Spanish colonization in America began with the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the Antilles in 1492. Columbus was looking for a new path to the Indies and was convinced that he would find it. He was made governor of the new territories and made several other trips across the Atlantic Ocean. He got rich with the work of native slaves, forcing them to mine gold, and also tried to sell them as slaves in Spain. Despite being generally seen as an excellent navigator, he was weak as an administrator and was ousted from the government in 1500.
The arrival of the Spaniards in America was part of the European maritime expansion. Colonization led Spain to make inroads into the new continent, dominating and destroying indigenous societies, such as that of the Incas and the Aztecs, in search of precious metals found and exploited in great quantity by the conquistadors, who used the indigenous peoples as servile labor force.
Simple, the Americas had gold and silver. The Spaniards basically craved metals like those. Also because of the inquisition, they wanted to convert the natives to Christianity. Since the Spaniards were not a powerful economy at the time. The riches made their economy SKYROCKET.
