European Explorers and Conquerors Chapter 2 – Section 2

What you need to know for Section 2: Hernan Cortes Francisco Pizarro Hernando de Soto Juan Ponce de Leon Francisco Vasquez de Coronado  The Mission System (All vocab words) The Encomienda System/ Spanish-America Hierarchy

Instructions Skim through the slides and summarize the sections you missed in class. You should only be missing TWO.

Instructions Explorer: Reason for Exploration: Area(s) Explored: Country they sailed for: What is this explorer’s major accomplishment or best known for?

Hernan Cortes Hernan Cortes was Spanish explorer and conquistador. On February 19, 1519 he set sail for Mexico with a force of six hundred men and less than twenty horses. They arrived at the Yucatan Peninsula and marched to inland Tenochtitlan (present day capital of Mexico, Mexico City) He learned about the gold and treasure of the Aztec Empire and He vows to conquer them. He met the king of the Aztecs- Montezuma II. Montezuma II believed Cortes was their light skinned, bearded God-King. Cortes took him prisoner and his soldiers raided the city. The Aztec empire fell to Cortes and he claimed the land for Spain.

Francisco Pizarro Francisco Pizarro was an explorer and conqueror. Pizarro heard rumors of a land in South America that was full of gold and other treasures. He wanted to explore the land. In 1543 Pizarro landed on the coast of South America and settled in Peru. The Incas were weak from a civil war and diseases brought by the Spanish. Pizarro met with the Sapa Inca and set a trap. He asked for gold and silver in exchange for his life. After receiving the gold and silver, he killed the Sapa Inca anyway. Pizarro marched to the Incan capital, Cuzco and took over the city. He later moved the capital city and renamed it Lima.

Question? How did Cortes and Pizarro conquer two mighty empires??

Why Spain Won The Spanish had weapons and animals that the Aztecs had never seen. (guns, cannons, horses) Help from the natives. Local Native Americans disliked their harsh rule. Disease played a large role. Contact with Europeans was deadly since they had no immunity or resistance, to European diseases.

Hernando de Soto Hernando De Soto was a Spanish explorer. When he was a young man, he traveled to the West Indies and made a fortune in the Central American slave trade. He ran into an impoverished explorer named Francisco Pizarro. Pizarro wanted to explore high in the Andes Mountains of South America. He had heard tales of an Indian tribe with great riches. Hernando De Soto supplied ships and paid for the exploration, and accompanied Pizarro on his quest. He assisted Pizarro in conquering the mighty Inca Empire. Hernando De Soto returned to Spain in 1536. The King of Spain to assign him control and right of exploration of a place in the New World called La Florida. He left his family and returned to the New World.  Hernando De Soto explored La Florida, and as far as Oklahoma, and claimed new land for Spain while looking for riches. He was the first European to cross the Mississippi River. Hernando De Soto, no matter how rich he became, never seemed to have enough wealth. That was his undoing. He kept looking for gold and jewels, mile after mile after mile, until he had explored 4000 miles of what would become the southeastern region of the United States

Juan Ponce de Leon Juan Ponce de Leon was a Spanish explorer who landed on the coast of Florida in 1513. He claimed the land for Spain calling it “La Florida” and then began looking for the Fountain of Youth. Ponce de Leon never found neither gold nor the fountain. However, the King appointed him governor of Florida and asked him to set up a colony there. Native Americans in the area attacked the settlement, and Ponce was killed.

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado Francisco Coronado was a Spanish explorer who visited parts of the American southwest. He was born in Salamanca, Spain around 1510. He left home as a teenager because his parents promised their fortune to his brother. He quickly took to exploring. As governor of New Galicia (a province of New Spain in present-day Mexico), Coronado heard stories of seven golden cities along the Pacific Ocean named Cibola and quickly assembled a simultaneous land and sea expedition. The cities were said to contain houses made out of gold and streets paved with gold. Coronado and a friend, Antonio Mendoza, invested large sums of money in the expedition. In 1540, Coronado, Mendoza, 335 Spaniards, 1300 natives, and four Franciscan monks headed north for the purposes of taking the gold from the Seven Cities of Cibola. Although no gold was discovered, members of the expedition learned of the Colorado River that was located to the west. Coronado then sent a second scouting party to find the Colorado River. Members of this scouting party became the first to find the Colorado River and the magnificent Grand Canyon.

Instructions The Mission System Describe the Mission System. (Short paragraph) Define the following terms: Mission Presidio Pueblo Plantation

The Mission System The Roman Catholic Church worked with the Spanish government to control New Spain (present-day Mexico and the southwestern U.S.). Catholic missionaries, or people who teach their religion to others, came with the earliest Spanish explorers from Mexico City across the Rio Grande into Texas. The missionaries’ role was to teach the Native Americans how “to think, live, and worship as their white brothers and sisters did,” and to change them from bárbaros (savages) to gente de razón (people of reason). Native Americans were taught Spanish and the Christian religion, as well as farming, trades, and skills at the missions. However, as they were taught these things, they were expected to give up their own religious beliefs, traditions, and culture.

The Mission System Cont. Spanish Settlements Spanish law called for three kinds of settlements in the Americas – pueblos, missions, and presidios. Pueblos, or towns, were centers of trade. Missions were religious communities that usually included a small town, surrounding farmland, and a church. The goal of the mission was to spread religion and the Spanish way of life among the Native Americans. The Spanish often built a presidio, or fort, near a mission.

The Encomienda System The Encomienda System Explain how the Encomienda System worked? Copy down the Spanish America Hierarchy in your notebook.  

The Encomienda System When the Spanish began their conquest and exploration of the New World, they brought many of their homeland traditions with them. One of the institutions they brought with them was the encomienda system. The Spanish monarchy granted conquistadors, soldiers, and other officials control over a specific number of Indians, as well as the lands on which those Indians lived. The person who received the grant, known as an encomendero, would require the Indians to pay tributes. The encomendero determined the amount of the tribute, which could be paid in the form of goods, money, or hard labor. In return, the encomendero promised to protect the Indians and teach them about Christianity.

Spanish Settlements – Spanish America Hierarchy