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 Catholic Monarchs (1469–1516)
- The conquest (1492–1575)
- The Habsburg empire (1516–1700)
- The viceroyalties (1535–1808)
- The first Bourbons (1700–1808)
Its events
- 19 October 1469: Isabel and Fernando marry
- 1492: Nebrija's Castilian grammar
- 2 January 1492: The fall of Granada
- 31 March 1492: The expulsion of the Jews
- 12 October 1492: Columbus reaches America
- 7 June 1494: The Treaty of Tordesillas
- 1512: The Laws of Burgos
- 1520–23 April 1521: The revolt of the Comuneros
- 6 September 1522: Elcano sails round the world
- 20 November 1542: The New Laws of the Indies
- August 1550–1551: The Valladolid debate
- 1554: Lazarillo de Tormes is printed
- 1555–1571: Friars write the first grammars of American languages
- May 1561: Philip II moves the court to Madrid
- 1562: Teresa of Ávila founds San José
- 1563–1584: Philip II builds El Escorial
- 7 October 1571: The Battle of Lepanto
- 1580–1640: Philip II becomes king of Portugal
- 30 May 1588–October 1588: The Armada sails against England
- January 1605: Don Quixote is published
- 1609: Lope de Vega and the comedia
- April 1609–January 1614: The expulsion of the Moriscos
- 1656: Velázquez paints Las Meninas
- 1701–1714: The War of the Spanish Succession
- 26 March 1713–1750: The slave asiento goes to Britain
- 3 August 1713: The Real Academia Española is founded
- 1726–1739: The Diccionario de autoridades
- 1741–2010: The ñ and the shaping of Spanish spelling
- c. 1765–1788: The Bourbon reforms
- 1767: Charles III expels the Jesuits