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Unit 5 - Spanish Colonization of the Americas
The first of the European powers to reach the New World, Spain remained a
dominant force there for more than a century after the arrival of Christopher
Columbus. The empire Spain amassed in North America included at one
time or another Central America, Mexico, and a significant portion of what is
now the central and southwestern United States.
Spain's heritage was one of conquest or, more correctly, reconquest
(Reconquista), as the preceding seven centuries had been spent driving the
Moors out of Spain. Following the ousting of the Moors, King Ferdinand V
found himself with a large number of Spanish soldiers ill equipped for civilian
life. In 1493, Columbus, whose expeditions to find new trade routes had
been sponsored by Spain, returned with news of vast unexplored land,
which brought purpose to Ferdinand's unemployed soldiers.
The first of the Spanish arrivals in the New World were primarily Castilian
with a threefold mission: God, Spain, and gold—not always necessarily in
that order. Through exploration, missionaries hoped to spread Catholicism,
Spain hoped to expand its empire, and merchants hoped to acquire new
wealth. The soldiers' goals, particularly the acquisition of personal wealth
and glory, were deemed ample justification for subjugating the indigenous
inhabitants of the new land, often in a brutal fashion not at all in keeping with
the directives of the Spanish Crown. However, in the far-flung reaches of the
New World frontier, it was the hidalgo, or noble representative of Spain, who
ruled. With few exceptions, the oppressive treatment of native peoples
established a pattern of mistrust and hatred that would be passed on to
subsequent generations.
Spanish conflict with indigenous in the Americas commenced almost
immediately, when the fortified camp of Villa de la Navidad (Town of the
Nativity), erected by Columbus on Hispaniola prior to his return to Spain in
1493, was attacked and destroyed by indigenous of the area in retaliation
for brutal treatment. With minor variations, it was a scenario that would
repeat itself in the years to follow. However, the indigenous peoples were
just as likely—if not more so—to be defending themselves against the
Spaniards than initiating the aggression.
After his arrival on the Yucatán Peninsula in 1519, for example, Hernando
Cortés heard of the Aztec Empire and immediately set out for it. With the
help of other local indigenous tribes who were either conquered by Cortés or
more afraid of the Aztecs than the Spanish, Cortés and his army took the
Aztec capital Tenochtitlán. The Aztecs soon ousted the Spanish, but Cortés
returned in 1521 and retook the empire. The Spanish built Mexico City on
the ruins of Tenochtitlán and made the Aztecs their laborers. Mexico, with its
plentiful silver mines, became one of Spain's most valuable possessions in
the New World; three centuries later, as the United States and Great Britain
took over North America, it was Mexico that Spain fought hardest to keep.
The success of Cortés and Francisco Pizarro, who discovered and
conquered the Inca Empire, led the Spanish to believe that even greater
wealth awaited them in the lands to the north. Accordingly, between 1513
and 1563, a dozen expeditions of varying sizes landed along the
southeastern and Gulf Coast areas of what is today the United States.
Those efforts were mostly directed at Florida by Juan Ponce de León, who
discovered the area on Easter Sunday in 1513. Ponce de León was
searching the swamps and everglades of Florida for the mythical Fountain
of Youth, a spring that rejuvenated and cured those who drank from it.
Several other expeditions, however, ranged as far north as present-day
Georgia and the Carolinas.
Notwithstanding the presence of women, children, slave labor, and a retinue
of friars and priests, the expeditions were decidedly military in character.
Typically, they consisted of mounted lancers armed with both lances and
swords and supported by infantry equipped with pikes, crossbows, and
harquebuses (an early matchlock shoulder weapon). The heavily armed
professional soldiers, calling themselves conquistadores (conquerors), were
proud and reckless with a lust for power and an aversion to discipline. They
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were also legendary in their capacity to endure heat, cold, hunger, and pain.
Their expeditions were usually financed and led by a Spanish hidalgo. The
object of the expedition was to make an armed entrance, or entrada, into the
interior of the country and create a fortified base camp, called a presidio,
from which to carry out the mission.
Most of those expeditions clashed with the indigenous that they
encountered; in some instances, resistance from the latter was fierce and, in
view of Spanish behavior, completely understandable. Native villages were
plundered, women raped, and people forced into slavery. A favorite Spanish
tactic was to lure the chief or village head into a council setting and then
hold him hostage to ensure that the expedition's needs were met. In one
instance, expedition leader Panfilo de Narváez ordered the nose of a
Timucua chief to be cut off and the chief's mother thrown to savage dogs to
be torn apart.
Spanish efforts were not limited to the Southeast, however. In April 1540,
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado set out in search of the fabled Seven
Cities of Cibola. In large part, Coronado's expedition was inspired by
Cabeza de Vaca's reports. During the two-year expedition, Coronado failed
to find the rumored golden cities but did explore much of what is now the
southwestern United States, including Arizona and Colorado, and
penetrated as far east as Kansas and northern Texas. The expedition also
marked the first time Europeans reached the Grand Canyon and the
Colorado River. In the process of exploring, Coronado managed to capture
the Zuni pueblo at Hawikuh as well as other Hopi and Zuni pueblo
communities in Arizona and New Mexico. Later, Spanish expeditions in the
Southwest resulted in Juan de Oñate's brutal attack on the Acoma pueblo in
1599, followed by the bloody Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
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Meanwhile, during the last half of the 16th century, the Spanish continued to
send expeditions into the interior of Florida in an effort to strengthen their
position there. As earlier, ill treatment of native peoples, particularly in the
form of forced labor, continued to produce clashes between the two
cultures, although an increased emphasis on the establishment of missions
met with some success. Perhaps the most notable Spanish achievement in
the area was the creation of San Agustín, now St. Augustine, the oldest city
in the United States settled by Europeans. Spanish presence in Florida
continued until 1763, when the territory was given over to Britain in
exchange for Cuba.
The conquest of indigenous peoples in the Americas was ultimately
accomplished due to disease brought to the New World by Europeans, the
superiority of their weapons, and, at times, brutal massacres. Although the
Spanish legacy in the New World is one of harsh treatment and exploitation,
Spain's contribution to architecture, the arts, and language in the Americas
cannot be overlooked.
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