6.3 History (Historia)

After 1492, Spain built an empire in the Americas. Tenochtitlan, the Mexica (Aztec) capital, fell in 1521, and the conquest of the Inca Empire began in the 1530s. Spain ruled through viceroyalties (los virreinatos) such as New Spain and Peru for about three centuries, a period called la colonia or la época colonial.

Independence movements spread from 1810, after Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808 weakened the crown's control. On September 16, 1810, the priest Miguel Hidalgo called on his parishioners in the town of Dolores to rise up, the Grito de Dolores; Mexico celebrates it as its independence day and became independent in 1821. In South America, Simón Bolívar led campaigns in the north and José de San Martín in the south. The Battle of Ayacucho in Peru, in 1824, was the last major battle. Cuba and Puerto Rico stayed Spanish until 1898.

The Revolution began in 1910 against Porfirio Díaz, who had ruled Mexico for more than 30 years. Francisco Madero called for the uprising; Emiliano Zapata fought for land for peasants under the slogan Tierra y libertad, and Pancho Villa led armies in the north. Women fighters and camp followers, the soldaderas, became symbols of the era. The Constitution of 1917 promised land reform, workers' rights and free, secular public education. Mexico remembers the Revolution every November 20.

The Spanish Civil War (la Guerra Civil, 1936–1939) pitted the Republic against Nationalist forces led by General Francisco Franco, who won and ruled as dictator until his death in 1975. Spain then made a transition to democracy (la Transición) and approved its current constitution in 1978.

How to remember the war is still debated. Laws in 2007 and 2022 supported finding and identifying victims buried in mass graves, and in 2019 Franco's remains were moved out of the Valley of the Fallen, now renamed Cuelgamuros. Supporters say victims' families deserve truth and recognition; critics argue the past should be left to historians, or that the laws reopen old divisions.

• Argentina's military dictatorship (1976–1983) caused thousands of people to "disappear" (los desaparecidos). The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo began marching in 1977 to demand to know where their children were. The 1984 report on the disappearances is known as Nunca más (Never again).
• Chile lived under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990.
• In Mexico City, the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco brings together Mexica ruins, a colonial church and modern buildings. It's also where soldiers killed student protesters on October 2, 1968, a date many Mexicans still commemorate.
• October 12, the date Columbus reached the Americas in 1492, has different names: Día de la Hispanidad, Spain's national day; Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural in Argentina; Día de la Resistencia Indígena in Venezuela. The names reflect different views of the conquest.

• Preterite for completed events: La guerra empezó en 1936 y terminó en 1939.
• Imperfect for background and ongoing situations: Díaz gobernaba desde hacía más de 30 años cuando estalló la revolución.
• Historians often use the historical present to make events vivid: En 1810, Hidalgo llama a la rebelión. Recognize it when you read it.
• la memoria histórica (how a society remembers its past), conmemorar (to commemorate), el homenaje (tribute)