The Spanish Golden Age

Photo by Aleksandar Pasaric from Pexels

Sins of the Father takes place during the middle of the Golden Age of Spain, was lasted between 1492 to about 1659. During this time Spain was the most powerful empire in the world, sparking the colonization of the Americas with Christopher Columbus and the conquistadors.

As Spain’s empire grew in land, so did the arts and literature. Diego Velasquez and El Greco painted many influential works, and one of the world’s most famous novels, Don Quixote, was written by Miguel de Cervantes at this time.

One of the Spain’s main concerns at this time was trade. The fleet known as the Flota de Indias (the West Indies-Spanish treasure fleet) developed a convoy system to transport goods from the colonies to Spain.

There were two main lanes: the Atlantic and the Pacific.

The Atlantic route ran from Sevilla to Veracruz, Portobelo, and Cartagena.

The Pacific route ran from the Philippines to Acapulcó.

This trade route allowed European goods to be brought to Spanish territories, but more importantly for Europe, allowed New World goods to be brought back to Spain. The items I’m sure most Europeans are now extremely grateful for are chocolate and coffee.

Chocolate was very important to the indigenous people of Mexico, and were typically reserved for the elite. Only the wealthy and high ranking were allowed to drink it, and it was often served mixed with chili (think Mexican hot chocolate and molé). The conquistadors brought cocao beans back to Spain in 1502, and within decades found its popularity skyrocketing. By the 18th century, Spain consumed more than 5 tons of chocolate a year.

Coffee came to Europe via the Middle East. The first record of coffee comes from Yemen in the early 15th century, but it quickly spread throughout the rest of the Middle East, Persia, Turkey, South India, the Horn of Africa, and northern Africa. It then spread to Europe and southeast Asia. It is believed that the original beans were exported to Yemen from Ethiopia.

Turkish Muslim slaves introduced Europe to coffee in Malta around 1565, and quickly spread to the rest of Europe. By the early 18th century, coffee bean plants were in the Americas and supplying half the world’s coffee.

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