From 100 Facts for 100 Years of Machu Picchu - #59

By Catharine Hamm | Los Angeles Times Travel Editor'

59. Spain was, arguably, the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world at one time. Its coffers surely benefited from the infusion of riches from Peru.

During the colonization of the Americas Spain established two viceroyalties in the Americas.  The first New Spain which included the United States west of the Mississippi, Mexico and Central America with the exception of Panama and the Floridas as well as the Spanish East Indes (Philippine Islands, Mariana Islands, Caroline Islands,Taiwan, and parts of the Moluccas) and the Spanish West Indies(Cuba, Hispaniola, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica,Cayman Islands, Trinidad, and the Bay Islands).

The other was the Viceroyalty of Peru which oversaw much of current South America including modern day Ecuador, Peru, Bolvia, Chile, Argentina, Panama, Colombia, Boliva, Uruguay and Paraguay.