1.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
2.
Suesca
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Suesca is a town and municipality in the Almeidas Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca, Colombia. It is located on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense at 59 kilometres north from the capital Bogotá, Suesca forms the northern edge of the Bogotá savanna and is a scenic countryside town which is well known because its landscape attracts devotees of rock climbing, trekking, and rafting. It is surrounded by farms and flower plantations. The municipality borders Cucunubá and Lenguazaque in the north, Sesquilé in the south, Chocontá in the east and Nemocón, the name Suesca is derived from the Chibcha word Suejica, Sueica or Suesuca, which means Rock of the birds or Tail of the macaw. Suesca was inhabited early in the history of inhabitation of the Altiplano, before the Spanish conquest, Suesca was part of the Muisca Confederation. The cacique of Guatavita ruled over Suesca, the close to the sacred Lake Guatavita. Suesca formed an important centre on the road to Boyacá. The merchants took carbon and salt on their way to the north, every four days a market was held in Suesca. Suesca was also an important settlement for the pottery made by the Muisca, when conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada arrived in Suesca in March 1537 he founded the modern town. In Suesca he sentenced a soldier of his army to death, after submitting the zaque of Hunza, Quemuenchatocha, the Muisca ruler was taken prisoner to Suesca in an attempt to let him reveal the location of his treasures. When the zipa of Bacatá, Tisquesusa, heard about the Spanish presence in Suesca, the Muisca, unfamiliar with horses and horseback riders, thought that the horse and the rider were one. When a horse died in Suesca, they found out this was not the case, Suesca is also the place where De Quesada died in 1579, after writing the now lost work Ratos de Suesca. In 1602 in a cave in Suesca 150 Muisca mummies were discovered, the mummies were organised in a circle around the mummie of the cacique of the town. Also rock art has found in Suesca. The pictographs of Suesca are among the most extensive of Cundinamarca, handicrafts - Wool clothes Church of Nuestra Señora del Rosario Lake Suesca - a natural lake that is located at 3,000 metres above sea level. It is found 10 kilometres from Suesca town, a beautiful landscape, the rocks are ideal for people who love trekking and climbing. The area is best known for climbing, but there are many sport routes as well. The Bogotá River flows along the Rocas de Suesca, to arrive at the cliffs, one walks from the town along the train tracks for about 10 minutes
3.
Colombia
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Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a transcontinental country largely situated in the northwest of South America, with territories in Central America. Colombia shares a border to the northwest with Panama, to the east with Venezuela and Brazil and to the south with Ecuador and it shares its maritime limits with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It is a unitary, constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments, the territory of what is now Colombia was originally inhabited by indigenous peoples including the Muisca, the Quimbaya and the Tairona. The Spanish arrived in 1499 and initiated a period of conquest and colonization ultimately creating the Viceroyalty of New Granada, independence from Spain was won in 1819, but by 1830 the Gran Colombia Federation was dissolved. What is now Colombia and Panama emerged as the Republic of New Granada, the new nation experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation, and then the United States of Colombia, before the Republic of Colombia was finally declared in 1886. Since the 1960s the country has suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict, Colombia is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse countries in the world, and thereby possesses a rich cultural heritage. Cultural diversity has also influenced by Colombias varied geography. The urban centres are located in the highlands of the Andes mountains. Colombian territory also encompasses Amazon rainforest, tropical grassland and both Caribbean and Pacific coastlines, ecologically, it is one of the worlds 17 megadiverse countries, and the most densely biodiverse of these per square kilometer. Colombia is a power and a regional actor with the fourth-largest economy in Latin America, is part of the CIVETS group of six leading emerging markets and is an accessing member to the OECD. Colombia has an economy with macroeconomic stability and favorable growth prospects in the long run. The name Colombia is derived from the last name of Christopher Columbus and it was conceived by the Venezuelan revolutionary Francisco de Miranda as a reference to all the New World, but especially to those portions under Spanish and Portuguese rule. The name was adopted by the Republic of Colombia of 1819. When Venezuela, Ecuador and Cundinamarca came to exist as independent states, New Granada officially changed its name in 1858 to the Granadine Confederation. In 1863 the name was changed, this time to United States of Colombia. To refer to country, the Colombian government uses the terms Colombia. Owing to its location, the present territory of Colombia was a corridor of early human migration from Mesoamerica, the oldest archaeological finds are from the Pubenza and El Totumo sites in the Magdalena Valley 100 km southwest of Bogotá. These sites date from the Paleoindian period, at Puerto Hormiga and other sites, traces from the Archaic Period have been found
4.
