Lesson Objectives
Spain’s Empire in the
Americas
Europe Looks Outward
(1000-1720)
Ch. 2, Section 2
Key Terms & People
w  ______________ - soldier-adventurers
w  ______________ ______________ - Spanish
conquistador who took control of Mexico from the
Aztecs
w  ______________ - leader of the Aztecs
w  ______________ - large farms worked by laborers
who worked on the property
w  ______________ - land grants that included the right
to demand labor or taxes from Native Americans
w  Bartolomê de Las Casas - a Spanish priest who fought
against the ecomienda system
w  ______________ - a religious settlement
w  ______________ - Spanish colonists born in Spain
w  Describe how the Spanish were able to
defeat the empires of the Aztecs and
Incas
w  Identify Spanish explorations in areas
that later became part of the United
States.
w  Explain how society was organized in
Spain’s empire in the Americas.
Spanish Conquistadors
w  By the early 1500’s, the Spanish had a
firm foothold in the America’s
w  From Spain’s island colonies in the
Caribbean, conquistadors set out to
explore and conquer a world unknown
to them
w  They hoped for ______________ and
glory for themselves and Spain
Cortés and Pizarro
Cortés and Pizarro
w  In 1519, Conquistador ______________
______________ sailed from Cuba to
Mexico with more than 500 soldiers
w  The first Native Americas he met,
presented him with lavish gifts of
______________
w  On November 8, 1519, Cortés marched
into the Aztec capital of
______________.
w  As the Spaniards moved closer, more
Native Americans who had been
captured by the Aztecs joined them,
tired of their brutal life being controlled
by the ______________
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Cortés and Pizarro
w  The Aztec leader, Montezuma, met with
Cortés and tried to get him to leave by
offering him ______________.
w  The plan backfired. Cortés took
Montezuma ______________ and
claimed all of Mexico for Spain.
w  The Aztecs would, however, soon rebel,
and force the Spaniards to flee the
country.
Cortés and Pizarro
w  Pizarro landed on the coast of Peru in 1531 to
search for the ______________, who were
said to have much gold.
w  In 1532 he led about 170 soldiers through the
jungle into the heart of the Incan empire.
w  He then took the Incan leader
______________ hostage.
w  Although a huge ransom was paid to free
him, he was executed anyway.
w  In November 1533 the Spanish defeated the
Incas and captured their capital city
______________.
Checkpoint Question
How were the Spanish able to defeat the
Native Americans?
Cortés and Pizarro
w  Cortés would return to Mexico about a year
later with a much larger force, recapture
Tenochtitlán, destroy it, and build a new
capital city, ______________
______________.
w  Mexico City served as the capital of
______________
w  Cortés used the same tactics to subdue the
Aztecs in South America that another
conquistador, Francisco ______________,
used.
Why Were the Spanish were
Victorious
w  How could a few hundred Spanish defeat
Native American armies many times their size?
w  ______________ - The Europeans had armor,
muskets, and cannons
w  ______________ - which Native Americans had
never ever seen before
w  ______________ among themselves - In Peru,
where the Incans were conquered, a Civil War had
just ended and in Mexico, many other Native
Americans hated the Aztecs and joined the Spanish.
Spanish Explorers in North
America
w  The Spanish did not limit themselves to the
exploration of Central America
w  In 1513, ______________ ______________
sailed north from Puerto Rico to investigate
reports of a large island
w  He found beautiful flowers there, and named
the place la ______________
w  He was the first Spaniard to set foot in what is
now the United States.
