The Americas presented to the European conquerors a vast area for expansion of their riches, military power, and territorial rights. After Columbus traveled the West Indies and opened the unknown area to further exploration by Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors, Portugal and Spain decided to divide their colonial rights between their respective countries along a vertical longitudinal line 970 miles west of the Cape Verde islands with the Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in 1494. This agreement between the two greatest exploring powers of the 15th century essentially split the non-Christian world so that Spain obtained rights to the lands west of the line while Portugal claimed all eastern lands including India, the East Indies and Brazil. Portugal’s claim to the Brazilian coast went unexplored for decades due to the unwelcoming natural terrain of the land and the dangerous native people. By 1530, the Portuguese conquerors managed to develop feudal plantation colonies along the coast of Brazil, thus establishing a foothold in that continent.

The Spaniards meanwhile traveled in force to the West Indies in search of gold and other riches and by 1512 had conquered the larger of the islands of the West Indies. The Spanish quest for gold would remain unquenched however, until they set foot on the mainland of South America where they discovered gold and precious metals, finally achieving the objective of their original quest. With the discovery of gold, the Spanish Conquistadors began to exploit their newly discovered land by establishing colonies and mining operations and the general subjugation of the native populations. In the process the Spaniards decimated the Inca, Aztec, and Maya empires that had been in power and returned to Europe with the treasures of the New World. Spanish colonial rule would last for another 300 years before the growing unrest and desire for self-autonomy among the Spanish colonies resulted in their independence from the Spanish crown.

The colonial efforts of the British rested in the small islands of the West Indies and later the colonies in North America. The islands inhabited by the native Carib and Arawak people ensured a steady stream of profits, as the English exploited their land with the production of sugar after the introduction of this crop in 1637. With the development of plantation systems in Brazil and the West Indies, the British and Portuguese invested themselves in the slave trade and commenced another chapter in the colonies’ history of labor exploitation.

The struggle of the Spanish, Portuguese and British colonies in seeking their independence from the Spanish crown had an enormous impact on the native populations, the natural resources of the fertile lands and contributed to the cultural inequalities that exist today.

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