This paper is a brief examination of the Spanish conquest of the New World. Since the initial discovery of the Americas by a Spanish-financed expedition led by Christopher Columbus, the New World exerted a fascination for Spain, who saw this unexplored territory as the potential source of great wealth and power. More than any other European encroachment, the Spanish conquest of the Americas represents domination, cruelty, and subjugation on a massive scale. The conquisdatores, starting with the first five men to hold this title, saw their role as one of justified mastery over the native population. Their legacy continues to echo throughout the Western hemisphere.
The Spanish conquest of the New World began with an apparently minor act, when the Spanish court commissioned an Italian captain to find a western route to the riches of the Indies. In 1492, Christopher Columbus, financed with Spanish money, discovered what turned out to be a completely unknown new land, and the riches and power that it introduced enabled Spain to become one of the three most important European influences in the development and dominance of the New World.
During the sixteenth century, five Spanish conquistadores followed Columbus to the New World, exploring it and claiming it for Spain, establishing Spanish domination throughout most of what came to be known as Mexico, South and Central America, and Cuba. These men - Hernan Cortes, Francisco Pizarro, Juan Ponce de Leon, Hernando de Soto, and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado - carried with them a document drafted in the Spanish court in 1514, the Requerimiento, calling for the Indians to accept Catholicism and the authority of the Spanish crown or be subjugated by them. Gregory H. Nobles writes, "Conquistadores would have this order read to the Indians before battle and then commence the attack with assurance (in their minds, at least) that they had offered an alternative to war" (44).
Diego Ve...