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Land of the Conquistadors
Extremadura was the cradle of the world's most famous discoverers and explorers of the New World. Without the aid of modern communication, traveling mostly on foot in heavy medieval armour, these men blazed the first trails across the New World. Here is a list of some of their discoveries and explorations:
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 Statue of Pizarro in Trujillo
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During the Spanish conquest of America, the vast majority of the most famous conquistadores were born in Extremadura. These include among others, Cortés, Pizarro, Orellana, Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Hernando de Soto, Alvarado, and Valdivia. The rationale given to explain the participation of so many Extremadurans in the conquest of America is in part the relative economic privation of the region and the dream of finding riches in the fabled El Dorado. The search for gold and glory were for many their only hope to escape the poverity of the lower classes and to gain a respected name in the society. The taste for adventure and a fighting spirit were ingrained in the Extremaduran character from centuries of fighting the Moors. The fall of the last muslim stronghold in Spain at Granada coincided with the discovery of the new world the same year -1492. The Americas naturally became the new theater of operations for daring military campaigns after the reconquest of Spain.
During the modern and contemporary eras Extremadura was affected by two principal factors: the consequences of the medieval Reconquest and its setting along the border with Portugal. On the heels of the Reconquest, the land in Extremadura was divided between the military orders, and the various royalty and aristocracy. The common people were considered as vassals of one of these three groups. At the same time, the border with Portugal led to Extremadura being the scene of continual pillaging and at times to open war with the Spanish ruling forces. These conflicts include the fighting related to the ascendancy of Isabella to the throne of Castille, the armed intervention accompanying the pretension of Spanish king Felipe II to the Portuguese crown, the almost three decade long War of Restoration fought from 1640 to 1668, and at the beginning of the 18th century the War of Spanish Succession.