Questions tagged [spanish-empire]
The overseas territories held by Spain from the early 16th century. The twilight of the empire is generally considered to be the early 19th century although it did not formally end until 1975 when Spain withdrew from the Spanish Sahara.
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What is the true history of the blue bricks of Old San Juan?
During a recent visit to Old San Juan, I was told that the distinctive blue bricks on its streets (see here) were cast from steel byproducts, served as ballast in Spanish ships, and were nearly ...
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Was impressment widespread outside the British Empire and its colonies?
I recently found a source referenced on wikipedia — Hill, J. R. (2002). The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy. Oxford University Press. pp. 135–137. ISBN 0-19-860527-7. — which allegedly ...
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What were the duties and qualifications of the office of "fiscal" in a Pueblo in New Spain?
Looking through marriage records for a certain place now in State of Mexico, Mexico, in the 18th and early 19th centuries, I notice that often the witnesses at pre-marriage registrations and at ...
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If he was garroted, why do depictions show Atahualpa being burned at stake?
I'm reading the Wikipedia page about the execution of Atahualpa.
It says he was garroted:
In accordance with his request, he was executed by strangling with a garrote on July 26, 1533
But the ...
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When were the last autonomous indigenous American settlements conquered by the Spanish?
We are generally taught about when Cortez and his allies in Tlaxcala defeated the Triple Alliance (Aztec) in 1521 and Francisco Pizarro in Peru in 1533. I also know Francisco de Montejo established ...
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Why was the Spanish kingdom in America called New Spain if Spain didn't exist as a country back then?
When the conquistadores arrived in America, the territory of current Spain was divided into multiple crowns/kingdoms but it wasn't what we know today as Spain. I understand at that moment the ...
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Were the Spanish conquistadors really motivated by myths like El Dorado?
I teach secondary school History classes. Our school library contains old academic works (from the 60s-80s) and unreliable children's academic literature. These all claim that ancient myths motivated ...
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How did Incas chroniclers learn to draw?
I came across the magnificent work of an Inca chronicler named Waman Puma de Ayala -- or Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala -- and I wondered: how did he learn to draw his codex?
Resources for viewing his ...
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What does "Quivira" refer to? [closed]
I've found this term "Quivira", both here and in an old journal by some explorer published in the 1500s. What I'm confused about if is "Quivira" is a term that was applied to the ...
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Was merchant Hugh McCulloch the first Scotsman to set foot in California?
In June 1822 the Scottish merchant Hugh McCulloch landed at San Diego from the brig John Begg. He was the founding partner of the business McCulloch Hartnell & Co which for three years from 1 ...
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Was any object from Anza's expeditions conserved?
In the 1770s, Juan Bautista de Anza led two overland expeditions from Sinaloa to Alta California. The first was for reconnaissance and the second, larger and better known, for the purpose of ...
user18968
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Please help identify these old coins found in Germany?
We found these two identical coins in our garden (near Wuerzburg, lower Franconia / northern Bavaria):
Coin side A: coat-of-arms of sorts:
(the scale units are centimetres / millimetres)
Coin Side ...
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When did the defeated General José de la Cruz sail back to Spain?
José de la Cruz was a Spanish military commander in Mexico's wars of independence. He was finally defeated by his ex-subordinate, Pedro Celestino Negrete in Durango, just after the Treaty of Córdoba, ...
user18968
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For whom would this priest write a long geographical report on his parish?
In 1777, the assistant pastor of Tamazula, Nueva Vizcaya composed a detailed report on the local geography, climate, natural history, and mineralogy, listing the many plants and animals and few ...
user18968
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How did people cut "pieces of eight"?
The Spanish silver peso was a very common coin consisting of "fine quality silver, assayed at .931 or .916," according to CoinWeek. Under some circumstances one peso coins, worth eight reales, would ...
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