The arriving of Spanish people in the Americas in 1492 is a crucial element in understanding Hispanic Studies, because it connects and blends the two geographical locations with force. The impact of both cultures on one another is a defining characteristic in how we study this history. In very concrete ways, starting with the arrival of Columbus, the Spanish people had an intense and somewhat detrimental impact on the indigenous people of the Americas. Through trading routes (like the Columbian Exchange) and travel back and forth, culture, ideas, materials, and diseases were traded. The social structures went on to dramatically change, as racial mixing and a new racial hierarchy formed in the Americas. With the new wealth being accumulated in Europe, the era of exploration, religious evangelism, and economic fortune ushered in the Golden Age in Spain, which is characterized by its surface level perfection.

It was an era of immense artistic development, which depicted humans in their ideal forms, as well as carried a heavy Catholic influence as well. Catholicism was considered to be what was leading the country, and any element of the social, governmental, or religious system that wasn’t functioning in favor of everyone was a threat to the system. That’s why, as the period shifted to the Baroque period, characterized by its criticisms of the oppressive systems in place in Spain and the Americas, the Catholic church was easily threatened, and sought to censor much of the art, literature, and other forms of culture being produced. The culture of the Baroque period seeped into the Americas as well. One of the defining characteristics the creoles (people born in the Americas with European heritage, and second on the racial hierarchy pyramid) started to develop thoughts about their place in the hierarchy system and recognize injustice. This period of criticism, as well as the power while, male creoles held, laid the foundation for sentiments about independence in Latin America. In the 1800s, revolutions led by creoles, demanded independence from Spain. All were liberated by 1830, which sent Spain into an enormous economic recession and propelled Latin America into nation-building. Nation building consisted of a period of industrialization, civil wars, and unrest which helped to build the foundations of the government systems that exist there today.