Spanish Empire Accomplishments

Improved Essays
The Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in the world and became one of the first global empires in world history. The Empire had its ups and downs but for the most part, it was constantly making progress. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Columbus and the Pinzon brothers set sail west and ended up in the Bahamas. Later, Diego Columbus established the first secure Spanish colony at Santo Domingo. In 1515, The Spanish complete the conquest of Cuba and establish the town of Havana. The Spanish Empire accomplished many things during the 15th and 16th centuries. This paper will talk mostly about the accomplishments of the Spanish empire during the 15th and 16th centuries, and some of the things they ran into along the way.
In 1492, Christopher

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    The True History of the Conquest of New Spain (Content Paper) Bernal Díaz del Castillo a Spanish conqueror and chronicler in the Indies, travelled with Cortés expedition party. Bernal Díaz del Castillo was interested in getting his version of the expedition out to the world. Even though it was years before he was able to accomplish this he believed it was important to explain the “rank and file” of the expeditioners and the Aztecs. The excerpt describes the expeditions walk into the great city of Mexico or as it was known at the time, Tenochtitlan.…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Spain acted as one of the first major colonizers of the New World and married Spanish culture into these lands. Colonization allowed Spain to expand its influence and exploit the Americas for natural resources and labor. These efforts secured Spain’s place as one of the strongest countries and allowed a profitable system off the Columbian…

    • 702 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The purpose of this paper is to examine the history of Spanish Colonial Missions in Texas in order to gain a better understanding of Mission San Lorenzo de la Santa Cruz. Spanish Colonial missions in Texas have a rich archaeological and ethnohistorical record that provide insight to daily lives of missions as well as the long-term processes of the Spanish government on the North American continent. The Spanish government funded mission projects in order to spread Catholicism as well as adopt the Native Americans into Spanish, tax-paying citizens of the crown. What makes Mission San Lorenzo unique to other missions is that it was not approved by the Spanish government nor was it funded. This unauthorized mission was mostly funded personally by Captain Felipe de Rábago y Terán, as well as receiving…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    They were sponsored by the Crown which expanded their empire. The religion they practiced was restricted to Catholic, and Protestants were victimized and shunned out. The Spanish had a large trading economy and did some farming. Their population grew slowly because of many early problems like military conquest and bad connections with the Native Americans.…

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The late sixteenth century ushered the beginning of European colonization in the New World. European nations, consisting mostly of Spain, France, and England became three superpowers by establishing new settlements in the Americas. These European nations sought to claim new wealth in the New World. Distinctions in imperial goals of these nations were not too great, as Spain, France, and England all sought economic benefits of expansion through mercantilism. The imperial goals of Spain, French, and England were all similar in aspects of economic growth through colonizing new empires to expand authority and finding precious metals.…

    • 164 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout the years there has been much controversy on what events in history have influenced the world the most. Many scholars have agreed that both the Spanish conquest and colonization of Mexico and the Caribbean and the U.S. acquisition of Mexican and Caribbean territories are important turning points in history that have helped shape the social, economic, political and cultural characteristics of different Latin American countries. In order to comprehend the great importance of the Spanish and the American’s invasions, the reader must analyze the readings of Born in Blood & Fire by John Charles Chasteen and Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez. Both of these works are useful in discerning ideas that make the Spanish conquest and colonization and the U.S. acquisition similar and different. The Spanish conquest and colonization of Mexico, the Caribbean, and the U.S. acquisition of territories are similar because both had a racial and hierarchical, political and social system that rose from the transculturation of different races but different because they had different ideas on what Manifest Destiny meant, and they imposed their invasions in different ways.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Ferdinand And Greed

    • 2578 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Formation of an Empire Through Power and Greed Joshua Atler 9/27/14 Modern World History Honors Mr. Hardy Ferdinand II was born in 1452 as the son of John II of Aragon. In 1468, he became the king of Sicily, an island near Italy. Before he became the king of Aragon, he married Isabella I in 1469. She was the future queen of Castile, and Ferdinand was the future king of Aragon.…

    • 2578 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    During the years between 1598 and 1665 the Spanish Monarchy under the ruling of Phillip III and later on King Phillip IV faced many different challenges in this emerging country called Spain. However, Spain did not exist at this time it was ruled under the Habsburg Empire. What I shall be discussing in this assignment is the strengths and weaknesses that the Spanish Monarchy faced. During the start of the 17th Century what was known as the Habsburg Spain which was very much on the brink at the end of the Golden Age and even though it kept its populous empire the country fell into great turmoil towards the start of the 16th Century. The reason for this ‘decline’ was a cause of the defeat of the Spanish Armada and a corrupt financial crisis that in turn made the Spanish Crown to become bankrupt.…

