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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.

Background

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-bane") 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.

History

New World

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.

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.

Debate on the Human Rights of Natives

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 a, on the other side, mere instrument of British foreign policy.

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.

List of Famous Conquistadores and Explorers

"Conquistadores" in popular culture

Conquistadors were a featured unique unit for the Spanish civilization in the expansion to the computer game The Age of Kings; 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 referes to Khan Noonien Singh and his followers as conquistadores.

See also

References

John Charles Chasteen, Born In Blood And Fire: Concise History of Latin America Summary of the history of Latin America.

Conquistadores | Spanish colonization of the Americas | Spanish colonial period in the Philippines | Spanish terms

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