The Spanish Empire (1402/1516-1934) was a nation that succeeded the Kingdom of Castile in 1402 and preceded modern Spain. Its history covered the eras of the Crown of Castile, Kingdom of Aragon, Kingdom of Granada, Kingdom of Asturias, and the Kingdom of Portugal, and saw Spain take over the Americas and parts of Asia.
History[]
Map of the Spanish Empire
Spain's empire first began with its conquest of the Canary Islands in 1402, turning the Kingdom of Castile into an empire. Spain further expanded its maps by launching exploration expeditions across the world, and in 1492 they explored the New World of North and South America, settling initially in the Caribbean before expanding their empire to most of the rest of North America. Spain was finally united under one banner in 1516 when Carlos I of Spain succeeded to the thrones of Castile, Leon, and Aragon, the first Spanish monarch to be the lord of the three domains at once. In 1519-1521, the conquistadors Diego Velazquez, Hernan Cortes, Pedro de Alvarado, and Francisco Coronado conquered the Aztec Empire and the Mayans in present-day Mexico. Their empire also conquered the Philippines, due to the efforts of Ferdinand Magellan.
Spain became a large empire that encompassed much of the world; in 1710, its possessions in northern South America, the Caribbean, Spain, and Italy alone had a total of 17,882,916 people. Its other possessions, including those in Africa, encompassed much more people (in 1700, it had 17,218,596 people, rising by over 600,000 within ten years, and only in European Spain, Caribbean Spain, and northern South American Spain). The Spanish missionaries spread Catholicism across the world, as well as their language and culture. The Spanish empire remained even after the fall of the Kingdom of Spain in 1934, and ended in 1974 after Spain lost all of its possessions in Africa; their American territories all won independence from 1808 to 1898.