The Spanish colonization of the Americas began in 1493 on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola after the initial 1492 voyage of Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus under license from Queen Isabella I of Castile. These overseas territories of the Spanish Empire were under the jurisdiction of Crown of Castile until the last territory was lost in 1898. Spaniards saw the dense populations of indigenous peoples as an important economic resource and the territory claimed as potentially producing great wealth for individual Spaniards and the crown. Religion played an important role in the Spanish conquest and incorporation of indigenous peoples, bringing them into the Catholic Church peacefully or by force. The crown created civil and religious structures to administer the vast territory. Spanish men and women settled in greatest numbers where there were dense indigenous populations and the existence of valuable resources for extraction.
The Viceroyalty of Peru, officially known as the Kingdom of Peru, was a Spanish imperial provincial administrative district, created in 1542, that originally contained modern-day Peru and most of the Spanish Empire in South America, governed from the capital of Lima. Along with the Viceroyalty of New Spain, Peru was one of two Spanish viceroyalties in the Americas from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries.
Conquistadors or conquistadores is the term used to refer to Spanish and Portuguese soldiers and explorers who carried out the conquests and explorations of the Age of Discovery. Conquistadors sailed beyond the Iberian Peninsula to the Americas, Oceania, Africa and Asia, establishing new colonies and trade routes. They brought much of the "New World" under the dominion of Spain and Portugal.
The Governorate of the Río de la Plata (1549−1776) was one of the governorates of the Spanish Empire. It was created in 1549 by Spain in the area around the Río de la Plata.
During Spain's New World Empire, its mainland coastal possessions surrounding the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico were referred to collectively as the Spanish Main. The southern portion of these coastal possessions were known as the Province of Tierra Firme, or the "Mainland Province". The Province of Tierra Firme, or simply Tierra Firme, was also called Costa Firme.
Adelantado was a title held by some Spanish nobles in service of their respective kings during the Middle Ages. It was later used as a military title held by some Spanish conquistadores of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.
The Sierra de la Plata was a mythical source of silver in the interior of South America. The legend began in the early 16th century when castaways from the Juan Díaz de Solís expedition heard indigenous stories of a mountain of silver in an inland region ruled by the so-called White King. The first European to lead an expedition in search of it was the castaway Aleixo Garcia, who crossed nearly the entire continent to reach the Andean altiplano. On his way back to the coast, Garcia died in an ambush by indigenous people in Paraguay, but survivors brought precious metals back to corroborate their story.
The General Captaincy of Chile, Governorate of Chile, or Kingdom of Chile, was a territory of the Spanish Empire from 1541 to 1818 that was, initially, part of the Viceroyalty of Peru. It comprised most of modern-day Chile and southern parts of Argentina in the Patagonia region. Its capital was Santiago de Chile. In 1810 it declared itself independent, with the Spanish reconquering the territory in 1814, but in 1818 it gained independence as the Republic of Chile. It had a number of Spanish governors over its long history and several kings.
The Ecuadorian–Peruvian territorial dispute was a territorial dispute between Ecuador and Peru, which, until 1928, also included Colombia. The dispute had its origins on each country's interpretation of what Real Cedulas Spain used to precisely define its colonial territories in the Americas. After independence, all of Spain's colonial territories signed and agreed to proclaim their limits in the basis of the principle of uti possidetis juris, which regarded the Spanish borders of 1810 as the borders of the new republics. However, conflicting claims and disagreements between the newly formed countries eventually escalated to the point of armed conflicts on several occasions.
The Real Audiencia of Charcas was a Spanish audiencia with its seat in what is today Bolivia. It was established in 1559 in Ciudad de la Plata de Nuevo Toledo and had jurisdiction over the Governorate of Charcas, Paraguay and the Governorate of the Río de la Plata. The audiencia oversaw the incredible silver output of the mines at Potosí. It was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru until 1776, when it was transferred to the newly created Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and began to be referred to as Upper Peru.
The Governorate of New Castile was the gubernatorial region administered to Francisco Pizarro in 1529 by King Charles I of Spain, of which he was appointed governor.
After the 1494 territorial division of South America between Spain and Portugal in the Treaty of Tordesillas, the colonial administration of the continent was divided into Governorates.
The Governorate of New Toledo was a Spanish Governorate of the Crown of Castile formed from the previous southern half of the Inca Empire, stretching south into present day central Chile, and east into present day central Brazil.
Colonial Argentina is designated as the period of the History of Argentina when it was an overseas territory of the Spanish Empire. It begins in the Precolumbian age of the indigenous peoples of Argentina, with the arrival of the first Spanish conqueror.
The Governorate of New Andalusia was a Spanish colonial entity in what today constitutes the Caribbean coastal territories from Central America, Colombia and Venezuela, and the islands of what today are Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The Government of Nueva Andalucia was set in Venezuela from 1501 to 1513.
Captaincies were military and administrative divisions in colonial Spanish America and the Spanish East Indies, established in areas under risk of foreign invasion or Indian attack. They could consist of just one province, or group several together. These captaincies general should be distinguished from the ones given to almost all of the conquistadores, which was based on an older tradition. During the Reconquista, the term "captain general" and similar ones had been used for the official in charge of all the troops in a given district. This office was transferred to America during the conquest and was usually granted along with the hereditary governorship to the adelantado in the patent issued by the Crown. This established a precedent that was recognized by the New Laws of 1542, but ultimately the crown eliminated all hereditary governorships in its overseas possessions.
The Governorate of New León was a Governorate of the Crown of Castile created in 1534. It was granted to Simón de Alcazaba y Sotomayor and later to Francisco de Camargo, expanding the territory to the Strait of Magellan bordering with the Governorate of Terra Australis since 1539.
The Governorate of Terra Australis or Governorate of Pedro Sancho de la Hoz was a Spanish Governorate of the Crown of Castile created in 1539 which was granted to Pedro Sánchez de la Hoz and consisted in all the territories to the south of the Strait of Magellan until the South Pole, and, to the east and west, the borders were the ones specified in the treaties of Tordesillas and Zaragoza, respectively.
The East Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego and Strait of Magellan Dispute or the Patagonia Question was the boundary dispute between Argentina and Chile during the 19th century for the possession of the southernmost territories of South America on the basis of disagreements over the boundaries corresponding to the uti possidetis juris inherited from the Spanish Empire.
