Until the 15th century Spain was in many ways an unremarkable European country and for several centuries been the object of conquest itself first by the Romans and then by the Moslem Moors who both occupied much of the country for several hundred years.

But by the 15th century Spain was a devoutly Christian and Catholic country and its monarchy then produced a series of ambitious and powerful leaders.

It was King and Queen Ferdinand and Isabella who finally expelled the Moors in 1492,unleashed a bloody inquisition and then funded the journey of the Italian
Christopher Columbus to the New World ...a journey that was to change the fortunes of Spain and the world forever.

The riches bestowed by the New World would usher in a golden age for Spain not just making it the most powerful nation in Europe but a global superpower.

In this episode of Empire Builders we explore ten sites that chart the rise of this crusading Catholic empire.

We begin in the walled and highly religious medieval city of Avilla before witnessing the wonders of Granada's Alhambra , its capture from the Moors marking the final victory of the Reconquista. We explore the ruins of Tenochtitlan ,the magnificent Aztec city destroyed by the Conquistador Hernan Cortes, and Cajamarca in Peru taken by Fransisco Pizarro putting an end to the Incan Empire in Latin America.

We explore the elaborate forts the Spanish constructed across the Americas and the Carribean , on the coasts of Cuba, Panama, Columbia,Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Florida, to protect the gold snd silver mined in the New World and the treasure fleets used to ferry these riches back across the Atlantic to Spain.

In the Americas , we travel to the missions and cathedrals built to convert natives to Christianity while in Spain we visit the palaces of successive Catholic Kings, such as Phillip the 2nd's monumental and austere El Escorial. Their religious zealotry gave the Empire its mission.

Finally we visit the port city of Cadiz which grew rich on the trans Atlantic trade but became a virtual backwater when Spain lost the last of its Empire at the conclusion of the 19th century after its defeat in Spanish American War of 1898.

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