Spanish conquistadors like Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro led expeditions in the early 1500s that conquered the Aztec and Inca empires and established Spain's control over Mexico and Peru. European diseases devastated indigenous populations. The Spanish established three main settlement types: presidios (forts), missions (religious communities), and pueblos (towns). A social hierarchy developed with Spanish-born elites at the top and Native Americans and African slaves facing exploitation, slavery, and oppression at the bottom.

1. SPANISH EXPLORERS
and
Life in the Spanish
Colonies

2. 1. Conquistador – a Spanish explorer
2. Mission – a religious community
3. Presidio – a military fort
4. Encomienda – the Spanish government’s policy to “give” Native Americans as
laborers to certain colonists
5. Plantation – a large estate
6. Smallpox – an acute, contagious, viral disease
7. Indigenous – originating naturally in a place; native; associated with a land by
birth

3. PRESIDIO

5. Hernan Cortes
- Landed in Mexico in 1519
- By 1521, Cortes had led the expedition that caused the fall of the
Aztec empire
- Spain seized control of the region

6. Francisco Pizarro
• In 1532, he captured the Inca ruler
and destroyed much of the Incan army
• Pizarro gained control of the Inca
empire in the area now called Peru

7. *By the 1600s, The Europeans had
unknowingly brought diseases such
as smallpox to the Americas
*The Native Americans had no
immunity to these illnesses
*Epidemics weakened the
Native Americans against resistance
to the Europeans

8. Juan Ponce de Leon
• In 1508, he was sent by Spain to explore the island of Puerto Rico
• In 1513 he left Puerto Rico in search of gold and the fabled “Fountain
of Youth”
• He landed on the East Coast of Florida, not realizing that he had
reached North America
• de Leon called the land “Florida” because of its lush plant life

10. Hernando de Soto
• Led an expedition to Florida
and lands to the west
• During their three year journey,
de Soto and his men demanded food
and supplies from the Native people,
and often took a Native chief hostage
• In 1541, de Soto became the first
European to cross the Mississippi River

11. Francisco de Coronado
• Searched for the “Seven Cities of Cibola” (aka “Seven Cities of Gold”)
• He found no gold on his expedition; however, in 1540 his team discovered the
Grand Canyon

12. SPAIN IN AMERICA
• Spanish law demanded three types of settlements in the Americas:
• Pueblos – towns which were the centers of trade
• Missions – religious communities which included a town,
farmland, and a church
• Presidios – military settlements often built near a mission

13. • A class system developed:
- Peninsulares were the upper class. These people were Spanish-born.
They owned land, served in the church, and ran the government
- Creoles were born in the Americas to Spanish-born parents
- Mestizos were of Spanish and Native American heritage
- The Native Americans were kept in poverty, and were taxed and
enslaved by the Spanish settlers
- Enslaved Africans were the lowest social class. Spain had held slaves
since 1501, and had brought them across the Atlantic

14. • Each conquistador was granted an encomienda
• This gave them the right to demand taxes or labor from the Native Americans
living on the land

16. • Bartolome de las Casas, a Spanish priest,
condemned the cruel treatment of the
Native Americans
• He worked against the oppression
of indigenous people
• In 1542, the Spanish Government passed
the New Laws, which forbade the Spanish
settlers to make slaves of the Native Americans

18. • Some Spanish settlers developed a plantation system
• They grew crops of tobacco and sugarcane on their large estates, and
exported them to Spain
• They had used the Native Americans to work on the plantations
• After the New Laws were passed, the Native Americans were replaced with
African slaves
• By the late 1500s, slave labor on the plantations was a major part of the
economy in the Spanish colonies