The fanning of the Spanish conquistadores across what became known as Latin America during the sixteenth century occurred within the historical context of two crucial circumstances: the occurrence of the splits within Christendom occasioned by the rise of Protestantism and the recent repulsion of Islam from the Iberian peninsula. In combination those circumstances gave something of a millennial cast to the conquering of the Latin American continent. The capture of Latin America was both a compensation for the loss of large portions of Europe north of the Mediterranean, as far as Catholics were concerned, and a continuation and further implementation of the spirit which had repelled the Moslems. In this first major wave of modern European imperialism, church and state went to the new lands in partnership, although an unequal one in the sense that from the beginning the Church in each conquered or staked-out territory was subordinate to the regal, colonial regime.