Spanish_Exploration_and_Colonization_of_the_New_World

SPANISH EXPLORATION AND* COLONIZATION* OF THE NEW WORLD Charles Walker History HIST 101 03 Jan 2010 Alvar Cabeza de Vaca thought he was going to settle near the coast when his party approached Florida in 1528. But after a series of tragedies, he and 300 other people were abandoned on shore.2 The men traveled west unaware of their location. They built rafts to cross the Gulf Coast, and by the end of their first year, only four survived, including Cabeza de Vaca. The small band of men spent years traveling across the arid plains of Texas and the deserts of New Mexico, making them the first explorers of the Southwest. The story of Cabeza de Vaca made his way through hostile lands working as a faith healer seemed unrealistic to the authorities. Soon after he issued his report, one of the members of his expedition, a slave named Estevan, embellished the unbelievable tale by adding an account of the "Seven Golden Cities of Cibola," where the inhabitants lived in unbelievable luxury. Now all the riches of Mexico, South America, the Caribbean, and Central America did not seem enough to the Spanish king. He commanded Francisco Vasquez de Coronado to leave Mexico for points north, to find the golden cities. Coronado and his men searched for the mythical land of gold for nearly three years. They encountered many different tribes of Native Americans, who always directed them just a little farther north or a little farther west. He also managed to seize some of their lands and people and convert them to Catholicism. He never found the Golden Cities, but he did explore vast areas of Arizona, New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and Kansas. His troops were the first Europeans to remark on the vast herds of bison on the plains. One member of his expedition, Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, was the first European to see the Grand Canyon. Although Coronado enlarged the Spanish Empire by several thousand miles, his expeditions were branded a failure, as he found no gold or other treasure to enrich the royal coffers. A handful of Spanish explorers kept looking for the Seven Cities of Cibola between 1563 and 1596. Needless to say, none found it, although they did explore and map vast areas of New Mexico and Colorado. Meanwhile, other Spanish expeditions were exploring the continent’s Pacific coast. The Spanish Empire now covered a huge area of North America, from Vancouver Island all the way south to Mexico, and from the Pacific Coast to the Great Plains. Territories in the east included all of Florida and parts of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Texas. The Spanish treated the natives as slaves and like barbarians. Cortez conquered the Aztecs in 1519 and Pizarro conquered the Incas in 1531. The natives for the most part were treated badly because of their beliefs and that the Spanish thought they lived in a backwards society. The Spanish started to setup missions, to convert the natives to Catholicism. The ones that did not convert were either killed or enslaved. Due to this kind of treatment, most of the natives rebelled against the Spanish. These rebellions slowly decreased the native population as did the diseases carried by the Spanish such as malaria, smallpox, and measles. As the Spanish slowly expanded out of Mexico, the land of the natives slowly decreased. Although the Spanish caused many deaths, brought disease, and enslaved the Native Americans. They also brought many good things the New World such as civilization, architecture, a system of laws, and Christianity. They were able to establish several Spanish-speaking nations that like Mexico. The Spanish colonies were larger and richer than European colonies. As a result of the exploration of the New World the Spanish would go on to become the most powerful civilization in the world if only for a period of time. Bibliography Peggy Samuels, “Imagining Distance: Spanish Explorers in America,” Early American Literature 25, no. 3 (1990): 1, http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy2.apus.edu.