Spanish diaspora
Encyclopedia
The Spanish diaspora
consists of Spanish people
and their descendants
who emigrated from Spain
. The diaspora is concentrated in countries such as Mexico
, Argentina
, Uruguay
, Cuba
and other parts of Latin America
, and to a lesser extent, the United States
, Canada
and continental Europe
.
Castile, under the reign of Henry III
began the colonization of the Canary Islands
in 1402, authorizing under feudal agreement to Norman
noblemen Jean de Béthencourt
. The conquest of the Canary Islands, inhabited by Guanche
people, was only finished when the armies of the Crown of Castille won, in long and bloody wars, the islands of Gran Canaria
(1478–1483), La Palma (1492–1493) and Tenerife
(1494–1496).
The marriage of the Reyes Católicos
(Ferdinand II of Aragon
and Isabella I of Castile
) created a confederation of reigns
, each with their own administrations, but ruled by a common monarchy. According to Henry Kamen
, it was only after centuries of a common rule that this separated realms formed a fully unificated state.
In 1492, Spain drove out the last Moorish king of Granada. After their victory, the Catholic monarchs
negotiated with Christopher Columbus
, a Genoese
sailor attempting to reach Cipangu by sailing west. Castile was already engaged in a race of exploration with Portugal to reach the Far East
by sea when Columbus made his bold proposal to Isabella. Columbus instead "inadvertently" discovered the Americas
, inaugurating the Spanish colonization of the continent
. The Indies
were reserved for Castile.
After the Age of Discovery
the Spanish were the earliest and one of the largest communities to emigrate out of Europe, and the Spanish Empire
's expansion during the first half of the 16th century saw an "extraordinary dispersion of the Spanish people", with particular concentrations "in North and South America".
The Spanish Empire was "built on waves of migration overseas by Spanish people", who left Spain and "reached across the globe and permanently affected population structures in the American continent". As a result of the Spanish colonization of the Americas, what became the Latin America was "easily the greatest single destination of emigrant Spanish".
and Gadifer de la Salle
. Their motives were basically ecomomic: Bethencourt possessed textile factories and dye works and the Canaries offered a source of dyes such as the orchil lichen.
The treaty settled disputes between Castile and Portugal over the control of the Atlantic, in which Castilian control of the Canary islands was recognized but which also confirmed Portuguese possession of the Azores, Madeira, the Cape Verde islands and gave them rights to lands discovered and to be discovered...and any other island which might be found and conquered from the Canary islands beyond toward Guinea.
The Castilians continued to dominate the islands, but due to the topography and the resistance of the native Guanches
, complete pacification was not achieved until 1495, when Tenerife
and La Palma
were finally subdued by Alonso Fernández de Lugo
. After that, the Canaries were incorporated into the Kingdom of Castile
.
The islands were conquered by mostly Andalusia
ns and some Castilians
at the beginnings of the 15th century. In 1402, they began to subdue the native Guanche
population and the Guanches were initially enslaved and gradually absorbed by the Spanish colonizers.
After subsequent settlement by Spaniards and other European peoples
, mainly Portuguese
, the remaining Guanches were gradually diluted by the settlers and their culture largely vanished. Alonso Fernández de Lugo
, conqueror of Tenerife
and La Palma
, oversaw extensive immigration to these islands during a short period from the late 1490s to the 1520s from mainland Europe, and immigrants included Galicians, Castilians
, Portuguese
, Italians
, Catalans
, Basques
, and Flemings
. At subsequent judicial enquiries, Fernández de Lugo was accused of favoring Genoese
and Portuguese immigrants over Castilians.
emigrants in Argentina
, took place firstly in the period before Argentina's independence from Spain
, and again in large numbers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, the Spanish Empire
was the sole colonial power in the territories that became Argentina after the 1816 Argentine declaration of independence
. Thus, before 1816, a great part of the European settlers in Argentina were from Spain, and they carried the Spanish colonial
administration, incluiding religious affairs, government, and commercial business. A substantial Spanish-descended Criollo
population gradually built up in the new cities, while some mixed with the indigenous populations (Mestizos), with the Black slave population
(Mulattoes), or with other European immigrants.