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Spanish Explorers in North
America
Spanish Explorers in North
America
w  Exploration along Florida’s west coast began in
1528, when about 400 Spaniards landed near
the present-day city of St. Petersburg
w  Finding no gold, they marched on into
______________ ______________
w  They fell under attack from Native Americans
and had to retreat to the sea using small boats,
eventually ending up in, what is now,
______________ Texas.
w  The 80 survivors were led by Álvar Núñez
Cabeza de Vaca
w  Starvation and disease quickly reduced their
numbers to 15 before the Indians
______________ them
w  Soon, only 4 remained, including de Vaca
w  After 6 years in captivity, they escaped and
made their way to ______________
______________
w  In 1536, eight years after landing in Florida, the
4 survivors of the ______________ man
expedition returned to Spanish lands
Spanish Explorers in North
America
Spanish Explorers in North
America
w  The men returned telling stories told to them
by the Native Americans of seven cities filled of
gold to the North
w  Spanish officials asked the men to head an
expedition to find these cities, but only 1,
______________, an African slave, was willing
to go
w  In 1539, he led a group into what is now
Western ______________
w  When Estevanico was killed by Native
Americans, the others returned to Mexico City
w  Upon their return, the Spanish conquistador
Francisco Coronado set out with 1,100
Spaniards and Native Americans to find the city
of ______________
w  Although he never found the city, he did
______________ much of what is now New
Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and Kansas
Spanish Explorers in North
America
w  While Coronado was making his way through
the southwest, ______________
______________ was searching for riches in
the southeast.
w  He traveled as far as North Carolina and as far
west as Oklahoma
w  He would end up dying in what is now
Louisiana in 1542, having found the
______________ River, but no signs of the
golden city.
Checkpoint Question
What regions in the present-day United
States did Spaniards explore?
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Colonizing Spanish America
Harsh Life for Native Americans
w  At first, Spain allowed the conquistadors
to govern the lands they discovered and
claimed for ______________
w  However, this quickly proved to be very
______________
w  Spain had to create a formal system of
government to rule it’s colonies
w  Within Spain’s vast empire, there was
little place for Native Americas except
as a source of ______________
______________
w  Government officials granted settlers
huge tracts of land to start mines,
ranches, and ______________.
Harsh Life for Native Americans
Harsh Life for Native Americans
w  To help the Spaniards with work, the
government granted ______________
w  The Spanish forced Native American’s
to work in the gold and silver mines
w  Many died as tunnels, unsafe, caved in
w  Some Spaniards protested this cruel
______________
w  The Spanish ______________
Bartolomé de las Casas traveled
through New Spain working for
______________ for Natives
w  Largely due to his efforts, the
government reformed the system in the
mid-1500’s
Harsh Life for Native Americans
w  Like other Europeans in the Americas,
the Spanish felt it was their duty to
convert the Native Americans to
______________
w  They set up missions, run by Catholic
priests and ______________
w  A number of important U.S. cities got
their start as Spanish missions in the
1700’s
Trade in Humans
w  As the death toll for the Native Americans
continued to rise, Spanish colonists looked
across the ______________ Ocean for a
source of labor
w  In 1517, Spain brought about 4,000 Africans
to the ______________ Islands and forced
them to work there.
w  By the middle of the 1500’s, the Spaniards
were shipping about 2,000 enslaved African’s
each year to Hispaniola alone
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Society in the Spanish
Colonies
Society in the Spanish
Colonies
w  A rigid social system based on birthplace and
blood developed in the Spanish colonies
w  At the top, the ______________’s, which
included almost all government officials
w  ______________’s were colonists born to
two Spanish parents - they also held
important positions
w  Below mestizos were ______________,
people of Spanish and African heritage
w  Native Americans and African Americans were
held at the bottom of the social class, helping
Spain keep control of the America’s for more
than 300 years
w  These were some of the wealthiest merchants and
plantations owners
w  ______________’s were people of mixed
parentage (people of Spanish and Indian
blood)
w  Could achieve success as ranchers, farmers, or
merchants, but entrance entrance into the upper
levels of society was impossible
Review
w  1. What part of the North American continent
did conquistadors explore?
w  2. How was the Spanish empire established
in the America’s?
w  3. What was the lasting accomplishment of
Bartolomé de Las Casas?
w  4. How would you describe the lives of
Native Americans in “New Spain”?
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