In the Americas the Spanish found a number of empires that were as large and populous as those in Europe. However, small bodies of "conquistadors", with large armies of Indigenous Americans groups, managed to conquer these states. Once Spanish sovereignty was established, the Spanish focused on the replication of the state institutions in Spain, now in America, the evangelisation of the naturals, the transformation of the internal economy as well as the development of a global trade network supplying crops, goods, gold and silver to Europe and China.