From the Atlantic coasts to the circumnavigation of the world
In just six decades, the events linked to Castile and later to the Hispanic Monarchy radically changed the position of Spanish territories in the world.
The process began with agreements that delimited the areas of Atlantic expansion and continued with expeditions that took Spanish navigators to America, the Pacific, and the Spice Islands.
On September 4, 1479, the Treaty of Alcáçovas ended the Castilian War of Succession between Isabella of Castile and her supporters, and Afonso V of Portugal. The agreement also established a distribution of Atlantic expansion areas between Castile and Portugal, where Castile retained the Canary Islands, while Portugal maintained its rights over other African territories and routes. That division would be especially important when, a few years later, the Castilians began to explore new areas on the other side of the Atlantic.
The next great leap came with Christopher Columbus who, on September 24, 1493, set sail from Cádiz at the head of a large expedition to continue the exploration begun on his first voyage.
This time the endeavor had a much greater dimension: along with the navigators traveled colonists, soldiers, artisans, and religious figures. The expedition carried out further explorations throughout the Caribbean and set in motion a process of occupation and colonization that would forever change the relationship between Europe and America.
The known world seemed to get much larger
On September 20, 1519, Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda at the head of an expedition financed by the Spanish Crown. His objective was to find a western route to the Spice Islands in Southeast Asia.
The expedition crossed the Atlantic, found the passage that we know today as the Strait of Magellan, and became the first European expedition to cross the Pacific Ocean.
Magellan died in the Philippines in 1521, but the expedition continued under other commanders.
On September 6, 1522, the ship Victoria returned to Sanlúcar de Barrameda with Juan Sebastián Elcano in command and eighteen survivors. They had completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth.
Two days later, on September 8, the Victoria arrived in Seville, where that extraordinary voyage officially ended.
The journey had proven with facts the planetary dimension of maritime routes and had directly connected the interests of the Spanish Crown with spaces located thousands of kilometers from Europe: America was no longer the only stage of expansion; the Pacific and Asia were also entering the Spanish horizon.
The expansion also had a religious dimension
On September 27, 1540, Pope Paul III officially approved the Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius of Loyola.
The Jesuits would subsequently play a prominent role in evangelization and education within the territories of the Hispanic Monarchy and in other parts of the world.
Between 1479 and 1540, Castile and the Hispanic Monarchy went from disputing spaces in the Atlantic to participating in a network of territories and routes that connected Europe, America, and Asia. Explorations, colonization, and evangelization accompanied an expansion that placed Spain in front of a completely new scenario: a much broader world, connected by maritime routes and open to the presence of the Spanish Crown.
