The Conquest of the Americas

Within fifty years of Columbus, Spanish adventurers had conquered the two great empires of the Americas. Cortés took the Aztec capital in 1521; Pizarro seized the Inca emperor in 1532.

Smallpox and other European diseases did most of the killing. Within a century perhaps nine in ten of the Americas' people had died.

American silver, mined by forced labour at Potosí, paid for Spain's wars and flowed on to China. Maize and potatoes spread around the world, feeding growing populations.