Conquistador
A Conquistador (English: Conqueror; : Conquistadores, or Conquistadors) was a Spanish or Portuguese soldier, explorer, and adventurer. The Conquistadors invaded and conquered much of the Americas and the Philippines Islands, as well as other islands in Asia Pacific. Many of them were hidalgos (low-status noblemen).
Their conquests brought these lands under Spanish and Portuguese colonial rule between the 15th and 17th centuries, starting with the 1492 settlement by Christopher Columbus in what is now the Bahamas. They created what is now called Latin America.
The first successful conquistador was Hernán Cortés. Between 1520 and 1521, Cortés and the native enemies of the Aztecs conquered the mighty Aztec Empire. Present-day Mexico became New Spain, a colony of the Spanish Empire. Francisco Pizarro later found and conquered the similarly large Inca Empire.
List of Conquistadors
- Alonso Dávila (México, 1520-1533)
- Alonso del Castillo Maldonado
- Alonso de Ojeda (Venezuela, Colombia, Guyana, Aruba)
- Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (United States, 1527-1536, 1540-1542)
- Antonio de Aragón, Tucumán (Argentina)
- Cristóbal de Olid (Honduras, 1523-1524)
- Diego de Almagro (Perú, 1524-1535, Chile, 1535-1537)
- Diego de Nicuesa (Panamá, 1506-1511)
- Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar (Cuba, 1511-1519)
- Domingo Martínez de Irala
- Francisco de Montejo (Yucatán, México, 1527-1546)
- Francisco de Orellana (Amazon River, 1541-1543)
- Francisco Hernández de Córdoba (Yucatán, México, 1517)
- Francisco Pizarro (Perú, 1509-1535)
- Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (United States, 1540-1542)
- Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada (Colombia, 1536-1537, Venezuela, 1569-1572)
- Gonzalo Pizarro (Perú, 1532-1542)
- Hernán Cortés (México, 1518-1522, Honduras, 1524, Baja California, 1532-1536)
- Hernando de Soto (United States, 1539-1542)
- Hernando Pizarro, (Perú, 1532-1560)
- Inés Suárez, (Chile, 1541)
- Juan de Esquivel, (Jamaica, 1509-1512)
- Juan de Salcedo, (North of Philippines, 1570-1576)
- Juan de Grijalva (Yucatán, México, 1518)
- Juan Pizarro, (Perú, 1532-1536)
- Juan Ponce de León (Puerto Rico, 1508, Florida, 1513 and 1521)
- Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo
- Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón (United States, 1524-1527)
- Martín de Goiti, (Manila, Philippines, 1570-1571)
- Martín de Ursúa, (Petén, Guatemala, 1696-1697)
- Miguel López de Legazpi, (Philippines, 1565-1571)
- Nicolás de Federmann (Venezuela and Colombia, 1537-1539)
- Pánfilo de Narváez (Florida, 1527-1528)
- Pedro de Alvarado (México, 1519-1521, Guatemala, 1523-1527, Perú, 1533-1535, México, 1540-1541)
- Pedro de Valdivia (Chile, 1540-1552)
- Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (Florida, 1565-1567)
- Sebastián de Belalcázar (Ecuador and Colombia, 1533-1536)
- Sebastián Vizcaíno
- Vasco Núñez de Balboa (Panamá, 1510-1519)
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