Spanish Motivation of Exploration Compared to Portuguese, French, British, and Dutch

Spanish Motivation
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Spanish Motivation
Just like the Portuguese, the French, and the British that conquered the New World, the Spanish were motivated by the fact that they would find new resources and land. The Spanish used Christianity as a means of gaining control over the natives, but the real motive behind the conquering of the New World was to gain access to resources, in particular, gold, that they had become overly obsessed with. The Spanish obsession with the mineral in the New World can be depicted from the high influx of gold in Spain in the 16th century (Vilches, 2010). Spain had accumulated large volumes of gold from the Incas of Peru that were then ferried to the country and later used by the Spanish Monarch to pay off debts. This also meant that the country became incredibly rich. The surplus of gold was distributed across other E...