Spain: Notable Explorers (inc. Navigators), Colonizers (inc. Conquistadors, Viceroys, and Colonial Governors and Administrators), and Merchants
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1451 - 1506 - Christopher Columbus (All Facts)
Italian Explorer and Seaman from Genoa
He was an admiral from Genoa, genius of a navigator, and a shrewd master of men
He was a great captain but a poor colonizer
He charted about 60 islands and landed on the shores of modern-day Venezuela
He found little gold on his voyages, but much tobacco
His seamanship identified trade winds both ways across the ocean at different latitudes
He was thus, in a sense, the foreigner who “put Spain on the map by making the map”
He is credited with discovering the “New World,” on his search for a western route to India
He persuaded King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon to sponsor his planned expedition to discover a western route to the Indies
He then led the royal Spanish expedition to pioneer a westward route to the Indies
His ships weighed anchor just before dawn at Palos in Spain
His journey lasted 71 days
His flagship, the Santa Maria, was 85 feet long and displaced 100 tons
His escort ships, the Pinta and Nina, displaced 55 tons
His crews comprised men scraped together from the back streets of Palos in Spain and the local prison
He proved to the world that the world itself is round
This is something he believed for many years, having proved the point to his doubters which included those in his crew who were convinced the world was flat
On his first voyage, he
landed on an island he called San Salvador (in the Bahamas)
He named this island the “Saint of Salvation”, piously recognizing the good fortune in making his long-awaited landfall
He thought the island lay near Japan
arrived in Cuba, believing it to be Japan
landed on an island he called Hispaniola (Santo Domingo), in search of gold
deposited a small group of settlers at Hispaniola (Santo Domingo)
However, these settlers were soon killed by the natives there
He
and his crew had sailed over the horizon from the Canaries, not having seen land for 35 days
for nine days found strong winds to carry him westward
Then, as his ship slowed in a dense swamp of sinister yellow seaweed, his crew became increasingly nervous
fooled his crew into believing that they had not run as far west as they thought
As his ship picked up speed again, so did fears grow that the westerly bearing would take them over the edge of the world to their deaths in a giant abyss
at last, seeing large flocks of migrating birds, remembered that the Portuguese had discovered the Azores by studying such behavior
so, he changed course to southwest, to the birds’ flight line
and his calm confidence persuaded the crew to agree to two more days’ exploration along the newfound birds’ flight line
On his second voyage,
landed on an island he called Santa Gloria (Jamaica)
ordered all “Indians” (Native Americans) over 14 years old in Hispaniola (Santo Domingo) to pay tribute money in gold every three years to King Ferdinand of Spain
imposed a system of forced labor on the “Indians” (Native Americans) in Hispaniola
brought back from the West Indies to Europe samples of tobacco
his crew were offered the “bewitching vegetable” that was tobacco by Native Americans
When he sailed out of Hiero, the most westerly of the Canary Islands, the needle of his compass was pointing markedly west-of-north
His crew, most of whom were anyway doubting the wisdom of these expeditions he managed, were shaken
Along the Atlantic Coast of Europe up to this point, mariners had long since noticed that the compass points slightly East of North
It was as if the Earth’s magnetic fields, instead of being fixed, were subject to fluctuation and variation
Thus, more than ever, his fleet of three caravels looked very vulnerable, as the ships were to be tested to their limits
Despite his untrustworthy compass, the namesake still was able to navigate using the North Star as his guide
On his third voyage, he
suppressed a revolt by Spanish settlers and natives against his poor administration in and of Hispaniola (Santo Domingo)
returned to Spain arrested on the orders of his successor as (Spanish) Governor of the Indies, Francisco de Bobadilla, after having been charged with the offense of having suppressed another rebellion by hanging seven settlers in the street
returned to Spain being less needed by Spain thereafter
On his last voyage,
his ships beached and were unseaworthy at Santa Gloria (Jamaica), flaring distress signals, which were ignored for a year
He first sought backing for his grand obsession in Portugal, then in France, and then in England
He won support in Spain after
fighting the Moors in Granada
promising gold from his expedition to finance another Holy War for Christian Europe
On his second voyage sailing from Cadiz,
