Page 64 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Spain

62  INTRODUCING SP AIN

The Age of Discovery

Following Columbus’s arrival in the Bahamas in 1492,
the conquistadors went into Central and South America,
con quering Mexico (1519), Peru (1532) and Chile (1541).
In doing so, they destroyed Indian civilizations. In the 16th
century, vast quantities of gold and silver flowed across
the Atlantic to Spain. Carlos I and his son Felipe II spent
some of it on battles to halt the spread of Protestantism Spanish Empire in 1580
in Europe, and in the Holy War against the Turks. Dominions of Felipe II

Mapping the World
This 16th-century
German map reflects Galleons were
a new world, largely armed with cannons
unknown to Europe as a defence against
before the era of pirates and rival
conquistadors. conquerors.

The lookout
was essential for
spotting enemies
and making landfall.
Aztec Mask
In their great greed and
ignorance, the Spanish
destroyed the empires Forecastle
and civilizations of the
Aztecs in Mexico and the
Incas in Peru.

Seville
Granted the
trading monopoly
with the Americas,
Seville, on the banks of
the Guadalquivir, was
Europe’s richest port in
the early 16th century.

1519 Magellan, 1532 Pizarro 1554 International Catholic
Portuguese explorer, takes Peru alliance created by marriage
leaves Seville under 1520–21 Revolt by Castilian towns with 180 men of future king Felipe II with
Spanish patronage when Carlos I appoints foreigner, and destroys Mary Tudor of England
to circumnavigate Adrian of Utrecht, as regent Inca Empire
the globe Pizarro
1520 1530 1540 1550
1519 Conquest of Mexico by 1540 Father Bartolomé
Cortés. Carlos I crowned Holy de las Casas writes book
Roman Emperor Charles V denouncing the
oppression of Indians
Ferdinand Magellan Bartolomé de las Casas

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