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Y206: Spain 1469–1556

Overseas policies and the economy: Columbus and the discovery and explorations

  • 2 things to know
  • Unit group 2

Overview

Recall questions on Columbus and the discovery and explorations of the Indies, the Caribbean, Hispaniola, Cortes and the Conquest of Mexico, Pizarro and the Conquest of Peru.

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Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Evaluation

Why did Isabella agree to back Columbus in 1492?

Key term

Why was the conquest of Peru not complete in 1533?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Why did Isabella agree to back Columbus in 1492?

    Model answer

    Granada had just fallen, the outlay was small and shared with private backers, Portugal was pulling ahead in the race for the spice trade, and the promise of gold, converts and prestige outweighed the doubts of her advisers about his geography.

  2. 2

    What did Columbus find on his first voyage?

    Model answer

    He made landfall in the Bahamas in October 1492 and explored the coasts of Cuba and Hispaniola, taking possession for Castile and returning with gold samples, captives and the conviction that he had reached the outskirts of Asia.

  3. 3

    Why was Hispaniola so important to early Spanish activity?

    Model answer

    It was the first permanent base, the seat of Spanish government and the first bishopric in the Indies, and its placer gold and its parcelled-out native labour set the pattern that was carried to Cuba, Puerto Rico and the mainland.

  4. 4

    Why was Columbus removed from the government of the Indies?

    Model answer

    He proved an incapable administrator: the settlers rebelled against him, gold returns disappointed, and a royal commissioner sent to investigate arrested him in 1500 and shipped him home in chains, after which the crown appointed its own governors.

  5. 5

    Outline Cortés's conquest of Mexico between 1518 and 1521.

    Model answer

    Commissioned from Cuba in 1518, he landed in 1519, allied with peoples subject to the Aztecs, seized Moctezuma II in Tenochtitlán, was expelled with heavy loss in 1520 and returned to besiege and destroy the city in 1521.

  6. 6

    What followed the fall of Tenochtitlán in the two decades to 1541?

    Model answer

    Spanish forces pushed out from Mexico City into Guatemala, Honduras and the north, the crown replaced Cortés's personal rule with an audiencia and then a viceroy in 1535, and Cortés himself was left with a great estate but no government.

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