After five months in Spain, with 17 ships and 1,200 settlers, he returned to the original site of Queen Isabella
There was trouble as soon as the turbulent Spaniards got ashore
The namesake brought this under control and went exploring
When he returned, he discovered his settlers at war with the natives, who resented demands for food, women, and gold
He massacred the natives in response
In spite of that, colorful complains about him came to Madrid from the Spaniards
He thus had to fight on two fronts 3K miles apart
He had stirred things up with his stories about discovering a new world in the West or a new route to the Indies so much so that the kings of Spain and Portugal decided to divide between them all the new lands the namesake and all the Portuguese explorers of his time had discovered, leading to the Treaty of Tordesillas
He died in Valladolid in Spain, embittered, isolated, and still convinced that what he had found in the west was the true Indies, not a place his contemporaries described as the “New World”
His will left his son the one-tenth share of the wealth generated by his discovery, as promised in his contract with King Ferdinand of Spain but still unpaid 14 years since
1500 - 1503 - Francisco de Bobadilla (All Facts)
He was the 2nd / 3rd Governor of the Indies
He ordered for the arrest of Christopher Columbus, which, by the namesake’s time, Spain needed less after the ending of Columbus’s third voyage
He arrested Columbus on the offense that Columbus had suppressed another rebellion by hanging seven settlers in the street
1508 - Sebastian de Ocampo (All Facts)
Spanish Explorer
He sailed around Cuba, proving that it was (is) an island
1502 - 1509 - Nicolas de Ovando (All Facts)
He was the 3rd / 4th Governor of the Indies
He was issued directives by King Ferdinand to sanction the Encomienda System in the Americas
He oversaw the arrival of the first African slaves in the New World, in Hispaniola, which followed the granting of authorization prior for their introduction
1480 - 1513 - Juan de Esquivel (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Founder and First Colonial Governor of Santiago ((Spanish) Jamaica)
1461 - 1514 - Vincente Yanez Pinon (All Facts)
Spanish Explorer
He explored the northern coast of South America from Cape San Augustin to the Orinoco River
1461 - 1514 - Bartholomew Columbus (All Facts)
Genoese (Italian) Explorer for Spain and Founder and First Colonial Governor of (Spanish) Santo Domingo / Hispaniola
He was the younger brother of Christopher Columbus
He founded Santo Domingo, the oldest extant European settlement in the Americas
1467 - 1517 - Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador
He landed on the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula and recorded the first accounts of European sightings there
He died in battle against the Mayans there
1475 - 1519 - Vasco Nunez de Balboa (All Facts)
Spanish Explorer and Conquistador
He was the first European to discover the Pacific Ocean, what he called “the South Sea”
He “claimed” the Pacific Ocean for Spain, having discovered the overland route between America’s western and eastern seaboards
He waded into the Pacific Ocean, his sword drawn in a gesture of conquest as the then-67 survivors of the expedition sang the “Te Deum”
His career began in Central America when he fled from his creditors in Spain by stowing away to Santo Domingo
He and his men travelled from their base in Darien, near the Atlantic Ocean, heading west across the narrow Isthmus of Panama, also the first European to do so
Hearing from the natives there of a gold-rich land washed by an unknown sea, he led 190 men into the swamps and rain-forested hills of the Isthmus of Panama
This was a grueling 25-day journey across 45 miles of impenetrable jungle
On reaching a mountain that overlooked “the South Sea,” he climbed alone to its peak, where he prayed before calling on his men to join him
He and his 190 Spaniard men had to fight off both natural hazards and several hundred native slaves and other non-slave natives who were hostile to them
He and his men, though, were armed with swords, crossbows, and arquebuses and the expedition fought a pitched battle against them
It was a blood, unequal struggle, according to witness who told how the big Spanish swords “hewed from one an arm, from another a leg and buttock, and the head from the body at one stroke”
He was beheaded on the orders of his own father-in-law
He was betrothed to Pedro Arias Davila’s daughter
They worked together from there on a series of lucrative gold hunts
On their first disagreement, however, his father-in-law Davila had him arrested and executed (beheaded) on a trumped-up conspiracy charge
He was accused of involvement in a conspiracy
1450 - 1520 - Juan de Bermudez (All Facts)
Spanish Explorer
He discovered an archipelago which he named after himself, the namesake
