european explorers
TRANSCRIPT
Section E
European Explorers
Route – a path of travel.Colony – a settlement located in one country but ruled by another country.
Convert – to change someone’s beliefs to agree with yours.
Conquistador – a Spanish conqueror and treasure seeker.
Empire – a conquered land of many places and people under one ruler.
Vocabulary E-2
Expedition – a journey made for a special reason.
Slave – a person who is owned by another person and made to do work for no pay.
Legend – a story handed down over time.Astrolabe – a device used by sailors to
find location using the position of the stars.
Caravel – a small, fast ship with special sails for wind and travel on the rough seas.
Vocabulary E-2 - Continued
Caravel -The caravel was used for exploration by Christopher Columbus on his journey to the New World.
Synonym – ship
Astrolabe – an instrument that helps find the directions of north, south, east, west using the stars.
Synonym – compass
Empire – a conquered land of many places.Syn. Claimed colonies
Colony – a settlement located in one country but ruled by another.Syn: a settlement
E-3
In 1519 Hernando Cortes set out to explore the new world (Mexico) for Spain.
He conquered large areas of North and South America for Spain.
He set out to conquer most of the land in South America for Spain (Mexico).
He defeated the Aztec Indians and their chief in 1521 and took over Tenochtitlan.
He found great wealth among the Aztecs and took over all their wealth for himself and Spain.
The Spanish hoped to find gold in North America.
Hernando Cortes
In 1519 the Spanish government commissioned Alonso Alvarez De Pineda (1494-1519) to explore the coast of the Gulf of Mexico to find a water passage from the Gulf to the Orient.
Pineda sailed North from Cuba and followed the coast from what is now western Florida to present day Vera Cruz, Mexico.
During his 9-month expedition he mapped nearly 800 miles of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico to find that another explorer, Hernando Cortes, already had claimed the land.
Explorers and governors were fighting over amid document approval by royalty.
Alonso Alvarez de Pineda
After escaping from Cortes, who had attempted to capture him, Pineda sailed north, stopping briefly near a river that was probably the Rio Grande.
He may have died of wounds received in an Indian fight there, since his return to Jamaica never was confirmed.
Pineda's report and detailed map were forwarded to governor Garay and then to King Charles I of Spain.
Alonso Alvarez de Pineda
Captain De Pineda and his crew were probably the first Europeans in Texas to claim it for Spain.
One of the regions he explored and mapped was the area around Corpus Christi Bay; de Pineda entered Corpus Christi Bay on the feast day of Corpus Christi, hence the name.
It did encourage further exploration along the Gulf Coast that led to colonization by Spaniards and other Europeans.
Alonso Alvarez de Pineda
1528 Narvaez led an expedition to claim lands along the Gulf of Mexico for Spain (present day Florida)
In April of 1528 a storm shipwrecks him on the coast of Florida.
A series of hurricanes and fights with Native Americans killed many of the crew, and the pilot of the ship sailed to Mexico without the men.
The stranded men made 5 makeshift rafts to sail west, hoping to reach a Spanish settlement in Mexico.
Three rafts sank, but the two surviving rafts (carrying 80 men) landed at Galveston Island (off what is now Texas). Narvaez did not survive.
Panfilo de Narvaez
Cabeza de Vaca (head of the cow) was originally on the expedition with Narvaez. He was one of the survivors on the rafts that made it off the Texas coast.
Starving and weak Cabeza de Vaca and about 80 survivors landed on or near Galveston Island as the result of a Hurricane where they were soon captured by the Karankawas, originally as guests, until death by starvation and disease caused the indians to mistrust them and make them slaves.
Cabeza de Vaca remained with the Karankawas, as a slave and then later as a medicine man for 8 years.
He later found 3 other Spaniards after he managed to escape. One of which was Estebanico, a black slave, that had endured more than three years of cruelty by the Indians.
