The vast polycentric territories known as the Spanish Monarchy, expanded through the dynastic policies of the Habsburgs and stretched across the European continent and overseas, gave its diverse subjects, bound by religion and a distant government apparatus, possibilities of movement that allowed for imminent personal and social changes, whether in pursuit of what they thought could lead to their well-being or as an escape from that which they perceived caused them harm. The geopolitical expansion of the early modern period, intrinsically linked to both the emergent humanist understanding of past cultures and the external world, in turn fomenting self-knowledge and interiority, opened increasing opportunities for men and women of all ranks to attain an unprecedented sense of intellectual and physical freedom. While most who traveled did so on account of concrete human needs, the awareness of new worlds so recently within reach nevertheless awakened many to the realization of their potential advancement and transformation.

One of the corollaries of increased mobilization was the consolidation of the Spanish Monarchy under the Habsburg emperor Charles V. With the European counterparts of Flanders and the Aragonese kingdoms of Sardinia, Sicily, and Naples already under his rule, the recently colonized territories further extended the empire's global reach. Yet the human consequences of these migratory movements would weigh heavily on history, as they incited indigenous resistance, material exploitation, and the imposition of slavery, all the while spreading Christianity and promoting cultural transference.