Spanish colonization of the Americas
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The Colonial expansion under the crown of Castile was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Catholic faith through indigenous conversions and it is estimated that during the colonial period, a total of 18.6 million Spaniards settled in the Americas and a further 3.5 million immigrated during the post-colonial era. Spains loss of these last territories politically ended the Spanish rule in the Americas, the Catholic Monarchs Isabella of Castile, Queen of Castile and her husband King Ferdinand, King of Aragon, pursued a policy of joint rule of their kingdoms and created a single Spanish monarchy. Even though Castile and Aragon were ruled jointly by their respective monarchs, the Catholic Monarchs gave official approval for the plans of Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus for a voyage to reach India by sailing West. The funding came from the queen of Castile, so the profits from Spanish expedition flowed to Castile, in the extension of Spanish sovereignty to its overseas territories, authority for expeditions of discovery, conquest, and settlement resided in the monarchy. Columbus made four voyages to the West Indiesas the monarchs granted Columbus the governorship of the new territories and he founded La Navidad on the island later named Hispaniola, in what is present day Haiti on his first voyage. After its destruction by the indigenous Taino people, the town of Isabella was begun in 1493, in 1496 his brother, Bartholomew, founded Santo Domingo. By 1500, despite a death rate, there were between 300 and 1000 Spanish settled in the area. The local Taíno people continued to resist, refusing to plant crops, the first mainland explorations were followed by a phase of inland expeditions and conquest. In 1500 the city of Nueva Cádiz was founded on the island of Cubagua, Venezuela, the Spanish founded San Sebastian de Uraba in 1509 but abandoned it within the year. There is indirect evidence that the first permanent Spanish mainland settlement established in the Americas was Santa María la Antigua del Darién, the Spanish conquest of Mexico is generally understood to be the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire which was the base for later conquests of other regions. Later conquests were protracted campaigns with less spectacular results than conquest of the Aztecs, but not until the Spanish conquest of Peru was the conquest of the Aztecs matched in scope by the victory over the Inca empire in 1532. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire was led by Hernán Cortés, the victory over the Aztecs was relatively quick, from 1519 to 1521, and aided by his Tlaxcala and other allies from indigenous city-states or altepetl. These polities allied against the Aztec empire, to which they paid tribute following conquest or threat of conquest, leaving the political hierarchy. The Spanish conquest of Yucatán was a longer campaign, from 1551 to 1697, against the Maya peoples in the Yucatán Peninsula of present-day Mexico. When Hernán Cortés landed ashore at present day Veracruz and founded the Spanish city there on April 22,1519, Spain colonized and exerted control of Alta California through the Spanish missions in California until the Mexican secularization act of 1833. It was the first step in a campaign that took decades of fighting to subdue the mightiest empire in the Americas. In the following years Spain extended its rule over the Empire of the Inca civilization, in the following years the conquistadors and indigenous allies extended control over Greater Andes Region
5.
