Spanish Conquest of the Americas

After the discoveries of Columbus had gained Spain a foothold in America, expeditions were soon set out to conquer and evangelize this 'New World'. The leaders of these expeditions are called conquistadores ("conquerors"), a name that denotes that they felt connected with the reconquista, the Christian (re)conquest of the Iberian peninsula from the Muslims (711-1492). Many of the conquistadors were poor nobles (hidalgos) looking forward to make fortune in the Indies since they couldn't in Europe.

The first Spanish conquest in the Americas was the island of Hispaniola. From there Juan Ponce de Leon conquered Puerto Rico and Diego Velazquez took Cuba. The first settlement on the mainland was Darién in Panama, settled by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa in 1512.

The most successful conquistador was Hernando Cortes, who in 1520-1521, with Native American allies, overran the mighty Aztec empire, thus making Mexico (then called New Spain) a part of the Spanish empire. Of comparable importance was the conquest of the Inca empire by Francisco Pizarro.

After this, rumours of golden cities (Cibola in North America, El Dorado in South America), caused several more expeditions to be sent out, but many of those returned without having found their goal, or having found it, finding it much less valuable than was hoped.

Some Spaniards, singularly the priest Bartolome de Las Casas defended Native Americans against of the abuses of conquistadors. In 1542, New Spanish colonial laws were maked to protect Indians. In 1552, Bartolomé de las Casas published "Short Account of the Destruction of the West Indies" (Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias), which was used by the other European colonial powers, rivals of Spain, in criticism of Spain's role.

List of conquistadors and Spanish explorers, with the period and place of conquest or exploration:

Diego de Almagro (Peru, 1524-1535, Chile, 1535-1537)
Pedro de Alvarado (Mexico, 1519-1521, Guatemala 1523 -1527, Peru, 1533-1535, Mexico, 1540-1541)
Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón (United States east coast, 1524-1527)
Vasco Nuñez de Balboa (Panama, 1510-1519)
Sebastián de Benalcázar (Ecuador and Colombia, 1533-1536)
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (southwestern United States, 1527-1536, South America, 1540-1542)
Hernández de Córdoba (Yucatán, 1517)
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado (southwestern United States, 1540-1542)
Hernán Cortés (Mexico, 1518-1522, Honduras, 1524, Baja Caliornia, 1532-1536)
Juan de Grijalva (Yucatán, 1518)
Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada (Colombia, 1536-1537, Venezuela, 1569-1572)
Francisco de Montejo Yucatan, 1527-1546
Pánfilo de Narváez (Florida, 1527-1528)
Diego de Nicuesa (Panama, 1506-1511)
Cristóbal de Olid (Honduras, 1523-1524)
Francisco de Orellana (Amazon River, 1541-1543)
Francisco Pizarro (Peru, 1509-1535)
Gonzalo Pizarro (Peru, 1540-1542)
Juan Ponce de Léon (Puerto Rico, 1508, Florida, 1513 and 1521)
Hernando de Soto (southeastern United States, 1539-1542)
Martin de Ursua, Peten region of Guatemala, 1696-1697
Pedro de Valdivia (Chile, 1540-1552)
Diego Velasquez de Cuellar (Cuba, 1511-1519)