The Beginning of Our Global Age: Europe and the Amercias

The Tanios, with open hands were very generous towards the Spanish. However Colombus had no interested in their hospitality and assaulted Taino men and women. Colombus wanted the Tainos land, and seized some Taino people to take to his Spanish king. He tortured anyone who refused to pay him with gold. Colombus encounter was repeated by Spanish "conquistadors," whom seized the Native Americans' gold. 

Francisco Pizarro was interested in Peru's Inca empire, which had even more riches than the Aztecs. He arrived in 1532 just when a civil war was over. Pizarro wanted Atahualpa to become a Spanish vassal and convert to Christianity. They killed Atahualpa. His superior weapons the Inca were weakened by European disease. In little time Spain had a much larger empire spread to South America.

Spain had many claimed empires, stretching from California to South America. In order to keep a strict empire he  put a viceroys in each province. Spain wanted all their empires to be part of the Christianity so the Church worked with the royal official and helped to regulate the activities of Spain settlers. As Spain expanded, so did Church authority. They built missions. To fill the labor shortage, they brought workers from Africa. They worked on Farming, mining, and metalworking.