The aim of this article is to call attention to the related characteristics in the conquest process of Granada, the Canaries and America, highlighting Spanish military behavior, which was mainly based on a wide range of terrifying practices taken from coercive models of the Roman Empire. This analysis of the problem should lead us to new problems, which show us how to deal with the accounts of violence, instead of focusing on the limitations of the chronicles themselves. This in turn also emphasizes the need to escape from the cosmetic image of the Spanish conquest of the Indies.