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Period: Oct 31, 1451 to May 20, 1506
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was originally going to sail all the way the Atlantic to find a faster route to Asia to find a way to transport spices without them going bad or get ten stolen by bandits. But by accident, he traveled to North America, and landed at the Bahamas. In Spain, he was an Italian explorer, navigator, colonizer, and citizen of the Catholic monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. Christopher was born on October 31, 1451, and died on May 20, 1506. -
Period: Jan 1, 1470 to Jan 1, 1528
Pánfilo de Narváez
Pánfilo de Narváez was born on 1470. He died on 1528 at the age of 57. He was a Spanish conquistador and soldier in the Americas. Born in Spain, he first embarked to Jamaica in 1510 as a soldier. He came to participate in the conquest of Cuba and led an expedition to Camagüey, escorting Bartolomé de las Casas. Las Casas described de Narváez as exceedingly cruel towards the Natives. He is most remembered as the leader of two failed expeditions. -
Period: Jan 1, 1485 to Dec 2, 1547
Hernan Cortés
Hernan Cortés was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of the mainland Mexico under the rule of King Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Born in Medellin, Spain, to a family of lesser nobility, Cortez chose to pursue a livelihood in the New World. He died on December 2, 1547 at the age of 61-62. -
Period: Jan 1, 1488 to Jan 1, 1557
Álvar Núñes Cabeza de Vaca
Álvar Núñes Cabeza de Vaca was born on 1488 and died on 1557 in Seville, Spain. He was a Spanish explorer of the New World, and one of the four survivors of the 1527 Narváez expedition. During eight years of traveling across the US Southwest, he became a traveler and faith healer to various Native American tribes before reconnecting with Spanish colonial forces in Mexico in 1536. After returning to Spain in 1537, he wrote an account, first published in 1542 as 'La Relación'. -
Period: Jan 1, 1494 to Jan 1, 1520
Alonso Álvarez de Pineda
Alonso Álvarez de Pineda was a Spanish explorer and cartographer whose map marks the first document in Texas history. He was born on 1494 in Aldeacentenera, Spain and died on1520 in Pánuco, Mexico. In 1517, de Pineda had led several expeditions to map the western coastline of the Gulf of Mexico, from the Yucatán, Penisuela to the Pánuco River, just north of Veracruz. On June 2, 1519, de Pineda entered a large bay with a sizeable Native American settlement on the shore. -
Period: Jan 1, 1510 to Sep 22, 1554
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado was born on 1510 in Salamanca, Spain into a noble family as the second son of Juan Vásquez de Coronado y Sosa de Ulloa and Isabel de Luján. He died on September 22, 1554 in Mexico City, Mexico. De Coronado was a Spanish conquistador and explorer, who led a large expedition from Mexico to present-day Kansas through parts of the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542. Coronado had hoped to reach the mythical 'Seven Cities of Gold'. -
Period: Jan 1, 1550 to
Juan de Oñate
Juan de Oñate was born on 1550 in Zacatecas, Mexico, and died on June 3, 1626 in Guadalcanal, Seville, Spain. He was a Spanish conquistador, explorer, and colonial governor of the Santa Fe de Nuevo México province in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. He led early Spanish expeditions to the Great Plains and Lower Colorado River Valley, encountering numerous indigenous tribes in their homelands there. Oñate founded settlements within the province and in the present day American Southwest. -
Period: to
René-Robert Cavelier, Sier de La Salle (Robert de La Salle)
René-Robert Cavelier, Sier de La Salle, or Robert de La Salle, was a French explorer. He was born on November 21, 1643 in Roven, France into a comfortably well-off family. When Cavelier was younger, he enjoyed science and nature. As a man, he studied with the Jesuit religious order and became a member after taking initial vows in 1660. At his request, after he was in Canada, he was released from the Society of Jesus after reciting "moral weaknesses". La Salle died on March 19, 1687. -
1682
Corpus Christi de la Isleta, the first mission and pueblo, was established by Antonio de Otermín and Fray Francisco de Ayeta in 1682. To the Tiguas, the mission church is known as San Antonio, after their patron saint, and they call the pueblo Ysleta del Sur. The site was also known by the Spaniards as Corpus Christi de la Isleta. The present church was constructed in 1851. The present church was constructed in 1851. Its distinctive silver-domed bell tower was added in 1897. -
1685
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de La Salle (November 21, 1643 – March 19, 1687) was a French explorer. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle claimed the entire Mississippi River basin for France. -
1718
San Antonio was founded in 1718, where the city had its beginnings in, with the establishment of a complex of governmental and religious institutions: the royal presidio of San Antonio de Bexar, the municipal government of San Antonio de Valero, and Mission San Antonio de Valero. The mission, later to be known as the Alamo, had been moved from an earlier location on the Rio Grande near the town of Guerrero, Mexico, part of the Gateway complex. -
1801
Philip Noland and his men fight Spanish soldiers near Waco -
1803
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the Louisiana territory by the United States from France in 1803. -
1806
The Neuteral Ground Agreement is established. -
1813
The Gutiérrez-Magee expedition is defeated. -
1819
James Long leads group of Anglo Americans to Nacogdoches. -
1821
The Mexican War of Independence was an armed conflict, and the culmination of a political and social process which ended the rule of Spain in 1821 in the territory of New Spain. -
1821
Moses Austin recieves permission to settle 300 families in Texas.
Stephen F. Austin brings in Anglo American settlers to Texas. -
1824
Martín de León petitions to establish the first Tejano colonies in Texas. -
1825
Green DeWitt is granted permission to settle 400 families in Texas.
