The conquest of the American territories was not carried out directly from Spain . The distance was excessive for a center of peninsular power to direct such a great work, for that reason a base was created in America from where the expeditions departed.
From Hispaniola the conquest spread to Central America, Mexico, northern South America and later, to the rest of the continent . It was in those areas where the encomienda arose, as well as the origin of black slavery, but Spanish legislation soon raised the request for this practice (thanks to the writings of Bartolomé de las Casas and the School of Salamanca), and he imported enslaved people from Africa, who also had greater physical resistance and resistance to diseases, especially tropical ones, thus starting a large-scale trade in African slaves.
The islands were conquered, thus a new language was born, another culture, a different morality and, in short, a totally new way of seeing the world, which radiated from that original nucleus.
First expeditions
Thus, a prior American base had to be established, from which the expeditions would depart, initially exploratory and later colonizing, once the military and supply problems had been resolved. Columbus, on his first voyages, had met in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola a mostly peaceful population—excepting the Caribs—who easily submitted, thanks to their natural meekness and the fact that the Spanish protected them against the incursions of the fierce and feared Caribas.
Conquest of America
It was from Hispaniola (today divided into Haiti and the Dominican Republic) that the conquest started. From there it spread to Central America, Mexico, northern South America and later to the rest of the continent. It was in those areas where the encomienda arose , which decimated the Amerindians of some areas such as the Caribbean, due to which the slavery of blacks originated, sponsored by some Dominicans, in an erroneous and paternal attempt to alleviate the fate of the Indians, who were considered weaker than the Africans, thus creating the social regime that would prevail until the 19th century.
Conquest of Puerto Rico and Jamaica
The islands of Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Cuba (the largest and most populated of the Antilles) were conquered and gradually inhabited. In this way, a new language, another culture, a different morality and, in short, a totally new way of seeing the world were born, which radiated from that original nucleus.
Puerto Rico is conquered by Juan Ponce de León in 1508 and Jamaica by Juan de Esquivel in 1509 .
Immediately the invasion of Cubagua is undertaken, of which Columbus, upon disembarking, had affirmed that it was "the most beautiful land that human eyes have seen." In 1511, from the east of the island, Diego Velázquez sent his men west under the command of Pánfilo de Narváez and completed the conquest in four years, after provoking massive and unjustified executions of Indians in Caonao, so that region it was called Matanzas.
Conquest of Havana
In 1513 he founded the town of San Cristóbal de La Habana. The resistance offered in Cuba by the Taíno chief Hatuey has become a legend , but, in general, the opposition was minimal and the conquest was delayed more by the extension and the forest of the island, than by the hostility of its inhabitants. Once the subjugation of Cuba was finished, some settlers from Hispaniola passed to it, such as the Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas, who would earn the title of Protector of the Indians; Captain Hernán Cortés, the future conqueror of Mexico; Pedro de Alvarado, who would distinguish himself in Central America; and the chronicler of the conquest of New Spain and assistant to Cortés, Bernal Díaz del Castillo. Havana, due to the unhealthiness of its interior location, was moved and re-founded in 1519 by the sea, in the surroundings of the primitive port of Carenas, so called because it was in that excellent refuge that Columbus careened his ships.
Conquest of Panama
In 1509 Alonso de Ojeda tried to found a city to the east of the isthmus of Panama which, unhealthy and harassed, moved to the city of Nombre de Dios, founded by Diego de Nicuesa on the Caribbean coast of the isthmus. Appointed Vasco Núñez de Balboa as its governor, he discovered the South Sea (Pacific Ocean) in 1513 and created the colony of Castilla del Oro, legally separated from Hispaniola. However, the colony founded by Núñez de Balboa was placed under the command of Pedrarias Dávila, who populated it with neighbors from Spain, founding Panama City on the Pacific coast of the colony as the seat of government of the new constituency. The rivalry between Núñez de Balboa and Pedrarias did not wait and the latter executed the former in 1519. Important was the exploration that Pedrarias carried out on the Pacific coast of South America, where he obtained news of the existence of a great aboriginal empire to the south (Peru) and Chile. Later, Francisco Hernández de Córdova conquered the region of Central America that was dominated by the cacique Nicarao (Nicaragua).