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. 1536–11 June 1580: Buenos Aires is founded, twice
2. 1609–1768: The Jesuit missions among the Guaraní
3. 26 March 1713–1750: The slave asiento goes to Britain
4. c. 1765–1788: The Bourbon reforms
5. 1767: Charles III expels the Jesuits