European colonization of the Americas
Spain
### Spain

[[Christopher Columbus](/wiki/Christopher_Columbus "Christopher Columbus") voyages\|thumb\|250px](/wiki/File:Viajes_de_colon_en.svg "Viajes de colon en.svg")
[[Ferdinand Magellan](/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan "Ferdinand Magellan") and other circumnavigation explorers\|thumb\|250px](/wiki/File:SpanishPacific.svg "SpanishPacific.svg")
[thumb\|[Amerigo Vespucci](/wiki/Amerigo_Vespucci "Amerigo Vespucci") wakes up "America" in *Americae Retectio*, engraving by the Flemish artist [Jan Galle](/wiki/Jan_Galle "Jan Galle") (circa 1615\)](/wiki/File:%22America%22_%28Engraving%29_Nova_reperta_%28Speculum_diuersarum_imaginum_speculatiuarum_1638%29.tif)

Systematic European colonization began in 1492\. A [Spanish](/wiki/Spanish_Empire "Spanish Empire") [expedition](/wiki/Columbus%27s_first_voyage "Columbus's first voyage") sailed west to find a new trade route to the [Far East](/wiki/Far_East "Far East"), the source of spices, silks, porcelains, and other rich trade goods. Ottoman control of the [Silk Road](/wiki/Silk_Road "Silk Road"), the traditional route for trade between Europe and Asia, forced European traders to look for alternative routes. The [Genoese](/wiki/Republic_of_Genoa "Republic of Genoa") mariner [Christopher Columbus](/wiki/Christopher_Columbus "Christopher Columbus") led an expedition to find a route to East Asia, but instead landed in [The Bahamas](/wiki/The_Bahamas "The Bahamas"). Columbus encountered the [Lucayan people](/wiki/Lucayan_people "Lucayan people") on the island [Guanahani](/wiki/Guanahani "Guanahani") (possibly [Cat Island](/wiki/Cat_Island%2C_Bahamas "Cat Island, Bahamas")), which they had inhabited since the ninth century. In his reports, Columbus exaggerated the quantity of gold in the [East Indies](/wiki/East_Indies "East Indies"), which he called the "[New World](/wiki/New_World "New World")". These claims, along with the slaves he brought back, convinced the monarchy to fund a second voyage. Word of Columbus's exploits spread quickly, sparking the Western European exploration, conquest, and colonization of the Americas.

[thumb\|The Discovery of America ([Johann Moritz Rugendas](/wiki/Johann_Moritz_Rugendas "Johann Moritz Rugendas")).](/wiki/File:MHN_Rugendas_Descobrimento_da_Am%C3%A9rica.jpg "MHN Rugendas Descobrimento da América.jpg")

Spanish explorers, conquerors, and settlers sought material wealth, prestige, and the [spread of Christianity](/wiki/Spread_of_Christianity "Spread of Christianity"), often summed up in the phrase "gold, glory, and God".[https://www.encyclopedia.com/social\-sciences/applied\-and\-social\-sciences\-magazines/gold\-god\-and\-glory](https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/gold-god-and-glory) , "Gold, God, and glory". accessed 6 July 2021\. The Spanish justified their claims to the New World based on the ideals of the Christian Reconquista of the [Iberian Peninsula](/wiki/Iberian_Peninsula "Iberian Peninsula") from the Muslims, completed in 1492\.Seed, Patricia. *American Pentimento \[electronic Resource] : The Invention of Indians and the Pursuit of Riches / Patricia Seed.* Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001\. Print. In the New World, military conquest to incorporate indigenous peoples into Christendom was considered the "spiritual conquest". In 1493, [Pope Alexander VI](/wiki/Pope_Alexander_VI "Pope Alexander VI"), the first Spaniard to become Pope, issued a series of [Papal Bulls](/wiki/Papal_bull "Papal bull") that confirmed Spanish claims to the newly discovered lands.Bonch\-Bruevich, Xenia. "Ideologies of the Spanish Reconquest and Isidore's Political Thought." *Mediterranean Studies*, vol. 17, 2008, pp. 27–45\. *JSTOR*, www.jstor.org/stable/41167390\. Accessed 12 Nov. 2020\.

After the final [Reconquista](/wiki/Reconquista "Reconquista") of [Iberia](/wiki/Iberia "Iberia"), the [Treaty of Tordesillas](/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas "Treaty of Tordesillas") was ratified by the Pope, the two kingdoms of [Castile](/wiki/Crown_of_Castile "Crown of Castile") (in a [personal union](/wiki/Personal_union "Personal union") with other kingdoms of Spain) and Portugal in 1494\. The treaty divided the entire non\-European world into two spheres of exploration and colonization. The [longitudinal](/wiki/Longitude "Longitude") boundary cut through the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern part of present\-day Brazil. The countries declared their rights to the land despite the fact that Indigenous populations had settled from pole to pole in the hemisphere and it was their homeland.

