Spanish Exploration

Columbus' First Voyage

Oct 12, 1492

Columbus was looking for a west water route to Cathe and India to find goods and gold. Instead he found the New World; now known as the Bahamas. This brought Spanish exploration.

Cortes Voyage

Jan 1, 1519

Cortes went to find gold and landed in Mexico. He conquered the Aztec empire and it's leader, Montezuma. He also brought tons of gold back to spain. This caught the eye of people and caused the to explore North and South America because of how much gold he had found.

Pineda’s voyage

Jun 2, 1519

Pineda wanted to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. He was the first to map the gulf coast from Florida to Texas, and also reported about the region. He possibly discovered the Rio Grande river. This map of the coast led to other exploring of the land on the gulf coast.

DeVaca Voyage start day

Apr 15, 1528

Cabeza de Vaca was not a conquistador and treated the indians as equals. Cabeza de Vaca was helping his leader, Narvaez, to look for gold.

DeVaca discovers Texas

Nov 6, 1528

When sailing with Narvaez, they shipwrecked on a shore on Galveston Island. De Vaca was the 1st to explored in Texas, 1st to write about the indians and the 1st to perform surgery in Texas as a medicine man. He had explored Cantral texas or the hill country, Galveston, and West Texas. He dicovered the Karankawa, Couhiletecas, and the Jumano Tribes. He reported to have heard about the 7 cities of gold of Cibola. De Vaca had been there for about 8 years. This made Spanish begin to explore.

Fray Marcos and Esteban Journey

Jan 1, 1539

He came to study the land and evaluate Texas and New Mexico. Esteban died in the trick because he told the Zuni tribe to give him gold and women like a other tribe had given him; instead he was killed. He was told about the city filled with gold that looked larger than Mexico city.. he claims to have seen the cities while sitting on a hill. Then Coronado is sent to find the city of gold.

Moscoso’ Expedition

Jan 1, 1539

De soto was sent in search for gold for 3 years. Discovered the Mississippi river and explored from Florida to Texas. The was thrown in the Mississippi river to hide that he was not a god. He also gave the same reports as Coronado which caused the Spanish to not return for 150 years.

Coronado’s expedition

Jan 1, 1540

For 2 years he came to find the 7 cities of gold. He instead explored 5 states looking for the 7 cities of Cibola and Quivera; his second part of the trip. He discovered the Grand Canyon and the Palo Duro Canyon. He reported that there was no gold, bad land, and difficult indians. This caused the spanish to not return for another 150 years.