The Holy Spanish Empire, Part I: Undisputed Ruler of the New World

     It’s no coincidence that Spanish is spoken so widely in South America and Catholicism is the predominant religion.  In the late 15^th Century, the Iberian kingdoms of Aragon and Castille, under the rule of Isabelle and Ferdinand, united as one to become the nation of Spain.  They went on to defeat the last Moorish Emirate in the southern part of the Iberian peninsula.  After their victory, the Genoese opportunist Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) perceived that the two rulers needed a source of wealth for their up and coming superpower.  There were vast trading opportunities in the orient and Columbus proposed to the Spanish monarchs a new route to India directly across the Atlantic, where some warned that he would sail off the end of the earth.  Ferdinand and Isabelle weren't so sure.  They consented to give him a few small ships to explore the possibilities, not necessarily having terribly high expectations.  The rest, as they say, is history.

     Spain’s first financed expedition was not a raving success, Columbus never found anything except a few islands and some natives (which he immediately called 'Indians' after continent he was seeking, and promptly subjugated them).  He died an ignominious disgrace after three voyages, not having fulfilled his promise to find the riches sought by the two monarchs.  However, after the stunning conquest by Hernan Cortez of the Aztec and the discovery of a huge cache of gold and silver in the great city of Tenochtitlan, the race was on to find more.  This success fired the imagination of every Spanish adventurer and a mad rush for gold ensued.  But unlike the gold rushes that we are used to hearing about, the gold accumulated by the Spanish was not unearthed from mines, but was pried from the dead hands of South America’s royalty.  Hernan Cortez, in other words, looted the Aztec treasury, melted down the artwork of generations into gold bars and shipped it all back to Spain as his personal fortune.  Unconscionable numbers of the natives perished from disease, starvation, and murder.

     As tales of cities of gold abounded among Spanish hidalgos (adventurers), many more soldiers of fortune came to the New World to stake claims.  Pizarro’s brutal conquest of the Inca made him the richest man in Spain.  It could be said, unequivocally, that the first great return on Spain’s modest investment came from outright pillaging.  However, many hidalgos never found their treasure, as one might expect.  Ponce de Leon never found the fountain of youth.  Coronado, who searched through the a huge area north of New Spain (now Mexico) failed to find ‘Eldorado’, where the streets were supposedly paved with gold.  In our times one would call this kind of thing a ‘wild goose chase’ but the successes of Cortez and Pizarro fueled a gold fever among the Spanish that far exceeded the 1849 gold rush to California.  It was a fever that continued for centuries.  By the mid 1500’s the Spanish had taken all the gold and silver from the Indian treasuries, slaughtered or enslaved the indigenous populations, and set up silver mines to extract the glittering metal still remaining in the earth. 

     At this point in time, the Protestant Reformation was in full swing back in Europe and the Papacy’s most loyal subject, Spain, proudly brought their new wealth to bear against the upstart heretics.  They financed religious wars with their plunder in attempts to quell the rising tide of Protestant heresies in England and Holland.  Spain’s religious exuberance was not contained only to Europe, however.  From the very beginning, the Spanish brought along their many idols of saints and their Dominican and Jesuit priests to the new world in attempts to save--- or purge--- the heathen natives from their idolatries.

For much more on the subject, you can also read my historical novel, The Brethren Prince, available as an e-book at the Amazon Kindle store, Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble, and other major e-book retailers.