13.1.7 to 13.1.10

The Catholic monarchs decided to support the Aragonese house of Naples against Charles VIII of France. As ruler of Aragon, Ferdinand had been involved in the struggle against France and Venice for control of Italy; these conflicts became the center of Ferdinand's foreign policy as king. In these battles, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba would found the Spanish infantry of the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1492, Spain drove out the last Moorish king of Granada. After their victory, they negotiated with Cristopher Columbus, a Genoese sailor attempting to reach Cipangu by sailing west. Columbus instead inadvertently discovered America, inaugurating the Spanish colonization of the continent. As sole monarch, Ferdinand adopted a more aggressive policy than he had as Isabella's husband, enlarging Spain's sphere of influence in Italy and against France. Ferdinand's first investment of Spanish forces came in the War of the League of Cambrai against Venice, where the Spanish soldiers distinguished themselves on the field alongside their French allies at the Battle of Agnadello (1509). Only a year later, Ferdinand became part of the Holy League against France, seeing a chance at taking both Milan—to which he held a dynastic claim—and Navarre. The war was less of a success than that against Venice, and in 1516, France agreed to a truce that left Milan in her control and recognized Spanish control of Upper Navarre. Upon the settlement of Hispaniola which was successful in the early 1500s, the colonists began searching elsewhere to begin new settlements. Those from the less prosperous Hispaniola were eager to search for new success in a new settlement. From there Juan Ponce de León conquered Puerto Rico and Diego Velázquez took Cuba. The first settlement on the mainland was Darién in Panama, settled by Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1512. This Castilian Empire abroad became the source of Spanish wealth and power in Europe, but contributed also to inflation. Instead of fueling the Spanish economy, American silver made Spain dependent on foreign sources of raw materials and manufactured goods. The economic and social revolutions taking place in France and England were nonexistent in Spain.