Question: what did the spanish want to do with the caribbean islands

title: Spanish colonization of the Americas
text: European explorers arrived in Río de la Plata in 1516 . Their first Spanish settlement in this zone was the Fort of Sancti Spiritu established in 1527 next to the Paraná River . Buenos Aires , a permanent colony , was established in 1536 and in 1537 Asunción was established in the area that is now Paraguay . Buenos Aires suffered attacks by the indigenous peoples that forced the settlers away , and in 1541 the site was abandoned . A second ( and permanent ) settlement was established in 1580 by Juan de Garay , who arrived by sailing down the Paraná River from Asunción ( now the capital of Paraguay ) . He dubbed the settlement `` Santísima Trinidad '' and its port became `` Puerto de Santa María de los Buenos Aires . '' The city came to be the head of the Governorate of the Río de la Plata and in 1776 elevated to be the capital of the new Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata .