Hi everyone. This is my first post here. Anyway I just want to add my two cents about why the accents are different in the americas. This is because when Spain was in its colonial period, the vast majority of people that travelled to the new world were Extremeños and Andalucians. This in turn is because of economic and political reasons. These areas are historically the most economically depressed and politically oppressed areas of spain and this was especially true then. The people in the areas of Old Castile (the political center of Spain), Catalonia (the economic center) and the north and northeast (where the peasants were relatively well-off) didnt have as much reason to leave Spain as did those in the south. Also, most of the conquistadors were petty nobility from Extremadura and Andalucia and enrolled crews and passengers from these areas. The castillian nobility didnt move in force to these regions until the 18th and 19th centuries. As to why these areas have a different accent from Castile, and the north, I am not sure. If I had to guess, I would say it was due to the fact that these areas had different influences, esp. the much heavier Moorish influence on the south.