2. Age of Exploration
So why did Europeans explore the world during the Age of Exploration? Many different European countries paid for explorations for many different reasons. Some of those reasons are:
To find a sea route to the spices of Asia
To find gold, silver, and precious stones
To expand their knowledge of the world
To control a larger empire
To expand Christianity

3. Christopher Columbus
In 1492, Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer, sailed for Spain across the Atlantic Ocean trying to find a faster route to India for the spice trade. Instead he found several small islands in the Caribbean Sea.
He had reached a continent unknown to Europeans and explored the land. Columbus returned to the Americas 3 more times and set up a colony in the West Indies.

5. Alonso Álvarez de Pineda
The Spanish believed there must be a route to Asia through the Gulf of Mexico. Therefore, in 1519, Alonso Álvarez de Pineda, was sent on expedition from Jamaica to map the uncharted coastline from Florida to Mexico.
He became the first European to explore the Texas coast. After reporting his findings to the viceroy, he begin a settlement in Mexico. Pineda died in there in 1520.
Pineda’s map of Gulf Coast

6. Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
In 1527, Spain sent conquistador, Cabeza de Vaca to conquer the area between Florida and Mexico. However, in November 1528, he suffered a misfortune and the boats sunk during a terrible storm and were grounded near present-day Galveston.
He and his men were the first Europeans to enter what is now Texas. The Karankawas took them to their village and gave them food and a hut to live in. He wrote that they "acted in every way hospitably, we felt reassured and somewhat lost our anxiety of the sacrificial knife."

8. Unfortunately, within a few months, many Spaniards and American Indians died from disease. They lived with them for 6 years then journeyed west and reached Mexico in 1536.
Although Cabeza de Vaca didn’t find gold, he wrote to the Spanish about tales of lands rich with copper, emeralds, and turquoise.

9. Francisco Vázquez de Coronado
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, a Spanish explorer, was sent to find the legendary city of Cíbola. However, Cíbola was actually a pueblo made of adobe in Arizona and New Mexico. He didn’t find treasures but angry Zuni warriors ready to defend their village.
He didn’t go back to Spain and continued exploring what is now NM, AZ, KS, where he claimed the entire Wichita country for Spain and Texas.

10. Conquistadores
Priest
In addition to Coronado and the American Indian guide, Turk, what other people are shown in the mural?

11. René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
Spain had lost interest in Texas, and France tried to claim it. In 1682, La Salle, the leader of the French quest for an empire in Texas, led the first European expedition that navigated the Mississippi River south to the Gulf of Mexico.
He claimed the enclosed region, and named it Louisiana in honor of the French King, Louis XIV. When La Salle returned to France, he suggested another French colony should be founded at the mouth of the Mississippi.

12. He hoped that from there, the French could capture the rich silver mines of New Spain. Unfortunately, this new expedition missed the mouth of the Mississippi River and sailed 400 miles west, along the Gulf of Mexico.
In 1685, after sailing along the Texas coast, La Salle wrecked on a sandbar in Matagorda Bay by Galveston. He and the colonist built Fort St. Louis, a crude stockade. La Salle left the colonist there and continued to explore.
Model of Fort St. Louis

13. La Salle returned to find many colonist dead due to starvation, disease, and attacks from the Karankawa Indians. La Salle decided to once gain try to find the Mississippi River.
On this expedition, he landed in East Texas. There his men refused to continue the search and murdered La Salle on March 19, 1687.

15. What’s the Point?
Exploring and Trading leads to colonies. What better way to keep getting the riches from a country than living there?
Main reasons for Spanish exploration in Texas
Religion
Economy
Political
Social
Mostly Gold - Spain was paying for very costly war with France.

16. What’s the Point?
The French were at war with Spain and wanted to compete with the Spanish for territory
The French were much kinder to the American Indians than the Spanish
In many cases the French chose to trade and befriend the American Indians rather than conquer, or convert them and plunder their resources

17. Spain
France