"selection screens give the choice between ""Castilian Spanish"" and ""Latin American Spanish"", among other languages. In the Americas, where Spanish is the native language of 20 countries, usage of ""castellano"" and ""español"" is sometimes reversed to refer to another nation. For example, a Peruvian talking about a Uruguayan might say, ""Yo hablo en español peruano, él habla en español uruguayo, pero los dos hablamos castellano"" (""I speak Peruvian Spanish, he speaks Uruguayan Spanish, but we both speak Castilian""). That usage comes from the historical association of ""español"" with the language that was brought to America by conquistadores and was later"
"Conquistador Conquistadors (; from Spanish or Portuguese ""conquistadores"" ""conquerors""; , ) is a term used to refer to the soldiers and explorers of the Spanish Empire or the Portuguese Empire in a general sense. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, Oceania, Africa, and Asia, conquering territory and opening trade routes. They colonized much of the world for Spain and Portugal in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. The Spanish conquistadores, who were primarily poor nobles from the impoverished west and south of Spain, began building up an American empire in the Caribbean, using islands"
"the Spaniards in 1492 during the first voyage of Christopher Columbus into the New World. On December 6, 1492, three Spanish ships entered the ""Windward Passage"" that separates Cuba and Haiti. At sunrise, Columbus noticed an island whose contours emerged from the morning mist. Because the shape reminded him of a turtle's shell, he chose the name of Tortuga. Tortuga was originally settled by a few Spanish colonists. In 1625 French and English settlers arrived on the island of Tortuga after initially planning to settle on the island of Hispaniola. The French and English settlers were attacked in 1629 by"
"South America. The Spaniards began building up their American empire in the Caribbean, using islands such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola as bases. The North and South American mainland fell to the conquistadors, with an estimated 8,000,000 deaths of indigenous populations. Florida fell to Juan Ponce de León after 1513. From 1519 to 1521, Hernán Cortés waged a campaign against the Aztec Empire, ruled by Moctezuma II. The Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, became Mexico City, the chief city of what the Spanish were now calling ""New Spain"". More than 240,000 Aztecs died during the siege of Tenochtitlan. Of these, 100,000"
"army landed at Gibraltar and, in an eight-year campaign, occupied all except the northern kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula in the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. Al-Andalus (, tr. ""al-ʾAndalūs"", possibly ""Land of the Vandals""), is the Arabic name given to what is today southern Spain by its Muslim Berber and Arab occupiers. From the 8th–15th centuries, only the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula was part of the Islamic world. It became a center of culture and learning, especially during the Caliphate of Córdoba, which reached its height of its power under the rule of Abd-ar-Rahman III and his successor"
"Spain"". The expansion of the Spanish Empire between 1492 and 1898 brought thousands of Spanish migrants to the conquered lands, who established settlements, mainly in the Americas, but also in other distant parts of the world (as in the Philippines, the lone Spanish territory in Asia), producing a number of multiracial populations. Today, the term ""Hispanic"" is typically applied to the varied populations of these places, including those with Spanish ancestry. Filipinos, although were heavily influenced by Spain's language and culture, are not considered Hispanic. The Latin gentile adjectives that belong to Hispania are ""Hispanus, Hispanicus,"" and ""Hispanienses."" A Hispanus"
"(Saint-Martin) and the Netherlands (Sint Maarten). Hispaniola is the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas, founded by Christopher Columbus on his voyages in 1492 and 1493. The island was called by various names by its native people, the Taíno Amerindians. No known Taíno texts exist, hence, historical evidence for those names comes to us through three European historians: the Italian Pietro Martyr d‘Anghiera, and the Spaniards Bartolomé de las Casas and Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo. Fernández de Oviedo and de las Casas both recorded that the island was called ""Quizqueia"" (supposedly ""Mother of all Lands"") by"
"Empire of Peru. From there, Spain conquered about half of South America, the remaining Central America and much of North America. Portugal also expanded in the Americas, attempting to establish some fishing colonies in northern North America first (with a relatively limited duration) and conquering half of South America and calling their colony Brazil. These Western powers were aided not only by superior technology like gunpowder, but also by Old World diseases which they inadvertently brought with them, and which wiped out large segments Amerindian population. The natives populations, called Indians by Columbus, since he originally thought he had landed"
