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Alonso De Ojeda
Alonso de Ojeda (; c. 1466 – c. 1515) was a Spanish explorer, governor and conquistador. He travelled through modern-day Guyana, Venezuela, Trinidad, Tobago, Curaçao, Aruba and Colombia. He navigated with Amerigo Vespucci who is famous for having named ''Venezuela'', which he explored during his first two expeditions, for having been the first European to visit Guyana, Curaçao, Colombia, and Lake Maracaibo, and later for founding Santa Cruz (La Guairita). Early life Alonso de Ojeda was born in Torrejoncillo del Rey, New Castile around 1466.Catholic Encyclopedia 1913 His father, Rodrigo de Huete, was a minor noble who fought for Isabel in 1474 during the War of the Castilian Succession. Isabel was grateful for his support and put his son, Alonso, under her protection. In his youth, Alonso served the Duke of Medinaceli, Luis de la Cerda.Vigneras 1976 In service to the duke, he distinguished himself in the conquest of Granada with his military abilities, his skill ...
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Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the largest cities in the world. The city is administered as the Capital District, as well as the capital of, though not part of, the surrounding department of Cundinamarca. Bogotá is a territorial entity of the first order, with the same administrative status as the departments of Colombia. It is the political, economic, administrative, and industrial center of the country. Bogotá was founded as the capital of the New Kingdom of Granada on 6 August 1538 by Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada after a harsh expedition into the Andes conquering the Muisca, the indigenous inhabitants of the Altiplano. Santafé (its name after 1540) became the seat of the government of the Spanish Royal Audiencia of the New Kingdom of Granada (cre ...
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Cuenca, Spain
Cuenca () is a city and municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha. It is the capital of the province of Cuenca. Etymology Its name may derive from the Latin ''conca'' meaning "river basin", referring to the gorge of the rivers Júcar and Huécar. It may also be derived from the now-ruined Arab castle, Kunka. Other alternative original names have been suggested, including "Anitorgis", "Sucro" or "Concava". The city of Cuenca is also known as the "Eagle's Nest" because of its precarious position on the edge of a gorge. History When the Iberian peninsula was part of the Roman Empire, there were several important settlements in the province, such as Segobriga, Ercavica and Gran Valeria. However, the place where Cuenca is located today was uninhabited at that time. When the Muslims captured the area in 714, they soon realized the value of this strategic location and they built a fortress (called ''Kunka'') between two gorges dug between ...
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Maritime Pilot
A maritime pilot, marine pilot, harbor pilot, port pilot, ship pilot, or simply pilot, is a mariner who maneuvers ships through dangerous or congested waters, such as harbors or river mouths. Maritime pilots are regarded as skilled professionals in navigation as they are required to know immense details of waterways such as depth, currents, and hazards, as well as displaying expertise in handling ships of all types and size. Obtaining the title 'maritime pilot' requires being an expert ship handler licensed or authorised by a recognised pilotage authority. History The word ''pilot'' is believed to have come from the Middle French, ''pilot'', ''pillot'', from Italian, ''pilota'', from Late Latin, ''pillottus''; ultimately from Ancient Greek πηδόν (pēdón, "blade of an oar, oar"). The work functions of the pilot can be traced back to Ancient Greece and Rome, when locally experienced harbour captains, mainly local fishermen, were employed by incoming ships' captains to b ...
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Caravel
The caravel (Portuguese: , ) is a small maneuverable sailing ship used in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. The lateen sails gave it speed and the capacity for sailing windward (beating). Caravels were used by the Portuguese and Castilians for the oceanic exploration voyages during the 15th and 16th centuries, during the Age of Discovery. Etymology Its English name derives from the Portuguese ''caravela'', which in turn may derive from the Latin ''carabus'' or in Greek, perhaps indicating some continuity of its carvel build through the ages. History The earliest caravels originated in the thirteenth century on the coasts of Galicia and Portugal. They may well have been derived from similar Muslim craft that were used elsewhere in the Iberian Peninsula. These early caravels were used for offshore fishing and some coastal cargo carrying. They were small, lightly-built vesselsperhaps of 20 tons or le ...
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Catholic Monarchs
The Catholic Monarchs were Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of Spain. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being both descended from John I of Castile; to remove the obstacle that this consanguinity would otherwise have posed to their marriage under canon law, they were given a papal dispensation by Sixtus IV. They married on October 19, 1469, in the city of Valladolid; Isabella was eighteen years old and Ferdinand a year younger. It is generally accepted by most scholars that the unification of Spain can essentially be traced back to the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella. Spain was formed as a dynastic union of two crowns rather than a unitary state, as Castile and Aragon remained separate kingdoms until the Nueva Planta decrees of 1707–16. The court of Ferdinand and Isabella was constantly on the move, in order to bolster local support for the c ...
