USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Hernán Cortés extracted literally tons of gold from the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican civilizations. Countless artefacts were melted down and Aztec mines were further exploited and new ones opened.

Detailed explanation-2: -In 1493, during his second voyage, Columbus founded Isabela, the first permanent Spanish settlement in the New World, on Hispaniola. After finding gold in recoverable quantities nearby, the Spanish quickly overran the island and spread to Puerto Rico in 1508, to Jamaica in 1509, and to Cuba in 1511.

Detailed explanation-3: -On Christopher Columbus’s second voyage to the Americas, he enslaved the indigenous people and forced them to mine for gold.

Detailed explanation-4: -After subjugating the Aztec and Inca Empires, the Spanish began mining the ample gold and silver in Mexico, Central America, and South America. Over the next 300 years, Spain’s wealth grew as they plundered the resources of the Americas, transporting the goods back to Europe to fuel a global economy of trade.

Detailed explanation-5: -Juan Ponce de León was a Spanish-born conquistador who made it his mission to find riches, such as gold and the famed “fountain of youth”.