First Encounters and Indigenous Peoples
Why did Spain colonize America? The initial contact between Europeans and indigenous peoples set patterns that would define colonization. When Columbus first met the Taino people in the West Indies, he encountered a sophisticated society that cultivated corn, yams, and cotton. Despite the Taino's hospitality, Columbus quickly moved to subjugate them, demanding gold and taking captives to Spain.
Quote: "The conquistadors had far fewer numbers than the native populations, but their advantages in weapons, armor, horses, and most devastatingly, their imported diseases, proved insurmountable for indigenous resistance."
The Spanish conquistadors who followed Columbus established a pattern of conquest across the Caribbean, taking Hispaniola, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. They forced conversion to Christianity and extracted gold through brutal means. While native populations vastly outnumbered the Spanish, the conquistadors' technological advantages proved decisive. Most significantly, European diseases like smallpox and measles, to which native peoples had no immunity, caused devastating population losses that facilitated conquest.
The Portuguese explorers Age of Exploration and subsequent Spanish conquests transformed the Americas forever, leading to the collapse of indigenous empires, massive demographic changes, and the establishment of European colonial systems that would persist for centuries.