The first Spanish town in what is now the United States was not in Florida, but somewhere between 30 degrees and 34 degrees North. Two years later, Ponce de Leon died in a disastrous attempt to build a settlement in Florida, and Spain withdrew from further serious efforts to establish a permanent presence there for another half-century. In 1519 Alonso Alvarez de Pineda explored and mapped the Gulf of Mexico. Around 1513, Juan Ponce de Leon, conqueror of Puerto Rico, conducted the first reconnaissance of the area. In the early 1500s, Spain made a few attempts to explore Florida and the Gulf coast. The nine-tenths of North America lying north and east of Mexico was another matter. Although Spain mortgaged Venezuela to a German banking house for a brief period (1528-1547), she was successful in keeping most interlopers out of her holdings from Mexico to Chile for the remainder of the sixteenth century. In 1580, to eliminate the threat of Portuguese expansion, Spain annexed Portugal. Shortly after the ratification of the treaty, Portugal gained control of trade with the Spice Islands, and showed occasional interest in Newfoundland. Intended to exclude Spain from Africa and India, and Portugal from the Far East, this treaty also effectively deprived Spain of any legitimate claim to much of present-day Brazil. At the Pope's insistence Spain and Portugal had ratified the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. Initially, only Portugal posed a serious threat to Spanish monopoly. With such wealth at stake, Spain was concerned about possible interference by other nations. Seville, through which all legal trade with the colonies passed, became a great financial center and nearly quadrupled in size between 15. Cacao, cochineal, hides, spices, sugar, timber, and tobacco yielded additional income. The average value of silver shipped to Spain rose to a million pesos a year before the conquest of Peru, and to more than 35 million a year by the end of the century. One-fifth of the total production, the quinto real, went to the Spanish Crown. New World mines yielded gold and silver for Spain in far greater amounts than France and Portugal had ever been able to extract from West Africa. By 1550 Spain had dominion over the West Indies and Central America and its large surviving native population. By 1532, Francisco Pizarro, had effected the early stages of his conquest of the Inca empire of Peru.
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Subsequent conquistadors followed the example set by Cortes. The same year, Hernan Cortes led a small force from Cuba to the Gulf coast of Mexico, founded Veracruz, and set about destroying the Aztec empire. In 1519, just six years after Balboa had crossed the Isthmus of Panama and claimed the entire Pacific Ocean for Spain, Pedro Arias de Avila, Balboa's father-in-law and executioner, founded the city of Panama on the Pacific coast. By mid-century, the native Ciboney of Hispaniola and western Cuba were extinct, and other tribes, including the Arawak of Puerto Rico, were nearly so.īeginning in 1508, Spanish settlements sprang up on the mainland of Central and South America. Others died of diseases to which they had no immunity.
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Many died in one-sided armed conflict with soldiers and settlers, or in forced servitude in mines and on plantations.
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After finding gold in recoverable quantities nearby, the Spanish quickly overran the island and spread to Puerto Rico in 1508, to Jamaica in 1509, and to Cuba in 1511. In 1493, during his second voyage, Columbus founded Isabela, the first permanent Spanish settlement in the New World, on Hispaniola. While England slept, Spain became dominant in the New World and on the high seas. England did not miss the entire European rediscovery of the Western Hemisphere, but did retire early. By 1502 Englishmen were trading in Newfoundland and parts south, and organizing syndicates, some involving Azorean Portuguese, to exploit the fisheries there. In 14 John Cabot, like Columbus a Genoese expatriate, explored eastern Canada under the English flag. In 1492, William Ayers, an Irishman undoubtedly familiar with English activities, sailed with Columbus on the Santa Maria. Bristol Mariners seem to have visited Canada in the 1480s, and Christopher Columbus may have learned of, and been inspired by, their voyages.