Beginning with Christopher Columbus in 1492, Spain conquered most of South America and the American Southwest. An initial wave of conquistadors, helped by infectious diseases that annihilated the native populations, defeated the civilizations of the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas. Spain organized an imperial system in order to exploit the labor and land of the Americas. Spain used the wealth that they gained from their conquered land to finance their military in Europe, protecting the Americas with a powerful army and navy, in order to bring Catholicism to the new world. The Spanish were able to colonize a large part of South and Central America, but the territory that would later became the United States was yet to be a part of Spain's new world
