Spanish and Portuguese America, 1492–1826: From Conquest to Independence

Three Centuries of Iberian Rule

On 12 October 1492 Christopher Columbus made landfall on Guanahani in the Bahamas. Over the next 334 years Spain and Portugal conquered most of Middle and South America, governed it through viceroyalties and captaincies, and then lost almost all of it in less than two decades. The last Spanish garrisons in South America, at the fortress of Callao and on the island of Chiloé, surrendered in January 1826.

This map follows that arc across 54 keyframes. It shows effective control rather than claims: land that was conquered, settled, garrisoned or missionised. Regions the Iberian powers never held, such as Amazonia, the Gran Chaco, Patagonia, the Mapuche lands and the far north of New Spain, stay empty.

The Fall of the Aztec and Inca Empires

Spain's first base was the Caribbean: Santo Domingo, founded in 1496, was the first Spanish city, and Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Cuba followed by 1515. In November 1519 Hernán Cortés entered Tenochtitlan, and after a siege fought with Tlaxcalan allies the Aztec capital fell on 13 August 1521. On 16 November 1532 Francisco Pizarro captured the Sapa Inca Atahualpa at Cajamarca with about 170 men, and in 1533 the Spaniards entered Cusco. Manco Inca rose in 1536 and withdrew to Vilcabamba, where an Inca state survived until Túpac Amaru I was executed in 1572. The Itza Maya kingdom at Nojpetén held out until 1697.

Spain ruled its new lands through two viceroyalties: New Spain, created in 1535, and Peru, created in 1542 together with the New Laws that limited the encomienda.

Silver, Missions and a Moving Frontier

Silver at Potosí and Zacatecas (1546) pulled settlement inland. Bogotá was founded in 1538, Santiago de Chile in 1541, and Buenos Aires was refounded for good in 1580. In the north, Spanish New Mexico dates from 1598; the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 drove the Spaniards out for twelve years. Missions and presidios later carried the frontier into Texas and, from 1769, Alta California. Not every frontier advanced: at Curalaba in 1598 the Mapuche killed the governor of Chile, seven southern cities were destroyed within a few years, and the Biobío River became the border.

Portuguese Brazil and the Line of Tordesillas

The Treaty of Tordesillas (7 June 1494) divided the world along a meridian about 46°W: east for Portugal, west for Castile. The map draws that line throughout, so you can see how far Brazil grew beyond it. Portugal settled the coast first, at São Vicente (1532), Salvador (1549) and Rio de Janeiro (1565); Belém, founded in 1616, opened the Amazon.

The Dutch West India Company took Olinda and Recife in 1630, and by 1641 Dutch Brazil stretched from Sergipe to Maranhão. A planters' revolt began in 1645, and the Dutch surrendered at Recife in 1654. Gold in Minas Gerais from 1693, and later in Cuiabá and Goiás, pulled settlement deep inland. The Treaty of Madrid (1750) accepted this real occupation, and the Treaty of San Ildefonso (1777) revised it.

Rivals, Reforms and Revolts

Other powers took islands and coasts: the Dutch seized Curaçao in 1634 and held Suriname from 1667, England conquered Jamaica in 1655, and France gained Saint-Domingue in 1697. Haiti declared independence on 1 January 1804. Bourbon Spain created the Viceroyalty of New Granada (1717, restored for good in 1739) and the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (1776), and expelled the Jesuits in 1767. The rebellion of Túpac Amaru II shook Peru from 1780 to 1783.

The Wars of Independence, 1808–1826

Napoleon's invasion of Iberia in 1808 broke both empires. The Portuguese court fled to Rio de Janeiro, and in Spanish America juntas took power. Buenos Aires deposed its viceroy on 25 May 1810, and Miguel Hidalgo's Grito de Dolores on 16 September 1810 began the Mexican War of Independence. Royalist armies then reconquered Venezuela, Chile and New Granada by 1816.

From 1817 the tide turned. San Martín won at Chacabuco (1817) and Maipú (1818); Bolívar won at Boyacá (1819) and Carabobo (1821). Lima and Mexico City fell to the patriots in 1821, Sucre freed Quito at Pichincha in 1822, and Pedro I declared Brazil independent on 7 September 1822. At Ayacucho on 9 December 1824 the last viceregal army surrendered, and Bolivia declared independence in August 1825.

How to Read the Map

Each colour marks real control. Five native layers cover the Aztec Triple Alliance, the Inca Empire, the Maya states, the Mapuche lands and other native states. Spain has five layers (Crown lands outside a viceroyalty, New Spain, Peru, New Granada and the Río de la Plata); Portuguese Brazil, the Empire of Brazil, the Dutch, French, British and each new state have their own. During the wars, royalist-held land keeps its viceroyalty colour and patriot-held land takes the colour of the later state.

Borders follow modern provinces, with disks around frontier towns, forts and missions and bands along coasts and rivers; small islands are disks. Venezuela counts under New Spain until 1717, when it answered to the Audiencia of Santo Domingo. British North America and the United States are context only.

How the Map Was Made

Each modern province received a dated history of who controlled it, with fortress cities such as Callao and Cartagena cut out to change hands on their own, checked at every keyframe against a list of places and dates. Sources are Wikipedia in English, Spanish and Portuguese; Aztec, Maya and Inca outlines come from Cliopatria (Seshat Global History Databank, CC BY 4.0), and borders from Natural Earth.

Chronological Timeline

• 1492 — Columbus lands on Guanahani
• 1494 — Treaty of Tordesillas
• 1521 — Fall of Tenochtitlan
• 1532 — Pizarro captures Atahualpa at Cajamarca
• 1535 — Viceroyalty of New Spain created
• 1542 — Viceroyalty of Peru created
• 1572 — The last Inca state at Vilcabamba falls
• 1598 — Battle of Curalaba
• 1630 — The Dutch take Recife
• 1654 — Dutch Brazil surrenders
• 1680 — Pueblo Revolt; Colônia do Sacramento founded
• 1697 — Fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya kingdom
• 1750 — Treaty of Madrid
• 1776 — Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata created
• 1804 — Haiti independent
• 1810 — May Revolution; Grito de Dolores
• 1819 — Battle of Boyacá
• 1821 — Carabobo; Lima and Mexico City taken
• 1822 — Brazil declares independence
• 1824 — Battle of Ayacucho
• 1826 — Callao and Chiloé surrender