The Americas

Spanish Colonies in the Americas (Spanish Empire)
AD 1492 - 1898

Special Site: American Lives All Modern States Americas Native Americans

The four transatlantic voyages to the Americas which were undertaken by Christopher Columbus between 1492-1500 opened up what was known as the 'New World' to exploitation and colonisation by the states of Western Europe. He is known even to this day as the 'discoverer' of the New World despite confirmation that Leif Erikson's Vikings had already established the short-lived Vinland colony in Newfoundland around AD 1000, and despite the fact that people had been living in the 'newly discovered' world since about 40,000-25,000 BC.

In fact Columbus was piecing together accounts by many other sailors in regard to Atlantic currents and the strange lands which may have lain at the other end of them, although no one seems to have discovered how to make best use of the prevailing currents and winds. Columbus started this work before first seeking sponsorship in 1484.

The eventual sponsor he did find for his voyages was the soon-to-be united throne of Spain, still energetic and enthusiastic for conquest after terminating the final Muslim state in Iberia itself. The growing might of the Ottoman empire was closing off access routes to the east, so a new route was needed: to the west.

Columbus first landed in the Bahamas on 12 October 1492, thinking all the time that he had reached China or Japan. This was due to his apparent miscalculations of distance which had resulted in him placing Japan on the globe in the region of the West Indies. Even so, he began a process of colonisation and empire-building on the part of Spain. On 28 October he made landfall on Cuba and, by 5 December 1492, he had reached western Hispaniola (modern Dominican Republic and Haiti), where he founded the colony of La Navidad and became its first viceroy.

Subsequent explorations by Columbus and others, coupled with the conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires, led to the creation of an enormous Spanish empire in the western hemisphere which ultimately stretched from modern Oregon to Tierra del Fuego. Vast riches in gold and silver poured into a now-united Spain, making it one of the major European powers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Principal author(s): Page created: Page last updated:

(Information by Peter Kessler and John De Cleene, with additional information from Discovering the Chichimeca, Charlotte M Gradie (The Americas, Vol 51, No 1:67-88, 1994), from Codex Chimalpahin Vol 1: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Texcoco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahua Altepetl in Central Mexico, concerning the writings of seventeenth century Nahua historian Chimalpahin Cuauhtlehuanitzin, otherwise known as Don Domingo Francisco de Antón Muñón, (Eds) Arthur J O Anderson, Susan Schroeder, & Wayne Ruwet (1997), from The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual, C E Bosworth (2004), from Enciclopedia de México, Bernardo de Gálvez (Mexico City, 1987, in Spanish), and from External Links: Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Conquistadors sacrificed and eaten by Aztec-era people (The Guardian).)