In this blog post I will be discussing the Spanish Conquistadors and the effects that they had on “The New World” in the 1500’s and 1600’s.
The Spanish started to colonize North and South America after the Columbus discovered the islands of the Caribbean. The Spanish were able to colonize North and South America with very little resistance from other European countries due to the Treaty of Tordesillas which was backed by Pope Sixtus IV. The treaty was official in 1494 and it drew a North to South line that gave Spain all of the lands to the West of it, which cave most of the “New World” to the Spanish. This was the point in time when the Spanish gave full control of the “New World” to the conquistadors to bring as much gold and riches as they could back to Spain.
Most of the people that came over to the “New World” came because they had heard stories about there being rivers of gold and endless prizes. When the tales of endless riches made their way back to Spain, they sent the Conquistadores to the “New World” to take these riches and bring them back to Spain. One of the first Conquistadores that was sent to the “New World” was Hernan Cortes who arrived in the “New World” in 1504. Hernan Cortes landed on the island of Hispaniola and proceeded to conquer that island and move onto the next island. In 1519 Cortes and his men entered Tenochtitlan which was the Aztec capitol. The Conquistadors were astonished by the amounts of gold that the Aztecs had, but when they witnessed the practices of human sacrifice, they decided to try to capture the city. The conquistadors than captured the Aztec leader Monctezuma then they had to flee the city to survive and fight another day. For two years after 1519 Cortes and his Conquistadors gathered up a force of local natives that hated the Aztecs so that he could try to take the city again. In August of 1521 Cortez and is his large force attacked Tenochtitlan. It was a very bloody fight that caused large numbers of death on both sides. In the end the Conquistadors won the fight and the renamed Tenochtitlan to Mexico City. Cortez would end up becoming the most famous Conquistador of all time, but it wasn’t necessarily because of the good that he might have done in the “New World” that he was remembered for, it was for all of bad that he did. As I mentioned earlier he captured what is modern day Mexico City from the Aztecs, but what many people don’t think about is that that cost the lives of about 240,000 lives and this was in the 1520’s when a 240,000 meant a lot more than it means now. Cortez’s capturing of Mexico City marked the begining of the downfall of the Aztec people and when Cortez defeated the Aztecs he moved onto the next native nation, then the next ans so on for many years.
Cortez was the most famous Conquistador, but there were many other conquistadors that had just as large of an effect on the “New World” as Cortez did. Francisco Pizarro was another famous Conquistador who arrived in the Caribbean in 1509. He took part in the expeditions of Panama. He then was one of the main leaders that fought the Inca’s in the 1520’s. Pizarro captured the leader of the Incas in 1533 then killed him, and formed the city of Lima, Peru. Hernando de Soto is another famous Conquistador who started off following Pizarro when he fought the Incas. De Soto led expeditions into modern day Florida, Georgia, and most of the rest of the Southern United States of America. He was known for the amount of fights that he took part in during his expeditions. He died in 1542 during one of his expeditions due to sickness. These are only two examples of the many other Conquistadors that went on many other expaditions across North and South America. Most of the Conquistadors were just as ruthless as Cortez was and they decimated many native populations across the “New World” in search of gold and riches.
By the 1600’s the new settlements in the “New World” had become permanent settlements and the golden age of the conquistador had come to an end. Although the age of the Conquistador had come to an end the effects of the conquistadors would last forever. The conquistadors had been responsible for mapping most of Florida, Central America, and South America. Most of the early maps of the “New World” were created by conquistadors on their expeditions. The Spanish Armada was also created to supply the Conquistadors and to bring back the good that they had claimed in the name of Spain. But sadly the conquistadors had also brought many diseases that destroyed many communities and those who didn’t die from disease had to then physically fight the conquistadors after that.