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On 6 September 1622, the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha sank off Key West with forty tonnes of treasure and 260 souls. It was an armoured car for an empire that mistook bullion for wealth - and it took 363 years, three more lives, and a chicken farmer from Indiana to bring it back.
On 18 July 1566, Bartolomé de las Casas died in Madrid after fifty years spent prosecuting Spain's own conquest. He had begun as an encomendero in Hispaniola, and he never stopped being inconvenient - then to the colonists, now to almost everyone who tries to claim him.
On 25 May 1809, the Spanish Empire began to die of a syllogism. In the university city of Chuquisaca, a group of local lawyers and judges used their legal training to commit a brilliant act of intellectual treason, sparking the Latin American wars of independence.