Spanish Exploration

Reasons for Spanish Exploration

Exploration was costly, uncertain and gruelling work. So why did Spain only start to significantly fund its exploratory missions after Granada?

Spanish Exploration Summary

Spanish exploration involved conquistadors sailing across the ocean in search of new lands. When they found them, they would colonise them, conquer and enslave the Indigenous communities, and exploit the land for precious materials and goods.

Naturally, Spanish exploration benefitted Spain. It was seen by many as heroic for spreading Catholicism, changing the perception of the world, and bringing wealth back to the country. However, it can also be seen in a very different light. The conquistadors brought brutality, forced conversion, and diseases to the New World, and took its wealth back with them. Spanish exploration had long-lasting consequences, which are still evident today.

Early Spanish exploration

In the early 1400s, Castile embarked on a mission to create an overseas empire, inspired by the Portuguese exploration into non-European territories. In 1402, Castile began colonising the Canary Islands off the West African Coast but was distracted by the Reconquista and other internal politics. Only after the conquest of Granada in 1492 could Spain truly focus on exploration.

Spanish Exploration Christopher Columbus

In 1492, Christopher Columbus secured backing from the Spanish Crown for an expedition.

Fig. 1: Portrait of Christopher Columbus

Columbus' first expedition began the Spanish empire, and he completed three more voyages afterwards - so, what did Columbus find?

The map below shows the routes that Columbus took for his 4 voyages.

Fig. 2 -Map of Columbus' voyages

The Treaty of Tordesillas

The Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 was an important development between the two Catholic empires of Spain and Portugal. Both of these countries were investing in the Age of Exploration at this time, with Portugal mostly sailing along the coast of Africa to find the Eastern route to India via the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost tip of Africa.

As the majority of the Americas were undiscovered at this point, Spain ended up having a good deal as they could claim the riches found in Mexico and Peru. However, although the treaty was authorised by the Pope and agreed upon between Spain and Portugal, it was mostly ignored by other non-Catholic countries, such as England, France and the Netherlands, who continued to explore and claim lands within these territories regardless.

Hernán Cortés and Mexico

In 1519, the explorer Cortés landed on the coast of Mexico, where he later found the Aztec Empire led by Montezuma II. After fighting in the city of Tenochtitlán where Montezuma II was killed and Spanish forces were initially driven out, Cortés sieged the city and gained power over Mexico. For Spain, this conquest meant wealth and the expansion of the empire. Indigenous Mexicans, on the other hand, suffered great cruelty at the hands of the conquistadors and many were killed by violence or infectious diseases, such as smallpox.

Fig. 3: Portrait of Hernán Cortés

Francisco Pizarro and Peru

In 1526, Pizarro arrived in Peru, eager to find riches after rumours of a great ruler in the mountains (Inca). The Inca population, the Indigenous community in Peru, had many riches so their defeat was seen as a benefit for Spain. Pizarro invaded the Inca cities in 1532 and took their leader, Atahualpa, hostage and then killed him. The conquering of the Inca civilisation brought great wealth to Spain and suffering to the Indigenous population, whose population dropped from around 9 million to less than a million.

Fig. 4 - Portrait of Atahualpa, the last Inca Emperor

Other campaigns of Spain

Spain conquered other areas such as present-day Chile and Colombia and established these settlements:

• The 1530s: New Granada in present-day Colombia.
• 1535: Lima as the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
• 1536: Buenos Aires in present-day Argentina.
• 1541: Santiago in present-day Chile.
• 1565: Florida.

Spanish Campaign in Asia

Spain began exploring the Far East in the early 1500s, hoping to gain control of the Moluccas (known as the Spice Islands.) This caused conflicts as Portugal argued that Spain was violating the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas.

In 1529, the two powers signed the Treaty of Zaragoza in order to solve the dispute. This added another line of division to the Treaty of Tordesillas, establishing a boundary to the east of the Moluccas. It gave the Eastern part to Spain and the Western part to Portugal (this included the Moluccas). Spain kept the Philippines, which was on the east side of the treaty line.

