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

group called the Aztecs. At first they were allies but it was not long before Cortes and his men used deadly force to conquer their city: Tenochtitlan. With the Aztecs defeated, Cortes renamed their city: Mexico City and named it the capital of New Spain.
With their new colony established the Spanish crown began sending people to occupy the colony. In the early 1500s, an estimated 250,000 immigrated and by the 1600s 200,000 more came as well. Many came to the new world in hopes of jobs and land. Haciendas; were large amounts of land granted to the Spanish, where Indians were forced to work on.
With the discovery of the new world, the economy back in the mother country flourished.

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

alive.
With the colonization of Mexico, the Spanish government set their sights further north toward Florida. The Spanish first established a second colony in Florida; and established the first European settlement in the “USA”: St. Augustine. After the established settlement of St. Augustine, New Spain continued to grow. In 1565 areas such as: New Mexico, Texas and California, all were colonized by New Spain. However, even though most of the area was stretched across the lower part of “America”. Most of the colonies were rural frontier land, but permanent settlements.