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Bartolomé de Las Casas
Definition by Mark Cartwright

Bartolomé de Las Casas

Bartolomé de Las Casas (1484-1566) was a Spanish Dominican friar and former conquistador who revealed the atrocities of the conquests of New Spain and Peru and who strove to protect the basic rights of indigenous peoples in the Spanish Empire...
Spanish Treasure Fleets
Definition by Mark Cartwright

Spanish Treasure Fleets

From the 16th to 18th centuries, two treasure fleets sailed each year, one to Mexico and the other to Central America, then part of the Spanish Empire. There they collected precious eastern goods and the riches of the Americas, including...
The Silver of the Conquistadors
Article by Mark Cartwright

The Silver of the Conquistadors

The Spanish conquistadors might have gained a lasting reputation as the great gold-seekers of history, but they were actually far more successful in acquiring silver. Over 100 tons of gold were extracted from the Americas from 1492 to 1560...
Monroe Doctrine
Definition by Harrison W. Mark

Monroe Doctrine - The Controversial Cornerstone of US Foreign Policy

The Monroe Doctrine, a significant piece of United States foreign policy, was first articulated by President James Monroe in 1823, and it essentially warns the powers of Europe from meddling in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere, claimed...
Manila Galleon
Definition by Mark Cartwright

Manila Galleon

The Manila galleons were Spanish treasure ships which transported precious goods like silk, spices, and porcelain from Manila in the Philippines to Acapulco, Mexico, between 1565 and 1815. The Atlantic treasure fleets then shipped some of...
Council of the Indies
Definition by Mark Cartwright

Council of the Indies

The Council of the Indies (El Real y Supremo Consejo de las Indias) operated from 1524 to 1834 and was the supreme governing body of the Spanish Empire in the Americas and Spanish East Indies. Reporting directly to the monarch, the Council...
Jamestown Colony of Virginia
Definition by Joshua J. Mark

Jamestown Colony of Virginia

The Jamestown Colony in Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in North America founded in 1607. It was the third attempt of the Virginia Company of London to establish a permanent trade center in the Americas following the failures...
Interview: Preclassic Maya
Interview by James Blake Wiener

Interview: Preclassic Maya

The genesis of Maya civilization in Mesoamerica was marked by an effervescence in the arts, the beginnings of their written language with glyphs, and a great attention to detail in the sphere of urban planning. Yet, despite these tremendous...
Slavery in Colonial America
Article by Joshua J. Mark

Slavery in Colonial America

Slavery in Colonial America, defined as white English settlers enslaving Africans, began in 1640 in the Jamestown Colony of Virginia but had already been embraced as policy prior to that date with the enslavement and deportation of Native...
Buccaneer
Definition by Mark Cartwright

Buccaneer

The buccaneers were privateers who attacked enemies of their state, namely Spain, in the Caribbean and on the American coast (the Spanish Main) throughout the 17th century. Initially hunters and then seamen and soldiers, the buccaneers successfully...
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