Conquistador
Conquistador (
Spanish: []) (meaning "Conqueror" in the
Spanish language) is the term used to refer to the soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the
Americas and
Asia Pacific under
Spanish colonial rule between the
15th and
17th centuries, starting with the
1492 settlement established in modern-day
Cuba by
Christopher Columbus.
The leaders of Spanish expeditions to the New World called themselves
conquistadores, a name expressing the similarity of conquests in the
New World to the recently accomplished
reconquista, the
Christian crusades to conquer or (re)conquer the
Iberian peninsula from the
Muslim Moors, recently sealed with the conquest of
Granada,
1492). The conquistadors also invoked the name of
Santiago Matamoros ("
St James the Moor-killer") before going into battle against the
native population of the Americas, who were considered without rights as long as they were "
pagan" not converted to
Catholicism: their lands were annexed as belonging to Christendom with papal blessing, the only rival claim to be taken seriously was that of the Portuguese, settled after papal arbitration in the
Treaty of Tordesillas in
1494.
Many conquistadores were poor, including some nobles (
hidalgos) seeking a fortune in the West Indies, since there were limited prospects in Europe, the
Crusades having ended. Hispanic
honor rules for nobility banned them from manual work.
Some were also fleeing the religious repression caused by the
Spanish Inquisition.
New World
|
Hernán Cortés, Conquistador of the Aztec Empire |
The first Spanish conquest in
the Americas was the island of
Hispaniola (presently shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic). From there,
Juan Ponce de León conquered
Puerto Rico and
Diego Velázquez took
Cuba. The first settlement on the mainland was
Darién in
Panama, settled by
Vasco Núñez de Balboa in
1512. As these Caribbean regions proved no great treasury or endless supply of priceless spices, the 'disappointment' motivated further exploration, rather than a serious effort to make the best of the 'virgin' colonies, a foretaste of monumental economic mismanagement.
The first immensely successful conquistador was
Hernán Cortés. Between
1520 and
1521, Cortés, along with some
Native American allies, conquered the mighty
Aztec empire, thus bringing present day
Mexico under the dominion of the
Spanish empire, as
New Spain. Of comparable importance was the conquest of the South American
Inca Empire by
Francisco Pizarro. Both were helped by
smallpox and other European
plagues that weakened the native populations, for these diseases were unknown in America at the time of the Spanish arrival and the native populations lacked the
antibodies to fight them. The diseases also killed the current leader of the Inca at the time, facilitating the war that Pizarro walked into upon his arrival. Combined with far greater forces of native allies, Cortés' forces managed to besiege the Aztec capital city and destroy it.
|
Francisco Pizarro. Conquistador of the Inca Empire |
Rumours of golden Cities (
Cíbola in
North America and "
El Dorado" in
South America) caused several more expeditions to leave for the Americas, but many returned without finding any gold, finding less gold than expected, or finding
Fool's Gold. The piece that
Sapa Inca Atahualpa paid Pizarro for his freedom was taken back to Spain, leading to additional Conquistador expeditions in South America.Emboldened by the seemingly endless rising imports of silver and gold the
Spanish Habsburg, imperial rule became uncompromising, leading to the unwise use of the
crown's share of the colonial proceeds that would bankrupt a constantly overstretched Spain, repeatedly. The influx of precious metal also caused
towering inflation in Europe (particularly in Spain), thereby undermining the domestic economy (which was the main source of revenue), greatly contributing to the ultimate loss of the war against Protestant rebels and Catholic France, and, finally, after a long, slow, decline, led to the loss of imperial prominence to its northern rivals.
The Spanish Conquest in Asia - Pacific
The discovery of the
Strait of Magellan in
1520 by
Portuguese explorer
Ferdinand Magellan in the tip of
South America led to
Spanish interest in the Pacific. The first of the Conquistadors to sail the vast
Pacific Ocean was
Miguel López de Legazpi in
1564 and arrived in the
Philippine archipelago on
1565. Legazpi and his men destroyed the native settlements and conquered the islands for Spain. This paved the way for Spanish settlements in the Pacific.
