Conquest (and earlier conquist - from the Spanish LaConquista - "conquest") is the conquest of the New World or the colonization of America by Spain, which lasted from 1492 to 1898, when the United States, having defeated Spain, took Cuba and Puerto Rico from it. So, the conquistador is the Spanish or Portuguese conqueror of America, the conquista party.
Objective background
Opened in 1492 by Columbus America, whichSpaniards considered part of Asia, became the “promised land” for many impoverished Spanish nobles, younger sons, who did not fall a penny from their father’s inheritance, according to Spanish laws, rushed to the New World. With him were crazy hopes for enrichment. Legends of the fabulous Eldorado (a country of gold and precious stones) and Paititi (the mythical lost golden city of the Incas) circled more than one head. Many prerequisites developed by that time on the Iberian Peninsula, which contributed to the fact that thousands (600 thousand only Spaniards) of its inhabitants moved to America. Newly arrived Europeans captured endless expanses from California to the estuary of La Plata (a funnel-shaped recess stretching for 290 km, resulting from the confluence of the mighty Uruguay and Paraná rivers, is an extensive, unique water system in southeast South America).
The rank of the great conquerors
As a result, the Conquest captured almost allSouth America and parts of North, including Mexico. The conquistador is a pioneer who, without any assistance from the state, attached huge, vast territories to Spain and Portugal. The most famous Spanish conquistador, the Marquis (the title he received from the king in gratitude) Hernan Cortes (1485-1547), who conquered Mexico, created a springboard for further seizure of the entire continent from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, rightly ranks among the greatest conquerors, along with Tamerlane, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Suvorov and Attila. The conquistador is first and foremost a warrior. In Spain, the reconquest (reconquest) ended in the 15th century — a very long process that lasted almost eight centuries for the liberation of the Iberian Peninsula from the Arab invaders. Not matters left a lot of warriors who could not live a peaceful life.
Adventurous conquest
Among them were enough adventurers accustomed to living at the expense of plundering the Arab population. In addition, the time of great geographical discoveries.
In distant countries, people who went to conquer themexempt from the church (the Inquisition was still strong) and the royal power (exorbitant payments existed in favor of the crown). The audience, rushed to the New World, was very motley. And many believed that the conquistador is in most cases an adventurer. Everything that concerns the conquest is very good, both the reasons that prompted it and the characters of the people who decided to go on a trip or were forced to carry it out are described in the historical novel of the Argentine writer Enrico Laretta “Glory of Don Ramiro”.
In general, this great page of history is dedicated tomany literary works, some of which romanticized images of conquistadors, considering them missionaries, others presented them to the sheer devils. The latter includes the very popular adventure-historical novel “The Daughter of Montezuma” by Henry Ryder Hoggard.
Conquest heroes
Leader or major portuguese or spanishThe conquistador was called Adelantado. Among them are such leaders as the already mentioned Hernan Cortes. The entire Yucatan peninsula was conquered by Francisco de Montejo. The Pacific coast of all of South America was conquered by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa. The Inca Empire, the early class state of Tauantinsuyu, the largest in terms of area and population of the Indians, was destroyed by Francisco Pissarro. Spanish conquistador Diego de Almagro joined the crown of Peru, Chile and the Isthmus of Panama. Diego Velázquez de Cuellar, Pedro de Valdevia, Pedro Alvarado, G. H. Quesada also left a memory in the history of the conquest of the New World.
Negative consequences
Conquistadors are often blamed for the destructionnative americans. And although there was no direct genocide, primarily due to the small number of Europeans, the diseases they brought to the mainland, and the ensuing epidemics did their dirty deed. And adventurers brought the illnesses the most different. Tuberculosis and measles, typhus, plague and smallpox, influenza and scrofula - this is not a complete list of the gifts of civilization. If the Aztec tribe to the Conquista numbered 20 million people, then the plague and smallpox epidemics that followed one after another have wiped out most of the Aborigines. A terrible pang shook Mexico. So the conquest of the conquistadors, which covered most of America, brought not only enlightenment, Christianity and the feudal structure of society to the conquered peoples. They brought a Pandora's box to the naive aborigines, in which all the sins and diseases of human society were contained.
Gold and precious stones, and even cities,built from such building materials, the Spanish and Portuguese conquerors did not find. The treasures of the conquistadors are new countries and vast fertile areas, slaves in unlimited quantities for the cultivation of these lands and the most ancient civilizations, the secrets of which have not yet been revealed.
