ABSTRACT
The completion of the peninsular Reconquest in 1492, the expansion of Habsburg -possessions across Europe, and the series of conquests in the Americas and Philippines gave rise to an increasingly messianic discourse lauding the exploits of the Spanish monarchy over the course of the sixteenth century. As historians have long recognized, a combination of commercial and religious motives drove early Spanish expansion under Isabel and Ferdinand. In 1492, having completed the phase of reconquista, the monarchs looked to new horizons and agreed to sponsor Columbus’ voyage west in the hope of forging new frontiers of trade and evangelization. By the second decade of the sixteenth century, authors across the monarchy were already developing a triumphalist discourse that hailed the exploits of the crown and conquistadors. Michel Foucault’s concept of a “discourse” serves well in assessing the wide range of texts on Spain’s early modern empire that furnished its ideological power.