Map of Spanish exploration in the new world

Below shows the extent of the Spanish Empire throughout the 16^th, 17^th, and 18^th centuries.

Fig. 5 - This map shows the countries throughout the world that the Spanish Empire encountered and colonised at some point during their reign

Effects of Spanish exploration

We have seen that exploration was beneficial to Spain but at the expense of Indigenous communities. Let's find out more - how exactly did the conquistadors’ discoveries impact Spain and the rest of the world?

Effects on Spain

Although it took a long time to establish rule in Peru and Mexico, the colonisation of these new territories (1553 for Mexico and 1551 for Peru) resulted in a great expansion of power for Spain and the potential for great wealth.

The Aztec and Incan Empires provided the Spanish conquistadors with plenty of resources such as gold, silver, and jewels which benefitted the conquistadors and the Spanish crown. However, the wealth that was added to the Holy Roman Empire was mostly squandered on Imperial armies under Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's foreign wars. Therefore, Spanish civilians did not reap the benefits of the country's colonisation as the extracted wealth was spent on royal debt and inflation.

The Funding wars

The funding of the army would, however, establish Spain as an emerging military power. Wealth gained from the Americas was channelled into foreign wars in countries such as France and the Netherlands. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V became the King of Spain in 1516, expanding the Habsburg dynasty further across Europe, and consolidating his power to fund wars with his rival, King Francis I of France.

Charles V went to war with France several times throughout the 16^th century: 1521-5, 1526-9, 1536-8, and 1542-4. When Henry II succeeded Francis I in France, Charles continued the rivalry with the Italian War 1551-9, ending only with Charles' abdication in 1556 and death in 1558.

The Golden Age

The trade and connections generated from Spanish exploration allowed arts, literature, and music to blossom in Spain, helped by the influx of money acquired from colonisation. Some parts of society, such as merchants and the nobility, did profit greatly from the wealth.

Fig. 6 - Juan Sanchez' Still Life with Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber was painted in 1602 and epitomised the new wave of artwork throughout Spain, experimenting with different styles and techniques during the Spanish Golden Age.

Under the Habsburgs' extensive and wealthy empire, ideas flowed throughout Spain which spurred creativity. Famous works of literature such as Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote de La Mancha (1605) and artworks such as Juan Sanchez's Still Life with Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber (1602) demonstrated the emergence of new artistic styles in this period and created a cultural renaissance known as the Spanish Golden Age, or the Siglo de Oro, which ranged from the 16^th to mid-17^th centuries.

Effects on Indigenous communities

By Christoper Columbus' second voyage across the Atlantic, the mission statements explicitly included the treatment of the Indigenous communities that the explorers would encounter. Columbus was instructed to convert the locals to Catholicism, spread the Spanish language, and colonise the territories in order to maximise profits from trade. Little thought was given to the Indigenous communities by the conquistadors, who treated them cruelly, enslaved them, and disregarded their own traditions.

Queen Isabela I was horrified to receive a gift of enslaved people from Columbus after his second voyage, claiming them to be "Spanish subjects" who could not be enslaved. Furthermore, she ordered Columbus be returned to Spain in chains after his reported treatment of Indigenous people during his third voyage.

Fig. 7 - Engraving of Taíno women cooking from around 1565

However, the colonising efforts of the conquistadors and the distance from the Spanish homeland meant that many of the explorers could act and behave immorally without immediate repercussions, especially if they were generating wealth for the crown.

Alongside the abhorrent treatment of Indigenous people by the Spanish settlers, they brought European diseases such as smallpox, to which the locals lacked immunity. This meant that many Indigenous people suffered from the foreign diseases.

King Ferdinand sanctioned the Laws of Burgos in 1512 which supposedly protected the cultures and bodies of the Indigenous Peoples in the Spanish colonies. However, the laws were mostly disregarded by conquistadors, with many people still being enslaved and killed.