“History is
orphan. It can speak, but cannot hear. It can give, but cannot take. Its wounds
and tragedies can be read and known, but cannot be avoided or cured.” ― Kedar Joshi
Within a generation of Columbus landing in the “West Indies”
the Caribs and Tainos, the native population who once numbered 250,000, were
nearly wiped out by forced labor and contact with European infectious diseases
to which they had no immunity. In 1510, new
slaves were brought in from West Africa. The Spanish disappointment with the lack
of gold prompted them to turn to sugar cultivation for profit. The harsh, labor-intensive
plantation agriculture was now established in the Americas.
The conquistadors who were warriors and not farmers, moved on, to cause ever
greater ruin as they sought out new lands to terrorize for gold.
1492 Columbus
lands on the island of Hispaniola in the Indies. He trades glass beads
for gold and leaves a small settlement.
1493 Columbus's second fleet of 17 ships explores Jamaica and southern Cuba.
1498 Columbus,
with colonists emptied from Spanish prisons, makes landfall at Trinidad.
The Hispaniola colony is relocated on the south coast at San Domingo by his
brother Bartholomew.
1502 - 1504
On his fourth voyage Columbus explores the Central American coastline and
encounters Maya traders at Bay Island in the Gulf of Honduras.
1507 "America" appears on European maps for the first
time.
1508 The first two Spaniards go ashore in Yucatan.
1510 A
settlement is established on the isthmus of Panama.
1511 Several shipwrecked sailors are taken prisoner by the Maya.
1513 Balboa crosses the isthmus of Panama and reaches the
Pacific.
1514 Panfilo de Narvaez conquers Cuba. The priest
Bartolomeo de las Casas records a catalog of Spanish torture and barbarity.
1517 From
Cuba, Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba explores the Yucatan coast. The following
year Juan de Grijalua explores the coast of Mexico.
1519 From
Cuba, Hernan Cortés lands at Veracruz. He rejects envoys with gifts from
Moctezuma II and advances on the high plateau of Tlaxcala. At Cholula Cortès
massacres the local chiefs. With the help of native allies Cortes reaches
Tenochtitlán and takes Moctezuma hostage. Cortes wrecks the great pyramid
before withdrawing.
1520 Conquest
of Greater Antilles is complete.
1521 After a
93-day siege Cortes takes and destroys Tenochtitlán.
1526 Francisco
Pizarro, already enriched by slave-holdings in Panama, leads mercenaries into Colombia.
Their terror tactics are unflinchingly cruel but to little avail and the
expedition has to be rescued.
1529 Charles V
of Spain grants a license to Pizarro to "discover and conquer Peru."
1532 The Inca invasion begins, the empire weakened by disease,
is also wracked by civil war. The "Unique Inca" Atahuallpa is
captured, forcibly baptized and executed by strangulation.
1535 The
Pizarro brothers establish a coastal capital of Lima and begin shipping gold
back to Spain. Rivalry with fellow Spaniard Almagro leads Pizarro to execute
his former companion. Almagro's son takes his revenge by murdering Pizarro.
1536 Great Inca revolt is followed by
resistance in Vilcabamba until 1572 when the last Inca, Tupac Amoru, is
captured and executed.
1528 Francisco
de Montejo lands in Yucatan. He wages a 14-year struggle with the Maya before
establishing his capital at Merida.
1542 Pedro de
Alvarado takes the Mayan kingdoms of Cakchiquel and Quiche.
1543 Spain
institutes annual treasure convoys.
1697 Martin de
Ursua inflicts final defeat of Maya at Tayasal.
Other Timelines
of Spanish Exploreres
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