Spanish Inquisition: Did you mean...?

This map illustrates the maritime routes of Spain’s Treasure Fleets and the network of Caribbean ports and pirate havens around 1670. It captures the tension...

Pedro de Alvarado (c. 1485-1541) was a Spanish conquistador who became the first governor of Guatemala in 1527. Living an extraordinary life of adventure, Alvarado participated in separate expeditions to Mexico, Central America...

Juan Ponce de León (1474-1521) was a Spanish conquistador who led expeditions from Puerto Rico to the coast of Florida, giving the region its current name. He also served as the first governor of Puerto Rico and discovered the...

Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar (also spelt Velásquez, 1465-1524) was a Spanish conquistador who conquered Cuba in 1511, became the island's first governor for the next decade, and sponsored expeditions of conquest directed...

La Malinche leading Hernán Cortés and the Spanish, illustration in Codex Azcatitlan by unknown author, p. 23, c. 1501-1600. This image is an indigenous pictorial representation of the Spanish marching on the Aztec...

An audiencia began as a judicial institution in medieval Spain, but in the 16th century, it was applied as the highest form of local government in key cities of the Spanish Empire. An audiencia had a panel of judges made responsible...

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...

A detail of a 17th-century painting by Cornelis Verbeeck showing a Spanish galleon firing its cannons. In the complete painting, the ship is in combat with a Dutch vessel c. 1618 in an unknown location. (National Gallery...

A 1734 copper print of a Spanish galleon. The text reads: Por Golfos mas procelosos, con valor, aresto y zelo, hace gala de Neptuno, esta Nave con su vuelo. - "Through the worst stormy waters, with courage, purpose, and zeal...

This map illustrates the expansion of Spanish imperial power following the completion of the Reconquista in 1492 and the voyages of Christopher Columbus (first voyage 1492). Fueled by promises of...