Spanish missions in California
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The missions were part of a major effort by the Spanish Empire to extend colonization into the most northern and western parts of Spains North American claims. Following a long-term secular and religious policy of Spain in Latin America, Mexico achieved independence in 1821, taking Alta California along with it, but the missions maintained authority over native neophytes and control of vast land holdings until the 1830s. At the peak of its development in 1832, the mission system controlled an area equal to approximately one-sixth of Alta California. The Alta California government secularized the missions after the passage of the Mexican secularization act of 1833 and this divided the mission lands into land grants, which became many of the Ranchos of California. In the end, the missions had mixed results in their objectives, to convert, educate, today, the surviving mission buildings are the states oldest structures, and its most-visited historic monuments. Prior to 1754, grants of lands were made directly by the Spanish Crown. The missions were to be interconnected by a route which later became known as the Camino Real. The detailed planning and direction of the missions was to be carried out by Friar Junípero Serra, work on the coastal mission chain was concluded in 1823, completed after Serras death in 1784. Plans to build a mission in Santa Rosa in 1827 were canceled. The Santa Ysabel Asistencia had been founded in 1818 as a mother mission, in addition to the presidio and pueblo, the misión was one of the three major agencies employed by the Spanish sovereign to extend its borders and consolidate its colonial territories. Each frontier station was forced to be self-supporting, as existing means of supply were inadequate to maintain a colony of any size. California was months away from the nearest base in colonized Mexico, to sustain a mission, the padres required converted Native Americans, called neophytes, to cultivate crops and tend livestock in the volume needed to support a fair-sized establishment. The scarcity of imported materials, together with a lack of skilled laborers, compelled the missionaries to employ simple building materials, although the missions were considered temporary ventures by the Spanish hierarchy, the development of an individual settlement was not simply a matter of priestly whim. The padres blessed the site, and with the aid of their military escort fashioned temporary shelters out of tree limbs or driven stakes and it was these simple huts that ultimately gave way to the stone and adobe buildings that exist to the present. The first priority when beginning a settlement was the location and construction of the church, once the spot for the church had been selected, its position was marked and the remainder of the mission complex was laid out. The cuadrángulo was rarely a perfect square because the missionaries had no surveying instruments at their disposal and it was a doctrine established in 1531, which based the Spanish states right over the land and persons of the Indies on the Papal charge to evangelize them. It was employed wherever the indigenous populations were not already concentrated in native pueblos, the civilized and disciplined culture of the natives, developed over 8,000 year, was not considered. A total of 146 Friars Minor, mostly Spaniards by birth, were ordained as priests, sixty-seven missionaries died at their posts, while the remainder returned to Europe due to illness, or upon completing their ten-year service commitment
6.
Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire
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The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. It was the first step in a campaign that took decades of fighting but ended in Spanish victory in 1572. The conquest of the Inca Empire led to spin-off campaigns into present-day Chile and Colombia, when the Spanish arrived at the borders of the Inca Empire in 1528, it spanned a considerable area, by far the largest of the four grand pre-Columbian civilizations. In less than a century, the Inca had expanded their empire from about 400,000 km² in 1448, to 1,800,000 km² in 1528 and this vast area of land varied greatly in cultures and in climate. Because of the cultures and geography, the Inca allowed many areas of the empire to be governed under the control of local leaders. However, under the administrative mechanisms established by the Inca, all parts of the empire answered to, and were ultimately under the control of. Scholars estimate that the population of the Inca Empire numbered more than 16,000,000, in 1528, Emperor Huayna Capac ruled the Inca Empire. He could trace his lineage back to a king named Manco Cápac, the mythical founder of the Inca clan. On his accession to the throne, Huayna Capac had continued the policy of expansion by conquest, while he had to put down a number of rebellions during his reign, by the time of his death, his legitimacy was as unquestioned as was the primacy of Inca power. However, expansion had resulted in its own problems, many parts of the empire maintained distinctive cultures and these were at best resistive participants in the imperial project. Huayna Capac relied on his sons to support his reign, while he had many legitimate and illegitimate children, two sons are historically important. Prince Túpac Cusi Hualpa, also known as Huáscar, was the son of Coya Mama Rahua Occllo of the royal line and these two sons would play pivotal roles in the final years of the Inca Empire. The Spanish conquistador Pizarro and his men were greatly aided in their enterprise by invading when the Inca Empire was in the midst of a war of succession between the princes Huáscar and Atahualpa. Atahualpa seems to have spent more time with Huayna Capac during the years when he was in the north with the army conquering Ecuador, Atahualpa was thus closer to, and had better relations with the army and its leading generals. Huayna had died before he could nominate the new heir, at the time of Huayna Capacs death, Huáscar was in the capital Cuzco, while Atahualpa was in Quitu with the main body of the Inca army. Huáscar had himself proclaimed Sapa Inca in Cuzco, but the army declared loyalty to Atahualpa, the resulting dispute led to the Inca Civil War. The civil war between Atahualpa and Huascar weakened the empire prior to its struggle with the Spanish. Atahualpa appeared to be popular with the people than his brother, and he was certainly more valued by the army
7.
