How Did The Spanish Colonize North America

Have you ever wondered why the English, French, and Spanish came to North America? Before the early 1490s, North America was only inhabited by Native Americans with no presence of European civilizations. European civilizations decided to start colonizing for multiple different reasons, such as economics, religion, curiosity, and adventure. The different European countries had different reasons and tactics as well as difficulties when it came to their efforts to colonize North America.

Although Columbus was not the first European to cross the Atlantic Ocean, he still had a major role in the discovery of North America when he ended up landing in the Bahamas. Columbus’ voyage triggered a large number of colonizing voyages to follow his path. One of these voyages that followed was led by Herman Cortes, who led about 600 soldiers to land in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1519. Cortes led his soldiers to conquer Tenochtitlan, the modern-day Mexico City, which was originally inhabited by the Aztec Empire. Cortes was successful in conquering the Aztec Empire because the Aztecs believed Cortes was the God of Quetzalcoatl and disease brought by European exploration. In 1598, Juan de Onate was another conquistador who led more soldiers in an attempt to conquer Pueblo in modern-day New Mexico. The Pueblo people were against the Spanish colonizers and successfully drove the Spanish out of their civilization for a
Jacques Cartier was a French explorer who explored the east coast of Canada in 1530 and sailed up the St. Lawrence to modern-day Montreal. Another French explorer, Samuel de Champlain, established the city of Quebec in 1608. Champlain also assisted in establishing an alliance with Huron and was considered the “Father” of New France. The French also had difficulties when trying to colonize parts of Canada because of things like disease and conflicts with Native