Since a great part of the immigrants to Argentina before the mid-19th century were of Spanish descent, and the fact that a significative part of the late-19th century/early-20th century immigrants to Argentina were Spaniards, the vast majority of Argentinians are of mostly Spanish ancestry. However this prevalence, and the numerous shared cultural aspects between Argentina and Spain (the Spanish language
, Roman Catholicism, Criollo
/Hispanic
traditions), massive Immigration to Argentina
at the turn of the 20th century involved a majority of non-Spanish peoples from all over Europe,
Mexicans of Spanish descent is any citizen or resident of Mexico
who is of Spanish
ancestral origin. Spanish immigration to Mexico
began in 1519 and spans to the present day.
The first Spanish settlement was established in February 1519, as a result of the landing of Hernán Cortés
in the Yucatan Peninsula
, accompanied by about 11 ships, 500 men, 13 horses and a small number of cannons. In March 1519, Cortés formally claimed the land for the Spanish crown
.
on the eastern point of the island. Christopher Columbus
, on his first voyage to the Americas, sailed south from what is now The Bahamas
to explore the northeast coast of Cuba and the northern coast of Hispaniola
. Columbus discovered the island believing it to be a peninsula of the Asian mainland.
In 1511, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar
set out with three ships and an army of 300 men from Hispaniola to form the first Spanish settlement in Cuba, with orders from Spain to conquer the island.
set sail on his second voyage with 17 ships and 1,200–1,500 men from Cádiz
, Spain. On 19 November 1493 he landed on the island, naming it San Juan Bautista in honor of Saint John the Baptist
.
The first Spanish settlement, Caparra, was founded on 8 August 1508 by Juan Ponce de León
, born in Valladolid
, Spain, a lieutenant
under Columbus, who later became the first governor of the island.
From the start of the conquest of Puerto Rico, Castilian
s ruled over the religious (Roman Catholicism
) and political
life. Some came to the island for just a few years and then returned to Spain, however many stayed.
Puerto Rico's founding family were Castilians
(Ponce de León family). Their home was built in 1521 by Ponce de Leon but he died in the same year, leaving "Casa Blanca" to his young son Luis Ponce de León. The original structure didn't last long; two years after its construction, a hurricane destroyed it, and it was rebuilt by Ponce de León's son-in-law Juan Garcia Troche. The southern city of Ponce
is named after Juan Ponce de León y Loayza
, the great-grandson of the island's discoverer.
Immigration to the island caused the population to grow rapidly during the 19th century. In 1800 the population was 155,426 and ended the century with almost a million inhabitants (953,243), multiplying the population by about six times. The main component responsible was the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815
which led to immigrants from some 74 countries arriving. Included were hundreds of Corsican
, French
, Irish
, German
, Lebanese
, Maltese
and Portuguese families moving to the island. Some countries were represented by only a few (51 Chinese
individuals for example). The country that still sent the most people was Spain.
From the start of colonization other groups from Catalonia
, Asturias
, Galicia, and Majorca had also immigrated, although the Canarian people
formed the basis. Once the 19th century came, things changed drastically. According to Puerto Rican authors such as Cifre de Loubriel who researched the immigration wave patterns made to the island, during the 19th century the greatest number of Spaniards that came to the island with their families were Catalans and Mallorcans from the nearby Mediterranean regions
.
The second most common Spanish region with the largest numbers were the Galicians and Asturians, and the third regions were Canary Islanders, Basques and Andalusians. The Catalans, Galicians, Mallorcans and Asturians would come with whole families most of the time. There were regions of the island that attracted some immigrants more than others which was mainly for political or economic reasons.
one, and at the time of independence had abandoned national afiliation with Spain.
Today in Chile, surnames are important and people with Spanish surnames and Mediterranean appearance
are discriminated against, in preference to those of Basque and other European surnames and Nordic appearance. However, most Chileans have some Spanish ancestry.
Spanish immigration to the United States began with the colonization of the Americas
. Spanish Americans are the earliest European American
group, with a continuous presence since 1565.
These figures show there was never the mass emigration from Iberia as there was from Latin America
. It is evident in the figures that Spanish immigration peaked in the 1910s and 1920s. The majority settled in Florida and New York, although there was also a sizable Spanish influx to West Virginia
at the turn of the 20th century, mostly from Asturias.
trace part of their ancestry to Spain
. Spanish Filipinos are mostly descendants of the migrants to the Philippines during the colonial period. The official percentage of Filipinos with Spanish ancestry is unknown.