Spanish Florida
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Spanish Florida refers to the Spanish territory of La Florida, which was the first major European land claim and attempted settlement in North America during the European Age of Discovery. La Florida formed part of the Captaincy General of Cuba, the Viceroyalty of New Spain, Spains claim to this vast area was based on several wide-ranging expeditions mounted during the 16th century. However, Spain never exercised control over La Florida much beyond several settlements and forts which were predominantly located in present-day Florida. Spanish Florida was established in 1513, when Juan Ponce de León claimed peninsular Florida for Spain during the first official European expedition to North America, the presidio of St. Spanish control of the Florida peninsula was made possible by the collapse of native cultures during the 17th century. Several Native American groups had been long-established residents of Florida, during the mid-1700s, small bands of Creek and other Native American refugees began moving south into Spanish Florida after having been forced off their lands by English settlements and raids. They were later joined by African-Americans fleeing slavery in nearby colonies and these newcomers - plus perhaps a few surviving descendants of indigenous Florida peoples - eventually coalesced into a new Seminole culture. The extent of Spanish Florida began to shrink in the 1600s, between disease, poor management, and ill-timed hurricanes, several Spanish attempts to establish new settlements in La Florida ended in failure. The War of Jenkins Ear included a British attack on St. Augustine, at the conclusion of the war, the northern boundary of Spanish Florida was set near the current northern border of modern-day Florida. Great Britain temporarily gained control of Florida beginning in 1763 as a result of the Anglo-Spanish War, France sold Louisiana to the United States in 1803. The U. S. claimed that the transaction included West Florida, as with earlier American incursions into Florida, Spain protested this invasion but could not defend its territory, and instead opened diplomatic negotiations seeking a peaceful transfer of land. By the terms of the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, Spanish Florida ceased to exist in 1821, anonymous Portuguese sailors were likely the first Europeans to map the southeastern portion of the future United States. They kept their discoveries secret, however, and did not attempt to establish settlements or explore very far inland, in 1512 Juan Ponce de León, governor of Puerto Rico, received royal permission to search for land north of Cuba. On March 3,1513, his expedition departed from Punta Aguada, Puerto Rico, in late March, he spotted a small island but did not land. On April 2, Ponce de León spotted the east coast of the Florida peninsula and went ashore the next day at an exact location that has been lost to time. Assuming that he had found an island, he claimed the land for Spain and named it La Florida, because it was the season of Pascua Florida. After briefly exploring the area around their landing site, the returned to their ships and sailed south to map the coast. The expedition followed Floridas coastline all the way around the Florida Keys, popular legend has it that Ponce de León was searching for the Fountain of Youth when he discovered Florida. Ponce de León probably was not the first Spaniard to reach Florida, evidence suggests that Spanish raiders from the Caribbean had conducted small secret expeditions to Florida to capture Indian slaves
8.
Spanish Texas
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Spanish Texas was one of the interior provinces of the Spanish colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1690 until 1821. Spain had claimed ownership of the territory, which comprised part of the present-day U. S, in 1690, Alonso de León escorted several Catholic missionaries to east Texas, where they established the first mission in Texas. When native tribes resisted the Spanish invasion of their homeland, the returned to Mexico. Two years later in 1718, the first civilian settlement in Texas, the new town quickly became a target for raids by the Lipan Apache. The raids continued periodically for almost three decades, until in 1749 when Spanish settlers and the Lipan Apache peoples made peace, but the treaty angered the enemies of the Apache, and resulted in raids on Spanish settlements by the Comanche, Tonkawa, and Hasinai tribes. Fear of Indian attacks and the remoteness of the area from the rest of the Viceroyalty discouraged settlers from moving to Texas and it remained one of the least-populated by immigrants provinces. The threat of attacks did not decrease until 1785, when Spain, the Comanche tribe later assisted in defeating the Lipan Apache and Karankawa tribes, who had continued to cause difficulties for settlers. France formally relinquished its claim to its region of Texas in 1762, the inclusion of Spanish Louisiana into New Spain meant that Texas was no longer essentially a buffer province. The easternmost Texas settlements were disbanded, with the population relocating to San Antonio, however, in 1799 Spain gave Louisiana back to France, and in 1803 Napoléon