Most of the conquistadors cruelly mistreated the inhabitants of the regions they visited or conquered; killing, enslaving, raping and otherwise abusing them in a way that, on the other side, may not have been really different of the one inflicted by other contemporary European powers in their colonies but, due to the much larger population which the Spaniards met, may have become much more obvious. Accounts of the behavior of Spanish conquistadors from both inside and outside were part of the source material for the stereotype of Spanish cruelty that came to be known as the
Black Legend.
As a result of this, little is known outside the Hispanic world about some Spaniards, notably the priest
Bartolomé de Las Casas, who defended
Native Americans against the abuses of conquistadores. In
1542, Bartolomé de las Casas published
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (
Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias). His account is largely responsible for the passage of the new Spanish colonial laws known as the
New Laws of 1542, which was used in an attempt to protect the rights of native inhabitants (the
governor and men sent to enforce them were killed by rebellious conquistadores). These New Laws of 1542 stablished a really early -if compared to British or French colonies- abolishment of native slavery.
*
Hernán Cortés (
Mexico, 1518-1522,
Honduras, 1524,
Baja California, 1532-1536)
*
Francisco Pizarro (
Peru, 1509-1535)
*
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado (southwestern
United States, 1540-1542)
*
Diego de Almagro (
Peru, 1524-1535,
Chile, 1535-1537)
*
Vasco Núñez de Balboa (
Panama, 1510-1519)
*
Juan Ponce de León (
Puerto Rico, 1508,
Florida, 1513 and 1521)
*
Pedro de Alvarado (
Mexico,
1519-
1521,
Guatemala 1523 -
1527,
Peru, 1533-1535, Mexico, 1540-1541)
*
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (southwestern
United States, 1527-1536,
South America, 1540-1542)
*
Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón (
United States east coast, 1524-1527)
*
Sebastián de Belalcázar (
Ecuador and
Colombia, 1533-1536)
*
Gonzalo Pizarro (
Peru, 1532-1542)
*
Juan Pizarro, (
Peru, 1532-1536)
*
Francisco Hernández de Córdoba (
Yucatán, 1517)
*
Martín de Goiti, (
Manila,
Philippines, 1570-1571)
*
Hernándo Pizarro, (
Peru, 1532-1560)
*
Juan de Grijalva (
Yucatán, 1518)
*
Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada (
Colombia, 1536-1537,
Venezuela, 1569-1572)
*
Miguel López de Legazpi, (
Philippines, 1565-1571)
*
Francisco de Montejo (
Yucatan,
1527-
1546)
*
Juan de Salcedo, (Northern
Philippines, 1570-1576)
*
Nikolaus Federmann (
Venezuela and
Colombia, 1537-1539).
*
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)
*
Hernando de Soto (southeastern
United States, 1539-1542)
*
Inés Suárez, (
Chile,
1541)
*
Martín de Ursua,
Peten region of
Guatemala,
1696-
1697*
Pedro de Valdivia (
Chile, 1540-1552)
*
Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar (
Cuba, 1511-1519)
*
Pedro Menendez de Aviles (
Florida, 1565 - 1567)
*
Juan de Oñate (
New Mexico, 1598)
Conquistadors were a featured unique unit for the
Spanish civilization in the expansion to the
computer game Age of Empires II; featured a scenario in which the player commands Spanish fleet against the Turkish armada, a
reenactment of the
Battle of Lepanto, they also appear in
Civilization III Play the World. Also, they are an upgrade for Spanish explorers in
Age of Empires III.
The Rock group
Procol Harum had a hit single with a song called Conquistador. This was also the title of the Portuguese entry in the 1989
Eurovision Song Contest. The German
power metal band
Running Wild has a song called Conquistadores on their
Port Royal album.
In the preview trailer for the classic
Star Trek episode "
Space Seed",
Captain Kirk refers to
Khan Noonien Singh and his followers as conquistadores.
*
Spanish conquest of Peru*
Spanish colonization of the Americas *
Encomienda*
Repartimiento*
List of conquistadors*
New Laws*
Valladolid debateJohn Charles Chasteen,
Born In Blood And Fire: Concise History of Latin America Summary of the history of Latin America.
