SPANISH PRECURSORS
Columbus' predecessors in the exploration of the Americas
- accidental "discoverers" prior to
1492
- *Vikings(a.ka. Norsemen)
*Christopher Columbus(c.1451-1506) - credited w/ the rediscovery
of the Americas
- four voyages to the Caribbean and the Americas
- impact of Columbus' voyages
- initiated settlement of the Americas by
Europeans and Africans
- foundation of the Atlantic World
- began the "Columbian Exchange"
- led to European domination of the Americas
foundation of the Spanish presence in the Americas during the 16th century - conquest
of the Aztecs and Incas
- Hernando Cortes' conquest of the Aztec
empire(1519-21)
- Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Incan
empire(1531-33)
*Spanish Borderlands - southern half of the present-day U.S.
- selected expeditions
- Juan Ponce de Leon's 1513 exploration of the Florida coast
- Francisco Vasquez de Coronado's 1540-42 exploration of the present-day SW U.S.
- *Hernando de Soto's 1539-43
exploration of the present-day SE U.S.
- Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo's 1542
exploration of the California coast
- selected settlements
- St. Augustine(est. 1565)
- San Antonio - founded, along w/ Alamo mission, in 1718
- New Mexico
- "coastal strip" of California from San Diego to San Francisco
reasons for Spanish colonial primacy in the Americas during the sixteenth century
- Spanish advantages
- location in the Iberian peninsula w/ a long Atlantic coastline
- not torn by the Reformation - almost entirely Catholic
- other west European nations otherwise
distracted
- Portugal - more interested in Africa and India than the Americas
- Netherlands - struggling for independence from Spain
- England - torn by religious conflicts growing out of the Reformation
- France - torn by religious conflicts growing out of the Reformation
16th-century English and French activities in and around North America
- exploration
- fishing
- fur trade
- piracy/privateering
- colonization
- Fort Caroline(1564-65)(a.k.a. la Caroline)(http://www.nps.gov/foca/)
- *Roanoke settlements