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"Lured by dreams of treasure, Spanish explorers, conquistadores, and colonists established a vast empire for Spain in the New World. New European diseases and Spanish military power forced the previously powerful Aztec and Incan empires into submission. Catholic missionaries also established a network of religious outposts in the New World with hopes of converting the indiginous peoples to Christianity. After the 1540s, the missionarly impulse became one of the principal motives for European emigration to America." (p. 18)