1474 - 1521 - Juan Ponce de Leon (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Founder and First Colonial Governor of (Spanish) Puerto Rico
He explored and seized control of Puerto Rico
He was later removed from office due to a political dispute
He claimed the colony (lands) of Florida for Spain
He discovered this land which he claimed for King Ferdinand of Spain
He named it “land of flowers” in Spanish, or “floral land” because
of its abundance of flowers
the proximity of the religious feast of Pasqua de Flores de Leon upon its founding
He set out for Florida with 200 prospective colonists
After he is wounded by natives there, the new settlers left
He quested for a fabled “Fountain of Youth,” but it remained unsuccessful throughout his life
He was initially an exile who travelled with Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World
He served on the island of Hispaniola
1511 - 1524 - Diego Velázquez de Cuellar (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Founder and First Colonial Governor of (Spanish) Cuba
He and his Spanish forces took control of the island of Cuba by force
1480 - 1526 - Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón (All Facts)
Spanish Explorer and Magistrate
He left Santo Domingo with several hundred settlers to found a colony in Florida
However, the colony he tried to setup in Florida failed and settlers from the colony he organized returned to Santo Domingo without him
He died on the expedition, one of many to succumb such a fate
1511 - 1526 - Diego Columbus (All Facts)
He was the 2nd / 3rd / 4th / Final (Portuguese) Governor of the Indies
He was the son of Christopher Columbus
He recovered the rights over his father’s discoveries in America in order to restore his family’s fortunes
They were previously confiscated by the Spanish crown
He was stripped of all offices inherited from his father by the Spanish crown
1465 - 1527 - Rodrigo de Bastidas (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Founder of Santa Maria (Colombia)
1478 - 1528 - Panfilo de Narvaez (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Soldier
He participated in the Conquest of Cuba, escorting Bartolome de las Casas
When he was sent to New Spain (Mexico), formerly the Aztec Empire, to punish Hernan Cortes for insubordination, he was defeated there by Cortes
He set out to explore and settle the lands between Florida and Mexico with 5 ships and 600 men
He landed at Tampa Bay in Florida with 400 colonists
A few survivors from his expedition landed on a tiny island in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Florida as most of their companions in Florida had died from hunger and thirst
He became lost at sea
Four emaciated men who had been brought into Mexico City by a slaving party claimed they were all that survived the namesake’s expedition into Florida, which had attempted to penetrate the northern American jungles
Cabeza de Vaca and three other men alleged that they alone escaped as 80 of their companions succumbed to cannibalism and disease
They were captured by the natives there and spent six years working as bearers
They finally escaped and crossed the country working as shamans (“quack doctors”) where they cured sick natives and attracted large crowds, all desperate to hear the words of the “children of the sun”
Their travels took them all over Mexico, whose southern seacoast they reported to be “the best and all the most opulent countries”
1500 - 1529 - Marina / La Malinche (All Facts)
Aztec slave girl whom Hernan Cortes had chose as his consort
She acted as an interpreter, advisor, and intermediary for the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés
She quickly learned Spanish
She translated between Hernan Cortes and the leaders of the Aztec Empire during their negotiations and disagreements
She eventually married Hernan Cortes and gave birth to his son Martin, (one of) the first “Mestizo” in history
1440 - 1531 - Pedro Arias Davila (All Facts)
Spanish Explorer, Soldier, Colonial Administrator, and Conquistador
He founded Panama City and became the Founder and First (Royal) Governor of Panama
He was also Governor of Nicaragua
He explored the Pacific Coast
He betrothed his daughter to Vasco Nunez de Balboa
He and his father-in-law Balboa worked together on a series of lucrative gold hunts
On their first disagreement, however, the namesake had him arrested and executed on a trumped-up conspiracy charge
He had accused him of involvement in a conspiracy
1400s - 1536 - Gonzalo Guerrero (All Facts)
Spanish Sailor
He was sent as a sailor to the Yucatan Peninsula where he survived a shipwreck alongside Geronimo de Aguilar but in which both were captured by the Maya
He chose to assimilate himself into Mayan / “Indian” society and helped them to organize resistance to Hernan Cortes
He earned his freedom and became a respected warrior for the Mayans
