by Strong Americas | Aug 5, 2026
Spanish forces led by Pedro de Alvarado invaded the region that would become El Salvador in 1524, advancing from Guatemala into territory controlled by the Pipil, a Nahua people centered on the city of Cuscatlan. The Pipil mounted determined resistance, and it took...
by Strong Americas | Aug 5, 2026
The Spanish arrived in the territory of present-day Ecuador in the 1530s, following Francisco Pizarro’s conquest of the Inca Empire, and founded the city of Quito in 1534 atop the ruins of an earlier Inca settlement. The Real Audiencia of Quito was established...
by Strong Americas | Aug 5, 2026
Christopher Columbus reached Hispaniola in December 1492, and Spanish settlers founded Santo Domingo on the island’s southern coast in 1496, making it the first permanent European city in the Americas. The Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo soon oversaw...
by Strong Americas | Aug 4, 2026
The Kalinago (Carib) people had inhabited Dominica for centuries before European contact, calling the mountainous island Wai’tu kubuli. Christopher Columbus sighted it in 1493 during his second voyage and named it for the day of the week on which he arrived, but...
by Strong Americas | Aug 4, 2026
Spanish colonization of Cuba began in earnest in 1511, when Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar led an expedition that established the island’s first permanent settlements. Havana, founded a few years later, grew into a major transit port for Spanish fleets sailing...
