Patronato was ostensibly responsible for protecting the Bubis by securing access to land for them, providing schooling, and making sure that they were not abused by European settlers. By 1910, the governor general, Angel Barrera, estimated that approximately a third of the cocoa crop on the island was produced by smallholding Bubis. [24] A Bubi elite with missionary education and land emerged soon thereafter. When the Patronato dissolved in 1959, the Bubi participants acquired full shareholder rights to agricultural cooperatives that the Patronato had created. In the mid- 1960s, Bubi cooperatives supplied 20% of the cocoa crop on the island. [25] Their economic success under Franco consolidated their commitment to the regime, even as they were witnessing decolonization and pro-Nkrhumah support in the nearby mainland colonies. Ties of debt and privileged access to Spanish markets consolidated the relationship between the Bubi elite and the colonial administration.

What was the name of the island that the Portuguese explorers discovered?

At first, the Portuguese and then the Spanish focused primarily on the island of Fernando Po (which was named after the first Portuguese explorer to reach it), later to be known as Bioko. Unlike other Atlantic islands, however, Fernando Po remained a story of failed Portuguese and then Spanish imperialism until the early twentieth century. After an initial exploration in 1471, the Portuguese were unable to insert it into slave trading networks. Slavers, explorers, scientists, and political figures portrayed the island as a pit of diseases that no outsider would be able to withstand. Aided by the island’s topography, the indigenous population effectively rebuffed European settlements and commercial forays. The Bubis, a Western Bantu population, used the thick forests as a protective device against slavers. [4] Knowledge of their techniques of deflection traveled to neighboring islands, since a 1780s Spanish traveler explained that the southern part of Fernando Po was inhabited by runaway slaves from the Portuguese islands of Príncipe and São Tomé who had created “a republic that is governed by its own laws.” [5] So, even as the number of slaves exported from the Bight of Biafra was increasing throughout the eighteenth century, Fernando Po served at most as a stopping point for slavers, rather than as a supplier of slaves. [6]

Why did Spain control the second most profitable empire?

Yet, it maintained a global presence even though it had lost most of its American colonies in 1824. Because of Cuba’s sugar productivity (obtained through the brutal exploitation of enslaved people), by the late 1850s , Spain controlled the second or third most profitable global empire, after Britain and the Netherlands.

Why did the Spanish take possession of Fernando Po?

In 1778, the Spanish Crown took possession over Fernando Po from the Portuguese with the aim of developing an aggressive presence in the West African slave trading networks. At the time, Cuba was slowly yet steadily becoming a sugar plantation colony, a process that was accompanied by a growing demand for slave labor.

What happened to Equatorial Guinea after independence?

Upon independence and following the loss of a privileged access to Spanish markets, the export economy collapsed. It was the discovery of oil deposits that would fuel a new wave of development under Equatorial Guinea’s second president, and the world’s longest serving head of state—Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Rich oil reserves were discovered in 1991, catapulting the country’s income from $132 million (or $330 per capita) in 1991 to $19 billion ($24,304) in 2012. The administration has been, however, accused of very high levels of corruption. The vast majority of the oil revenue has been siphoned into large infrastructure projects overseen by contractors with ties to the administration. Only 2-3 percent of the budget has been allocated to education and health. Oil reserves are estimated to dry out by 2035, and extraction has already been declining since 2012. [27]

What was Fernando Po's role in the Spanish Civil War?

Fernando Po planter support for Franco during the Spanish Civil War was rewarded in the 1940s. The Francoist regime used Spanish Guinea as a model colony, a showcase of European munificence. Corporatist economic policies and price controls helped capital investors reap high profits.

Overview

Imperial expansion

Civil governance

Catholic Church organization

Society

Economy

19th century

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