Between 1565 and 1815, Mexicans and Spainards sailed to and from the Philippines as government officials, soldiers, priests, settlers, traders, sailors and adventurers in the Manila-Acapulco Galleon
, assisting Spain in its trade between Europe and Latin America (Spanish America
) and Latin America and China.
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
consists of Spanish people
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
and their descendants
Lineal descendant
A lineal descendant, in legal usage, refers to a blood relative in the direct line of descent. The children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc...
who emigrated from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. The diaspora is concentrated in countries such as Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and other parts of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, and to a lesser extent, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and continental Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
Origins (1402–1521)
Castile, under the reign of Henry III
Henry III of Castile
Henry III KG , sometimes known as Henry the Sufferer or Henry the Infirm , was the son of John I and Eleanor of Aragon, and succeeded him as King of the Castilian Crown in 1390....
began the colonization of the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
in 1402, authorizing under feudal agreement to Norman
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
noblemen Jean de Béthencourt
Jean de Béthencourt
Jean de Béthencourt was a French explorer who, in 1402, led an expedition to the Canary Islands, landing first on the north side of Lanzarote...
. The conquest of the Canary Islands, inhabited by Guanche
Guanches
Guanches is the name given to the aboriginal Berber inhabitants of the Canary Islands. It is believed that they migrated to the archipelago sometime between 1000 BCE and 100 BCE or perhaps earlier...
people, was only finished when the armies of the Crown of Castille won, in long and bloody wars, the islands of Gran Canaria
Gran Canaria
Gran Canaria is the second most populous island of the Canary Islands, with a population of 838,397 which constitutes approximately 40% of the population of the archipelago...
(1478–1483), La Palma (1492–1493) and Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...
(1494–1496).
The marriage of the Reyes Católicos
Catholic Monarchs
The Catholic Monarchs is the collective title used in history for Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being both descended from John I of Castile; they were given a papal dispensation to deal with...
(Ferdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand the Catholic was King of Aragon , Sicily , Naples , Valencia, Sardinia, and Navarre, Count of Barcelona, jure uxoris King of Castile and then regent of that country also from 1508 to his death, in the name of...
and Isabella I of Castile
Isabella I of Castile
Isabella I was Queen of Castile and León. She and her husband Ferdinand II of Aragon brought stability to both kingdoms that became the basis for the unification of Spain. Later the two laid the foundations for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor...
) created a confederation of reigns
Personal union
A personal union is the combination by which two or more different states have the same monarch while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct. It should not be confused with a federation which is internationally considered a single state...
, each with their own administrations, but ruled by a common monarchy. According to Henry Kamen
Henry Kamen
Henry A. Kamen is a British historian born in Rangoon on Oct 4. 1936. He studied at the University of Oxford, earning his doctorate at St. Antony's College. He subsequently taught at the University of Warwick and various universities in Spain. In 1970, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal...
, it was only after centuries of a common rule that this separated realms formed a fully unificated state.
In 1492, Spain drove out the last Moorish king of Granada. After their victory, the Catholic monarchs
Catholic Monarchs
The Catholic Monarchs is the collective title used in history for Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being both descended from John I of Castile; they were given a papal dispensation to deal with...
negotiated with Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
, a Genoese
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
sailor attempting to reach Cipangu by sailing west. Castile was already engaged in a race of exploration with Portugal to reach the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
by sea when Columbus made his bold proposal to Isabella. Columbus instead "inadvertently" discovered the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, inaugurating the Spanish colonization of the continent
Spanish colonization of the Americas
Colonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...
. The Indies
Indies
The Indies is a term that has been used to describe the lands of South and Southeast Asia, occupying all of the present India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and also Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor, Malaysia and...
were reserved for Castile.
Age of Discovery
Age of Discovery
The Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration and the Great Navigations , was a period in history starting in the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century during which Europeans engaged in intensive exploration of the world, establishing direct contacts with...
the Spanish were the earliest and one of the largest communities to emigrate out of Europe, and the Spanish Empire
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
's expansion during the first half of the 16th century saw an "extraordinary dispersion of the Spanish people", with particular concentrations "in North and South America".
The Spanish Empire was "built on waves of migration overseas by Spanish people", who left Spain and "reached across the globe and permanently affected population structures in the American continent". As a result of the Spanish colonization of the Americas, what became the Latin America was "easily the greatest single destination of emigrant Spanish".