He eventually raised three of the first mestizo children in Mexico and one of the first mestizo children in the America
1487 - 1537 - Pedro de Mendoza (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador
He founded the city of (Santa Maria de) Buenos Aires (in Argentina)
1475 - 1538 - Diego de Almagro (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Explorer
He participated in the Spanish Conquest of the Inca Empire alongside Francisco Pizzaro
He lost an eye in a skirmish with local natives despite losing nothing of value while encamped at the “Port of Hunger” on Pizzaro’s second expedition to Peru
He was made governor of New Toledo, which was the name of the entity of (Spanish) Peru prior to its viceroyalty as (Spanish) Peru
He was made governor of ill-defined territory beyond Pizzaro’s
He reached Chile
When an Incan rebellion besieged the mountain capital of Cuzco and took it back from the Spanish, he returned with an embittered force from a fruitless search for gold in Chile, and took Cuzco back for himself
Internecine warfare followed with Pizzaro and his forces
He was executed on the orders of Francisco Pizzaro as a result
1478 - 1541 - Francisco Pizarro (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Founder and First Governor of (Spanish) Peru
He and his forces ultimately conquered the Inca Empire
He was a wily illiterate and a poor horsemen, but one of Spanish Panama’s richest men
He was a middle-aged bachelor of simple habits
He was a veteran of many small wars
After a lifetime of jungle warfare, he was bored without adventure
He was a soldier of fortune in the Indies
He was with Vasco Nunez de Balboa when he (they) discovered the Pacific Ocean or “the South Sea”
He initially tried to search for the Inca Empire, but his first search was abandoned after he and his men became bogged down in Peru
He went on a second expedition in search of the Inca Empire
He brought with him a priest who functioned as the operation’s banker and he brought a judge, 80 men, and four horses
Some of his soldiers were professional mercenaries, hardened by campaigns back in Europe; but most were the equally adventurous younger sons of Spain’s grandees
While in Spain these youngsters got ahead through sword-play or the “right” marriage, they found a shortage of suitable brides in the largely native-inhabited mountains of Peru
He had King Charles’ support secured when he claimed from him the titles of governor and “captain-general” of (Spanish) Peru
He thus had a royal warrant signed which allowed him to return to (Spanish) Peru with the queen’s approval or “capitulacion” which licensed him to “discover and conquer” Peru
He brought back llamas (Peruvian boys who would become interpreters for him) and various artifacts to prove that a highly developed (Incan) culture existed
His first contact with the Incan natives showed them to be friendly
His presence at the court of King Charles was magnified by the presence of Hernan Cortes
He and his Spanish forces defeated Atahualpa and his Incan forces in the Battle of Cajamarca during the Spanish Conquest of the Incan Empire
In just two hours he killed 7K native Incans, held Atahualpa captive, and marched towards the Incan capital of Cuzco
He exploited the ongoing civil war in the Incan Empire between Atahualpa and his brother and predecessor Huascar by dividing them and ruling over them
He ordered for Atahualpa to be executed, despite his having already paid millions of pounds for his ransom
He marched onto and took over Cuzco, the capital of the Incan Empire
He founded the city of Lima in (Spanish) Peru
He had Diego de Almagro executed
He rejected please for clemency from his former friend and expedition partner, whom he had garroted
This came as a result of the ongoing tensions between the two due to the charter that made the namesake governor of (Spanish) Peru
He then was assassinated himself in Lima
This came as a result of the ongoing tensions between the namesake and Diego el Almagro II (el Monzo), the son of the man the namesake just executed, Diego de Almagro
He ignored intelligence about threats against him from a faction supporting de Almagro, whom he executed prior
The legacy of his murder still undermined Spanish attempts to govern what became Spain’s richest colony
His palace at Lima was undefended when 20 dispossessed colonists smashed their way into it and was overpowered and killed despite killing one of the attackers
1485 - 1541 - Pedro de Alvarado (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador
He conquered Honduras
He was the Deputy of Hernan Cortes while Cortes was absent in the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire
He and Cortes’s expeditionary forces had told Aztecs to go to a temple courtyard for a religious festival, where they massacred them all soon after without warning
