CHAPTER 4 EARLY EXPLORERS

COLUMBUS: 1492  Columbus From Genoa, Italy  Goal: to find a route to the East (India) by sailing west.  King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain financed his trip.  Landed on an island in the Carribean.  Thinking he was in India, named native people Indians.  Started the Spanish empire in the Americas: most of South America, Central America, Many Caribbean Islands, Mexico and the Western half of the present United States and Florida!

HERO OR VILLIAN? We have a holiday for Columbus discovering America. Columbus treated Native Americans very badly. They were killed, enslaved and they died from disease brought by the Spaniards.

NEW SPAIN  New Spain: Spanish colonies in America  Spanish soldiers called CONQUISTADORS sought wealth and glory for Spain. Wealth= gold and riches, Glory= new lands to conquer and rule  Their weapons were more deadly and they defeated the Natives.  They brought smallpox and disease that killed more Indians than weapons.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH  Spain was Roman Catholic. King and Church acted as one.  Friars (members of Catholic religious orders) helped Spain control their new lands by converting the Native Americans to the Catholic religion.  Friars created religious settlements called missions.  The natives who survived the attacks by the Spanish were made to live on missions.

FRIARS WITH INDIANS

CORTES: MEXICO  In 1519, Cortes sailed from Cuba and landed near Veracruz on the eastern coast of Mexico.  He subdued the natives and enlisted their help to defeat their enemies the Aztec.

CORTES  Aztec civilization: Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City.  Aztec thought Cortes was their god, Quetzecotl.  Cortes took their emperor Moctezuma hostage. His own people killed him.  Several months and battles later, Spain defeated the Aztecs.  Spain took their wealth and riches.

TENOCHTITLAN

SPAIN DEFEATS AZTECS Aztecs stricken by smallpox and diseases brought by Spanish to which they had no immunity. This ensured their defeat.  Cortes rebuilt city but destroyed evidence of their non- Christian culture.  Tenochtitlan became Mexico City.

CONQUEST OF TENOCHTITLAN

PINEDA EXPLORES TEXAS COAST  Also in 1519, Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda became 1 st European to explore and map the coast from Florida to Mexico. (Including Texas)

PINEDA’S MAP OF GULF COAST

CABEZA DE VACA  Cabeza de Vaca was officer of Narvaez expedition sent to conquer land and riches. They sailed from Cuba to Florida.  They were stranded with no food. Many died. The survivors built rafts and set out on the Gulf of Mexico for Mexico.  The few survivors were shipwrecked on Galveston Island.  Karankawa helped them survived.

CABEZA DE VACA

LIFE AMONG THE TX. INDIANS  The few Spaniards who survived lived as guests, slaves, shaman traders.  Cabeza de Vaca and Estevanico travelled around Texas for 6 years.  They were found by Spanish slave traders travelling in Northern Mexico.

CABEZA DE VACA REPORTS  CDV reported seeing buffalo (cows of the Plains) and described Texas as very fertile.  He saw no gold, but he reported stories of riches.  Spain sent expeditions to seek treasure in Texas.

FRAY MARCOS EXPEDITION  In 1539, the governor of New Spain sent a priest named Fray Marcos de Niza with a small expedition to look for the riches CDV had heard about from the Indians.  Estevanico went with him. He had wandered this land with CDV, and could communicate with the Indians.  They reported seeing a land of seven cities of gold called Cibola.

THIS COULD HAVE BEEN CIBOLA

CORONADO EXPEDITION  The Governor sent a large expedition back to Cibola but it was just an adobe Pueblo.  Coronado fought and killed the Indians there. To make the Spaniards leave, Turk led them away to find Quivera., another city of gold.  The expedition travelled through the Texas Panhandle all the way to Kansas and found Quivera was just a Wichita Village!  Coronado kiilled Turk.

DESOTO AND MOSCOSO  At the same time Coronado explored the West, Desoto’s expedition explored the East. From Florida to the Mississippi River they travelled looking for the gold Narvaez heard about.  DeSoto died in 1542 and was buried by the Mississippi.  The new commander led the expedition into East Texas where they met the Caddo people.

MOSCOSO

NEW MEXICO IS FOUNDED  In 1609, Spain sent Juan Onate to found a permanent settlement. He founded Santa Fe. Still finding no gold, few attempts were made to make settlements.  The Spanish explored into West Texas as far as present day San Angelo.

JUAN ONATE

FRENCH COLONY IN TEXAS  France challenged Spain’s claim to Texas  In 1682, La Salle led the first expedition to navigate the Mississippi River down to the Gulf of Mexico.  He claimed the inland region surrounding the Mississippi for France.  La Salle got permission from the French king to set up a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River to control the fur trade.

LA SALLE

FORT ST. LOUIS LaSalle sailed for the mouth of the Mississippi river in He got lost and landed in Matagorda Bay instead.  The settlers built Fort St. Louis and claimed the land for France.  The colony was a disaster. LaSalle took men and walked east to find the Mississippi. The women and children left at the fort died of sickness, hunger and Indian attacks.  LaSalle was killed by his own men.

FRANCE CREATES NEW SPANISH INTEREST IN TEXAS  Although Spain had found no treasure and had little in terest in Texas, the threat of French colonies in Texas renewed Spanish interest in the far north region which we call Texas.