The Spanish Empire: History, Geography, Military, Politics, Religion, Economy, Tools, Trade, Social Life, Culture, Contributions

The Spanish Empire

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Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................2
Introduction to the empire......................................................................................................2
Geography of the empire........................................................................................................3
Military...................................................................................................................................3
Political structure....................................................................................................................3
Rulers......................................................................................................................................3
Religion..................................................................................................................................4
Economy.................................................................................................................................4
Tools.......................................................................................................................................4
Trade.......................................................................................................................................4
Social life................................................................................................................................4
Culture....................................................................................................................................5
Famous Contributions............................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................5
INTRODUCTION
In various parts of the world many kingdoms came and gone. Spain had an excellent history
as compared to many European nations. Spanish Kingdom is one of the largest empires the
world has ever seen. From late 15t century to late 19th century, this empire had a control over
the larger part of the overseas territory in the Philippines and the new world. They were

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called as “The Indies”. This report presented by me revolves around the Spanish Kingdom
and illustrates about the findings that I have made about them.
Introduction to the empire
I found that Spanish Empire was once the largest empire in the history. They controlled very
large part of the overseas land which is known as “The Indies”. The main source of income
for the empire was silver that was mined in Peru and Mexico. Because of its jurisdiction over
the overseas land in Philippines and Americas, Castile became the dominant empire in
Liberia (Tindall & Shi, 2016). A major factor in the Spanish empire formation was the
dynastic union among Ferdinand II of Argon and Isabella I of Castile which was known as
Catholic Monarchs. This started social, religious and political cohesion but was unable to do
political unification. The Iberian Union were in power in that place till 1640, when it was
overthrown by Portugal and again established independence under the House of Braganza.
Geography of the empire
As per my study it was the largest region over which any empire ever ruled. The Spanish
Empire ruled the very large part of the north and South America, Philippines, some parts of
Africa and Europe (Valdeón, 2014). Most of the parts of the empire were beyond the Atlantic
sea. They have captured it from the great civilisations of Maya, Inca and Aztec. Across the
pacific oceans they have captured Philippines which were a source of capital for the whole
empire.
Military
According to my research since it was having a collaborative force of two kingdoms. They
were having a very strong land army as well as their naval forces were excellent which
helped them in reaching to the heights they were at. In the Battle with Aztec and Inca
Empires, I found that a much larger army of theirs were able to defeat the larger one. For
example Cortes had around 600 men while Pizarro had 160. Sebastian de Benalcazar had 200
Spanish and around 3000 Canari allies and they fought with the 50,000 warriors. There were
two types of Spanish conquistador i.e. cavalry, horsemen and infantry or foot soldiers.
Political structure
As per my study in different period of Spanish empire, there was a change noticed in the
empire in terms of the type of government they had. According to the type of political
government they had, structure also changed accordingly. The type of political structure they