Spanish Exploration

Columbus's Voyage to the New World

Jan 1, 1492

Columbus origianally went to North America thinking that he was going to find a west water route to Asia and India. Although he did promise Queen Isabella of Spain that he would find riches and gold. She only let him go because Spain was done being at war with the Moors. He landed in the Bahamas thinking it was India and named the Native Americans he found Indians, hints the name, he thought they were in India. He came back to Spain with the accomplishments of finding the New World and gold.

Cortes's Voyage

Jan 1, 1519

Cortes's was basically coming to the New World to look for gold. Once he got there he conquered the Aztec Empire, defeating their leader Montezuma. Altough he did bring back 6 mollion dollars worth of gold. That made other people want to come explore the New World.

Pineda's Voyage

Jan 1, 1519

Pineda went to America to map the Coast. He mapped from Flordia to Texas. He was the first one to do so, and he also possibly discovered the Rio Grande River. His mapping of this area along the coast encouraged other people to do so as well and to explore the land now that they had a map.

DeVaca Voyage start day

Jan 1, 1528

DeVaca and his leader Narvez were staring their voyage to look for gold in Flordia not knowing they were going to have a very long and interesting voyage ahead of them. They set out for Texas with only raw corn to eat with the barge only being 6 inches above the water. A big glae slung them off the boat and that is how they came to land in Galveston with the Karanawas.

DeVaca Discovers Texas

Jan 1, 1537

As told in the previous timeline section labeled "DeVaca Voyage start day" the explorers get slung off their ships onto Glaveston Island in Texas with the Karanakawa Indians. After he left them he was told that there were 7 cities of gold created by 7 priest. He also reported that Texas was a good place to be after hearing about the golden cities (Cibola) which made people want to explore Texas. He also preformed the first surgery as a medicine man.

Fray Marcos and Estaban Journey

Jan 1, 1539

Estaban, a slave, and Fray Marcos went to Amercia to study the north and to look and verify the cities of gold. They explored Texas and New Mexico. No one knows why they reported this but he recalled seeing a city filled wioth gold larger than Mexico called Quivera.

Moscoso's Exploration

Jan 1, 1539

Moscoso and his leader Desoto who later died went to basically search for gold from Flordia to Texas. He dicovered the Mississippi river, or at least reported finding it. He did not like Texas and also said basically the same thing Coronado did. This made Spain not like Texas and did not return for 150 years.

Coronado's Expediton

Jan 1, 1540

Coronado went to look for the 7 cities of gold in 1540-1542. Him, being a true Conquistador, went to look for the cities for Spain. He searched in the Panhandle of Texas and in Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, and Oklahoma. On his 2nd part of the trip he looked for Quivera. He later reported not to go to Texas because they have no gold, harsh land, and mean Indians.