Figure 1.--The Embera People are one of the few Central American tribes to survice the Spanish conquest and colonial rule. The principal reasoin was their isolated location-- the Dari�n, There are also Embera people in neighbiring Colombia. These Embera children continue to live in the Darién (southeastern Panama and morthwestern Colombia). The children here at a school in Panama wear both colored loincloths and sarong-like wraps.

Central America was essentially a funnel. All of the people who would settle South America had to pass through Central America. That would have been primarily overland, but there could hav been some sea transit as well. The Ingigenous/Amer-Indian people of what is now Cental America were split. We can see that split in the modern countries of Central America. The northern areas were domiinated by Meso-America and the Maya which included some sophisticated civilizations. The Central American tribes south of Meso-America and the Mayan areas were relatively small and primitive. Most disappeared as a result of Spanish slave raiding and exposure to European diseases. This was the same fate as the Arawaks (Tainos) and Caribs in the Caribbean. The Spanish conquest of Central America began in Panama. The first important Spanish colony in the Indies was Hispaniola. Most of the early Spanish expeditions in the Caribbean were conducted from Hispaniola with the purpose of finding gold and ontanining slaves to replaced the dwindling Taino populastion on the island. This included planting a colony at Darién which became modern Panama. Her Balboa first crossed the Istmus and found the Pacific Ocean (1513). The conquest of much of the rest of Central America occurred several decaded later and came from from the north, following Cortez's conquest of Mexico (1519-21).

