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The Spanish colonization of the Americas began with the arrival in the , the Spanish possessions in America began a series of independence movements, which culminated in Spain's loss of all of its colonies on the mainland of North , Central and South America by 1825. The remaining Spanish colonies of Cuba , Puerto Rico and the Philippines were occupied by the United States following the Spanish-American War , ending Spanish rule in the Americas. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS See Also: History of Spain Christopher Columbus The Spanish Crown's search for a route across the . There was no idea in that era of the actual size of the globe, and the expectation was that Asia could be reachable directly with the small sailing ships of the day. Columbus's voyages were also taking place at the end of seven centuries of the '' Reconquista '', in which the last Moorish kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula (in Granada) was finally brought under direct Christian control. The Native Americans, similar to the remaining Moors in Spain, were for a time considered without rights as long as they were not converted to Catholicism. Columbus was made governor of the new territories and made several more journeys across the Atlantic Ocean . He profited from the labour of Native Slaves , whom he forced to mine Gold ; he also attempted to sell some slaves to Spain . While generally regarded as an excellent navigator, he was a poor administrator and was stripped of the governorship in 1500. EARLY CARIBBEAN SETTLEMENT The first Spanish settlements in the Americas occurred the islands of the Caribbean Sea . On his fourth and final voyage in 1502, Columbus encountered a large canoe off the coast of what is now Honduras filled with trade goods. He boarded the canoe and rifled through the cargo which included Cacao beans, Copper and flint axes, copper bells, pottery, and colorful Cotton garments. He took one prisoner and what he wanted from the cargo and let the canoe continue. This was the first contact of the Spanish with the civilizations of Central America. In 1513, Vasco Núñez De Balboa crossed the Isthmus Of Panama , and led the first European expedition to see the Pacific Ocean from the West Coast Of The New World . In an action with enduring historical import, Balboa claimed the Pacific Ocean and all the lands adjoining it for the Spanish Crown. It was 1517 before another expedition from Cuba visited Central America , landing on the coast of the Yucatán in search of Slaves . This was followed by a phase of conquest. The Spaniards, just having finished A War against the Muslim Moors in the Iberian Peninsula , began toppling the local American civilizations, and attempted to impose Christianity . It is important to distinguish between the Spanish Conquest Of Mexico and the Spanish Conquest Of Yucatán . Although the Yucatán Peninsula is part of the modern-day country of Mexico, the ''Spanish conquest of Mexico'' refers to the conquest of the Mexica/Aztec empire by Hernán Cortés from 1519–21. It is April 22 , 1519 , the day Hernán Cortés landed ashore and founded the city of Veracruz , that marks the beginning of almost 303 years of Spanish Hegemony over the region. The ''Spanish conquest of Yucatán'', on the other hand, refers to the conquest of the Maya states from 1511–1697. See Also: Conquistador Francisco Pizarro Francisco Vasquez de Coronado Hernando de Soto (explorer) Bartolomé de las Casas EFFECT ON NATIVE HEALTH European diseases ( Smallpox , Influenza , Measles and Typhus ), to which the native populations had no resistance, and systems of forced labor (such as the Encomienda , and the mining industry's Mita ), decimated the native population. The diseases usually preceded the Spanish invaders, and the resulting population loss (between 30 and 90 percent in some cases) severely weakened the native civilizations' ability to resist the invaders. {Link without Title} COLUMBUS CONQUERS HAITI On his immediate discovery of the Arawak people he met right after arriving on their land after his first voyage, Columbus got the impression that he could conquer these people easily saying in his journal, "I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men and govern them as I please," and he proceeded to do just that. He kidnapped some ten to twenty-five Indians and took them back to Spain. Only about seven or eight survived this journey but with the parrots, gold trinkets and other exotic loot Columbus displayed to the Spanish government he was able to persuade them into providing him with seventeen ships nearly 1,500 men, cannons crossbows, guns, cavalry, and attack dogs for voyage #2. He returned to Haiti and the Arawaks in 1493 demanding food, gold, spun cotton and whatever else they could get from the Indians including sex with their women. Cooperation was ensured by a punishment system: any minor offense by an Arawak would result in a Spaniard cutting off his ears or nose only to be sent back to the village as living, breathing, bleeding example of the work expected and the brutality the Spaniards were capable of. The Arawaks began to resist by refusing to plant for the Spanish, abandoning captured towns, etc. but over time this rebellion grew physically violent. Nonetheless the Indian "sticks and stones" were no match to the guns and harmless to the armor the Spanish possessed and wore. Columbus used this resistance by the Indians as an excuse to wage war and on March 24, 1495 the famed explorer set out to conquer this race that he thought so "inferior" and "stupid." Naturally the Spanish won and according to Kirkpatrick Sale, who quotes Ferdinand Columbus's biography of his father: "The soldiers mowed down dozens with point-blank volleys, loosed the dogs to rip open limbs and bellies, chased fleeing Indians into the bush to skewer them on sword and pike and 'with God's aid soon gained complete victory, killing many Indians and capturing others who were also killed. This led to a massive Spanish slave trade, in which Columbus brought back some 500 "specimens" to work as slaves in Spain while another 500 stayed as slaves for the crew left in the Americas. Still, Columbus could not find the gold he was looking for all along. And refusing to call it slavery, Columbus resorted to this "forced labor." Indians were forced to mine for gold, raise Spanish food, and even carry the Spanish everywhere they went. And beyond these cruel acts the Spanish disrupted the ecosystem and culture. Forcing Indians to work in mines led to widespread malnutrition and the intrusion of rabbits and livestock caused further ecological disasters. Disease riddled the Americas as well. Indians were so tired of this slavery that they would resort to methods of suicide such as self impalement, consumption of poison, jumped off cliffs, or hanged themselves. Worst of all, Arawak mothers would resort to aborting their children themselves or even killing their own children with their bare hands just so their offspring wouldn't have to endure the hard labor they did. Before Columbus's arrival it was assumed there were about 8,000,000 people living in Haiti. By the time he was done, there was around 3,000,000. In addition to the 5 million casualties of this genocide, as it is called by some, Columbus is expected to have carried a total of 5,000 slaves across the Atlantic; more than any single person in history. |
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