USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Cuba and Puerto Rico were lost to the United States in 1898, following the Spanish–American War, ending its colonial rule in the Americas.

Detailed explanation-2: -The political instability in Spain, without a navy, army or treasury, convinced many Spanish Americans of the need to formally establish independence from the mother country. In Spain, a French army of the Holy Alliance invaded and supported the absolutists, restored Ferdinand VII, and occupied Spain until 1828.

Detailed explanation-3: -Spain conquered and ruled vast areas in central and South America. Precious metals such as gold and silver, land and a large population to provide labour were the attractions. The large population did not last, however.

Detailed explanation-4: -Explorer Christopher Columbus sets foot on the American mainland for the first time, at the Paria Peninsula in present-day Venezuela. Thinking it an island, he christened it Isla Santa and claimed it for Spain. Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451.

Detailed explanation-5: -After three centuries of colonial rule, independence came rather suddenly to most of Spanish and Portuguese America. Between 1808 and 1826 all of Latin America except the Spanish colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico slipped out of the hands of the Iberian powers who had ruled the region since the conquest.