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Beginning with the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus and continuing for over three centuries, the Spanish Empire would expand across the Caribbean Islands, half of South America, most of Central America and much of North America.
The Spanish Empire became the foremost global power, dominating the oceans as well as European battlefields. Spain enjoyed a cultural golden age in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when silver and gold from American mines increasingly financed a long series of European and North African wars.
The Spanish Empire, also known as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy [1] [2] [3] was one of the largest empires in history and one of the first global empires in world history. [4] Soon after the Reconquista, Spain became the biggest global empire. It led European exploration of the New World, building the large Viceroyalties in the ...
The empire was created in a time of rising European absolutism, which flourished in both Spain and Spanish America and reached its height in the 18th century. The overseas colonies became and remained the king’s private estate.
The Spanish Empire began when separate kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula united to form the Kingdom of Spain. The empire reached its zenith in the mid-to-late 16 th century. In the 19 th century, however, Spain’s empire began to decline rapidly as its colonies became independent countries.
The apparatus of colonial government in the Spanish Empire consisted of multiple levels, starting with the monarchy and Council of the Indies at the top and moving down to the viceroy, audiencias, mayors, and local councils.
Spanish Empire was the set of territories governed by Spain's dynasties during the 16th and 19th centuries, which began with Christopher Columbus' travels to new lands and which had important repercussions in Europe, mainly in the conquered territories.
Given its tremendous growth, vast resources and territorial gains, an obvious question arises: Why did the Spanish Empire fall? This article traces the rise and development of Spain as a major European power and examines the causes of its overall decline.
In this gallery of seven maps, we examine the vast overseas territories of the Spanish Empire from the late 15th century to the 19th century. The empire reached its height during the Age of Exploration and included regions in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.
Although more archaeological research has been conducted on Spanish colonial outposts and the impacts of its territorial claims in the Americas than elsewhere, the Spanish Empire also sought outposts in the Caribbean, the Pacific, Southeast Asia, and Africa, with varying degrees of success.