NEW SPAIN

By a001751
  • Dec 10, 1492

    Colombus Reaches America

    Columbus arrives in the Bahamas. Europeans are in the Americas to stay. Columbus eventually makes four voyages to the New World, but dies dejected and forgotten in Valladolid, Spain in 1506.
  • 1494

    Treaty of Tordesillas

    The Treaty of Tordesillas is signed, dividing newly discovered overseas lands between Portugal and Spain.
  • 1501

    Encomienda System

    The encomienda system begins, granting Native Americans to Spanish encomenderos as slaves. The Spaniards are tasked with protecting the natives and teaching them Christianity. The system is rife with abuses.
  • 1507

    America Named

    Geographer Martin Waldseemüler is first to use the name "America" to refer to newly-discovered continents, after Italian merchant, explorer, and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci. Columbus loses out on lucrative naming rights.
  • 1513

    Ponde de León Discovers Florida

    Juan Ponce de León discovers Florida.
  • 1513

    Balboa Reaches Pacific

    Vasco Nuñez de Balboa becomes the first European to gaze upon the Pacific Ocean after cutting his way across the Isthmus of Panama.
  • 1519

    Magellan Circumnavigates Globe

    Ferdinand Magellan's ships are the first to circumnavigate the globe. Magellan himself is killed by natives in the Pacific.
  • Nov 8, 1519

    Cortes Captures Tenochtitlan

    Fall of Tenochtitlan: Hernán Cortés and approximately 100 Spaniards capture the capital of the Aztec Empire.
  • 1520

    Night of Tears

    La Noche Triste: The "Night of Tears" in which almost two thirds of Cortés' men—nearly 800 in total—are killed as they try to escape Tenochtitlan after the death of Moctezuma.
  • 1521

    First African Slaves

    The Spanish import the first African slaves to the territory that will later become the United States.
  • 1531

    Virgin of Guadalupe

    Juan Diego, a Mexican peasant, has an apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Before long, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe becomes the patron saint of the New World.
  • 1550

    Native American Rights Debated

    Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda debate the rights of Native Americans in the New World in Valladolid, Spain.