Panama

Geography would make Panama a major outpost of the Spanish empire, primarily because the gold and silver from South America (primarily Peru and Bolivia) could transit the istmus and then be shipped back to Spain. Of course the Spanish conquest of Panana began before the gepgraphy was known or the Inca in Peru conquered. Rodrigo de Bastidas claimed Panama for Spain while sailing along the Darién coast (March 1501). Columbus on his fourth voyage explored what he called Veragua and the Mosquito coast from Panama to the Cape of Honduras. Columbus met a cacique named Quibian, who was captured by Diego Mendez, but he managed to escape (1503). He found some gold, but like Bastidas made no attemp to settle. Columbus; ships after entering fresgwater were attacked by marine worms. Colunbus was eventually marooned on Jamaica. Other Spanish navigators followed, looking for gold and seizing natives for sale as slaves. Founding a colony was a more difficult undertaking. Captain Ojeda was primarily involved with the main Spanish colony of Hispaniola. He returned to the Gulf of Paria (eastern Venezuela) to govern Coquibacoa. He built a fort and warred with the local population. He was arrested whn he returned to Santo Domingo, but eventually aquited. Early in the 16th century, the Spanish began to noice the declinr in the Taino (Arawak) population. The first African slaves were brought to Española (1505). Ojeda on his third voyage sailed with the courtier Diego de Nicuesa. King Fernando granted concessions for colonization to Ojeda and Nicuesa (1509). Nicuesa captured a hundred natives on Santa Cruz (St. Croix in the Virgin Islands) and sold them as slaves on Española (1509). Ojeda and Nicuesa used Jamaica as a source of supply for settlers and raiders along the Venezuelan coast. Nicuesa eventually began exploring to the west and reached Panama, notrealising at the time that it was an istmus. Bachelor Enciso sailed to the Indies with to link up with Ojeda (1510). Vasco Nu�ez de Balboa, escaping his debts, had stowed aboard the ship. Enciso learned of the Zenú / Sinú, a tribe living in the valleys of the Sinu and San Jorge rivers and the coast of the Caribbean around the Gulf of Morrosquillo in Colombia. They attracted Ensiso's attention because produced gold ornaments and commonly buried the gold with the dead. Enciso looted the graves and the Zenú were largely destroyed. After Enciso's ship was wrecked, he joined the company of Francisco Pizarro. Balboa claimed that he had been with Bastides and guided the company to the Darien, where the local people did not use poisoned arrows. Cacique Zemaco and 500 warriors resisted the Spanish, but was defeated by Enciso. This began the first Spanish settlement in Central Ameriuca. Enciso tried to control the gold found and as a result was deposed. Balboa and Zamudio were elected to lead the group. Nicuesa arrived and tried to take the gold. The other Spanish refused. He was forced to leave (March 1511) and disappeared from history. The decline of the Tainos on Hispaniola and resulting need for labor was in addition to gold a driving force for Spasnish exoploration. Diego de Velazquez began the conquest of Cuba (1511). This would eventually being the Spanish closer to Central America and Mexico. Ponce de Leon seaking a medicinal fountain discovered Florida on Palm Sunday (1512). The Spanish on Hispaniola were brought under royal control by Ovando. The Spanish at Darien, however, quarled with each other and broke into factions. Balboa emerged as a leader. He dispatched Enciso back to Spain with alcalde Zamudio. A major Darien cacique, Zemaco, carried out a ambush attack. Francisco Pizarro and his men managed to fight off the attackers who fled into the interior. Two criminals had fled the Spanish camp during Nicuesa rule. They sought refuhe with Coyba cacique Careta. One went to Balboa and told him that Careta was hiding gold and other treasure. Balboa captured Careta and his family. Careta offered friendshopm and gave Balboa his daughter. Balboa helped Careta and the Coyba defeat their traditional enemy, the Ponca. Balboa in these inter-tribal wars managed to acquire a considerable amount of gold. Balboa disparched Valdivia to Española for needed supplies. During his expeditioins in Panama he had heard rumors that agreat sea lay to the west. He thus also wrote asking Govenor Diego Colunbus to send a thousand men for an expedition to discover the southern sea. Zemaco attacked again. So Balboa built a defensive fort at Darien (1512). Balboa also supressed a mutiny over the division of the gold. Columbus officially recognized Balboa as governor. Enciso who had reacged Spain, brought charges of treason against Balboa. Balboa organized 190 men and a thousand natives with guides. hey headed west toward the mountains. A Ponca foe Quaraqua attacked Balboa's party. The Spanish with firearms, steel swords, and dogs killed 600 of of the attackers. Balboa reportedly had about 40 homosexual men in the defeated Quaraqua's harem killed by dogs. Balboa wrote a letter to King Fernando defending himself (January 1513). Balboa finally reached the Pacific (September 25, 1513). He became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the Amnerica. In the process he was amassing a fortune in gold and jewels. The cacique Chiapes provided him 500 pounds of gold. Tumaco gave him additional gold and pearls. Balboa sentenced the chief Poncra and three others to death by dogs. Their enemies had convinced Baklboa that hey were plotting an attack. Balnoa extorted additional gold from the cacique Tubanama. smallpox epidemic from Europe exterminated the remaining natives on Española and spread to Cuba in 1519. The Jeronymites were recalled, and Bishop Fonseca was again in charge. Rodrigo de Figueroa headed another investigation and in 1520 was instructed to give Indians their freedom; but he found that the natives with little help failed to provide for themselves. The declining gold industry was replaced mostly by sugar plantations. The first sugar mill had been built on Española in 1516. In 1520 officials in Española requested permission for sugar to be traded directly within the Spanish empire without having to go through Seville. >

Yucatan

The Spanish conquest of Yucatán and the Mayan peoples of Yucatán and northern Central America followed Cortez's campaign in Mexcico. It proved to be a nuch longer and protracted effort (1551-1697). The Spanish encountered the Maya centuries after their classical era, unlike the Aztec and Inca who were in their acendancy. The most important Mayan tribes by the time of the Spanish conwquest were in Yucatan and ajacent Guatemalan highlands. This area became the major battlefield. The Spanish conquest of the Mayan lands began with the invasion of Utatlan (1524). The Spanish having conquered the Aztecs had many advantages. They had deceloped teactics useful in fighting Native American proples. And they had the advantages of modern weapons (firearms and steel swords), armor, and horses. Inter-tribal rivalries aided the Spoanish. Unlike the Aztecs and Incas, there was no powerful centralized state or recognized imperial leader. The battle ground was very different. The battles against the Aztecs and Inca were fought at high alditudes in climastes that were not unfamiliar to the Spanish. Yucatan in conbtrast was a semi-tropical jungle. Gunpowder might becomes sodden and metal rusts. Disease was a major factor. In Mexico and Peru, European diseases devestated the Ntive Americans. The Maya ere also affected, but in Yucatan the Spanish were also affected by tropical diseases. Cortez and Pizarro had largely surprise; the Aztecs and Inca who had no direct contact with Spaniards before the conquistadors landed. The element of surprise was a major factor in the stunning Spanish victories. But the Spanish had come in contact with the Maya before the conquest of the Aztecs, Not only was the Spanish element of surprise not as strong with the Maya, but well before the arrival of the Spanish, the Maya had begun to migrant out of the cities and to live in smaller bands in the jungle. This meant that a major problem for the Spanish was to actually find the Maya.

