It is a period that lasted several hundred years. Beginning in 1492 when Columbus discovered America, the Spanish Crown intensively colonized areas of the American continent. Spain conquered and settled most of South America, the Caribbean and the American Southwest. The motives for colonial expansion were the trade and spread of the Catholic faith by indigenous transformations. The Spanish Empire would expand across the Caribbean Islands, half of South America, much of Central America and much of North America. To that part of the world.