This unleashed general warfare in which the Aztecs, armed with bows, had besieged their own capital and cut off the freshwater for it
1497 - 1542 - Hernando de Soto (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador, Explorer, and Soldier
He was an experienced Spanish soldier
He made his name with Pizzaro’s expedition to Peru
He then returned to Spain loaded with gold and silver, but he remained restless
He landed 600 troops, 200 horses, and a pack of bloodhounds in search of gold on the west coast of (Spanish) Florida having come from (Spanish) Cuba and having come from Spain, where he was blessed by King Charles to do so
Upon his arrival in Florida, he found Juan Ortiz, another survivor of the 1527 Narvaez Expedition to Florida, living with the natives there
His well-armed forces set about subduing the natives and taking them prisoner whether they were friendly or not
On this same expedition, he made it to Coosa (modern-day Alabama), where he encountered Temple Mound Indian culture
During this expedition, priests accompanied him to conduct the first recorded baptism in the New World, performed on a Native American guide
3 months later, he met and imprisoned Chief Tuscaloosa of the Choctaw Native Americans, who had organized and led an ambush of the namesake and his men, killing 18 and injuring 170 of them
He claimed that he and his men killed 2,800 Native Americans in response
He pressed on through often inhospitable terrain, where he met more hostile natives until he reached the “great muddy river” that was the Mississippi River, which he named Rio de Espiritu Santo
He spent the next year or two exploring the lands west of the Mississippi River
He died on the banks of the Mississippi River (or the “great muddy river” that he discovered just over a year prior)
The 332 survivors of his expedition built a raft and floated down to Mexico, where they landed there by the Panuco River
1520 - 1542 - Diego de Almagro II (All Facts)
Son of his namesake father, he avenged his father’s death by having his father’s killer, Francisco Pizzaro, executed himself
He proclaimed himself governor of Peru in succession to Pizzaro
He and his forces were defeated in the Battle of Chupas
He was condemned to death by Vaca da Castro (the representative of the Spanish crown at the time)
1542 - 1544 - Cristobal Vaca de Castro (All Facts)
Spanish Colonial Administrator
He was the 2nd Governor of (Spanish) Peru as “New Castile”
He and his forces defeated Diego de Almagro II and his forces in the Battle of Chupas during the (Spanish) Conquest of the Incan Empire
1511 - 1546 - Francisco de Orellana (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Explorer
On Gonzalo Pizarro’s expedition, he was famous for having sailed the length of the great Amazon River in South America
He initially ventured onto the Amazon River to seek supplies for Pizarro’s expedition
He built a boat and then sailed it with 57 men, facing danger both from hostile natives and strong rapids
Their journey lasted 8 months
1544 - 1546 - Blasco Nunez de Vela (All Facts)
Spanish Colonial Administrator
He was the First Viceroy of (Spanish) Peru
He was appointed by King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles
He arrived in Lima to assume his position
He died trying to suppress the mine-owners’ first rebellion there
1485 - 1547 - Hernan Cortes (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador, Commander, and Explorer and Founder and First Governor of Mexico (New Spain)
He and his forces ultimately conquered the Aztec Empire
He brought large portions of modern-day Mexico under the rule of the Kingdom of Castile
He received letters from King Charles (Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) promoting the namesake to captain-general and governor of Mexico (New Spain)
During his reign, he also established Mexico City, the intended capital of Mexico (New Spain); on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, the capital city of the former Aztec Empire
He and his Spanish expeditionary forces defeated the peoples and lands of and ultimately conquered the Aztec Empire, colonizing much of modern-day Mexico
He defeated Panfilo de Narvaez, who was sent to punish the namesake for insubordination
He was then driven from Tenochtitlan by Cuauhtémoc, Moctezuma II’s successor, where he and his expeditionary forces retreated to Tlaxcala
He then besieged Tenochtitlan a second time
Since the first siege of Tenochtitlan, Moctezuma II died in captivity and he returned to lift the siege
As he led his people out, they were ambushed and many were killed
On their way out to the coast they wiped out another Aztec village and left an epidemic of smallpox
He returned to Mexico, after being away for some time, with official Spanish blessing
This time, however, there was tougher resistance from the Aztecs, who exchanged formal war procedures for guerrilla tactics
