page_title: Spanish Empire
section_title: Explorers, conquerors, and expansion of empire
hierarchical_section_title: Spanish Empire / Spanish America / Explorers, conquerors, and expansion of empire
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Incko-Španělské střetnutí u Cajamarcy; je zde vidět vládce Atahuallpa English: Inca-Spanish confrontation in Cajamarca; there is Emperor Atahuallpa
context_page_description: The Spanish Empire, historically known as the Hispanic Monarchy and as the Catholic Monarchy, was one of the largest empires in history. From the late 15th century to the early 19th, Spain controlled a huge overseas territory in the New World, the Asian archipelago of the Philippines, what they called "The Indies" and territories in Europe, Africa and Oceania. It was one of the most powerful empires of the 16th and 17th centuries. The Spanish Empire became known as "the empire on which the sun never sets" and reached its maximum extension in the 18th century.
  Castile became the dominant kingdom in Iberia because of its jurisdiction over the overseas empire in the Americas and the Philippines. The structure of empire was established under the Spanish Habsburgs, and under the Spanish Bourbon monarchs the empire was brought under greater crown control and increased its revenues from the Indies. The crown's authority in The Indies was enlarged by the papal grant of powers of patronage, giving it power in the religious sphere.
context_section_description: After Columbus, the Spanish colonization of the Americas was led by a series of soldiers-of-fortune and explorers called conquistadors. The Spanish forces, in addition to significant armament and equestrian advantages, exploited the rivalries between competing indigenous peoples, tribes, and nations, some of which were willing to form alliances with the Spanish in order to defeat their more-powerful enemies, such as the Aztecs or Incas—a tactic that would be extensively used by later European colonial powers. The Spanish conquest was also facilitated by the spread of diseases (e.g. smallpox), common in Europe but never present in the New World, which reduced the indigenous populations in the Americas. This sometimes caused a labor shortage for plantations and public works and so the colonists informally and gradually, at first, initiated the Atlantic slave trade. (see Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas)
  One of the most accomplished conquistadors was Hernán Cortés, who, leading a relatively small Spanish force but with local translators and the crucial support of thousands of native allies, achieved the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in the campaigns of 1519–1521. This territory later became the Viceroyalty of New Spain, present day Mexico. Of equal importance was the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire by Francisco Pizarro, which would become the Viceroyalty of Peru.
  After the conquest of Mexico, rumors of golden cities (Quivira and Cíbola in North America and El Dorado in South America) motivated several other expeditions. Many of those returned without having found their goal, or finding it much less valuable than was hoped. Indeed, the New World colonies only began to yield a substantial part of the Crown's revenues with the establishment of mines such as that of Potosí (Bolivia) and Zacatecas (Mexico) both started in 1546. By the late 16th century, silver from the Americas accounted for one-fifth of Spain's total budget.
  Eventually the world's stock of precious metal was doubled or even tripled by silver from the Americas. Official records indicate that at least 75% of the silver was taken across the Atlantic to Spain and no more than 25% across the Pacific to China. Some modern researchers argue that due to rampant smuggling about 50% went to China. In the 16th century "perhaps 240,000 Europeans" entered American ports.
  Further Spanish settlements were progressively established in the New World: New Granada in the 1530s (later in the Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1717 and present day Colombia), Lima in 1535 as the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru, Buenos Aires in 1536 (later in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776), and Santiago in 1541.
  Florida was colonized in 1565 by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés when he founded St. Augustine and then promptly defeated an attempt led by the French Captain Jean Ribault and 150 of his countrymen to establish a French foothold in Spanish Florida territory. Saint Augustine quickly became a strategic defensive base for the Spanish ships full of gold and silver being sent to Spain from its New World dominions.
  The Portuguese mariner sailing for Castile, Ferdinand Magellan, died while in the Philippines commanding a Castilian expedition in 1522, which was the first to circumnavigate the globe. The Basque commander Juan Sebastián Elcano led the expedition to success. Spain sought to enforce their rights in the Moluccan islands, which led a conflict with the Portuguese, but the issue was resolved with the Treaty of Zaragoza (1525), settling the location of the antimeridian of Tordesillas, which would divide the world into two equal hemispheres. From then on, maritime expeditions led to the discovery of several archipelagos in the South Pacific as the Pitcairn Islands, the Marquesas, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands or New Guinea, to which Spain laid claim.
  Most important in Pacific exploration was the claim on the Philippines, which was populous and strategically located for the Spanish settlement of Manila and entrepôt for trade with China. On 27 Ap
caption: Emperor Atahualpa is shown surrounded on his palanquin at the Battle of Cajamarca.
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