"Spanish conquest of El Salvador The Spanish conquest of El Salvador was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish ""conquistadores"" against the Late Postclassic Mesoamerican polities in the territory that is now incorporated into the modern Central American nation of El Salvador. El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America, and is dominated by two mountain ranges running east-west. Its climate is tropical, and the year is divided into wet and dry seasons. Before the conquest the country formed a part of the Mesoamerican cultural region, and was inhabited by a number of indigenous peoples, including the Pipil, the Lenca,"
"documented Amerindian settlement dates to between about 350 and 650 AD. The arrivals were a group known as the Saladoid-Barrancoid from mainland South America. A second wave of settlers appeared around the year 800 (the Spanish referred to these as ""Arawaks"") and a third in the mid-13th century (called ""Caribs"" by the Spanish). This last group was politically more organised and came to rule over the others. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to discover the island. Portuguese navigator Pedro a Campos named it ""Los Barbados"" (meaning ""bearded ones""). Frequent slave-raiding missions by the Spanish Empire in the early 16th"
"History of Latin America The term ""Latin America"" primarily refers to the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries in the New World. Before the arrival of Europeans in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the region was home to many indigenous peoples, a number of which had advanced civilizations, most notably from South; the Olmec, Maya, Muisca and Inca. The region came under control of the crowns of Spain and Portugal, which imposed both Roman Catholicism and their respective languages. Both the Spanish and the Portuguese brought African slaves to their colonies, as laborers, particularly in regions where indigenous populations who"
"Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. After years of preliminary exploration and military skirmishes, 168 Spanish soldiers under conquistador Francisco Pizarro, his brothers, and their native allies captured the Sapa Inca Atahualpa in the 1532 Battle of Cajamarca. It was the first step in a long campaign that took decades of fighting but ended in Spanish victory in 1572 and colonization of the region as the Viceroyalty of Peru. The conquest of the Inca Empire (called ""Tahuantinsuyu"" or ""Tawantinsuyu"""
"what is now known as Spain were the Iberians, inhabiting an area stretching from the northeast part of the Iberian Peninsula through the southeast. The Celts mostly inhabited the inner and north-west part of the peninsula. In the inner part of the peninsula, where both groups were in contact, a mixed culture arose, the Celtiberians. The Celtiberian Wars were fought between the advancing legions of the Roman Republic and the Celtiberian tribes of Hispania Citerior from 181 to 133 BC. The Roman conquest of the peninsula was completed in 19 BC. ""Hispania"" was the name used for the Iberian Peninsula"
"of Yucatán, Spanish conquest of Mexico, Spanish missions in California, Swedish History of Latin America The term ""Latin America"" primarily refers to the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries in the New World. Before the arrival of Europeans in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the region was home to many indigenous peoples, a number of which had advanced civilizations, most notably from South; the Olmec, Maya, Muisca and Inca. The region came under control of the crowns of Spain and Portugal, which imposed both Roman Catholicism and their respective languages. Both the Spanish and the Portuguese brought African slaves to"
"Spanish conquered large territories in North, Central and South America. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés took over the Aztec Kingdom and Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire. As a result, by the mid-16th century, the Spanish Crown had gained control of much of western South America, and southern North America, in addition to its earlier Caribbean territories. Over this same timeframe, Portugal claimed lands in North America (Canada) and colonized much of eastern South America, naming it Santa Cruz and Brazil. Other European nations soon disputed the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas. England and France attempted to plant colonies in"
"Spanish America and sacked cities. During the mid 17th century, the Bahama Islands attracted many lawless people who had taken over New Providence. Encouraged by its large harbor, they were joined by several pirates who made their living by raiding the Spanish on the coast of Cuba. They called this activity Buccaneering. In January 1684 Havana responded to the attacks by the Buccaneers of the Bahama Islands in the event known as the Raid on Charles Town. English settlers occupying Jamaica began to spread the name ""buccaneers"" with the meaning of pirates. The name became universally adopted later in 1684"