He and his forces and the Aztecs fought in boats across lakes and canals, and ashore among city streets
The Aztecs beheaded Spanish prisoners and Spanish horses, displaying the heads of both on the same racks
He had Tenochtitlan deprived of drinking water and forced Cuauhtémoc and the Aztecs to surrender their capital a second time to him
He then worked to convert the surviving Aztecs to Christianity and enforce the Encomienda System in Mexico (New Spain)
He requested for an evangelistic team of Franciscan friars to evangelize to the natives
He ended up overseeing the sending of “The Twelve Apostles of Mexico”
He launched a series of expeditions to quell further opposition in the Aztec Empire, which he and Spain now controlled, including resistance amongst the Zapotecs, the highlanders in the isthmus of Tehuantepec
When he had his power withdrawn as Viceroy / General of Mexico (New Spain), he went to Spain to plead his cause
In response, a defense fleet was organized for the Indies
He eventually returned to Mexico (New Spain) as “captain-general” since he was removed from the governorship there two years prior
He then worked to convert the surviving Aztecs to Christianity and enforce the Encomienda System in Mexico (New Spain)
He requested for an evangelistic team of Franciscan friars to evangelize to the natives
He ended up overseeing the sending of “The Twelve Apostles of Mexico”
He launched a series of expeditions to quell further opposition in the Aztec Empire, which he and Spain now controlled, including resistance amongst the Zapotecs, the highlanders in the isthmus of Tehuantepec
By the end of his rule in Mexico, Dominican monks had arrived there
He also founded the settlement of La Paz, on an island off the west coast of Mexico (Baja California) which he named as the bay between the island and the mainland Santa Cruz
However, this settlement did not last and was short-lived
He died
He was known as the “Spanish Conqueror of Mexico”
1495 - 1548 - Pascual de Andagoya (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Explorer
He was famous for reaching the southern tip of Colombia
He safely negotiated the mysterious coast of Peru as he searched for the exotic and fabulously rich tribe called the “Viru” (Peru)
His ships supplied the expedition to Peru led by Pizzaro and de Almagro that was encamped at the “Port of Hunger”
1510 - 1548 - Gonzalo Pizarro (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador
He was the younger paternal half brother of Francisco Pizarro
He and his 200 men went on an expedition on Christmas Day, where they sailed the length of the great Amazon River (which crosses South America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Andes Mountains)
They initiated the expedition to try and find the legendary land of “El Dorado”
One of his men, Francisco de Orelana, ventured onto the Amazon River to seek supplies
There, he built a boat, then sailed it with 57 men, having faced danger on the way from both native inhabitants and strong rapids in the water
They named the river after a gang of native female inhabitants who had attacked them with bows and arrows on their way homewards
Their journey lasted 8 months, by which time the namesake had returned to the Amazon River’s mouth
1540s - Hernando de Alvarado (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Explorer
He forged his way up the Rio Grande in southwestern North America, where he reached the native village of “Taos”
1535 - 1550 - Antonio de Mendoza (All Facts)
Spanish Colonial Administrator
He was the First Viceroy of Mexico (New Spain)
During his reign,
He established the territorial limits of the estates distributed to the Spanish Conquistadores in the region
He established the first printing press in Mexico City and in the New World
Under his reign,
Augustinian and Franciscan provinces were created in Mexico (New Spain) to embark on a campaign against the exploitation of Native Americans and Mexicans
He was the 2nd Viceroy of Peru
1490 - 1551 - Sebastián de Belalcázar (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador
He founded Ecuador and the city of Quito
He was appointed by Francisco Pizzaro to organize the province of Quito
He founded the city of Popayan in Colombia
1505 - 1551 - Luis de Moscoso Alvarado (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Explorer
He took over Hernando de Soto’s expedition in North America after de Soto’s death
He found oil in the region of North America (in Texas) for the first time
1497 - 1553 - Pedro de Valdivia (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Founder and First (Spanish Royal) Governor of Chile
He also founded the city of Santiago (in Chile)
He was a lieutenant of Francisco Pizzaro
1510 - 1554 - Francisco Vasquez de Coronado (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Explorer
He explored the southwest of North America in the hope of discovering a rich civilization similar to that of Mexico (New Spain)
