Virtual Classroom
Assignment
Spanish Conquest
Cabeza de Vaca

Some significant dates in the history of Spanish conquest in North America:

1492 Columbus, on the first of his four voyages, visits the Caribbean, returning to Europe with Indian captives.
1519 Hernando Cortés wages war on the Aztecs, claiming victory in 1521, and disease begins to decimate the native population.
1513 Juan Ponce de Leon lands on Florida's east coast on April 2, giving it the name La Florida.
1526 Spanish settle a colony, San Miguel de Guadalupe, at Sapelo Bay, Georgia.
1528 Expedition with Cabeza de Vaca lands on Florida's west coast and sets out to explore the interior in search of a passage to Tampico.
1536 Cabeza de Vaca and Esteban are among four Spaniards to survive eight years in the interior of America. They arrive in Mexico City with stories of their survival and of large Indian communities in the interior.
1539 Hernando de Soto, with 600 men, lands on Florida's west coast and sets out to explore the interior.
1539 Esteban is killed at Zuni and Fray Marcos returns to Mexico.
1540 Coronado's conquest of New Mexico and the Seven Cities of Cibola begins.
1562 Englishman John Hawkins begins slave trade between Africa and the Caribbean.
1564 French establish Fort Caroline at the mouth of the St. Johns River.
1565 Spanish found San Augustin (now St. Augustine, Florida) and soon capture Fort Caroline.
1581 Slaves brought to San Augustin, Florida.
1598 Settlement begins in New Mexico under Juan de Onate as El Camino Real is established between El Paso del Norte and Santa Cruz, New Mexico.
1607 Captain John Smith founds the Jamestown colony in present-day Virginia and many of the original settlers die during the winter. The next English colony would not be established until 1620, when the Pilgrims land at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
1627 Spanish establish Castillo de San Marcos at San Augustin, Florida.
1680 Pueblo Indians revolt against Spanish in New Mexico.
1729 Spanish govern Texas from Presidio Nuestra Senora del Pilar de Los Adaes (in Louisiana) through 1773.
1769 Settlement of Mission San Diego de Alcala, near San Diego, is the first in a series of twenty Spanish missions reaching far into present-day California.
1776 Spanish establish Mission San Francisco de Asis, San Francisco, California.

The Declaration of Independence is signed, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, proclaiming freedom for the Thirteen Colonies.
1810 Mexico declares independence from Spain, bringing the lands from Texas to California under the government of Mexico by 1821.
1819 Spain cedes Florida to the U.S. on February 22.
1823 The Monroe Doctrine, enacted December 2, opposes European intervention in the Americas.

See Houston History and other Timelines.


See these related pages:
La Frontera Vieja | The King's Road | El Camino Real
Spanish Missions of California | Mission San Juan Capistrano
Mission Satevo | Guerrero Viejo | Copper Canyon
Colonial Cities of Mexico | La Florida


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