Canary Islands
The first period of the conquest of the Canaries was carried out by the Norman nobles Jean de BethencourtJean de Béthencourt
Jean de Béthencourt was a French explorer who, in 1402, led an expedition to the Canary Islands, landing first on the north side of Lanzarote...
and Gadifer de la Salle
Gadifer de la Salle
Gadifer de La Salle was a French knight and crusader of Poitevine origin who, with Jean de Béthencourt, conquered and explored the Canary Islands for the Kingdom of Castile....
. Their motives were basically ecomomic: Bethencourt possessed textile factories and dye works and the Canaries offered a source of dyes such as the orchil lichen.
The treaty settled disputes between Castile and Portugal over the control of the Atlantic, in which Castilian control of the Canary islands was recognized but which also confirmed Portuguese possession of the Azores, Madeira, the Cape Verde islands and gave them rights to lands discovered and to be discovered...and any other island which might be found and conquered from the Canary islands beyond toward Guinea.
The Castilians continued to dominate the islands, but due to the topography and the resistance of the native Guanches
Guanches
Guanches is the name given to the aboriginal Berber inhabitants of the Canary Islands. It is believed that they migrated to the archipelago sometime between 1000 BCE and 100 BCE or perhaps earlier...
, complete pacification was not achieved until 1495, when Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...
and La Palma
La Palma
La Palma is the most north-westerly of the Canary Islands. La Palma has an area of 706 km2 making it the fifth largest of the seven main Canary Islands...
were finally subdued by Alonso Fernández de Lugo
Alonso Fernández de Lugo
Javier Alonso Luis Fernández de Lugo was a Spanish military man, conquistador, city founder, and administrator. He conquered the islands of La Palma and Tenerife for the Castilian Crown; they were the last of the Canary Islands to be conquered by Europeans. He was also the founder of the towns...
. After that, the Canaries were incorporated into the Kingdom of Castile
Kingdom of Castile
Kingdom of Castile was one of the medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. It emerged as a political autonomous entity in the 9th century. It was called County of Castile and was held in vassalage from the Kingdom of León. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region...
.
The islands were conquered by mostly Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
ns and some Castilians
Crown of Castile
The Crown of Castile was a medieval and modern state in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then King Ferdinand III of Castile to the vacant Leonese throne...
at the beginnings of the 15th century. In 1402, they began to subdue the native Guanche
Guanches
Guanches is the name given to the aboriginal Berber inhabitants of the Canary Islands. It is believed that they migrated to the archipelago sometime between 1000 BCE and 100 BCE or perhaps earlier...
population and the Guanches were initially enslaved and gradually absorbed by the Spanish colonizers.
After subsequent settlement by Spaniards and other European peoples
European ethnic groups
The ethnic groups in Europe are the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
, mainly Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
, the remaining Guanches were gradually diluted by the settlers and their culture largely vanished. Alonso Fernández de Lugo
Alonso Fernández de Lugo
Javier Alonso Luis Fernández de Lugo was a Spanish military man, conquistador, city founder, and administrator. He conquered the islands of La Palma and Tenerife for the Castilian Crown; they were the last of the Canary Islands to be conquered by Europeans. He was also the founder of the towns...
, conqueror of Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...
and La Palma
La Palma
La Palma is the most north-westerly of the Canary Islands. La Palma has an area of 706 km2 making it the fifth largest of the seven main Canary Islands...
, oversaw extensive immigration to these islands during a short period from the late 1490s to the 1520s from mainland Europe, and immigrants included Galicians, Castilians
Castile (historical region)
A former kingdom, Castile gradually merged with its neighbours to become the Crown of Castile and later the Kingdom of Spain when united with the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre...
, Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, Italians
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Catalans
Catalan people
The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...
, Basques
Basque people
The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...
, and Flemings
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
. At subsequent judicial enquiries, Fernández de Lugo was accused of favoring Genoese
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
and Portuguese immigrants over Castilians.
Argentina
Spanish settlement in Argentina, that is the arrival of SpanishSpanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
emigrants in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, took place firstly in the period before Argentina's independence from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and again in large numbers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, the Spanish Empire
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
was the sole colonial power in the territories that became Argentina after the 1816 Argentine declaration of independence
Argentine Declaration of Independence
What today is commonly referred as the Independence of Argentina was declared on July 9, 1816 by the Congress of Tucumán. In reality, the congressmen that were assembled in Tucumán declared the independence of the United Provinces of South America, which is still today one of the legal names of the...
