"Spanish Exploration"

Christopher Columbus

Oct 12, 1492

-On Columbus´ first voyage he was looking for a new water route to the west. In order to reach Asia, he thought that by sailing to the west he would go to all the way around the world and reach India, his destination.
-Instead of finding a new route to India´s riches, he found North and South America. It is believed that the first stop was the Bahamas.
- While he was there he found gold and other riches the Spanish did not know about, which led to other very important discoveries in history.

Alvarez de Pineda

Jun 2, 1519

-Pineda´s goal was to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean.
-Pineda was the first to map the Gulf from Florida to Texas.
-He possibly discovered the Rio Grande river in Texas.
-He is never seen again in history.
-Pineda gets his eye taken out because of him trying to control Cortes´ greed for gold.
Pineda´s discovery is important to history because it led other explorers to come to the Gulf and make discoveries of their own.

Hernan Cortes

Nov 8, 1519

-Although Cortes is known for coming to the New World and fort the conquest of Cuba, his most known exploration was that of Mexico.
-He conquered the Aztecs of Mexico and the leader Montezuma.
-During his exploration he brought tons of gold back to Spain.
-This is important because after his discovery, many explorers also grew very interested and began to explore the nearby land as well.

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

Nov 28, 1528

-DeVaca was the first to explore Texas.
-The leader of this exploration is Narvez.
-The first to write about theTexas Indians.
-Performed the first surgery in Texas as a medicine man.
DeVaca gave a good report to the Spanish because he was treated well by the Karankawas after a long, dangerous journey.Because of his good report many explorers began look for Cibola, a city many told stories about.

Fray Marcos and Esteban

Jan 1, 1539

-Their purpose for travelling was to evaluate the land to the north of where everyone else had gone to.
-Esteban was the first black man in Texas.
-While in Texas and New Mexico, they told of cities bigger than Mexico City made out of gold.
Because of this lie Conquistador Coronado is sent to find this golden city.

Moscoso and DeSoto's Expedition

Jan 1, 1539

1539-1542
-The purpose of the expedition was to look for gold.
-They were the first to explore from Florida to Texas after Pineda made the map of the Gulf.
-Moscoso later took over DeSoto's death.
-DeSoto then dies at the Mississippi River, yet Moscoso continued to explore east Texas.
-DeSoto's bad report was the same as Coronado which causes the Spanish to stop exploration of Texas for 150 years.

Franciso de Coronado

Jan 1, 1540

-Coronado´s goal was to find the seven cities of gold for Spain.
-Coronado looked all over for these cities. He explored five states to find Cibola and then looked for Quivera, another city people also told about, on the second part of the trip.
-He explored Northern Texas/ the Panhandle.
-Because of his bad report, the spanish don´t explore this land for another one- hundred fifty years.

Franciso de Coronado

Jan 1, 1540

-Coronado´s goal was to find the seven cities of gold for Spain.
-Coronado looked all over for these cities. He explored five states to find Cibola and then looked for Quivera, another city people also told about, on the second part of the trip.
-He explored Northern Texas/ the Panhandle.
-Because of his bad report, the spanish don´t explore this land for another one- hundred fifty years.