Conquistadors In The Americas
“Conquistadors were the men who during the sixteenth century engaged in the acts of exploration and conquest in the Americas that expanded Spain's colonial empire.”
The conquistadors intention was to better their own lives.
They also wanted to expand their religion to new territories.
While attempting to do both of these things the conquistadors indirectly influenced the scope and nature of world trade.
They establish the beginnings of long-term commercial contacts between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
“Undeniably, these expeditions produced great wealth and glory for individuals such as Hernán Cortés (1485–1547) and Francisco Pizarro (1471?–1541), but they also promoted important long-term changes in patterns of global production …show more content…
Very few of the armies of conquistadors were professional soldiers. Instead, they tended to be men of humble social status whose current situations were desperate enough to warrant sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to the exotic world of the "Indies," and who therefore expected not only to serve Christendom but also to profit from their efforts.
Meanwhile, the Crown was generally reluctant to invest much money in territorial conquest in the Americas, preferring to name adelantados (individuals licensed by the king to lead expeditions of exploration and conquest in exchange for privileges and rewards should they succeed in expanding the king's realms).
Thus, the conquistadors themselves tended to be essentially private entrepreneurs. Like the spiritual aspect of the conquest, this too drew on reconquista precedents. Expedition members often took out loans in order to purchase equipment, expecting to risk their lives, be rewarded handsomely, and have enough profit from the journey to more than repay their …show more content…
Although this was neither gold nor land ownership, the encomienda shaped early Spanish colonialism in the Americas in ways that would eventually affect world trade.
The wealth, fame, and success accruing to an individual conquistador depended to great extent on the kind of indigenous society that the conqueror happened to encounter while exploring. It is no coincidence that the two best-known conquistadors, Cortés and Pizarro, were the conquerors of the two wealthiest and most powerful states in the Americas in the early sixteenth century. Hernán Cortés—unusual among conquistadors due to his minor noble family and his education—led a small expedition from Cuba in 1519 that by August 1521 had subdued the capital of the Aztec Empire.
He personally earned an astonishing amount of wealth in bullion, the royal grant of a noble title, land, and encomiendas, but his contribution to world trade lay in subordinating to the Spanish Crown millions of Mesoamerican peoples who already lived in a complex empire and were already accustomed to paying taxes and rendering labor
The conquistadors intention was to better their own lives.
They also wanted to expand their religion to new territories.
While attempting to do both of these things the conquistadors indirectly influenced the scope and nature of world trade.
They establish the beginnings of long-term commercial contacts between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
“Undeniably, these expeditions produced great wealth and glory for individuals such as Hernán Cortés (1485–1547) and Francisco Pizarro (1471?–1541), but they also promoted important long-term changes in patterns of global production …show more content…
Very few of the armies of conquistadors were professional soldiers. Instead, they tended to be men of humble social status whose current situations were desperate enough to warrant sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to the exotic world of the "Indies," and who therefore expected not only to serve Christendom but also to profit from their efforts.
Meanwhile, the Crown was generally reluctant to invest much money in territorial conquest in the Americas, preferring to name adelantados (individuals licensed by the king to lead expeditions of exploration and conquest in exchange for privileges and rewards should they succeed in expanding the king's realms).
Thus, the conquistadors themselves tended to be essentially private entrepreneurs. Like the spiritual aspect of the conquest, this too drew on reconquista precedents. Expedition members often took out loans in order to purchase equipment, expecting to risk their lives, be rewarded handsomely, and have enough profit from the journey to more than repay their …show more content…
Although this was neither gold nor land ownership, the encomienda shaped early Spanish colonialism in the Americas in ways that would eventually affect world trade.
The wealth, fame, and success accruing to an individual conquistador depended to great extent on the kind of indigenous society that the conqueror happened to encounter while exploring. It is no coincidence that the two best-known conquistadors, Cortés and Pizarro, were the conquerors of the two wealthiest and most powerful states in the Americas in the early sixteenth century. Hernán Cortés—unusual among conquistadors due to his minor noble family and his education—led a small expedition from Cuba in 1519 that by August 1521 had subdued the capital of the Aztec Empire.
He personally earned an astonishing amount of wealth in bullion, the royal grant of a noble title, land, and encomiendas, but his contribution to world trade lay in subordinating to the Spanish Crown millions of Mesoamerican peoples who already lived in a complex empire and were already accustomed to paying taxes and rendering labor