Spanish a: Did you mean...?

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 at the American mainland...

The emergence of Spain as a global imperial power began with the dynastic union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon under Isabella I of Castile (reign 1474–1504) and Ferdinand II of Aragon (reign 1479–1516). Their reigns marked a turning...

A 17th-century painting by Juan de la Corte showing a Spanish galleon under attack. (Museo del Prado, Madrid)

Did you know that the Spanish Armada was defeated as much by storms as by the English navy? This video is all about King Philip II of Spain’s Enterprise of England, and his defeat at the hands of The Royal Navy of Elizabeth I of England in...

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 between imperial commerce and maritime raiding, showing both the logistical arteries...

This map captures the shifting tides of colonial power in the 1700s, focusing on the strategic coastlines of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Once dominated by Spain, this region—known as the Spanish Main and the West Indies—became...

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...

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 for the...

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 capital with La Malinche...

In 1533 CE the Inca Empire was the largest in the world. It extended across western South America from Quito in the north to Santiago in the south. However, the lack of integration of conquered peoples into that empire, combined with a civil...