Spanish Empire

The Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in history, with territories on every inhabited continent. It grew out of the voyages of Christopher Columbus, who reached the Caribbean in 1492, followed by the conquests of Hernan Cortes over the Aztec Empire and Francisco Pizarro over the Inca Empire. Silver from mines such as Potosi made Spain wealthy and shaped the global economy, while the Philippines connected Spanish America to Asia. The empire spread Catholicism and the Spanish language, but it also brought disease, forced labour and slavery to Indigenous peoples and Africans. Most of its American colonies became independent in the early nineteenth century, and Spain lost Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines in 1898. Its last possession in Africa, Spanish Sahara, was given up in the 1970s.

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