HISTORY21 - Spanish Conquest of Mesoamerica
This article is the about the history of the Spanish Conquest of Mesoamerica, lands on the isthmus joining North and South America, between 10-22 degrees north latitude, through the Spanish Conquest period from 1519 to 1697. This blog is a follow-on to my last posted blog, the History of Ancient Mesoamerica , which presented the history of six advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, including the Aztec and Maya, whose conquest by the Spanish is described below. The Spanish established the first permanent settlement in the New World on the island of Hispaniola (in the Greater Antilles) in 1493 on the second voyage of Christopher Columbus. Over the next 25 years, there were further explorations and settlements on islands in the Caribbean Sea and explorations along the North and South American mainland, including a number of visits to the coast of the Yucatán peninsula. The Spanish were seeking wealth in the form of gold and access to indigenous labor to mine gold a