After European contact, the native population of the Americas plummeted by an estimated 80% (from around 50 million in 1492 to eight million in 1650\), due in part to Old World diseases carried to the New World. [Smallpox](/wiki/Smallpox "Smallpox") was especially devastating, for it could be passed through touch, allowing native tribes to be wiped out, and the conditions that colonization imposed on Indigenous populations, such as forced labor and removal from homelands and traditional medicines."La catastrophe démographique" (The Demographic Catastrophe) in *[L'Histoire](/wiki/L%27Histoire "L'Histoire")* n°322, July–August 2007, p. 17 Some scholars have argued [that this demographic collapse](/wiki/Population_history_of_indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas "Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas") was the result of the first large\-scale act of [genocide](/wiki/Genocide_of_indigenous_peoples "Genocide of indigenous peoples") [in the modern era](/wiki/Genocides_in_history%231490_to_1914 "Genocides in history#1490 to 1914").
[thumb\|The silver mountain of [Potosí](/wiki/Potos%C3%AD "Potosí"), in what is now Bolivia. It was the source of vast amounts of silver that transformed the [world economy](/wiki/World_economy "World economy").](/wiki/File:Capitulo-CIX.jpg "Capitulo-CIX.jpg")
For example, the labor and tribute of [inhabitants of Hispaniola](/wiki/Ta%C3%ADno_people "Taíno people") were granted in [encomienda](/wiki/Encomienda "Encomienda") to Spaniards, a practice established in Spain for conquered Muslims. Although not technically slavery, it was coerced labor for the benefit of the Spanish grantees, called *[encomenderos](/wiki/Encomenderos "Encomenderos")*. Spain had a legal tradition and devised a proclamation known as [The Requerimento](/wiki/Spanish_Requirement_of_1513 "Spanish Requirement of 1513") to be read to indigenous populations in Spanish, often far from the field of battle, stating that the indigenous were now subjects of the Spanish Crown and would be punished if they resisted.Seed, Patricia. Ceremonies of possession in Europe's conquest of the New World, 1492–1640\. United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 1995\. When the news of this situation and the abuse of the institution reached Spain, the [New Laws](/wiki/New_Laws "New Laws") were passed to regulate and gradually abolish the system in the Americas, as well as to reiterate the prohibition of enslaving Native Americans. By the time the new laws were passed, in 1542, the Spanish crown had acknowledged their inability to control and properly ensure compliance with traditional laws overseas, so they granted to Native Americans specific protections not even Spaniards had, such as the prohibition of enslaving them even in the case of crime or war. These extra protections were an attempt to avoid the proliferation of irregular claims to slavery.Suárez Romero. LA SITUACIÓN JURÍDICA DEL INDIO DURANTE LA CONQUISTA ESPAÑOLA EN AMÉRICA. REVISTA DE LA FACULTAD DE DERECHO DE MÉXICO TOMO LXVIII, Núm.270 (Enero\-Abril 2018\) However, as historian [Andrés Reséndez](/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Res%C3%A9ndez "Andrés Reséndez") has noted, "this categorical prohibition did not stop generations of determined conquistadors and colonists from taking Native slaves on a planetary scale, ... The fact that this other slavery had to be carried out clandestinely made it even more insidious. It is a tale of good intentions gone badly astray."

A major event in early Spanish colonization, which had so far yielded paltry returns, was the [Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire](/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_the_Aztec_Empire "Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire") (1519–1521\). It was led by [Hernán Cortés](/wiki/Hern%C3%A1n_Cort%C3%A9s "Hernán Cortés") and made possible by securing indigenous alliances with the Aztecs' enemies, mobilizing thousands of warriors against the Aztecs for their own political reasons. The Aztec capital, [Tenochtitlan](/wiki/Tenochtitlan "Tenochtitlan"), became [Mexico City](/wiki/Mexico_City "Mexico City"), the chief city of the "[New Spain](/wiki/Viceroyalty_of_New_Spain "Viceroyalty of New Spain")". More than an estimated 240,000 [Aztecs](/wiki/Aztecs "Aztecs") died during the [siege of Tenochtitlan](/wiki/Fall_of_Tenochtitlan "Fall of Tenochtitlan"), 100,000 in combat, while 500–1,000 of the Spaniards engaged in the conquest died. The other great conquest was of the [Inca Empire](/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_the_Inca_Empire "Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire") (1531–35\), led by [Francisco Pizarro](/wiki/Francisco_Pizarro "Francisco Pizarro").

[thumb\|Spanish historical and territorial presence in [North America](/wiki/North_America "North America").](/wiki/File:Spanish_North_America.png "Spanish North America.png")
During the early period of exploration, conquest, and settlement, c. 1492–1550, the overseas possessions claimed by Spain were only loosely controlled by the crown. With the conquests of the Aztecs and the Incas, the New World now commanded the crown's attention. Both Mexico and Peru had dense, hierarchically organized indigenous populations that could be incorporated and ruled. Even more importantly, both Mexico and Peru had large deposits of silver, which became the economic motor of the Spanish empire and transformed the world economy. In Peru, the singular, hugely rich [silver mine of Potosí](/wiki/Cerro_Rico "Cerro Rico") was worked by traditional forced indigenous labor drafts, known as the [mit'a](/wiki/Mit%27a "Mit'a"). In Mexico, silver was found outside the zone of dense indigenous settlement, so free laborers migrated to the mines in [Guanajuato](/wiki/Guanajuato "Guanajuato") and [Zacatecas](/wiki/Zacatecas "Zacatecas"). The crown established the [Council of the Indies](/wiki/Council_of_the_Indies "Council of the Indies") in 1524, based in Seville, and issued [laws of the Indies](/wiki/Laws_of_the_Indies "Laws of the Indies") to assert its power against the early conquerors. The crown created the [viceroyalty of New Spain](/wiki/Viceroyalty_of_New_Spain "Viceroyalty of New Spain") and the [viceroyalty of Peru](/wiki/Viceroyalty_of_Peru "Viceroyalty of Peru") to tighten crown control over these rich prizes of conquest.


What was the purpose of the Council of the Indies?