From TheBestLinks.com
Conquistador (meaning "Conqueror" in the Spanish language) is the term used to refer to the soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th through the 17th century.
After the discoveries of Columbus had gained Spain a foothold in America, expeditions were soon set out to conquer and evangelize this 'New World'.
The leaders of these expeditions are called conquistadores, a name that denotes that they felt connected with the reconquista, the Christian (re)conquest of the Iberian peninsula from the Muslim Moors (711-1492). They also evoked the name of Santiago Matamoros ("St. James the Moor-killer") before going into battle against the Indians, another echo of this connection with the reconquista.
Many of the conquistadors were poor nobles (hidalgos) looking forward to make fortunes in the Indies, since they could not in Europe.
The first Spanish conquest in the Americas was the island of Hispaniola. 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.
The most successful conquistador was Hernán Cortés, who in 1520-1521, with Native American allies, overran the mighty Aztec empire, thus making Mexico (then called New Spain) a part of the Spanish empire. Of comparable importance was the conquest of the Inca empire by Francisco Pizarro.
After this, rumours of golden cities (Cibola in North America, El Dorado in South America) caused several more expeditions to be sent out, but many of those returned without having found their goal, or having found it, finding it much less valuable than was hoped.
Most of the conquistadors cruelly mistreated the inhabitants of the regions they visited or conquered, killing, enslaving and otherwise abusing them. Some Spaniards, singularly the priest Bartolomé de Las Casas, defended Native Americans against of the abuses of conquistadors. In 1542, New Spanish colonial laws, known as the New Laws of 1542, were made to protect Indians. In 1552, Bartolomé de las Casas published "Short Account of the Destruction of the West Indies" (Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias), which was used by the other European colonial powers, rivals of Spain, in criticism of Spain's role.
One memorable conquistadora (the feminine form of conquistador) was Ines Suarez. Ines came to the Americas around 1537, around the age of thirty, in search of her husband. After days of continuous searching in numerous South American countries, she found the dead body of her husband. Shortly afterwards, Suarez became the mistress of the great conqueror of Chile at that time.
List of conquistadors and Spanish explorers, with the period and place of conquest or exploration:
- Diego de Almagro (Peru, 1524-1535, Chile, 1535-1537)
- Pedro de Alvarado (Mexico, 1519-1521, Guatemala 1523 -1527, Peru, 1533-1535, Mexico, 1540-1541)
- Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón (United States east coast, 1524-1527)
- Vasco Núñez de Balboa (Panama, 1510-1519)
- Sebastián de Belalcázar (Ecuador and Colombia, 1533-1536)
- Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (southwestern United States, 1527-1536, South America, 1540-1542)
- Francisco Hernández de Córdoba (Yucatán, 1517)
- Francisco Vásquez de Coronado (southwestern United States, 1540-1542)
- Hernán Cortés (Mexico, 1518-1522, Honduras, 1524, Baja California, 1532-1536)
- Juan de Grijalva (Yucatán, 1518)
- Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada (Colombia, 1536-1537, Venezuela, 1569-1572)
- Francisco de Montejo Yucatan, 1527-1546
- 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)
- Francisco Pizarro (Peru, 1509-1535)
- Gonzalo Pizarro (Peru, 1540-1542)
- Juan Ponce de León (Puerto Rico, 1508, Florida, 1513 and 1521)
- Hernando de Soto (southeastern United States, 1539-1542)
- Martín de Ursua, Peten region of Guatemala, 1696-1697
- Pedro de Valdivia (Chile, 1540-1552)
- Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar (Cuba, 1511-1519)
See also
For additional information or reclarification read: Born In Blood And Fire: Concise History of Latin America by John Charles Chasteen.
da:Conquistador
de:Konquistador
fr:Conquistador
hr:konkvistadori
it:Conquistadores
ja:コンキスタドール
nl:Conquistador
sv:Conquistador
Related links
Top visited
0 of
0 links
[no links posted yet]
>> place link >>
Discussion
Last posted
0 of
0 messages
[no messages posted yet]
>> post message >>
Watch
You can
add this article to your own "watchlist" and receive e-mail notification about all changes in this page.
