Conquistador

A Spanish soldier or adventurer who took part in the Spanish conquest and colonization of the Americas, especially during the 15th and 16th centuries.

Spanish colonization of the Americas: The establishment of Spanish rule, settlements, and institutions across the Americas. Conquistadors helped initiate Spanish rule, though colonization continued long after their campaigns.
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire: The campaign that brought the Mexica-led Aztec Empire under Spanish control between 1519 and 1521. Hernán Cortés’s campaign is the most familiar model of a conquistador-led conquest.
Reconquista: The centuries-long Christian expansion that ended Muslim rule across most of the Iberian Peninsula in 1492. Its military traditions and religious language informed Spanish ideas of conquest overseas.
Fall of Tenochtitlan: The 1521 capture and destruction of Tenochtitlan by Spanish forces and their Indigenous allies. The city’s fall ended the Aztec capital’s independence and anchored Spanish rule in central Mexico.
Indigenous allies in the Spanish conquest of Mexico: Indigenous peoples who joined Spanish forces against the Aztec Empire, especially the Tlaxcalans. Indigenous alliances supplied forces and local knowledge that Spanish expeditions could not provide alone.
Hernán Cortés: A Spanish conquistador who led the expedition that toppled the Aztec Empire. Cortés exemplifies the commander whose alliances and tactics reshaped an empire.
Spanish Empire: A global empire ruled by the Spanish Crown from the late 15th century into the 19th century. Conquistador campaigns helped establish the empire’s American territories.
Colonial Latin America: The societies and territories shaped by European colonial rule in Latin America from the 15th century onward. Conquest created the political structures and social hierarchies of Spanish colonial societies.
Horse in the Spanish conquest of the Americas: A military animal introduced by Europeans that provided mobility and shock in early Spanish campaigns. Mounted attacks gave small Spanish forces speed and a striking advantage in some encounters.
Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire: The Spanish campaign that captured Atahualpa and dismantled Inca political authority in the 1530s. The conquest under Francisco Pizarro shows how a small expedition exploited a succession crisis.

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