. Thus, before 1816, a great part of the European settlers in Argentina were from Spain, and they carried the Spanish colonial
Spanish colonization of the Americas
Colonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...
administration, incluiding religious affairs, government, and commercial business. A substantial Spanish-descended Criollo
Criollo people
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...
population gradually built up in the new cities, while some mixed with the indigenous populations (Mestizos), with the Black slave population
African immigration to Latin America
African immigrants to Latin America include citizens and residents of countries in Latin America who were born in, or with recent ancestors from Africa.-History:...
(Mulattoes), or with other European immigrants.
Since a great part of the immigrants to Argentina before the mid-19th century were of Spanish descent, and the fact that a significative part of the late-19th century/early-20th century immigrants to Argentina were Spaniards, the vast majority of Argentinians are of mostly Spanish ancestry. However this prevalence, and the numerous shared cultural aspects between Argentina and Spain (the Spanish language
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Roman Catholicism, Criollo
Criollo people
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...
/Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
traditions), massive Immigration to Argentina
Immigration to Argentina
Immigration in Argentina, can be divided in several major stages:* Spanish colonization starting in the 16th century, integrating the indigenous inhabitants ....
at the turn of the 20th century involved a majority of non-Spanish peoples from all over Europe,
Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
who is of Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
ancestral origin. Spanish immigration to Mexico
Immigration to Mexico
Immigration to Mexico. Over the centuries, Mexico has received immigrants from Europe, the Americas, and sometimes Asia, such as other countries in the Americas like the United States, Argentina, Brazil and Canada. Today, millions of their descendants still live in the country and can be found...
began in 1519 and spans to the present day.
The first Spanish settlement was established in February 1519, as a result of the landing of Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century...
in the Yucatan Peninsula
Yucatán Peninsula
The Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel...
, accompanied by about 11 ships, 500 men, 13 horses and a small number of cannons. In March 1519, Cortés formally claimed the land for the Spanish crown
Habsburg Spain
Habsburg Spain refers to the history of Spain over the 16th and 17th centuries , when Spain was ruled by the major branch of the Habsburg dynasty...
.
Brazil
Spanish immigration was the third largest among immigrant groups in Brazil; about 750,000 immigrants entered Brazil from Spanish ports. Numbers of Spaniards coming to Brazil before independence are unknown. Brazilian censuses do not research "ethnic origins" or ancestry, which makes it very difficult to give accurate numbers of Brazilians of Spanish descent. The only reliable research available is the 1998 July PME, the scope of which, however, is limited (it covers only six metropolitan regions), resulting in probably skewed results, as it includes the metropolitan regions of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, and Salvador, probably the most important concentrations of Brazilians of Spanish descent. In the 1998 PME, Brazilians of Spanish descent were 4.4% of the analysed populations. If the same proportion would be found in all territory, this would mean about 8,400,000 Brazilians of Spanish descent, but such extrapolation is problematic, and quite certainly results in an overestimate, due to the issues pointed above.Cuba
Spanish immigration to Cuba began in 1492 to 1868 as a part of Spain to the present day. The first sighting of a Spanish boat approaching the island was on 28 October 1492, probably at BaracoaBaracoa
Baracoa is a municipality and city in Guantánamo Province near the eastern tip of Cuba. It was founded by the first governor of Cuba, the Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar in 1511...
on the eastern point of the island. Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
, on his first voyage to the Americas, sailed south from what is now The Bahamas
The Bahamas
The Bahamas , officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is a nation consisting of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets . It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola , northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States...
to explore the northeast coast of Cuba and the northern coast of Hispaniola
Hispaniola
Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island is located between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east, within the hurricane belt...
. Columbus discovered the island believing it to be a peninsula of the Asian mainland.
In 1511, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar
Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar
Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar was a Spanish conquistador. He conquered and governed Cuba on behalf of Spain.-Early life:...
set out with three ships and an army of 300 men from Hispaniola to form the first Spanish settlement in Cuba, with orders from Spain to conquer the island.
Puerto Rico
Spanish immigration to Puerto Rico began in (1493 to 1898 as a part of Spain) to the present day. On 25 September 1493, Christopher ColumbusChristopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
set sail on his second voyage with 17 ships and 1,200–1,500 men from Cádiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, Spain. On 19 November 1493 he landed on the island, naming it San Juan Bautista in honor of Saint John the Baptist
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
.
