Hello there, since nobody has commented on the topic I guess I'll take a shot, hopefully is up to the standards of the sub.
So first things first:
- why did Andalusians dominate the Spanish settlers in the new world?
So during the times of the Spanish empire this is certainly true, the majority of the people that migrated to the new world came from southern Spain or the Canary islands, the main reason is actually quite simple... all boats that came and went to the new world had to dock at Seville, the state had theoretically a monopoly on trade with their colonies (Mercantilism was quite the fashion at the time) and that meant that the colonies could only buy manufactured goods from Spain and were banned from trading with other 'countries'. One must also point out the speaking of Spain at that time is anachronistic, colonies where directly attached to the crown of Castile, trade and migration from the other constituent kingdoms of the peninsula was restricted until Phillip V with the 'nueva planta' decrees which also moved the trade monopoly from Seville to Cadiz, still in Andalusia. The route most galleons from Spain to America would follow was Seville-> Canary islands-> Cuba so naturally more settlers came from southern Spain.
Another factor was the fact that the fall of Granada coincided with the discovery of America. Some historians see the Spanish enterprise as a continuation of the reconquista and many soldiers that fought in the there were from the south of Spain (not necessarily what today is Andalusia), and many veterans went on to become conquistadors. I think there was a prior answer here which explained it much better than I could, I'll look for it and leave a link here.
But before thinking that the Spanish presence in the Americas had a distinctly Andalusian character, one should also ask things like, How was Andalusia different from the rest of Spain at that time? Which sectors of Andalusian society migrated? Were the Andalusians everywhere and always majority?. I wish I could give a definitive answer to this questions and hopefully someone more knowledgeable might add some info, however I can say, firstly, that after Granada fell many from the Muslim population received two choices, convert or leave, many chose (or were forced) the latter. Overnight, some tows were almost depopulated, and thus the crown promoted the immigration of old Christians, mostly Castilian, to take the land and also in an effort to 'dilute' the morisco influence and culture in the region. Secondly, there were restrictions on moriscos and conversos making it more difficult for them to board a ship heading to the new world (Only old Christians could go, although many new evaded this law and managed to cross the Atlantic ). Finally some regions and settlements saw more influence from other parts of spain, for example the Antioquia region saw a sizable Basque minority, although their exact numbers and their influence is still a debated topic*.
Nonetheless, one should not ignore later migrations to the new world, for some Latin American countries their bulk of European migration came between the 19th and 20th century, not necessarily from Spain and when it was from Spain it was then not necessarily from the south. One example is the important Galician immigration to Argentina, a country in which even today Gallego is synonym with Spanish.
Sources:
- Henry Kamen, Golden Age Spain
- Henry Kamen, Spain 1469–1714: a Society of Conflict
*A. twinman, From Jew to Basque: ethnic myths and Antioqueno entrepreneurship