Spanish launched a campaign against the natives of the territory now incorporated into the modern
Central American republic of Nicaragua during the colonisation of the
Americas. Before
European contact in the early 16th century,
Nicargua was inhabited by a number of indigenous peoples. In the west, these included
Mesoamerican groups such as the
Chorotega, the
Nicarao, and the
Subtiaba. Other groups included the
Matagalpa and the
Tacacho.
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Concepción |
Christopher Columbus discovered the
New World for the
Kingdom of Castile and Leon in 1492. Private adventurers thereafter entered into contracts with the
Spanish Crown to conquer the newly discovered lands in return for tax revenues and the power to rule. The
Spanish founded
Santo Domingo on the
Caribbean island of
Hispaniola in the 1490s. In the first decades after the discovery of the new lands, the Spanish colonised the
Caribbean and established a centre of operations on the island of
Cuba.
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Portrait of a man said to be Christopher Columbus |
In the first two decades of the 16th century, the
Spanish established their domination over the islands of the
Caribbean Sea, and used these as a staging point to launch their campaigns of conquest on the continental mainland of the
Americas. From
Hispaniola, the
Spanish launched expeditions and campaigns of conquest, reaching
Puerto Rico in 1508,
Jamaica in 1509,
Cuba in 1511, and
Florida in 1513.
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Coast of Puerto Rico |
In 1513, while exploring westwards,
Balboa discovered the
Pacific Ocean, and in 1519
Pedrarias Dávila founded
Panama City on the
Pacific coast. Various expeditions were then launched northwards involving notable conquistadors such as
Pedrarias Dávila, Gil González Dávila, and
Francisco Hernández de Córdoba.
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A church in Panama City |
Gil González Dávila first entered what is now Nicaragua in 1522, with the permission of Pedrarias Dávila, governor of Castilla de Oro (modern Panama) but was driven back to his ships by the Chorotega. In 1524, a new expedition led by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba founded the Spanish towns of León and Granada. Within a century of the conquest, the native inhabitants had been all but eliminated due to war, disease, and exportation as slaves.
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Granada, Nicaragua |
Hernández was able to collect a substantial amount of gold in
Nicaragua, collecting more than 100,000 pesos of gold in a single expedition. In May 1524,
Hernández sent a brigantine back to
Panama with the Royal fifth, which amounted to 185,000 gold pesos. By 1525,
Spanish power had been consolidated in western
Panama, and reinforcements had arrived from
Natá, in
Panama, which had become a key port of call for shipping between
Nicaragua and
Panama.
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San Juan, Nicargua |
In 1526,
Pedrarias was replaced as governor of
Castilla del Oro; Diego López de Salcedo, governor of
Honduras, took advantage of the change in leadership to extend his jurisdiction to include
Nicaragua. He marched to
Nicaragua with 150 men to impose his authority. He arrived in
León in spring of 1527.
León became the capital of the
Nicaraguan colony, and
Pedrarias transferred there as governor of the province in 1527.
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Leon, Nicargua |
In 1530, an alliance of
Matagalpa tribes launched a concerted attack against the
Spanish, with the intention of burning the colonial settlements. In 1533,
Pedrarias Dávila requested reinforcements to pursue the
Matagalpa and punish their revolt, in order to discourage neighbouring peoples from allying with them against the
Spanish.
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Pedrarias Dávila |
By 1543,
Francisco de Castañeda founded
Nueva Segovia in north-central
Nicaragua, some 30 leagues from
León. By 1603, the
Spanish had established their dominion over seventeen indigenous settlements in the north-central region that the
Spanish named
Segovia. The
Spanish drafted warriors from these settlements to assist in putting down ongoing indigenous resistance in
Olancho, in
Honduras.
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Honduras |
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