Origins
The Spanish Empire emerged from the union of Castile and Aragon through the marriage of Isabella I and Ferdinand II in 1469, and the completion of the Reconquista with Granada’s fall in 1492. That same year, Christopher Columbus, sailing under Castilian sponsorship, reached the Caribbean, initiating the European colonization of the Americas. Within decades, Spanish conquistadors had overthrown the Aztec and Inca empires, claiming territories from California to Patagonia and establishing the first global empire in history.
The conquest was shockingly rapid. Hernán Cortés with a few hundred men conquered the Aztec Empire (1519-1521); Francisco Pizarro with even fewer toppled the Inca (1532-1533). Spanish success owed less to military superiority than to indigenous alliances against hated overlords, devastating epidemic diseases, and the psychological impact of horses and firearms. The conquistadors were entrepreneurs, funding their own expeditions in expectation of plunder and grants. The crown struggled to control them, eventually imposing royal bureaucracy over the chaotic conquest society.
Under the Habsburgs (1516-1700), Spain became the dominant European power. Charles V inherited Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, and the Holy Roman Empire, creating a realm where “the sun never set.” His son Philip II added Portugal and its global empire in 1580. Spanish treasure fleets carried American silver that financed European wars, stimulated global trade, and caused inflation from Madrid to Beijing. Yet overextension, costly wars against the Dutch, French, and Ottomans, and economic decline at home undermined Spanish power by the seventeenth century.
Structure & Function
Spain governed its American empire through a sophisticated bureaucratic system. The Council of the Indies in Spain oversaw colonial affairs. Two viceroyalties—New Spain (Mexico) and Peru—administered vast territories, later subdivided into additional viceroyalties (New Granada, Río de la Plata). Royal audiencias served as high courts and administrative bodies. Corregidores governed provinces, while cabildos (town councils) provided local government. This hierarchical system, staffed largely by peninsular Spaniards, maintained royal authority across vast distances.
Colonial society was organized by race and legal status. Peninsulares (Spanish-born) held the highest positions; creoles (American-born Spanish) dominated landowning and local office; mestizos, indigenous peoples, and African slaves occupied descending rungs. The encomienda system granted conquistadors rights to indigenous labor, later replaced by repartimiento (labor drafts) and haciendas. The Catholic Church, particularly the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits, converted indigenous populations, established missions, and provided education and social services.
The economic system centered on extracting wealth for Spain. Silver from Potosí (Bolivia) and Zacatecas (Mexico) was shipped to Spain via annual treasure fleets, the most valuable trade route in history. The Casa de Contratación in Seville controlled colonial commerce. Trade restrictions (the flota system) attempted to channel all colonial commerce through Spanish ports, though smuggling was endemic. Plantation agriculture—sugar, tobacco, cacao—developed, especially in the Caribbean, relying increasingly on African slave labor.
Historical Significance
The Spanish Empire created the first truly global system, connecting the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia through trade, migration, and cultural exchange. The “Columbian Exchange” transformed world ecology: American crops (potatoes, maize, tomatoes) revolutionized Old World agriculture, while Old World diseases devastated indigenous populations (perhaps 90% mortality). Silver from the Americas flowed to China, where demand for the metal fueled global commerce. The Spanish dollar became the world’s first global currency.
Spain’s colonial legacy shaped Latin America indelibly. Spanish language and Catholicism spread across the continent. Colonial institutions—the hacienda, centralized government, racial hierarchy—influenced post-independence societies. Independence movements (1808-1833), triggered by Napoleon’s invasion of Spain, created new nations on Spanish administrative divisions. The colonial experience remains central to Latin American identity, debated between celebration of Hispanic heritage and condemnation of conquest and exploitation.
The Spanish Empire also established precedents for colonial governance. The Laws of Burgos (1512) and New Laws (1542) represented early attempts to regulate treatment of indigenous peoples—honored more in breach than observance, but significant as legal principles. The debates of Salamanca, where theologians like Francisco de Vitoria questioned conquest’s legitimacy, laid foundations for international law. Spanish colonial law, the encomienda, the missions, the racial caste system—all influenced later European colonialism.
Key Developments
- 1469: Marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella unites Aragon and Castile
- 1492: Columbus reaches Americas; Granada conquered; Jews expelled
- 1494: Treaty of Tordesillas divides New World between Spain and Portugal
- 1519-1521: Cortés conquers Aztec Empire
- 1532-1533: Pizarro conquers Inca Empire
- 1542: New Laws attempt to protect indigenous peoples
- 1545: Silver discovered at Potosí
- 1565: Philippines colonized; Manila Galleon trade begins
- 1580: Philip II inherits Portugal and its empire
- 1588: Spanish Armada defeated by England
- 1648: Peace of Westphalia; Spain recognizes Dutch independence
- 1700: Bourbon dynasty replaces Habsburgs
- 1713: Treaty of Utrecht; Spain loses European territories
- 1767: Jesuits expelled from Spanish territories
- 1808: Napoleon invades Spain; triggers American independence movements
- 1810-1833: American independence wars; most colonies lost
- 1898: Spanish-American War; Spain loses Cuba, Puerto Rico, Philippines
- 1956: Morocco gains independence
- 1976: Spain withdraws from Western Sahara; empire formally ends