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European Colonies in the Americas

By William H. Beezley

Spain and Portugal were the first European countries to control the
Americas. However, others, including France and England, would soon
challenge their monopoly.

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European Colonies in the Americas
William H. Beezley

Dividing up the Americas

In 1493, Pope Alexander VI announced that Europe had taken over the Americas. The Pope was the leader of the
Catholic Church. He had learned that Pedro Álvares Cabral and Christopher Columbus had both successfully sailed
to the New World. Cabral was sailing for Portugal while Columbus sailed for Spain.

At first, the Pope split the New World between the two nations. The Pope told explorers from both countries to
convert any non-Christians they met to Christianity.

The Cantino Planisphere, a Portuguese map from 1502. On the left side of the map, a vertical line shows the border of the Treaty of
Tordesillas. The Portuguese got more from the treaty than they would have with the Pope’s proposal, but either way Spain got a lot
more of the Americas than did Portugal. © Getty Images.

The king of Portugal, John II, was unhappy with the amount of land the Pope gave to Portugal. The rulers of Spain
and Portugal had to find a compromise. In 1494, they agreed to the Treaty of Tordesillas, which moved the Pope’s
imaginary line further west. The treaty gave Spain all the Americas, except for the northeastern point of South
America. This allowed the Portuguese to claim Brazil and start building colonies there. Each kingdom was excluded
from the other’s territories.

The Portuguese also got control of West Africa, where the transatlantic trade of enslaved peoples began. They also
had the shortest route to Asia through East Africa. The Spanish claimed the Philippines for their own route to Asia.
The treaty required them to ship spices, silks, and people back home. Their cargo traveled from the Philippines to
Mexico then across the Atlantic Ocean to Spain.

Colonies in the Americas

Spain was the first European nation to have real control of the Americas. These colonies included New Spain and
Peru. Their new European settlements included Indigenous, African, and Asian populations. These early societies
were based on the world’s richest silver mines, sugar production, and the making of natural dyes. The settlers
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William H. Beezley

practiced Catholicism and celebrated Spanish culture. They had a social hierarchy based on ethnicity. In Brazil, the
Portuguese first settled trading posts before building up sugar plantations and mining communities. Other European
nations, especially the English, Dutch, and French, challenged the Iberian monopoly. They did this by using pirates,
naval assaults, and battles.

The Spanish kings initially created their colonies

in the Americas as “kingdoms.” That meant one
monarch ruled multiple kingdoms on two
continents. The most important colony was New
Spain, established in 1535. It was the largest
colony in the world and included the modern-day
regions of:

• Mexico
• Central America
• Venezuelan coast
• Spanish Caribbean
• Northern territories now part of the United
States
• Southern border of Alaska
• Philippines

Colonial societies like the Viceroyalty of New

Spain were divided into two republics. In New
Spain, republic referred to two levels of society Location of the Viceroyalty of Peru in 1750. By WHP, CC BY-NC 4.0.
with different rules. The first was the republic of Explore full map here.
Spaniards, called españoles. It included all people
from Spain, the children of Spanish-Indigenous
American couples, enslaved Africans, and Asians. The second was the republic of indios. This group included all
Indigenous peoples who were not living in major Spanish towns.

Like most colonizers, the Spaniards wrongly believed they were better than the Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
They tried to separate Spanish and Indigenous citizens. For example, non-Indigenous people were not allowed to
spend the night in an Indigenous community. There were laws around dress codes, weapons, and transportation
based on social class. Another law said that married Spaniards must bring their wives to the colonies or return
home to Spain.1 This rule was an attempt to stop relationships between Spanish and non-Spanish people.

Spaniards built their first colonial city at Havana, which is now the capital of Cuba. Mexico City became the largest
and most important city in New Spain in 1521. The conquest of the Inca empire in 1532 resulted in the Viceroyalty
of Peru, with a capital at Lima. These cities were built using strict guidelines. They had to have a central plaza with
space for political, military, and religious activities. Further rules outlined orientation and location in relation to
water, timber, and other resources.

1 The number of times this law was decreed indicates it was frequently broken.
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William H. Beezley

Painting of a Spanish man, African woman, and child of mixed heritage in the Spanish Americas, eighteenth century. © Getty Images.

Social life in these cities was built around Spanish traditions. There were festivals for royal birthdays, military
victories, and family events. Spanish religious holidays were celebrated, including Christmas. Each town, district,
and social order had a dedicated saint and celebrated that saint day. Other cultural elements were brought over
from Europe. By the middle of the sixteenth century, Mexico City had a printing press, university, and regular theatre
performances.