The first Spanish settlement, Caparra, was founded on 8 August 1508 by Juan Ponce de León
Juan Ponce de León
Juan Ponce de León was a Spanish explorer. He became the first Governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the Spanish crown. He led the first European expedition to Florida, which he named...
, born in Valladolid
Valladolid
Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...
, Spain, a lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
under Columbus, who later became the first governor of the island.
From the start of the conquest of Puerto Rico, Castilian
Castilian people
The Castilian people are the inhabitants of those regions in Spain where most people identify themselves as Castilian. They include Castile-La Mancha, Madrid, and the major part of Castile and León. However, not all regions of the medieval Kingdom of Castile think of themselves as Castilian...
s ruled over the religious (Roman Catholicism
Roman Catholicism in Puerto Rico
The Roman Catholic Church in Puerto Rico is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and the curia in Rome.-Present situation:...
) and political
Politics of Puerto Rico
The politics of Puerto Rico take place in the framework of a republican democratic form of government that is under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United States of America as an organized unincorporated territory....
life. Some came to the island for just a few years and then returned to Spain, however many stayed.
Puerto Rico's founding family were Castilians
Castilian people
The Castilian people are the inhabitants of those regions in Spain where most people identify themselves as Castilian. They include Castile-La Mancha, Madrid, and the major part of Castile and León. However, not all regions of the medieval Kingdom of Castile think of themselves as Castilian...
(Ponce de León family). Their home was built in 1521 by Ponce de Leon but he died in the same year, leaving "Casa Blanca" to his young son Luis Ponce de León. The original structure didn't last long; two years after its construction, a hurricane destroyed it, and it was rebuilt by Ponce de León's son-in-law Juan Garcia Troche. The southern city of Ponce
Ponce, Puerto Rico
Ponce is both a city and a municipality in the southern part of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government.The city of Ponce, the fourth most populated in Puerto Rico, and the most populated outside of the San Juan metropolitan area, is named for Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the...
is named after Juan Ponce de León y Loayza
Juan Ponce de León y Loayza
Juan Ponce de León y Loayza was the son of Juan Ponce de Leon II , an interim Spanish governor of Puerto Rico in 1579. His mother was Isabel de Loayza, daughter of Governor Cervantes de Loayza...
, the great-grandson of the island's discoverer.
Immigration to the island caused the population to grow rapidly during the 19th century. In 1800 the population was 155,426 and ended the century with almost a million inhabitants (953,243), multiplying the population by about six times. The main component responsible was the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815
Royal Decree of Graces of 1815
The Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 is a legal order approved by the Spanish Crown in the early half of the 19th century to encourage Spaniards and later Europeans of non-Spanish origin to settle and populate the colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico....
which led to immigrants from some 74 countries arriving. Included were hundreds of Corsican
Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico
Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico came about as a result of various economic and political changes in the mid-19th century Europe; among those factors were the social-economic changes which came about in Europe as a result of the Second Industrial Revolution, political discontent and widespread...
, French
French immigration to Puerto Rico
The French immigration to Puerto Rico came about as a result of the economic and political situations which occurred in various places such as Louisiana , Saint-Domingue and in Europe....
, Irish
Irish immigration to Puerto Rico
From the 16th to the 19th century, there was considerable Irish immigration to Puerto Rico, for a number of reasons. During the 16th century many Irishmen, who were known as "Wild Geese," fled the English Army and joined the Spanish Army. Some of these men were stationed in Puerto Rico and...
, German
German immigration to Puerto Rico
German immigration to Puerto Rico increased when German businessmen immigrated to Puerto Rico during the early part of the 19th century. However, it was the economic and political situation in Europe during the early 19th century plus, the fact that the Spanish Crown issued the Royal Decree of...
, Lebanese
Lebanese people
The Lebanese people are a nation and ethnic group of Levantine people originating in what is today the country of Lebanon, including those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state....
, Maltese
Maltese people
The Maltese are an ethnic group indigenous to the Southern European nation of Malta, and identified with the Maltese language. Malta is an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Portuguese families moving to the island. Some countries were represented by only a few (51 Chinese
Chinese immigration to Puerto Rico
Large scale Chinese immigration to Puerto Rico and the Caribbean began during the 19th century. Unlike their European counterparts, Chinese immigrants had to face various obstacles which prohibited or restricted their entry in Puerto Rico....
individuals for example). The country that still sent the most people was Spain.