"by illness. By A.D. 1000, the indigenous Taíno inhabited the island. They called the island Borikén (alternatively, Borinquén), which means ""land of the valiant one"" and later Puerto Ricans called themselves boricua, borincano and borinqueño to embrace their indigenous identity. In the 15th century, the Carib lived on nearby islands and periodically invaded Taíno villages. The Spanish conquered the island, assuming government in 1508, colonized it, and assumed hegemony over the natives. The Taíno population dwindled due to disease, tribal warfare, and forced labor, so the Spanish began importing large numbers of slaves from Africa. Spanish men arrived on the"
"Aztecs, and most especially the Aztecs' indigenous enemies and rivals. They combined forces to defeat the Mexica of Tenochtitlan over a two-year period. For the Spanish, the expedition to Mexico was part of a project of Spanish colonization of the New World after twenty-five years of permanent Spanish settlement and further exploration in the Caribbean. The Spanish made landfall in Mexico in 1517. A Spanish settler in Cuba, Hernán Cortés, led an expedition (""entrada"") to Mexico, landing in February 1519, following an earlier expedition led by Juan de Grijalva to Yucatán in 1517. Two years later Cortés and his retinue"
"conquered states were the Aztec Empire in modern Mexico (conquered in 1521) and the Inca Empire in modern Peru (conquered in 1532). During this time, pandemics of European disease such as smallpox devastated the indigenous populations. Once Spanish sovereignty was established, the Spanish focused on the extraction and export of gold and silver. Voyages of Christopher Columbus In 1492, a Spanish-based transatlantic maritime expedition led by Italian explorer Christopher Columbus encountered the Americas, continents which were largely unknown in Europe and were outside the Old World political and economic system. The four voyages of Columbus began the Spanish colonization of"
"Spanish to land, and the conquistadors read the Requirement of 1513 to them, which offered the natives the protection of the King of Spain, if they would submit to him. Córdoba took two prisoners, who adopted the baptized names of Melchor and Julián and became interpreters. Later, the two prisoners, being misled or misinterpreting the language with information given to the Spanish conquistadors that there was plenty of gold up for grabs. On the western side of the Yucatán Peninsula, the Spanish were attacked at night by Maya chief Mochcouoh, a battle in which fifty men were killed. Córdoba was"
"and Margarita off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. Later Spanish expeditions returned to exploit these islands' once abundant pearl oysters, enslaving the indigenous people of the islands and harvesting the pearls so intensively that they became one of the most valuable resources of the incipient Spanish Empire in the Americas between 1508 and 1531, by which time both the local indigenous population and the pearl oysters had become devastated. The Spanish expedition led by Alonso de Ojeda, sailing along the length of the northern coast of South America in 1499, gave the name ""Venezuela"" (""little Venice"" in Spanish) to the"
"Spanish colonization of the Americas The overseas expansion under the Crown of Castile was initiated under the royal authority and first accomplished by the Spanish ""conquistadors"". The Americas were incorporated into the Spanish Empire, with the exception of Brazil, Canada, and several other small countries in South America and The Caribbean. The crown created civil and religious structures to administer the region. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Catholic faith through indigenous conversions. Beginning with the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean and continuing control of vast territory for over three centuries,"
"Gharb Al-Andalus Gharb Al-Andalus (, trans. ""gharb al-ʼandalus""; ""The West of Al-Andalus""), or just Al-Gharb (, trans. ""al-gharb""; ""The West""), was the name given by the Muslims of Iberia to the region of southern modern-day Portugal and part of West-central modern day Spain during their rule of the territory, from 711 to 1249. This period started with the fall of the Visigothic kingdom after Tariq ibn-Ziyad's invasion of Iberia and the establishment of the Umayyad control in the territory. The present day Algarve derives its name from this Arabic name. The region had a population of about 500,000 people. After"
"of the first intentional landing by Europeans in the territory of modern-day Mexico, during the Córdoba expedition, on 4 March 1517. The Spanish were invited into the native town with """"Cones catoche, cones catoche"", which means: 'Come to our houses'."" On the way, the Spaniards were ambushed, suffering thirteen wounded to the native's fifteen killed. The Spaniards captured two natives, baptized as Julian and Melchior, who became interpreters on future Spanish expeditions, before Melchior turned against the Spaniards at the Battle of Centla. This is also the site of the first known ""accidental"" landing, a shipwreck in 1511, in which"
"European colonization of the Americas The European colonization of the Americas describes the history of the settlement and establishment of control of the continents of the Americas by most of the naval powers of Western Europe. Systematic European colonization began in 1492, when a Spanish expedition headed by the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sailed west to find a new trade route to the Far East but inadvertently landed in what came to be known to Europeans as the ""New World"". He ran aground on the northern part of Hispaniola on 5 December 1492, which the Taino people had inhabited since"
