In the Americas, the term most often refers to residents with Spanish nationality; this is in contrast to "Hispanic" which in English usually describes Spanish-speaking populations in general.

Countries with sizeable populations are Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, and, to a lesser extent, Brazil, Belize, Haiti, United States, Canada, the Philippines and wider Europe.

[1] Castile, under the reign of Henry III, began the colonization of the Canary Islands in 1402, authorizing under feudal agreement to Norman noblemen Jean de Béthencourt.

The marriage of the Reyes Católicos (Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile) created a confederation of reigns, each with their own administrations, but ruled by a common monarchy.

After their victory, the Catholic monarchs negotiated with Christopher Columbus, a Genoese sailor attempting to reach Cipangu by sailing west.

Castile was already engaged in a race of exploration with Portugal to reach the Far East by sea when Columbus made his bold proposal to Isabella.

The Castilians continued to dominate the islands, but due to the topography and the resistance of the native Guanches, complete pacification was not achieved until 1495, when Tenerife and La Palma were finally subdued by Alonso Fernández de Lugo.

After subsequent settlement by Spaniards and other European peoples, mainly Portuguese, the remaining Guanches were gradually diluted by the settlers and their culture largely vanished.

At subsequent judicial enquiries, Fernández de Lugo was accused of favoring Genoese and Portuguese immigrants over Castilians.

Thus, before 1816, a large number of the European settlers in Argentina were from Spain, and they conducted Spanish colonial administration, including religious affairs, government, and commercial business.

In a 1998 research, the scope of which, however, is limited (it covers only six metropolitan regions), Brazilians claiming Spanish descent were 4.4% of Brazil's population.

[24][25] In 1511, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar set out with three ships and an army of 300 men from Santo Domingo to form the first Spanish settlement in Cuba, with orders from Spain to conquer the island.

During the eighteenth century, there were French colonists that settled in many Spanish towns, particularly in Santiago de los Caballeros; by 1730 they accounted for 25% of the population.

The Grand Mayor of Santiago, Antonio Pichardo Vinuesta, refused to obey the decree arguing that most of the Frenchmen had married local Spanish women and therefore, their expulsion would damage the economy of the Cibao Region.

In 1720–1721, a revolt in Santiago against a new tax on beef exports to the Saint Domingue colony, arose Frenchification fears in the Santo Domingo elite; Captain-General Fernando Constanzo, governor of the Santo Domingo, accused the elite of the Cibao of seeking to annex their provinces to France.

Over the nineteenth century, the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo was the subject of a mass migration of Spaniards, most of whom came from the Canary Islands.

In present times the majority of the descendants of these Spaniards can be found in the North or Cibao Region of the Dominican Republic, representing a significant portion of the population in provinces such as Valverde, Espaillat, Hermanas Mirabal, La Vega and especially in Santiago de los Caballeros, but other places with important white minorities include Distrito Nacional, La Romana, Bonao, San Felipe de Puerto Plata, Punta Cana Village and Santa Cruz de Barahona.

[30] After independence and due to coffee and free immigration laws, Spaniards began to arrive in the country en masse.

The vast majority came from Galicia and Asturias, and to a lesser extent from Andalusia, the Canary Islands, Catalonia and the Basque Country.

Although the Spanish conquest of Guatemala was primarily the result of its technical superiority, the Spaniards were helped by the Mayans who were already involved in a bitter internal struggle.

After a period of political instability exacerbated by the collapse of the world market for indigo, each province seceded from the federation, starting with Costa Rica.

[34] The first Spanish settlement was established in February 1519, as a result of the landing of Hernán Cortés in the Yucatán Peninsula, accompanied by about 11 ships, 500 men, 13 horses and a small number of cannons.

The first Spaniards who arrived in Mexico were soldiers and sailors from Extremadura, Andalusia and La Mancha after the conquest of the Americas.

The original structure did not last long; two years after its construction, a hurricane destroyed it, and it was rebuilt by Ponce de León's son-in-law Juan Garcia Troche.

Included were hundreds of Corsican, French, Irish, German, Lebanese, Maltese and Portuguese families moving to the island.

From the start of colonization, other groups from Catalonia, Asturias, Galicia, and Majorca had also immigrated, although the Canarian people formed the basis.

Immigration to the United States from Spain was minimal but steady during the first half of the nineteenth century, with an increase during the 1850s and 1860s resulting from the social disruption of the Carlist civil wars.

Famous people of Spanish origin have included Louis de Funès, Eric Cantona, Anne Hidalgo, Diego Buñuel, Luis Fernández, Jean Reno, Olivier Martinez, Paco Rabanne, Mathieu Valbuena, Manuel Amoros, Raymond Domenech, Albert Camus and Manuel Valls.

[49] Notable Spaniards in Germany include Mario Gómez, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Gonzalo Castro, Francisco Copado, Curro Torres, Enrique Sánchez Lansch, Marc Gallego, Stefan Ortega, Joselu, Daniel Brühl, Oscar Corrochano, and Cristian Fiel.

There are approximately 78,271 Australians of Spanish descent, most of which reside within the major cities of Sydney and Melbourne, with lesser numbers in Brisbane and Perth.