The Spanish Conquistadors: The Spread of Spanish Americans

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The Spanish Conquistadors (The Spread of the Spanish Americans)

By Sean McMahon

The word Conquistador means conqueror in Spanish and were Spanish soldiers and explorers-‘el conquistador’. The Renaissance and Elizabethan Age of Exploration to the New World were subjugated by the Spanish Conquistadors. The real achievement of the Spanish Conquistadors in acquiring monopolies on much of the Eastern spice trade and their journeys to the new world brought prodigious wealth and power to Spain. The new discoveries made by the Spanish conquistadors brought untold riches in terms of gold, silver, spices and it also brought power and influence. The ultimate question is “what were the Spanish conquistadors’ goal and their point of view?”

The origins of the Spanish conquistadors started when Spain had successfully taken the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslim Moors after nearly eight hundred years of conflict. This victory was referred to as the ‘Reconquista’. The term was referred to the eighth centuries during which the Christian kings of the Spanish kingdoms gradually reclaimed their country from the Moors, who had invaded the Liberian Peninsula in 711. The feuding with the Muslim Moors had been seen as a continuation of the Medieval Crusades. The crusades were a series of religious Holy War which had been given the blessing of the Pope (they were fought by Roman Catholic soldiers). The Spanish explorers/ soldiers saw their operation to conquer new lands as a natural extension of the medieval crusades. Roman Catholic Priests and Friars always supplemented the Spanish explorers who were expected to convert heathen natives to Christianity. As a result, the Spanish explorers/Soldiers who traveled to the New World were called of the title of ‘Conquistadors’.

Years after Columbus’s landing to America, Spain became the dominant exploring and colonizing power due to Columbus’s actions. The conquerors came to American in the service of God as well as the search of...
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