"variations. Christopher Columbus landed at Môle Saint-Nicolas on 5 December 1492, and claimed the island he named ""La Isla Espanola"" (later named Hispaniola) for Spain. The Spanish established sugar plantations and made the natives work as slaves, however the harsh conditions and infectious diseases brought over by the Spanish sailors nearly wiped out the indigenous population by 1520 as the natives lacked immunity to these new diseases, forcing the Spaniards to import slaves from Africa to work these plantations instead. The Africans introduced okra (also called ""gumbo""; edible pods), ackee (red and yellow fruit), taro (an edible root), pigeon peas"
"as the emperors Trajan and (most likely) Hadrian. The Vandals moved briefly through the region during the 5th century AD before settling in North Africa, after which the region fell into the hands of the Visigothic Kingdom. The Visigoths in this region were practically independent of the Visigothic Catholic Kingdom of Toledo. This is the era of Saints Isidore of Seville and Hermenegild. During this period, around 555 AD, the Eastern Roman Empire conquered Andalusia under Justinian I, the Eastern Roman Emperor. They established Spania, a province of the Byzantine Empire from 552 until 624. Though their holdings were quickly"
"identity, different from the rest of the Catholic converted natives which the Spaniards called """"Indios"""" (Indians). With intentions of colonising the islands, the Spaniards made incursions into Moro territory. They also began erecting military stations and garrisons with Catholic missions, which attracted Christianised natives of civilian settlements. The most notable of these are Zamboanga and Cotabato. Spain was in the midst of the Inquisition which required Jews and Muslims to convert to Roman Catholicism or leave or face the death penalty; thus Spaniards tried to ban and suppress Islam in areas they conquered. Feeling threatened by these actions, the Moros"
"Spanish conquest of Nicaragua The Spanish conquest of Nicaragua was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish ""conquistadores"" against the natives of the territory now incorporated into the modern Central American republic of Nicaragua during the colonisation of the Americas. Before European contact in the early 16th century, Nicargua was inhabited by a number of indigenous peoples. In the west, these included Mesoamerican groups such as the Chorotega, the Nicarao, and the Subtiaba. Other groups included the Matagalpa and the Tacacho. Gil González Dávila first entered what is now Nicaragua in 1522, with the permission of Pedrarias Dávila, governor of Castilla"
"and South America"". The Spanish Empire was ""built on waves of migration overseas by Spanish people"" who left Spain and ""reached across the globe and permanently affected population structures"" in the Americas. As a result of the Spanish colonization of the Americas, what became the Latin America was ""easily the greatest single destination of emigrant Spanish"". The first period of the conquest of the Canaries was carried out by the Norman nobles Jean de Béthencourt and Gadifer de la Salle. Their motives were basically economic: Bethencourt possessed textile factories and dye works and the Canaries offered a source of dyes"
"in Western South America. The European powers of Spain and Portugal colonized the region, which along with the rest of the uncolonized world, was divided into areas of Spanish and Portuguese control by the line of demarcation in 1494, which gave Spain all areas to the west, and Portugal all areas to the east (the Portuguese lands in South America subsequently becoming Brazil). By the end of the sixteenth century Spain and Portugal had been joined by others, including France, in occupying large areas of North, Central and South America, ultimately extending from Alaska to the southern tips of the"
"of European colonists between the 15th and 18th centuries. Along with measles and influenza, smallpox was taken to the Americas by the Spanish. Smallpox was endemic in Spain, having been introduced by the Moors from Africa. In 1519, an epidemic of smallpox broke out in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan in Mexico. This was started by the army of Pánfilo de Narváez, who followed Hernán Cortés from Cuba and had an African slave suffering from smallpox aboard his ship. When the Spanish finally entered the capital in the summer of 1521, they saw it strewn with the bodies of smallpox victims."
"known as the ""Catholic Monarchs"" (), a title bestowed on them by Pope Alexander VI. The monarchs oversaw the final stages of the Reconquista of Iberian territory from the Moors with the conquest of Granada, conquered the Canary Islands, and expelled the Jews from Spain under the Alhambra Decree. Spain established colonies in North Africa that ranged from the Atlantic Moroccan coast to Tripoli in Libya. Melilla was occupied in 1497 and Ceuta was annexed from the Portuguese in 1668. Today, both still remain under Spanish control, together with smaller islets known as the ""presidios menores"" (Peñón de Vélez de"