Although designed to be just like Spanish cities, these viceroyalties had a small Spanish population. The label
“Spanish” included people born in Spain who had Christian parents. It also included people born in the Americas,
whom the Spanish called colonials. Even together, these two populations were greatly outnumbered by three
other groups:

• People of mixed ethnicity, particularly those with Spanish fathers and Indigenous mothers
• Africans, some who were enslaved and some who were free
• Indigenous peoples of the Americas

Nevertheless, it was that small population of Spaniards who controlled government, economy, and society.

Governing elsewhere in the Americas

Outside of Spanish America, the colonies of other European empires were growing. These colonies shared some
similarities with the Spanish model. But each were also quite unique.

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William H. Beezley

The Portuguese had trading posts across Brazil to exchange goods with local Indigenous peoples. They traded
brazilwood, gems, and crafts. The Portuguese rulers built more permanent settlements to protect their colonies
from Spain and France. They created 15 captaincies, which allowed noblemen to settle large areas of land. Only
two of those intended settlements were successful, largely due to the introduction of sugar plantations. In 1548,
Portugal’s king sent Tomé de Sousa as the first governor at the capital of Salvador. It was a society based on sugar,
enslavement, and mining.

The English mostly settled colonies on the eastern coast of North America. They focused on producing high-
value goods like tobacco and rum. The English also controlled sugar plantations and commercial colonies in the
Caribbean. However, they weren’t the only ones in this region. The French built sugar-producing colonies in what
is now Haiti and French Guinea. The Dutch also settled in various Caribbean islands after losing a colony in Brazil
and selling another that became New York. Most of the labor in these colonies was carried out by enslaved people.
Lastly, there were the Russians, who created trading posts in the far Pacific Northwest. They came to the area in
the 1740s to sell furs.

These colonial settlements created intense international rivalries, particularly between England and France. During
this time, the world would experience dramatic changes influenced by the Age of Enlightenment. The Enlightenment
was a cultural movement that began in Europe in the late 1700s that valued individualism and reason over tradition.
This period of time would see major changes to politics and society both in the Americas and overseas.

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William H. Beezley

Sources
Baskes, Jeremy. “The Colonial Economy of New Spain.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin America, 2018. Accessed 19
November 2020. https://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-
9780199366439-e-493?rskey=snm4y0&result=5.
Burkholder, Mark A. and Lyman L. Johnson. Colonial Latin America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Curcio-Nagy, Linda A. The Great Festivals of Colonial Mexico City. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2004.
Fragoso, João and Thiago Krause. “Colonial Elites: Planters and Land Nobility in 17th- and 18th-Century Brazil.” Oxford
Research Encyclopedia of Latin America, 2019. Accessed 19 November 2020. https://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/
view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-324?rskey=snm4y0&result=2.
“King Phillip II dictates the layout of new towns, 1573.” Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520 – 1820. Accessed 19
November 2020. https://vistas.ace.fordham.edu/lib/16th/layout/history-visual-culture/.

William H. Beezley
William H. Beezley teaches Latin American history at the University of Arizona. The Mexican government awarded him the Ohtli
medal for his contributions to the nation’s culture. His books on Latin America have been translated into Spanish and Mandarin,
and he has appeared a cultural expert on “The Desert Speaks” and “In the Americas with David Yetman.” He just completed a
documentary on Mexican women who used embroidery to express their domestic, civil, and human rights.

Image credits
Cover image: The Taking of Tenochtitlan by Cortes, 1521. © Art Images via Getty Images.
The Cantino Planisphere, a Portuguese map from 1502. On the left side of the map, a vertical line shows the border of the
Treaty of Tordesillas. The Portuguese got more from the treaty than they would have with the Pope’s proposal, but either way
Spain got a lot more of the Americas than did Portugal. © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images.
Location of the Viceroyalty of Peru: Location of the Viceroyalty of Peru in 1750. By WHP, CC BY-NC 4.0. Explore full map here:
https://www.oerproject.com/OER-Materials/OER-Media/Images/WHP-Maps/1750-layer-2
Painting of a Spanish man, African woman, and child of mixed heritage in the Spanish Americas, eighteenth century. ©
DeAgostini/Getty Images.

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European Colonies in the Americas
William H. Beezley

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