The Conquest of America

The conquest of the American Continent has as starting point the Antilles. The leap from Hispaniola Island, to Cuba, Puerto Rico or Jamaica, is the previous step of the conquest of Mexico and Peru.

Juan de Grijalba (Cuéllar, Segovia, 1490- Olancho, Honduras, 1527) and Pedro de Alvarado (Badajoz, 1485- Guadalajara, Meéxico, 1541) get to the coast linescoastlines of Mexico between 1517 and 1518. A year after, Hernán Cortés (Medellin, Badajoz, 1485- Castilleja de la Cuesta, Seville, 1547), excited about the told stories, embarks on the adventure of conquering Mexico. From the Coast of Tabasco, he begins a series of conquer strategies, attracting the people of the triple alliance of the Aztecas, as well as the Tlaxcaltecas and Totonacas. He demands to all of his troops to go to Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, where their King, Monctezuma II (Tenochtitlan, Mexico, 1466-1520) is. Schemes, deceits and combined massacres with Cortés´s expertise make possible the citys takeover, but it will be the smallpox that will put the final touches to the work started by Cortés´s men. With the death of the last Aztec king, Cuauthémoc (1496-1525), Cortés brings to an end the conquest of Tecnochtitlan. To the North, the expansion begins, establishing the Nueva Galicia kingdom (Jalisco, Aguascalientes, Nayarit, Colima y Zacatecas) and California´s region. Through the South, Pedro de Alvarado will get to Guatemala and El Salvador and Cristóbal de Olid (Baeza, Jaén, 1488-Naco, Honduras, 1525) will do the same in Honduras.

The conquest of Peru is marked by the confrontations between the different lords, the hostility of the people of the land, the orography and the feud between the authors of the conquest that will end with their own lives: Francisco Pizarro (Trujillo, Cáceres, 1478-Lima, Peru, 1541) and Diego de Almagro (Almagro, Ciudad Real, 1480-Cuzco, Peru, 1538). After the fratricidal war between Atahualpa (Cuzco, Peru, 1500?-Cajamarca, Peru, 1533) and Huascar (Huascarpata, Peru, 1491-Andamarca, Peru, 1533), Atahualpa becomes Inca of the Cajamarca zone and establishes his power. But Pizarro finds a way to get rid of Atahualpa in 1533. Meanwhile, Almagro, who feels displaced from the conquest process, conspires against Pizarro and starts a wasting strategy that will lead to the confrontation between their troops in 1537 after the first intent to conquer Chile. Pedro de Valdivia (Castuera, Badajoz, 1500-Tucapel, Chile, 1533) will lead the expedition and final conquest once Almagro dies. To the North, Sebastián de Belalcázar, Córdoba, 1480-Cartagena, Colombia, 1551) will do the same by heading towards Quito, away from Pizarro and Almagro