Board: AQA | Option: 1B | Component: Component 1 (Breadth Study) | Assessment Objective: AO3
This option traces Spain’s transformation from a fragmented peninsula to the centre of a transatlantic empire, covering the union of Castile and Aragon, the completion of the Reconquista, Columbus’s voyages, the conquest of the Americas, and the reign of Philip II. Students examine how a newly unified monarchy built and governed a global empire — and how historians have assessed what drove expansion, how it was sustained, and what it cost.
What this option covers
- The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella and the union of the Spanish crowns
- The completion of the Reconquista and the fall of Granada 1492
- The expulsion of the Jews (1492) and the Moriscos: religious unity and its costs
- Columbus, exploration, and the discovery of the Americas
- Cortés, Pizarro, and the conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires
- The governance of the Spanish empire: viceroys, the Council of the Indies, and the encomienda system
- Philip II: the apex of Spanish power, the Armada, and the limits of empire
Key historiographical debates
- The driving forces behind Spanish expansion: crown ambition, religious mission, or individual enterprise?
- The Black Legend: how have historians assessed Spanish treatment of indigenous peoples?
- Philip II: effective ruler or overextended monarch?
- The decline of Spain: structural weakness or conjunctural crisis?
AO3 Interpretation Pack — coming soon
An AO3 Interpretation Pack for AQA 1B is in development. When complete, it will cover the major historiographical debates examined in this option, with named historians, paired comparison tasks built to AQA mark scheme logic, and provenance prompts for every debate. The first debate will be free and open to all.