He traced the Colorado and Rio Grande Rivers, exploring widely in what is now modern-day Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas
He left Mexico (New Spain) with 400 Spaniards and 1,000 natives on an expedition northwards to find the “Seven Golden Cities of Cibola” / “Seven Cities of Gold”
He conquered a native pueblo in southwestern North America, believing it to be one of the “Seven Golden Cities of Cibola” / “Seven Cities of Gold”
He returned to Mexico after failing to find in the interior of North America either the fabled “Seven Golden Cities of Cibola” / “Seven Cities of Gold” and/or the legendary land of fabulous riches called Quivira
He and his Spanish forces defeated the native pueblo after they rebelled against him and his forces in the Tiguex War
1500s - García López de Cárdenas (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Explorer
He was an officer who served for Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
He was the first European to see the Grand Canyon
1488 - 1559 - Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (All Facts)
Spanish Explorer
He famously survived the 1527 Narvaez Expedition to Florida, along with three other survivors
He was in captivity amongst Native Americans in the southwest for six years
1502 - 1572 - Miguel López de Legazpi (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Founder and First Governor of the (Spanish) Philippines
He also founded the city of Manila there
He arrived in Cebu in the (Spanish) Philippines from Mexico, where he established Spanish suzerainty there
He embarked upon the conquest of the Visayas and the island of Luzon
1500s - 1573 - Tristán de Luna y Arellano (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Explorer
He set sail from Veracruz at the head of 1,500-strong expedition, intending to establish a settlement on the Gulf Coast of Florida
He entered a bay on the Gulf Coast (modern-day Pensacola)
He founded a settlement on Mobile Bay (modern-day Alabama)
He was later dismissed during his expedition for poor leadership and replaced by Angel de Villafane
1500s - Angel de Villafane (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Explorer
He and the remnants of Tristan de Luna y Arellano’s expedition return to Santo Domingo on Hispaniola after failing to establish a colony on the Gulf Coast (at modern-day Pensacola Bay)
He took control of the expedition after his predecessor was dismissed for poor leadership
1500s - Juan Pardo (All Facts)
Spanish Explorer
He led an expedition and returned to Santa Elena in (Spanish) Florida after having charted a route to the Mississippi River
1519 - 1574 - Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador, Explorer, Admiral, Commander, and Colonial Administrator
He founded St. Augustine, the oldest surviving city in North America
He and his Spanish settlers introduced the game of billiards to North America
He founded San Mateo in (Spanish) Florida
He left on a mission to Florida to break up the French colony of Fort Caroline
He set out to destroy the French settlement of Fort Caroline before French reinforcements could arrive
Upon his reaching the harbor, Jean Ribault and his French reinforcements had arrived
However, he entered and named the harbor San Agostin (St. Augustine)
He oversaw Jean Ribault and his men’s failure to attack him and his Spanish forces due to a storm which scattered and devastated Ribault’s fleet
He and his forces attacked the French settlement of Fort Caroline during the Franco-Spanish War,
showing no mercy, slaughtering and massacring 132 people within an hour and killing those who surrendered, including Jean Ribault
with only a few Catholics and some women and children having been spared
wiping out the French Huguenots almost entirely
He wrote to King Philip II, justifying the killings as “necessary to the service of God and your majesty” and that it was because the settlers were not French but because they were Huguenots (Calvinists)
He then renamed Fort Caroline as San Mateo
He then built forts along the Indian river with the help of 500 African slaves
He died in Santander in Spain
1576 - Alonso de Solis (All Facts)
Spanish Soldier who was ordered by Hernando de Miranda to raid the village of Oristan, where he and 26 of his men were killed by Cusabo warriors
1504 - 1578 - Hernando Pizarro (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador
He was the half- brother of the namesake
He was the only one of the namesake’s brothers who returned to Spain, having survived being in Peru
He ruled over Peru with his namesake half-brother
He gave part of the booty taken from the Incans to King Charles
As a result, he was made governor of New Castile
1569 - 1581 - Francisco de Toledo (All Facts)
Spanish Colonial Administrator
He was the 5th Viceroy of Peru
