<P> The Ottomans recovered soon . They reconquered Tunis in 1574, and they helped to restore an ally, Abu Marwan Abd al - Malik I Saadi, in the throne of Morocco, in 1576 . The death of the Persian shah, Tahmasp I was an opportunity for the Ottoman sultan to intervene in that country, so, in 1580 was agreed a truce in the Mediterranean with Philip II . Nonetheless, the Spanish at Lepanto eliminated the best sailors of the Ottoman fleet, and the Ottoman Empire would never recover in quality what they could in numbers . Lepanto was the decisive turning point in control of the Mediterranean away from centuries of Turkish hegemony to western European control, initiated by the Spanish Empire and its allies . </P> <P> In the first half of the 17th century, Spanish ships attacked the Anatolian coast, defeating larger Ottoman fleets at the Battle of Cape Celidonia and the Battle of Cape Corvo . Larache and La Mamora, in the Moroccan Atlantic coast, and the island of Alhucemas, in the Mediterranean, were taken, but during the second half of the 17th century, Larache and La Mamora were also lost . </P> <P> After Columbus, the Spanish colonization of the Americas was led by a series of soldier - explorers called conquistadors . The Spanish forces, in addition to significant armament and equestrian advantages, exploited the rivalries between competing indigenous peoples, tribes, and nations, some of which were willing to form alliances with the Spanish in order to defeat their more - powerful enemies, such as the Aztecs or Incas--a tactic that would be extensively used by later European colonial powers . The Spanish conquest was also facilitated by the spread of diseases (e.g. smallpox), common in Europe but never present in the New World, which reduced the indigenous populations in the Americas . This sometimes caused a labour shortage for plantations and public works and so the colonists informally and gradually, at first, initiated the Atlantic slave trade . (see Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas) </P> <P> One of the most accomplished conquistadors was Hernán Cortés, who, leading a relatively small Spanish force but with local translators and the crucial support of thousands of native allies, achieved the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in the campaigns of 1519--1521 . This territory later became the Viceroyalty of New Spain, present day Mexico . Of equal importance was the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire by Francisco Pizarro, which would become the Viceroyalty of Peru . </P>

Land owned by the spanish in which natives either worked or provided tribute