Spanish Empire Forming
Before Spain ended up with the settlement of the continents in the western hemisphere, they were a well-established kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. In this essay, an attempt will be made to describe and define the many different components of the myriads of fiefdoms which constituted the main entity of what is known as the Spanish Empire, and the governmental and royal events which happened in order for these historical premises to form. Then a summary of the financial and seafaring aspects which happened later. Finally, this will be a study of the Spanish first explorers who mapped out and settled the area. The discoverers were initially baffled by the local native population whom they encountered, for they were looking for an alternate path than the already conventionally used voyage to India and the Spice Islands of Indonesia.
The Spanish Empire was first the kingdom of Castile. Queen Isabella I was the ruling monarch of Castile, and was also the ruler who commissioned the initial voyages of Christopher Columbus. Castile was a larger kingdom of its time and fielded one of the largest armies. Many victories on the battlefields led to the gain of southern Italy, Sicily, and the Netherlands. Furthermore, the Reconquista was taking place and Castile had finished the campaign with the conquest of Granada, a Moorish kingdom to the south of Castile. After the Reconquista was over, Aragon, a monarchy that rivaled Castile in terms of strength and prestige, joined forces with Castile by way of a royal marriage between the king of Aragon, Ferdinand II, and Isabella I, the Queen of Castile. This confederation of reigns led to the formation of what was then the Spanish Empire.
Off the coast of Morocco, there was a string of islands that the Spanish would colonize as a preliminary venture before their main colonial settlements in the west. These islands were called the Canary Islands, and they were important for the Spanish as another dock for their boats and caravels to leave from. The main port that Columbus set off from, and the port used for importing the goods and resources was from Andalusia. Columbus first discovered the island of Hispanola. The Taino people he found there were not the Indians he was looking for, but he brought some of them with him on his voyage back to Spain. Eventually, other nations started to send explorers and expeditions to the newly discovered lands as well. This led to the Treaty of Tordesillas, which divided the Spanish claims from the Portugese claims, and made it so Brazil was the only land the Spanish Empire was not allowed to colonize.
Among the many different settlements and colonies in Spanish America were various wealthy assets that were collected and traded by merchants and the Spanish crown. There were new natural items that could be sold and taxed such as tobacco, gold, silver, sugar, and spices. Since these new settlements were subject to taxation by the Spanish crown, rebellious sentiments and much later in the timespan of these colonies revolts would happen. Spain built an empire from the gold they were getting from the native populations and the land upon which they settled. Their treasury was filled with millions of pesos worth of revenues and taxes. According to Herbert Klein’s book, The American Finances of the Spanish Empire, “It was obvious that in this case, as with so many other royal institutions transplanted to America in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the crown tried to create a more modern and rational structure than existed in Spain itself.” It is clear from this excerpt that the viceroys and bureaucratic policies utilized by the tax collectors and other merchants were essential to the accumulation of wealth by the Spanish Empire.
To that end, the Spanish Empire was one of the wealthiest and largest empires of its time. The native cultures who were in the jungles and islands before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors were not as well off. Though they were now conquered and their new rulers drained the land and resources for all the wealth they could get, the native cultures found themselves in a new environment. Gone were the days of mysticism and tribal warfare, now they were striving to exist in a Spanish colony that they would one day try to overthrow and declare independence.
