On the silver trail

The Spanish empire was the first of Europe’s great overseas empires, and for many years the richest and most powerful.

The Spanish empire was the first of Europe’s great overseas empires, and for many years the richest and most powerful. It was also unusual in being an empire of colonists. The Portuguese, and later the Dutch, created coastal forts and settlements which served as trading posts for high-value commodities, chiefly spices. But the Spanish extended their power into the vast spaces of the South American interior, populating the towns with native Spaniards and their half-caste cousins, and lording it over the indigenous inhabitants who worked the great agricultural estates and ranches. With an estimated quarter of a million emigrants in the 16th century and twice that many in the 17th, Spain was the source of the first wave of the great migration of Europeans across the globe which continued until the 20th century.