Guatemala

The Mayan civilization rose in the Guatemalan highlands. The Maya were in a state of decline when Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado overwealmed them (1524). Alvarado was looking for another fabulously wealthy Narive American Empire, but the Maya in Guatemala had declined from their earlier prominance.

El Salvasor

The Spanish conquest of the Native American tribes in El Salvador was conducted in conjunction with the conquest of the tribes in Guatemala.

Honduras

The Maya dominated western Honduras, but declined (early 9th century). The most important Mayan city-state was Copán. Christopher Columbus landed on the coast of modern Honduras near modern Trujillo on his fourth and last voyage (1502). He named the country Honduras because the waters was so deep along the coast. Spanish planters on Cuba with the the Native American population collapsing, raided the northern coast attempting to capture other Native Americans they could enslave. Conquistador Hernán Cortés after conquerung the Aztec Empire in Mexico, landed in Honduras (1525). He left 6 months later after failing to find another rich Native American empire to plunder, returning to Spain. Spanish planters on Cuba raided the northern coast attempting to capture Native Americans they could enslave. Pedro de Alvarado began the actual conquest of Honduras. He defeated the resistance led by Çiçumba near Ticamaya (1536). Alvarado divided the conquered native lands among his men. The natives living their essentially became slaves in the repartimiento system.

Nicaragua

Spanish Conquistador Gíl González de Ávila defeated the Native american forces Fernández de Córdoba (1522). Fernández de Córdoba founded León and Grenada (1524). These two cities developed as competing centers.

Costa Rica

Columbus discovered Costa Rica on his fourth and final voyage (1502). Local Carib Native Americans paddeled out to him in their dugout canoes. Gil Gonzalez Davila later referred to the region as Costa Rica (Rich Coast) because of the gold bands the Caribs wore in their noses. At the time of the Spanish discivery and subsequent conquest, there were four Native American tribal groups, some quite small. The Caribs who Columbus encounteted dominated the eastern or Caribbean coast. The Borucas, Chibchas, and Diquis inhabited the southwest. There may have been a Native population of 0.4 million. The Costa Rican tribes were not the large, sophisticated tribes the Spanish encountrted in Mexico. The conquest became two decades after Columbus' discovery (1524). As the Spanish began to colonize the area, the Native Americans fled or persished as a result of contact with European diseases, especially smallpox. As a result, few Costa Ricans are of Native American ancestry. Unable to enslave the Native Americans, the Spanish began importing African slaves.

Belize

Northern central America including Belize was dominated by the Mayan. The Maya appeared to have begun to move into coastal Belize from the Guatelan Highlands (about 1500 BC). The highpoint of Mayan civilization in Belize was a few centuries before the arival of the Spanish (1200 AD). Important Maya sites include: Caracol, Lamanai, Lubaantun, Altun Ha, and Xunantunich. Archeologists describe Maya cites with high population densities. Columbus sailed along the coast of Central America, including Belize (1502). There was for a long time even after Spanish settlement of Mexico and elsewhere in Central America, no settlement along the coast of what is now Belize. The first European settlement seems to have been inadvertant--shipwrecked English seamen (1638).

Created: 7:31 AM 2/10/2011
Last updated: 11:18 PM 7/7/2018