The Spanish Empire as it stood under the
House of Bourbon, reaching its peak in the early 1790s. Includes the
Viceroyalty of New Spain,
Viceroyalty of Peru,
Viceroyalty of La Plata,
Viceroyalty of New Granada, Audiencia of Chile,
Cuba,
Puerto Rico,
Santo Domingo, the
Louisiana colony, the
Nootka colony, the
Philippines, the satellite
Kingdom of Naples and
Duchy of Parma, and various island groups.
Louisiana and New Orleans, which were never widely settled, were returned to France in 1800, the Nootka colony was abandoned in 1795; Spain ceded its claims to the Mississippi Territory to the United States in 1795 and Florida in 1819; New Spain became an independent Mexico in 1821.
Spanish settlement did not reach the south of Argentina and Chile until the early 19th century. By 1824, all of Spain's South American colonies had become independent republics.
British economic rights in present-day
Belize were established in the 18th century. The colony of
British Honduras was not created until 1841, after the end of Spanish rule in the region. Most of Central America became independent in 1823 as the
United Provinces of Central America. Cuba was granted independence and Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States after the
Spanish-American War.
