Exploration+&+Expansion

=__Exploration & Expansion__=

__Spanish Expansion Of South America__
(The spanish landing in South America)

After Portugal had success with their explorations Spain wanted to start to explore and expand their power. The Spanish conquistadors were spanish explorers that explored and conquered parts of America. Hernan Cortes was a Spanish conquistador how sailed to Mexico for Spain. When he landed in Mexico he was met by natives called the Aztecs, who were a rich and thriving people in Mexico. It only took Hernan Cortes 3 years to beat the Aztec Empire and to take all their land and riches. Francisco Pizarro led an expedition to South America and on this expedition he took over the Incan Empire in the Peruvian Andres. In 30 years the Spanish had taken control of lands in Mexico, Central and South America and they had most Control over South American areas.

__Effect On The Natives__
(Picture of an Aztec slave) media type="custom" key="11762646" width="200" height="200"

Life of the Natives was changes drastically by the Spanish because Queen Isabella declared that the Natives could be used as laborers/slaves. Their were rules put in place by the Queen to protect the Natives but since the settlers were far away from Spain most of them ignored the rules and put them to work on sugar plantations and in the mines. This was all bad but it got worse because of all this forced labor the Natives began to starve and begun getting sick from diseases. Many Natives died from these diseases such as smallpox, measles, and tryphus. The population in Mexico had dropped from 25 million to 1 million from 1519 to 1630.

Also the Spanish brought Catholic missionaries to South America and they converted and baptized hundreds of thousands of Natives. The missionaries built churches, schools, and hospitals from Europe. This caused the Natives social and political system to be torn apart and their social and political system was now more like the religious systems in Europe.

__Impact on the Ecoonomy__
Spain's economy was greatly affected by their conquered land and the resources they got from these lands. At this time the Spanish were very interested in gold and silver. The Spanish economy was very much boosted with the large amount of gold treasures in Mexico and their rich silver deposits in Mexico and southern Peru. Also European colonist established farms to grow sugar, cotton, vanilla, livestock, and others that were new to them. All of these new products were grown and then shipped to Europe for trade. The trade of products between South America and Europe was known as the Columbian exchange and it transformed the economy of both places.