Empire and the colonial Americas

El imperio y la América colonial

1492–1808. From 1492 Castile, and then the Spanish monarchy, built an empire across the Americas and the Pacific.

What happened

From 1492 Castile, and then the Spanish monarchy, built an empire across the Americas and the Pacific. Conquest, epidemics and forced labour devastated Indigenous peoples, while Spanish, Indigenous and African people and cultures mixed in new societies. Silver from the Americas fed world trade, and Spanish writers and painters had their Golden Age. Spanish became the language of a continent, taking in words from Taíno, Nahuatl and Quechua on the way.

Within it

• The conquest (1492–1575)
• The viceroyalties (1535–1808)
• The first Bourbons (1700–1808)

Its events

1. 29 September 1513: Balboa reaches the Pacific
2. 1535: The Viceroyalty of New Spain is created
3. c. 1568: Bernal Díaz writes his True History
4. 1585–28 January 1596: Drake raids the Spanish Caribbean
5. 26 March 1713–1750: The slave asiento goes to Britain