Bonaparte sold the territory, known as the Louisiana Purchase, to the United States. The U. S. claims on the vast Spanish territories west of the Sabine River into Santa Fe de Nuevo México province, during the Mexican War of Independence from 1810–1821, Texas experienced much turmoil. Governor Manuel María de Salcedo was overthrown by rebels in 1810, three years later, the Republican Army of the North, consisting primarily of Indians and Americans, again overthrew the Texas government and executed Salcedo. The Spanish response was brutal, and by 1820 fewer than 2000 Hispanic citizens remained in Texas. Spain was forced to relinquish its control of New Spain in 1821, with Texas becoming a province of the newly formed nation of Mexico, the Spanish left a deep mark on Texas. Their European livestock caused mesquite to spread inland while farmers tilled and irrigated the land, the Spanish language provided the names for many of the rivers, towns, and counties that currently exist, and Spanish architectural concepts still flourish. Although Texas eventually adopted much of the Anglo-American legal system, many Spanish legal practices were retained, including the concept of a homestead exemption, Spanish Texas was a colonial province within the northeastern mainland region of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. On its southern edge, Tejas was bordered by the province of Coahuila, the boundary between the provinces was set at the line formed by the Medina River and the Nueces River,100 miles northeast of the Rio Grande. On the east, Texas bordered La Louisiane, although Spain claimed that the Red River formed the boundary between the two, France insisted that the border was the Sabine River,45 miles to the west. After Mexican independence from Spain, it was within Coahuila y Tejas from 1824 to 1835, although Alonso Álvarez de Pineda claimed Texas for Spain in 1519, the area was largely ignored by Spain until the late seventeenth century
9.
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
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The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most significant events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Many of those on the Cortés expedition of 1519 had never seen combat before, in fact, Cortés had never commanded men in battle before. However, there was a generation of Spaniards who participated in expeditions in the Caribbean and Tierra Firme, learning strategy. The Spanish conquest of Mexico had antecedents with established practices, in their advance, the allies were tricked and ambushed several times by the people they encountered. When Cortés left Tenochtitlan to return to the coast and deal with the expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez, Alvarado allowed a significant Aztec feast to be celebrated in Tenochtitlan and on the pattern of the earlier massacre in Cholula, closed off the square and massacred the celebrating Aztec noblemen. The biography of Cortés by Francisco López de Gómara contains a description of the massacre, the Alvarado massacre at the Main Temple of Tenochtitlan precipitated rebellion by the population of the city. When the captured emperor Motecuhzoma II, now seen as a puppet of the invading Spaniards, attempted to calm the outraged populace. Cortés had returned to Tenochtitlan and his men fled the city during the Noche Triste in June,1520. The Spanish, Tlaxcalans and reinforcements returned a year later on August 13,1521 to a civilization that had wiped out by famine. This made it easier to conquer the remaining Aztecs, the fall of the Aztec Empire was the key event in the formation of the Spanish overseas empire, with New Spain, which later became Mexico, a major component. The Spanish conquerors could and did write accounts that narrated the conquest from the first landfalls in Mexico to the victory over the Mexica in Tenochtitlan on August 13,1521. Indigenous accounts are from particular native viewpoints and as the events had a impact on their polity. All accounts of the conquest, Spanish and indigenous alike, have biases, in general, Spanish accounts do not credit their indigenous allies support. Individual conquerors accounts exaggerate that individuals contribution to the conquest, downplaying other conquerors, indigenous allies accounts stress their loyalty to the Spanish and their particular aid as being key to the Spanish victory. Their accounts are similar to Spanish conquerors accounts contained in petitions for rewards and these were almost immediately published in Spain and later in other parts of Europe. Interestingly, Cortéss right-hand man, Pedro de Alvarado did not write at any length about his actions in the New World, two letters to Cortés about Alvarados campaigns in Guatemala are published in The Conquistadors. Rather than it being a petition for rewards for services, as many Spanish accounts were, the account was used by eighteenth-century Jesuit Francisco Javier Clavijero in his descriptions of the history of Mexico. On the indigenous side, the allies of Cortés, particularly the Tlaxcalans, wrote extensively about their services to the Spanish Crown in the conquest, the most important of these are the pictorial Lienzo de Tlaxcala and the Historia de Tlaxcala by Diego Muñoz Camargo