He was determined to stamp out the Incas’ power and refused to reverse his decision to have Tupac Amaru beheaded
During his reign,
He set up a system by which silver miners in Potosi in (Spanish) Peru received a collective payment in kind, usually of cloth, which was shared out among them by a chief
Under his reign,
silver began to be extracted from mines in Potosi in (Spanish) Peru
1512 - 1582 - Francisco "Chamuscado" Sánchez (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Explorer
He led a voyage to the Pueblo area in southwestern North America and claimed it for Spain and gave it the name “San Felipe del Nuevo Mexico”
1528 - 1583 - Juan de Garay (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador
1575 - 1593 - Hernando de Miranda (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and Explorer
He was the 2nd Governor of Florida
He ordered Alonso de Solis to raid the village of Oristan
He returned to Spain following his governorship of Florida to face arrest, where he was accused of stealing 6,000 ducats before fleeing from his post earlier in the year
1542 - 1595 - Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira (All Facts)
Spanish Explorer and Cartographer
He explored the Solomon and Ellice Islands
He reached the Marquesas Islands and Santa Cruz (Island), east of the Solomon Islands; having set out from Peru
He met his death on Santa Cruz (Island)
1590s - Antonio Gutiérrez de Umaña / Francisco Leyva de Bonilla (All Facts)
Pair of Spanish explorers who went on an expedition to North America to find the “gold mines of Tindan” but were massacred by natives there (in modern-day Kansas)
1537 - 1600 - Pedro Menendez Marquez (All Facts)
3rd Governor of (Spanish) Florida
He arrived in St. Augustine to take over as governor and rebuild Santa Elena after it had just been destroyed by natives
He attacked a group of Cusabo tribesmen, killing some 40 Frenchmen from Nicolas Strozzi’s party, who were now scattered among the natives
He persuaded the Spanish authorities to agree to his plan to sail from Havana to Virginia and destroy the English settlements there (Roanoke Island)
1536 - 1602 - Juan de Fuca (All Facts)
(Greek) Sailor for Spain
He claimed to have travelled through a northwest passage to the northern Pacific Ocean
1590 - 1604 - Luis de Velasco (All Facts)
Spanish Colonial Administrator
He was the 8th Viceroy of Mexico (New Spain)
He was the 9th Viceroy of (Spanish) Peru
1598 - 1606 - Juan de Onate (All Facts)
Spanish Conquistador and First Governor of New Mexico
He set out on an expedition to New Mexico with some 500 colonists
He returned to the capital of New Mexico, San Gabriel, after a six-month search for the fabled Quivira (in modern-day Kansas), a legendary native American ruler whose cities were said to be encrusted with gold and precious stones
He had found the colony nearly deserted
He resigned as first Spanish governor of New Mexico, notifying the viceroy of New Spain that the colony would be abandoned if reinforcements failed to arrive
1565 - 1607 - Luís Vaz de Torres (All Facts)
Spanish Explorer
He led a Portuguese expedition that found modern-day Australia, at the time a new continent in the southern seas
He made a voyage across the Pacific Ocean, and then made his way to the Philippines
He may have glimpsed the north coast of Australia (near modern-day Cape York) and decided to land there where he found “corpulent and naked” Black people and kidnapped some in the interests of “research”
1600 - 1607 - Pedro de Valdes (All Facts)
Spanish Colonial Administrator and Governor of (Spanish) Cuba
He was notified by King Philip III of Spain about the king’s reservations about missionary and military efforts in (Spanish) Florida
1610 - 1614 - Pedro de Peralta (All Facts)
3rd Governor of (Spanish) New Mexico
He announced that the small village of Santa Fe was to be the new capital, moved from the initial capital at San Gabriel
He decided that the former site was too near hostile native American territory for a governmental seat
1548 - 1624 - Sebastián Vizcaíno (All Facts)
Spanish Explorer, Soldier, and Merchant
He led an expedition to link up with Don Juan de Onate on the Pacific coast, yet had directed his ships into the previously undiscovered Monterey Bay
One of his ships, the “San Diego,” returned to Mexico with the first full account of the Pacific coast of Central America
1621 - 1624 - Diego Carrillo de Mendoza y Pimentel (All Facts)
He was the 14th Viceroy of Mexico (New Spain)
During his reign,
He banished the popular archbishop of Mexico from Mexico after the prelate excommunicated the namesake
As a result, he announced the closing of all churches throughout Mexico
Under his reign,
The Tumult of 1624 occurred
He was extremely unpopular
1691 - 1703 - Diego de Vargas (All Facts)
30 and 32nd (Spanish) Governor of New Mexico of Mexico (New Spain)
He completed the reconquest of New Mexico for Spain