US History › Section A · Worlds meet › Topic A.4
Portuguese exploration and Spanish conquest
Within fifty years of 1492, Portuguese ships had reached India and Brazil, and Spaniards with large armies of Indigenous allies had brought down the two greatest empires of the Americas. This topic follows those voyages and conquests and asks how so few Europeans could change so much so fast.
In this topic
- Portugal opens the Atlantic
- Around Africa to Asia
- Columbus and the Taíno
- Dividing the world
- Worked example: reading Columbus's 1493 letter
- Cortés and the fall of Tenochtitlan
- Worked example: explaining the conquest
- Pizarro and the Inca
- Into North America
- Spain's Golden Age
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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