page_title: Conquistador
section_title: People in the service of Spain
hierarchical_section_title: Conquistador / People / People in the service of Spain
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Das Bild „El Adelantado y los guanches“ wurde zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts von Manuel Gonzalez Mendez geschaffen. Es befindet sich an der Stirnwand des Kanarischen Parlaments in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
context_page_description: Conquistadors were the knights, soldiers and explorers of the Spanish and the Portuguese Empire. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, Oceania, Africa, and Asia, conquering territory and opening trade routes. They colonized much of the world for Spain and Portugal in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.
  After arrival in the West Indies in 1492, the Spanish, primarily nobles from the west and south of Spain, began building an American empire in the Caribbean using islands such as Hispaniola, Cuba, and Puerto Rico as bases. From 1519 to 1521, Hernán Cortés waged a campaign against the Aztec Empire, ruled by Moctezuma II. From the territories of the Aztec Empire, conquistadors expanded Spanish rule to northern Central America and parts of what is now southern and western United States and from Mexico sailing the Pacific Ocean to the Philippines. Other conquistadors took over the Inca Empire after crossing the Isthmus of Panama and sailing the Pacific to northern Peru. As Francisco Pizarro subdued the empire in a manner similar to Cortés other conquistadores used Peru as base for conquering much of Ecuador and Chile.
context_section_description: Alonso Fernández de Lugo (Canary Islands, 1492–1496)
  Hernán Cortés (Mexico, 1518–1522, Baja California, 1532–1536)
  Pedro de Alvarado (Mexico, 1519–1521, Guatemala, El Salvador 1523–1527, Peru, 1533–1535, Mexico, 1540–1541)
  Francisco Pizarro (Perú, 1509–1535)
  Pedro de Candia (Panama, 1527, Colombia and Ecuador, 1528, Peru, 1530)
  Francisco Vásquez de Coronado (United States, 1540–1542)
  Juan de Oñate (New Mexico, United States, 1598–1608)
  Juan Vásquez de Coronado y Anaya (Costa Rica)
  Diego de Almagro (Perú, 1524–1535, Chile, 1535–1537)
  Rodrigo de Bastidas (Colombia and Panamá, 1500–1527)
  Vasco Núñez de Balboa (Panamá, 1510–1519)
  Juan Ponce de León (Puerto Rico, 1508, Florida, 1513–1521)
  Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (United States, 1527–1536, 1540–1542)
  Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón (United States, 1524–1527)
  Sebastián de Belalcázar (Ecuador and Colombia, 1533–1536)
  Domingo Martínez de Irala (Argentina and Paraguay, 1535–1556)
  Gonzalo Pizarro (Perú, 1532–1542)
  Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar (Cuba, 1511–1519)
  Diego de Ordaz (Venezuela, 1532)
  Juan Pizarro (Perú, 1532–1536)
  Francisco Hernández de Córdoba (Yucatán, 1517)
  Francisco Hernández de Córdoba (Nicaragua, 1524)
  Hernando Pizarro (Perú, 1532–1560)
  Jerónimo de Alderete (Perú, 1535–1540; Chile, 1550–1552)
  Diego Hernández de Serpa (Venezuela, 1510–1570)
  Juan de Grijalva (Yucatán, 1518)
  Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada (Colombia, 1536–1537, Venezuela, 1569–1572)
  Francisco de Montejo (Yucatán, 1527–1546)
  Nicolás Federmann (Venezuela and Colombia, 1537–1539).
  Pánfilo de Narváez (Spanish Florida, 1527–1528)
  Diego de Nicuesa (Panama, 1506–1511)
  Cristóbal de Olid (Honduras, 1523–1524)
  Francisco de Orellana (Amazon River, 1541–1543)
  Hernando de Soto (United States, 1539–1542)
  Inés Suárez, (Chile, 1541)
  Francisco de Aguirre, Peru,(1536–40), Bolivia,(1538–39) Chile, (1540–1553) and Argentina (1562–64)
  Martín de Urzúa y Arizmendi, count of Lizárraga, (Petén, Guatemala, 1696–1697)
  Pedro de Valdivia (Chile, 1540–1552)
  Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (Florida, 1565–1567)
  Pedro de Mendoza (Argentina, 1534–1537)
  Alonso de Ribera (Chile 1599–1617)
  Alonso de Sotomayor (Chile 1583–1592, Panamá 1592–1604)
  Martín Ruiz de Gamboa (Chile 1552–1590)
  Juan Garrido (Multiple campaigns 1502–1530, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Florida, Mexico)
  Miguel López de Legazpi (Philippines, 1565–1572)
  Juan de Salcedo (Philippines, 1565–1576)
  Diego Romo de Vivar y Pérez (Mexico, 17th century)
caption: Conquest of the Canary Islands (1402–1496)
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