The Effects of Discovering the New World on the Growth of Spanish Power

In the year 1492, the Muslim kingdom of Granada fell to Isabella and Ferdinand (Lewis). Under King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella’s rule, Spain put an end to the Muslim domination of Granada. This victory was known as the reconquest. They gave the Muslims the choice to convert to Christianity or leave the country. The victory of the reconquest earned Ferdinand and Isabella the admiration of the pope (King).

Political power acts as a foundation for society through persuasion. This influential ability controls the thoughts and actions of society as a whole, and who is in control heavily determines how successful their influences will be. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were the political rulers of Spain during the late 15th century, and remained in control up until the early 16th century. They craved unity for their country, and would do anything they could to achieve their desired conformity. Spain was to be united under one flag, one form of ruler, and one religion; those who did not oblige, became targets. For more than three hundred years, the Spanish Inquisition hovered over Spain, inciting fear and inflicting brutality upon those

Before the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Moors were in control of much of the Iberian Peninsula. They desperately wanted to unite Spain and turn it into a

In 1490 there was no such country as spain, yet within a century it had become the most powerful nation in europe and within another century had sunk to the status of a third rate power. Describe and analyze the major social economic and political reasons for spains rise and fall.

In the late 18th century, the Spanish monarchy decided to improve the defenses of its empire because of its many military losses in Europe. Because of this, the Spanish Crown was forced to increase revenues. Between 1765 and 1771, Spain sent José de Gálvez on an official tour of inspection of New Spain. He restructured the current taxes and their collection methods..

Although the Spanish and the British started colonizing the new world relatively at the same time their colonization efforts we’re extremely different but had some overlapping similarities. The differences include the two nations different reasoning to explore the New World, their relationship with the Natives, and it types of governments that they attempted to set up. Although some of these differences might not seem as if they are very important, they helped one nation do you better than the other one when it came to colonization efforts.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, New Spain and New France came to the New world for two different reasons. New France came to the new world in search of a new west passage and Spain came in search of gold and religious freedom. They both wanted to spread their religious beliefs through missionaries. The Spanish were the first to establish large settlements. The Spanish had over 200 cities by 1570. The French didn’t start colonizing until 1604. The first French colony was Acadia and Quebec which came years later in 1608. The Spanish had a huge head start on colonization over New France but they both thrived in their own ways by using Natural Resources and slaves.

1). The Nations of Europe sought to expand their empire because they were on the verge of overpopulation.Between 1550 and 1600 the population grew from three million to four million people. Also, England and Spain were at a war for power. The Spanish attempts at colonizing the New World had been extremely successful, for they had gained both wealth and power. The English did not see such success, as their ships would crash, be lost to the seas, or their colonization efforts would cease to be useful. Through the Spaniards control over the Americas they had gained a massive naval army, noted as the Spanish Armada. The Spanish attempt to invade England in 1588 failed which lead to the beginning of the fall of the Spanish empire in the New World.

During this long-lasting Reconquista, there were long periods of war and peace. Over time, the Christian kingdoms gradually defeated the Moors and took back all of Moorish Spain. After several centuries, the Moors were at their weakest moment. No other caliph from North Africa, or the Middle East could save the Moors. In 1469, the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were united by the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. Soon, the Moors only had control of the Kingdom of Granada. The Moors were extremely economically, politically and militarily weak. In 1492, the last outpost of the Moors had fallen. Spain had captured Granada and finally brought an end to the reconquest of Spain. During this period of time, there was more than a reconquering of lands. There was an an inquisition and an expulsion of Jews and Moors from Spain. In 1478, Pope Sixtus IV issued a bull that authorized Isabella and Ferdinand to appoint inquisitors in Castile for the purpose of combating heresy. The Spanish Inquisition

In Victors and the Vanquished, Schwartz poses the question of “How can we evaluate conflicting sources” (ix)? Through reading historical events such as the “Conquest of New Spain” there is an undeniably large amount of destruction of cultural material and bias testimonies of events recorded several years after they occurred. After analyzing the Spanish Conquest of Mesoamerica there is a debatable amount of evidence from the Mesoamericans and Spanish explanations of this event in history. The intentions of each explanation created a conflict to historians, art historians and anthropologists on which viewpoint holds to accuracy. There is also the issue of not only inaccuracies, but the motives behind each bias account. As many of these aspects are taken into consideration, interpreting each justification between both sides of history in Mesoamerica as a clash of ethnocentrism between two different cultures that causes an uncertainty of what actually happened in history.

During the 1500’s, and many years following, exploration became a significant curiosity among empires around the world. More land meant more power and could potentially lead to riches such as gold and jewels. This idea of more land, sparked England and Spain's ambition. Spain's empire had grown powerful and dominate to all others. Knowing this, the English became worried that Spain, along with their Catholicism would overtake and convert them. During this time, Queen Elizabeth was ruling England and encouraged a huge following of the Protestant- religion. Noticing the differences in several

In Imperial Spain, J.H. Elliot examines the history of early modern Spain from the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand, to the reformation of the Spanish government by the first member of the Bourbon dynasty. According to the author, at the start of the 15th century, Spain was internally weak, hopelessly divided and isolated from the continent by the Pyrenees. Yet, by 1492, Spanish society experienced a tremendous transformation which allowed Isabella and Ferdinand to unify the country, secure the largest transoceanic empire the world has ever known, and for a

Some Historians consider Isabella’s decision to pass the crown to the Hapsburgs rather than Aragon as evidence of Isabella’s disunity. Lockyer claims; “she showed how little she appreciated the concept of Spanish unity” . This theory is supported by Historian Lotherington and Kamen, the latter who comments “the achievement of a united Spain was never an objective of the Catholic Kings” However this is too simplistic a view; because Isabella knew that the Castilian nobles would not accommodate for an Aragonese king, and the crown must rest upon the spouse of Aragon and Castile if unification was to be a realistic goal. Elliot suggests this when he speaks of a “Spanish inheritance” when referring to the Burgundian inheritance and Rady explains “Ferdinand held such influence in Castile this kingdom also might have been wrenched away from the new heir (Charles)” . Likewise J.Jones identifies “national unification” as a key policy of the Catholic Kings.

Cortés came not to the New World to conquer by force, but by manipulation. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, in the "Conquest of New Spain," describes how Cortés and his soldiers manipulated the Aztec people and their king Montezuma from the time they traveled from Iztapalaopa to the time when Montezuma took Cortés to the top of the great Cue and showed him the whole of Mexico and its countryside, and the three causeways which led into Mexico. Castillo's purpose for recording the mission was to keep an account of the wealth of Montezuma and Mexico, the traditions, and the economic potential that could benefit Cortés' upcoming conquest. However, through these recordings, we are able to see and understand Cortés'

Impacts of European expansion reached across the world and affected more than the expanding European powers and their colonies in the new world. Life in the world changed when these two cultures that were directly opposite of one another collided. Europe was filled with greed for resources and wealth, the Indigenous people living on these resources were living a simple sustainable life with next to no government or regulation. Once the new world was set up Europeans who ran these new territories called colonists today developed their own society and way of living and would end up revolting against the homeland.