Would we be here today if early explorers like Columbus, Coronado, and Cortes, had not discovered and explored the Americas?

In the late 1400s Christopher Columbus, an explorer born in Genoa, Italy, persuaded Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain to pay for his expedition. He told her he would find a new route across the Atlantic Ocean to Cathay, the European name for China. Columbus had taught himself Spanish, Portuguese, and geography. Like other educated Europeans of his time, he knew that the earth was round. Because of this, he believed that he could sail westward to reach Asia faster and easier than traveling eastward. When did Columbus “sail the ocean blue?”

Land was sighted on October 12, 1492, and Columbus’s explorers set foot on an island they believed to be in the Indies, in Southeast Asia. They named the new land San Salvador, meaning Holy Savior. Columbus named the helpful and friendly native people indios. What Columbus didn’t know was that his ships had landed among the islands we know today as the Bahamas. Can you find San Salvador on the map? Have you been to the Bahamas?

Spanish explorers, or conquistadors, continued to establish colonies and search for treasure through out the Americas. Cortes left from Cuba ad explored areas in Mexico. Cortes took many ships, soldiers, horses, and weapons with him on his expedition. The Aztecs mistook Cortez for a God and welcomed the Spanish explorers. The Spaniards were not looking for friendship. In a series of bloody battles, they attempted to seize the Aztecs’ gold and silver. Cortés’s men used their superior weapons to defeat the Aztecs. Cortés then renamed Tenochtitlán the city of México, the capital of New Spain. What is Tenochtitlán known as today?

In 1526 Pánfilo de Narváez was granted the land of Florida by the king of Spain. He also received permission to conquer lands between Florida and Mexico and govern any Spanish colonies that he established. Narváez took his expedition of 400 men and 82 horses ashore on the Gulf side of Florida. The plan was to travel overland and meet his ships, which carried additional supplies, farther up the Gulf Coast. Narváez’s additional ships never made it to the meeting point. Narváez and his men built rafts to continue on toward Mexico. Near Galveston Bay Narváez and his rafts were swept up in a hurricane. All but 80 of the men died. Those survivors washed ashore in Texas. They are believed to be the first Europeans to set foot in Texas. What else have we learned about Galveston and hurricanes?

While searching for treasure and cities made of gold the conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado made his way from Mexico up through Arizona and over into Texas. They crossed the Pecos River onto the West Texas Plains. They were amazed at the number of buffalo they saw. Eventually Coronado and his men reached Palo Duro Canyon, near present-day Amarillo. Men from Hernando De Soto’s expedition reached areas near Texarkana Texas after De Soto’s death.

The French also began a colony in Texas led by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. La Salle intended to start his colony where the Mississippi emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. The large Mississippi delta was not easy to spot from the ocean. The delta spread out in to a network of numerous small streams that do not resemble a large river. After sailing far past the Mississippi River La Salle stopped at Galveston bay in January La Salle then sailed up the Lavaca River and established Fort St. Louis. The settlers of Fort. St. Louis eventually all died from disease or at the hands of the Karankawa Natives. Can you tell me a fact about the Karankawas from your brochures?

THESE VOCABULRY WORDS WILL BE ON YOUR TEST!!! BE CERTAIN THAT YOU KNOW THEM!!! Expedition a journey with a definite purpose Colony a land claimed for and controlled by a distant nation Conquistador a Spanish explorer who searched for wealth and land Viceroy governor of a colony who rules in the name of the king Pueblo Native American village of houses built of adobe Buccaneer a pirate Delta a triangle-shaped area of silt deposits that forms at the mouth of rivers