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
They escaped together in 1535.While held by Karankawas, they heard legends
of Cibola.Cabeza de Vaca and crew set out in 1539 to
west Texas through the desert to find a village of adobe homes that had been raided.
He later made it to Mexico and wrote a formal report of his encounters with the Indians and the land through Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
After Cabeza de Vaca’s report about his experiences and thinking about the legend of the Seven Cities of Cibola, Spain decided to send another expedition.
In 1539 they sent a group of soldiers and a priest, Marcos de Niza with Esteban as a tour guide.
They explored parts of New Mexico and Arizona to find nothing. The leaders sent Esteban ahead as a scout to see if they were close to Cibola.
He did reach a Pueblo with the Zuni Indians.When he did not return they went ahead a little
further to find a Pueblo that looked gold in the sun.They returned back to Mexico to report what they
had seen.
Marcos de Niza
In 1540, Spain sent Francisco Vasquez de Coronado to explore the area thought to be Cibola.
They found a Pueblo that was empty, but no gold.
They continued and found an Indian tribe that told them about a city called Quivira, a land of riches.
They crossed much of the Texas Panhandle to finally reach Quivira in the area now known as Kansas.
It was an ordinary village, but had no riches.
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
1542 DeSoto dies along Mississippi River and de Moscoso takes over.
They quickly leave Mississippi River and go west arriving in east Texas around the Caddo Indians.
Possibly landed in the later named mission of Nacadoches.
They continued on a southwest course traveling until they reached the Brazos River.
Lost and without an interpreter they retreated to the Mississippi River, built 7 boats and sailed down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico and then sailed down the coasts of Louisiana and Texas until they reached the Panuco River in Mexico.
Luis de Moscoso Alvarad0
Juan de Onate explored the area in 1598 after the Spanish took a short break from exploration.
His goal was to build a settlement and wanted to find gold.
He had 400 soldiers and 7,000 cattleSpent 3 months crossing the desert south of Rio
Grande River.April 20, 1598 the group crossed into Texas near
present day El Paso.They named the site El Paso de Norte and
celebrated. He claimed the lands for Spain and continued north
into New Mexico.He returned to Mexico and reported that he found
no gold.Spain decided not to send any more expeditions for
75 years.
Juan de Onate
In 1682, Cavelier, known as Sieur de LaSalle led an expedition down the Mississippi River from Canada.
He claimed land along the way for France.In 1684 he led another expedition to the
Gulf of Mexico from France.He sailed pass the mouth of the Mississippi
and a storm shipwrecked him on coast of Texas around Matagorda Bay in 1685.
Short on supplies because they lost the cargo in the storm, he built a settlement and named it Fort St. Louis after the King Louis XIV.
Rene Robert Cavelier
Settlement wasn’t successful because of crops and Indians. Many settlers died.
In 1687, LaSalle decided to lead a small expedition to find the mouth of the Mississippi.
Some of the crew blamed him for the deaths and killed him.
After hearing of his death, the Indians killed the settlers.
Fearing the French would control the land above Mexico, the Spanish heard of LaSalle’s settlement and decided to return to the area to claim it for Spain.
La Belle
Rene Robert Cavelier
After hearing from two of LaSalle’s men that had escaped to one of the Spanish missions in Mexico, the Viceroy sent the news to Spain.
The King of Spain ordered that the viceroy send someone to run LaSalle out of the area.
They chose Alonso de Leon, who had explored parts of Mexico before.
1698 – DeLeon headed to Texas and reached the settlement of Fort St. Louis.
The settlement was deserted and evidence that the Indians had raided the settlement had been found.
DeLeon wrote the viceroy a report that they needed to settle Texas before any other group did.
Alonso de Leon
Using the explorer notes, please include the following information on your timeline.
1. Provide the name of the explorer that corresponds with the date on the timeline.
2. What areas did they explore?3. What was the goal of the expedition?4. Provide at least 2 events that happened
during their expedition.5. Skip 1542 on the timeline
Explorer Timeline Directions