Spanish Exploration

Columbus' First Voyage

Jan 1, 1442

After a long and money-hogging war with the moors, Spain was really hurting for some money. Comlumbus then stepped up and said he knew a faster and better way to Asia. He ended up finding North America, which is extremely importanat, even though he didn't know it, he had just found a huge area to be conquered and explored.

Cortez

Jan 1, 1519

Spanis explorer and conquistador conquers the Aztecs right underneath present day Mexico City. This is extremely important because he comes back with 99 TONS of gold, which sparks furthur exploration of the area.

Pineda

Jan 1, 1519

At the very same time as Cortez fighting the Aztecs, Pineda is making the very first map of the coast, which shows everything from the tip of now Florida to Texas. This shows Spain that there is new land above the ocean line and sends explorers to explore.

The Beginning of De Vaca's Journey

Jan 1, 1527

De Vaca begins his historic journey to the New World in hopes of finding gold and riches like Cortes did. Narvaez is the leader of the expdeition.

De Vaca's visit with Texas

Jan 1, 1528

De Vaca's voyage has been reduced from the original 600 to 300 when a hurricane hits the ship and the crash at now Tampa Bay, Florida. They then make rafts and hopefully float to Mexico, but instead get hit by another storm and land ogn Galveston. De Vaca ends up being in Texas for eight years living with Indians until one day he finally gets to Mexico with 3 other survivors. He later comes back and tells stories of cities of gold that he was told by Indians. This ends up sedning Fray Marcos.

Fray Marcos and Esteban

Jan 1, 1539

Esteban, a slave that survived with De Vaca, ends up going back to the New World, this time with Fray Marcos to look fo rthe seven cities of gold De Vaca told of. Esteban ends up dying and Fray Marcos goes back and says he saw the cities of gold, which really gets explorers interested, even though he didn't actually see the cities.

Moscoso

Jan 1, 1539

Just like Coronado, Moscoso says that Texas has no opprotunity and causes exploration of texas to stop for around 150 years. Moscoso actually took over after Desoto died.

Coronado's fun times...

Jan 1, 1540

Coronado comes into the New World looking for Cibola. He ends up extremely dissappointed but then gets another peice of information from a slave named Turk that purposefuly misleads Coronado from his village and tells of a city named Quivera that are even better than Cibola. After marching across 5 different states for two years, Coronado ends up being dissappointed again. He strangles Turk and goes back to the village and burns 125 Zuni indians alive.