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La Isabela
La Isabela in Puerto Plata Province, Dominican Republic was the first Spanish town in the Americas. The site is 42 km west of the city of Puerto Plata, adjacent to the village of El Castillo. The area now forms a National Historic Park. La Isabela was founded by Christopher Columbus during his second voyage in December 1493, and named after Queen Isabella I of Castile. The first attempt of a permanent settlement, the fort of La Navidad, established by Columbus a year earlier to the west of La Isabela, in what is present day Haiti, had been destroyed by the native Taíno people before he returned. La Isabela was abandoned by 1500. The only earlier European settlements in the Americas were settlements by the Vikings in Greenland and Newfoundland which dated from 500 years earlier. La Isabela was established to search for precious metals. La Isabela was struck by the first known epidemic to spread from Europe to the New World in 1493 and two of the earliest North Atlant ...
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Cacique
A ''cacique'' (Latin American ; ; feminine form: ''cacica'') was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, the indigenous inhabitants at European contact of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The term is a Spanish transliteration of the Taíno word ''kasike''. Cacique was initially translated as "king" or "prince" for the Spanish. In the colonial era the conquistadors and the administrators who followed them used the word generically, to refer to any leader of practically any indigenous group they encountered in the Western Hemisphere. In Hispanic and Lusophone countries, the term also has come to mean a political boss, similar to ''caudillo,'' exercising power in a system of ''caciquismo''. Spanish colonial-era caciques The Taíno word ''kasike'' descends from the Taíno word ''kassiquan'', which means "to keep house". In 1555 the word first entered the English language, defined as "prince". In Taíno culture, the ''kasike'' rank was her ...
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Juan Rodríguez De Fonseca
Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca (1451–1524) was a Spanish archbishop, a courtier and bureaucrat, whose position as royal chaplain to Queen Isabella enabled him to become a powerful counsellor to Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Monarchs. He controlled the ''Casa de Contratación'', an agency which managed expeditions to the New World on behalf of the Spanish crown. He later served as the president of the Council of the Indies, when it was founded in 1521. He managed the administration of a number of significant Spanish expeditions including voyages by Christopher Columbus and Magellan's circumnavigation of the earth. Early life Rodríguez de Fonseca was born in 1451 in his family's castle in the town of Toro, in the Province of Zamora, the son of Fernando de Fonseca, lord of the towns of Coca and Alaejos, one of his three children with Teresa de Ayala, daughter of the Marquis of Cañete The family had originated in Portugal and migrated to the Kingdom of Castile a century earlie ...
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Bartolomé De Las Casas
Bartolomé de las Casas, OP ( ; ; 11 November 1484 – 18 July 1566) was a 16th-century Spanish landowner, friar, priest, and bishop, famed as a historian and social reformer. He arrived in Hispaniola as a layman then became a Dominican friar and priest. He was appointed as the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, and the first officially appointed "Protector of the Indians". His extensive writings, the most famous being ''A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies'' and ''Historia de Las Indias'', chronicle the first decades of colonization of the West Indies. He described the atrocities committed by the colonizers against the indigenous peoples. Arriving as one of the first Spanish (and European) settlers in the Americas, Las Casas initially participated in, but eventually felt compelled to oppose, the abuses committed by colonists against the Native Americans. As a result, in 1515 he gave up his Native American slaves and '' encomienda'', and advocated, before King Cha ...
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Granada War
The Granada War ( es, Guerra de Granada) was a series of military campaigns between 1482 and 1491 during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, against the Nasrid dynasty's Emirate of Granada. It ended with the defeat of Granada and its annexation by Castile, ending the last remnant of Islamic rule on the Iberian peninsula. The ten-year war was not a continuous effort but a series of seasonal campaigns launched in spring and broken off in winter. The Granadans were crippled by internal conflict and civil war, while the Christians were generally unified. The Granadans were also bled economically by the tribute ( osp, paria) they had to pay Castile to avoid being attacked and conquered. The war saw the effective use of artillery by the Christians to rapidly conquer towns that would otherwise have required long sieges. On January 2, 1492, Muhammad XII of Granada (King Boabdil) surrendered the Emirate of Granada, the city of Granada, a ...
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Duke Of Medinaceli
Duke of Medinaceli () is an hereditary title in the peerage of Spain, accompanied by the dignity of Grandee. The Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, created the title and awarded it on 31 October 1479 to Luis de la Cerda y de la Vega. He also held the title of 5th Count of Medinaceli, which was first awarded in 1368 to his ancestor, Bernal de Foix. History In 1368, the King of the Crown of Castile bestowed the title of Count of Medinaceli on Bernal de Foix, the second husband of Isabel de la Cerda. Their grandson Luis, 3rd Count of Medinaceli, eventually inherited the title and changed his family name to " de la Cerda". Later on, Queen Isabella I of Castile raised the title from Count to Duke in 1479 for Luis de la Cerda y de la Vega, 5th Count of Medinaceli. Counts of Medinaceli * Bernal de Foix, 1st Count of Medinaceli (d. 1381). He took the side of the royal bastard Henry of Trastámara in 1368 against Henry's legitimate half-br ...
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