Central Colombia, home of the Muisca was conquered by licentiate Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, and its northern regions were explored by Rodrigo de Bastidas, Alonso de Ojeda, Juan de la Cosa, Pedro de Heredia and others. As Francisco Pizarro subdued the empire, in a manner similar to Cortés, other conquistadores used Peru as a base for conquering much of Ecuador and Chile. Other conquistadors took over the Inca Empire after crossing the Isthmus of Panama and sailing the Pacific to northern Peru. From the territories of the Aztec Empire, conquistadors expanded Spanish rule to northern Central America and parts of what is now the southern and western United States, and from Mexico sailing the Pacific Ocean to the Spanish East Indies.

From 1519 to 1521, Hernán Cortés waged a campaign against the Aztec Empire, ruled by Moctezuma II. They brought much of the Americas under the dominion of Spain and Portugal.Īfter arrival in the West Indies in 1492, the Spanish, usually led by hidalgos from the west and south of Spain, began building an American empire in the Caribbean using islands such as Hispaniola, Cuba, and Puerto Rico as bases. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, Oceania, Africa, and Asia, colonizing and opening trade routes.

Hernán Cortés led the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and expanded the Spanish Empire in the Americas Afonso de Albuquerque expanded the Portuguese Empire across the Indian OceanĬonquistadors ( / k ɒ n ˈ k( w) ɪ s t ə d ɔːr z/, US also /- ˈ k iː s-, k ɒ ŋ ˈ-/) or conquistadores ( Spanish:, Portuguese: meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. For other uses, see Conquistador (disambiguation).

This article is about the Spanish and Portuguese explorer-soldiers from the 15th to 16th centuries.

Ranks conquest world conqueror 4