Empire · approximate1492 – 1826 · 334 years
Spanish Empire (Americas)
The empire that began with Columbus and brought the Western Hemisphere into the global economy — at staggering human cost.
What it was
The Spanish Empire (1492–1898) was the first global empire, with possessions on every inhabited continent. American silver from Potosí and Zacatecas funded Spanish hegemony in 16th-century Europe and the first truly global trade network linking Manila, Acapulco, and Seville.
Why it mattered
The demographic catastrophe of the conquest killed an estimated 90% of Indigenous Americans within a century — one of the largest population collapses in human history.
From Wikipedia
The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It achieved a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, Africa, various islands in Asia and Oceania, as well as territory in other parts of Europe. It was one of the most powerful empires of the early modern period, becoming known as "the empire on which the sun never sets". At its greatest extent in the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Spanish Empire covered 13.7 million square kilometres, making it one of the largest empires in history.
Wikipedia: Spanish Empire·CC BY-SA 4.0
Borders & accuracy
Dashed borders mark empires whose extent we can date but whose precise frontiers are contested or undocumented.
- SOURCEreconstructed from Natural Earth country boundaries
- DETAILreconstructed-clipped-country
- SNAPSHOT1790
- POLITY TYPEstate
Wars of this empire649
Conflicts whose belligerents name this polity, best-documented first.
- Thirty Years' War1618–48World-changing · 8.0M dead
- American Indian Wars1500–1800World-changing · 5.0M dead
- Spanish Conquest of Mexico1519–21World-changing · 3.6M dead
- Napoleonic Wars1803–15World-changing · 3.5M dead
- Spanish Conquest of Peru1532–72World-changing · 2.0M dead
- French Revolutionary Wars1792–1802World-changing · 1.5M dead
- Seven Years' War1756–63World-changing · 1.4M dead
- War of the Sixth Coalition1812–14World-changing · 500K dead
- World-changing · 240K dead
- Túpac Amaru II Rebellion1780–83World-changing · 100K dead
- American Revolutionary War1775–83World-changing · 50K dead
- World-changing
- Arauco War1536–1818World-changing
- World-changing
- Major conflict · 1.0M dead
- Major conflict · 1.0M dead
- Major conflict · 800K dead
- Major conflict · 750K dead
- Peninsular War1808–14Major conflict · 700K dead
- Major conflict · 600K dead
- Third Italian War1494–1559Major conflict · 500K dead
- Eighty Years' War1568–1648Major conflict · 500K dead
- Major conflict · 500K dead
- Major conflict · 400K dead
+ 625 more in the atlas.
Open in the atlas →Seeks the timeline to 1492 and fits the map to these borders.
Cite as: Spanish Empire (Americas) (1492 – 1826). War Atlas. https://waratlas.org/e/spanish-americas · Sources & methodology