From the start of colonization other groups from Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
, Asturias
Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
, Galicia, and Majorca had also immigrated, although the Canarian people
Canarian people
The Canarians are an ethnic group living in the archipelago of the Canary Islands , near the coast of Western Africa...
formed the basis. Once the 19th century came, things changed drastically. According to Puerto Rican authors such as Cifre de Loubriel who researched the immigration wave patterns made to the island, during the 19th century the greatest number of Spaniards that came to the island with their families were Catalans and Mallorcans from the nearby Mediterranean regions
Mediterranean Basin
In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin refers to the lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have a Mediterranean climate, with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation...
.
The second most common Spanish region with the largest numbers were the Galicians and Asturians, and the third regions were Canary Islanders, Basques and Andalusians. The Catalans, Galicians, Mallorcans and Asturians would come with whole families most of the time. There were regions of the island that attracted some immigrants more than others which was mainly for political or economic reasons.
Chile
The earliest European immigrants were Spanish colonisers who arrived in the 16th century. They came to form the majority of the population by the time of Chilean independence. They came mainly from Castile and Andalusia and formed the majority population. In the 18th and 19th centuries, many Basques from both Spain and France came to Chile were they integrated into the existing elites of Castilian origin. Other European nationalities then followed and also became rich and fused with each other and the Basque-Castilian elite to create modern Chilean culture. In the 20th century, there was an influx of refugees of the Spanish Civil War and Franco's regime. They have kepted their Spanish national identity and set up Spanish clubs throughout the country. The Spanish culture of the original settlers slowly evolved into Chilean folk culture, especially the huasoHuaso
A huaso is a Chilean countryman and skilled horseman, similar to the Argentinian, Rio Grande do Sul's or Uruguayan gaucho, the American cowboy, the Australian stockman, and Mexican vaquero and charro. A female huaso is called a huasa, although the term china is far more commonly used for his wife...
one, and at the time of independence had abandoned national afiliation with Spain.
Today in Chile, surnames are important and people with Spanish surnames and Mediterranean appearance
Mediterranean race
The Mediterranean race was one of the three sub-categories into which the Caucasian race and the people of Europe were divided by anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, following the publication of William Z. Ripley's book The Races of Europe...
are discriminated against, in preference to those of Basque and other European surnames and Nordic appearance. However, most Chileans have some Spanish ancestry.
United States
Spanish immigration to the United States began with the colonization of the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
. Spanish Americans are the earliest European American
European American
A European American is a citizen or resident of the United States who has origins in any of the original peoples of Europe...
group, with a continuous presence since 1565.
Emigration from Spain to the United States
| Immigration to the United States | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Years | Arrivals | Years | Arrivals | ||
| 1820–1830 | 2,688 | 1891–1900 | 6,662 | ||
| 1831–1840 | 2,004 | 1901–1910 | 48,944 | ||
| 1841–1850 | 2,091 | 1911–1920 | 102,954 | ||
| 1851–1860 | 9,038 | 1921–1930 | 41,954 | ||
| 1861–1870 | 6,390 | 1931–1940 | 4,945 | ||
| 1871–1880 | 5,266 | 1941–1949 | 3,287 | ||
| 1881–1890 | 4,419 | Total (129 yrs) | 240,642 | ||
These figures show there was never the mass emigration from Iberia as there was from Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
. It is evident in the figures that Spanish immigration peaked in the 1910s and 1920s. The majority settled in Florida and New York, although there was also a sizable Spanish influx to West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
at the turn of the 20th century, mostly from Asturias.
Philippines
Spanish Filipinos population living in the PhilippinesPhilippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
trace part of their ancestry to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. Spanish Filipinos are mostly descendants of the migrants to the Philippines during the colonial period. The official percentage of Filipinos with Spanish ancestry is unknown.
Between 1565 and 1815, Mexicans and Spainards sailed to and from the Philippines as government officials, soldiers, priests, settlers, traders, sailors and adventurers in the Manila-Acapulco Galleon
Manila Galleon
The Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines, and Acapulco, New Spain . The name changed reflecting the city that the ship was sailing from...
, assisting Spain in its trade between Europe and Latin America (Spanish America
Hispanic America
Hispanic America or Spanish America is the region comprising the American countries inhabited by Spanish-speaking populations.These countries have significant commonalities with each other and with Spain, whose colonies they formerly were...
) and Latin America and China.