    • 2568 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    With the death the Dictator General Franco of Spain in 1975; Spain began taking the first step towards democracy. In 1993, Spain became a member of the EU, benefitting greatly from the freedom movement of services, people, money, and goods inside of the European Union. Spain also benefited from allowment of movement between countries, allowing the service economy in Southern Spain to flourish. Unfortunately, recent events threaten the short lived prosperity of all members of the union.…

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Lazarillo De Tormes

    • 409 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Lazarillo de Tormes depicts 16th century Spain through a sour and ugly lens that leaves an impression that Spain bred nothing but misfortunes – poverty, starvation, deception – especially for the character Lazarillo. However, readers are aware of the author’s intentions to “distort reality downward” – as Lazarillo’s fictional perspective is indeed intended to depict a distorted description of the non-fictional reality – which explains the contradiction with history, as Spain was, in fact, a rich country at the peak of its prosperity (Lazarillo de Tormes). An exploration of the contrast between Lazarillo’s description and what is historically-accurate will certainly provide enlightenment regarding the author’s intentions. Before Spain’s success is further discussed, let there be an acknowledgment towards the Spanish Inquisition: the consolidation of power by the Catholic monarchy of the Spanish kingdom that mounted to an infamously brutal occurrence.…

    • 409 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The overall theme of this project is Age of Exploration explorers and we cover their accomplishments and not so worthy mistakes. The Age of Exploration was a significant time period since it spread knowledge across the world, new cultures were instituted, new and more advanced products were produced, and increases in money such as gold and silver. In Columbus case, he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean with 90 men and three ships in order to find another route to India. Unfortunately, he found land, yet it was not India but in fact the island of Hispaniola.…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Ap Euro Dbq Research Paper

    • 1541 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In the later fifthteenth century, European exploration and discovery driven by a want to discover a sea route in the East resulted in a series of Portuguese voyages. Geographical findings by Europe brought several new assets such as land, wealth, precious metals, and new products like coffee and tobacco. Inopportunely, in an attempt to quickly use these resources to their advantage, conflict in Europe resulted in a domain which was split into commercial empires. In area such as France and England arose the development of machinery of the strong central government along with aggressive mercantilist policies. Within this paper, I will discuss challenges and responses which can be found from this growth of Europe.…

    • 1541 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The domination of Spain and Portugal in the New World was at the threshold of the 19th century twisted by a massive wave of national liberation struggle. The Spanish colonial empire, which existed for nearly three centuries included a vast territory. Prior to this time in Latin America were only two advanced empires - the Incas and Aztecs, who did not communicating together. There did not work, or exchange of capital or exchange of goods. Both empires eventually became the victims of unusually rapid colonization and hence started together all parts of the continent to communicate.…

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mexican Empire

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Mexico began its course towards independence in a series of battles and wars with the Spanish armies in 1810 to regain its pride, lands, and above all, cultural origins where Mexico was named victorious and culminated in the signing of Plan de Iguala in 1821, a treaty in which Spain acknowledges Mexico as a newly independent country. However, the wars were costly and Mexico was left economically bankrupt along with a broken and distrustful and corrupt government, and a social climate in which prejudice existed. Although the Mexican empire wrestled to find its place in a prosperous and unified nation, it continued to harbor rooted shame and discontent against castas especially native Indians because they represented and were a reminder of all…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Spanish Conquest Essay

    • 1431 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In 1519, Spanish explorers, under the leadership of Hernán Cortés, set foot on what is now modern-day Mexico in search of gold and land in the Aztec Empire. Although the Spanish initially had no intentions (or orders from Cuban governor Diego Velásquez for whom they made the voyage) to colonize the Aztec Empire, they sought to communicate with the inhabitants and spread their Christian faith. However, the end of 1521 saw the mighty Aztec Empire practically cease to exist, its emperor Montezuma II join the many victims of the conquest, and the survivors put under the rule of the Spanish. A variety of factors came into play regarding the Spanish’s ability to conquer this mighty empire, including the ability to communicate verbally, the religious beliefs of both peoples, and the devastating effect of disease on the Aztec empire.…

    • 1431 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays