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The Spanish colonization of the Americas was Spain's conquest, settlement, and rule over much of the western hemisphere. Beginning with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, over three centuries the Spanish Empire expanded from early small settlements in the Caribbean to include Central America, most of South America, Mexico, what today is Southwestern United States, the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of North America, reaching Alaska[1]. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Spanish possessions in America began a series of independence movements, which culminated in Spain's loss of all of its colonies on the mainland of North, Central and South America by 1825. The remaining Spanish colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines were occupied by the United States following the Spanish-American War (1898), ending Spanish rule in the Americas. The Spanish settled in many different places all over America.
On his fourth and final voyage to America in 1502, Columbus encountered a large canoe off the coast of what is now Honduras filled with trade goods. He boarded the canoe and rifled through the cargo which included cacao beans, copper and flint axes, copper bells, pottery, and colorful cotton garments. He took one prisoner and what he wanted from the cargo and let the canoe continue. This was the first contact of the Spanish with the civilizations of Central America.[citation needed]
In 1513, Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, and led the first European expedition to see the Pacific Ocean from the west coast of the New World. In an action with enduring historical import, Balboa claimed the Pacific Ocean and all the lands adjoining it for the Spanish Crown. It was 1517 before another expedition from Cuba visited Central America, landing on the coast of the Yucatán in search of slaves. This was followed by a phase of conquest. The Spaniards, just having finished a war against the Muslim Moors in the Iberian peninsula, began toppling the local American civilizations, and attempted to impose Christianity.
There is a difference between the Spanish conquest of Mexico and the Spanish conquest of Yucatán. Although the Yucatán Peninsula is part of the modern-day country of Mexico, the Spanish conquest of Mexico refers to the conquest of the Mexica/Aztec empire by Hernán Cortés from 1519–21. It is April 22, 1519, the day Hernán Cortés landed ashore and founded the city of Veracruz, Veracruz, that marks the beginning of almost 303 years of Spanish hegemony over the region. The Spanish conquest of Yucatán, on the other hand, refers to the conquest of the Maya states from 1551–1697
In the early 16th-century, a group of Spaniards led by Francisco Pizarro succeeded in toppling the Inca Empire. They took advantage of a recent civil war in the empire (between the factions of the brothers: Atahualpa and Huascar) to capture the ruling monarch, Inca Atahualpa in the city of Cajamarca on November 16, 1532. In the following years the conquistadors managed to consolidate their power over the whole Andean region, repressing successive indigenous rebellions until the establishment of the Viceroyalty of Perú in 1542 and the fall of the resistance of Vilcabamba in 1572.
During the Peninsular War, when Spain itself was occupied by Napoleonic troops, several assemblies (juntas) were established by the criollos to rule the lands in the name of Ferdinand VII of Spain. Meanwhile, on August 10, 1809 the first declaration of independence from Spanish rule was signed at Quito (in modern Ecuador), which began a movement for independence that soon spread across Spain's American colonies. This experience of self-government, the influence of liberalism, and the ideas of the French and American Revolutions influenced the Libertadores. All of the colonies except Cuba and Puerto Rico eventually freed themselves, often with help from the British Empire, which had long sought to break the Spanish monopoly on trade with its possessions in America.
In 1898, the United States won the Spanish-American War and occupied Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, ending Spanish rule in America. Spanish settlement of the region continued, however, as the early 20th century saw a stream of immigration of poor people and political exiles from Spain to the former American colonies, especially Cuba, Mexico and Argentina. After the 1970s, the flow became reversed as Hispanic Americans began settling in Spain. In the 1990s, Spanish companies like Repsol and Telefonica invested in most countries in America particularly in South America, often buying newly privatized companies.
Currently, the Ibero-American countries, along with Spain and Portugal, have organized themselves as the Comunidad Iberoamericana de Naciones.
Many Spanish-speaking American countries are part of the Organization of American States, which includes most countries of America and seeks to build continental unity.
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