The Conquistadores Exploration The Conquistadores traveled to the New World for the reasons of wealth and personal glory. They brought the European culture to many well-known parts of the New World. As greedy as the Conquistadores’ reasons for their exploration, they remained loyal to the crown. Their exploration helped build a Spanish empire and proselytize the Catholic religion. Christopher Columbus, well known for “finding” the New World, began Spain’s voyaging into the New World with the support of Isabella and Ferdinand.
Introduction: In the end of the 19th century Spain, one of one the most powerful nations in the world had lost most of its colonies. Spain retained the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the island of Guam in the Pacific. The U.S. had held a long interest in Cuba they tried buying it from Spain but Spain didn't want it to sell it. Several events provoked for the U.S. to intervent in Cuba. Newspapers during that period exaggerated to boost their sales as well as to provoke American intervention with Cuba.
The Columbus’ voyage in 1492 convinced Spain that it could dominate the New World. The first Spanish explorers, such as Cortes and Balboa, were satisfied with their findings in Central America. However, Ponce de Leon, the governor of Puerto Rico, set his sights on expanding the new Spanish empire to northern America. He sailed to Florida, but was killed by natives in 1521. After several other failed Spanish attempts to colonize North America, Hernan de Soto finally arrived in 1539 with a
Such an expansion in the late 19th century and early 20th century was mostly a continuation of past United States expansionism, such as that in the West after the Louisiana Purchase and Mexican-American War. However, the new Imperialism was different from expansionism in other aspects, such as how America acquired the new territory and where it was located. Overall, United States expansion in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was very similar to previous expansion, only departing from it by a very small margin. In the early 19th century, the Louisiana Purchase was made between the United States and France, in which a large amount of French territory west of the Mississippi River was bought by the U.S. A few decades later, the Mexican-American War was fought between the U.S. and Mexico. By the end of the war and Mexico’s defeat, the U.S. acquired even more land to the west, including a lot of land along the Pacific coast.
Markets were gained through the Spanish-American War, and there were policies such as Taft’s “Dollar Diplomacy” and the Open Door Policy which also attempted to expand markets internationally. These policies were a big transition from the traditional American way, which was originally opposed to colonialization. However, William Taft had an answer to those who were opposed to the United States having colonies. “We cannot meet new questions nor build for the future if we confine ourselves to outworn dogmas of the past and to the perspective appropriate at our emergence from colonial times and conditions.” Taft realized that the nation had to move away from the past and implement new and innovative ideas to continue to increase commercially and gain more strength to become a world power. President McKinley was the first to change the old policy of not conquering and colonizing other countries.
The early 1500’s saw the Laws of the Indies introduced in order to help Christianise the indigenous natives, a motivational tactic behind Spain’s fight for colonial expansion. Upon their failure, New Laws were implemented in the mid 1500’s, in order to provide protection to the existing native population, but were met with opposition from both natives and Spanish colonists. This setback was perhaps the most damaging to the Empire’s success, however, the most prominent was
Because of this decision, England changed its fighting style and had neglected their control over the colonies to focus on winning. After successfully defeating the French and their allies, the Treaty of Paris was signed. In this treaty, it stated what England, France, Spain, and the American colonies had won control over or lost. England had control of half of North America, while France had lost their control of North America. The colonies had thought they won the freedom to expand their colonies further west.
Cuba was a colony of Spain for a numerous amount of centuries. With the declining of the Spanish empire, Cuba wanted to gain their independence from them. Majority of the refugees came to the United States with an exaggerated story about the Spanish Atrocity against the Cubans who rebelled them. This caused the story to be printed through the use of Yellow Journalism. The United States said that they would provide support to the Cuban rebels.
Sometime in the early 16th century a letter was written to King Charles I of Spain. This had not been an ordinary letter; it was the letter that at the time defined, a declaration of achievement, a symbol of superiority, and a prize of expansion. The letter had addressed the King about, the successful expedition, the gullible settlers, and the wide array of land ready to be colonized. Hernán Cortés had written this important letter. Originally a poor Spaniard, Cortés was born in Medellin, Spain.
In the Caribbean Sea, the island of Saint Eustace was under Dutch control during the American Revolution and actually supplied the United States with large amounts of weapons, and could possibly be one of the deciding factors in the war. As these examples show, the Dutch have been very influential in US history. The Dutch started landing in the New World much like the other European countries – they were trying to find a route across the Atlantic Ocean to India for trade. As such, the first Dutch to land were not looking for new settlements, but the abundance of game and resources was a surprising find. That