Transatlantic Journeys: Columbus and Cortes' Expeditions

The explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but he never did. Instead, he accidently stumbled upon the Caribbean islands. Though he did not really “discover” the new world- millions of people already lived there- his journeys marked the beginnings of centuries of trans-Atlantic conquest and colonization. Years later after the discovery of 1492 a Spanish conquistador by the name of Hernan Cortes; lead an expedition in 1518 to Mexico. Hernan had five hundred men and eleven ships when he landed on the Mexican coast, on February of 1519. While in Mexico, Cortes and his men came into contact with a native

Many Spanish farmers discovered silver, while mining on their land. The silver was then brought to ships and carried back to Spain. Not only were the Spanish conquistadors, they were also a very religious group of people. Many were Roman Catholic and the rest were Protestant. The Spanish government and religion were one in the same, the governments’ role was an “established church” and was required to only support the one church. With religion now in the new world there also began the missions to the Indian people. However the Spanish saw their selves as superior people and the Indians as inferior. And as such, the Spanish men would rape the Indian women. After this happened the Indian women would give birth to a new race called: Mestizos; they too were also considered inferior to the Spanish. After the Spanish raped most of the Indian women they unknowingly killed most by bringing over disease. Since the Indians were from a different world than the Spanish, they did not have a strong immune system. After a few years pasted, and estimated four million Indians stilled lived; whereas fifty to seventy years earlier there was about 25 million