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Reenactors of the Coronado
expedition at Coronado National Memorial: Spanish weaponry
included crossbows when they first explored America--the
medieval legacy of knights and swords was not far behind
the Spanish, who only unified their nation as late as
1492
Photo from National Park Service digital archives
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Lewis and Clark followed in the spirit, if not the footsteps,
of earlier European explorers. The expeditions of Coronado,
La Salle, Lewis and Clark, and John C. Frémont brought back
invaluable knowledge of North America's geographic features,
flora and fauna, and inhabitants--the American Indians who were
the continent's first discoverers and explorers. The Coronado
and De Soto expeditions of the Spanish and the French explorations
under La Salle, as well as the voyages and expeditions of other
European explorers across North America, set the precedent for
Lewis and Clark.
First Discoverers: The American Indians were the first
discoverers and explorers of the North American continent. Although
the most recent evidence points to an American Indian presence
more than 13,000 years ago, the date of their initial exploration
of North America remains unknown. Crossing a land bridge, which
linked Alaska to Siberia during the Ice Age, they spread out
from northern Alaska, settled across the North American landmass,
and eventually made their way to the furthermost tip of South
America. The original inhabitants of North America were familiar
with the great rivers and trade routes later used by the European
colonists. Often acting as guides to the European explorers,
the American Indians taught the newcomers how to cultivate native
crops, find hunting grounds and water sources, and explore lands
beyond the European colonial horizon. Spain, following Columbus's
1492 discoveries in the Caribbean, was the first European nation
to establish permanent colonies in North America. The journeys
of Juan Ponce de Leon, the first Spaniard to reach the shores
of Florida in 1513 and again in 1521, and the disastrous 1528
Florida expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez, were important in
expanding Spanish knowledge of the North American continent
above Mexico. It was the discoveries of the Coronado and De
Soto expeditions, however, which first mapped most of the present
southwestern and southeastern United States.
The Coronado Expedition: Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
(1510-1554) remains the most famous Spanish explorer of the
American Southwest. Born in Salamanca, Spain, the second son
of an aristocrat, Coronado arrived in Mexico in 1535 seeking
his fortune. By 1538 he was appointed governor of the frontier
The Apache were encountered
by Coronado's expedition; unlike this photo, they had
not yet acquired horses at the time of their firs, encounter
with the Spanish
Historic photo: Apache-land (The North
American Indian; v.01) by photographer Edward S. Curtis,
1868-1952
Courtesy of McCormick Library of Special Collections,
Northwestern University Library
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province of Nuevo Galicia. On orders from the Spanish Viceroy
in Mexico City, Coronado outfitted an elaborate expedition. Coronado's
force consisted of 225 mounted cavaliers, 62 foot soldiers, 800
American Indian allies and 1,000 African and American Indian slaves.
Their goal was to find the rumored riches of the "Seven Cities
of Cíbola". Fray Marcos, a Spanish friar, had visited just south
of the pueblo region in 1539 and declared that Cíbola was "a land
rich in gold, silver and other wealth." On February 23, 1540,
the Coronado party left Compostela in western Mexico and moved
north, roughly following the Pacific Coast before exploring the
modern day Mexican regions of Sinaloa and Sonora. Part of Coronado's
expedition, under Hernando de Alarcón, ascended the Gulf of California
in three ships and explored the regions of the lower Colorado
River, reaching the modern-day border of southern California and
Arizona.
Twenty-one miles south of Sierra Vista, in the San Pedro Valley,
historians believe Coronado entered the present United States,
where the Coronado
National Memorial, administered by the National Park Service,
stands today. Entering the Zuni territory of western Arizona
and eastern New Mexico, Coronado's party entered the fabled
country of Cíbola on July 7, 1540. The pueblos, while impressive,
were not the golden cities of Friar Marcos's account.
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García López de Cárdenes
and his small party were the first Europeans to attempt
to descend the Grand Canyon (now Grand Canyon National
Park); after three days attempting to descend to the Colorado
River, they gave up
Photo from National Park Service digital archives
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Coronado occupied the pueblo of Háwiku, making it his headquarters
until November 1540, from which he sent out smaller exploring
parties. He sent Don Pedro de Tovar to northeastern Arizona, to
explore the Hopi villages. In August 1540, García López de Cárdenes,
Coronado's right hand man, was sent to investigate reports of
a river in the West. Cárdenes and 25 Spanish horsemen arrived
after 80 days at the Grand
Canyon in northern Arizona, becoming the first Europeans to
view one of the most spectacular scenes of natural beauty in the
American West. Cárdenes and his company were also the first Europeans
to attempt to descend the Grand Canyon to the Colorado River,
but they were unsuccessful.
American Indian visitors from the pueblo of Cicuye (Pecos
Pueblo in Eastern New Mexico) presented Coronado with hides
of a strange "humpbacked cow," which were buffalo hides from
the plains. Coronado in turn sent Hernando de Alvarado with
20 men to explore the new region about Cicuye and the upper
Río Grande. Near the modern town of Pecos, Texas, at
the American Indian settlement of Cicúique, Alvarado's party
was presented with two captive American Indians. One, whom the
Spanish named "the Turk," convinced the explorers to turn northeast
towards a region named Quivira, which he claimed was rich in
gold and silver. On April 23, 1541, Coronado left Tiguex on
the Río Grande with a force totaling 1,500, including
Indian allies and servants. Reaching the plains, they encountered
great herds of buffalo and made peaceful contact with the Apache
nation. Crossing the Canadian River west of the modern New Mexico-Texas
line, the party traversed the Texas Panhandle.
The Coronado National Historic
Site, maintained by the National Park Service, marks the
place where the Coronado expedition entered the modern United
Statesfrom Mexico
Photo from National Park Service digital archives |
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On June 29, 1541, they found the Quivira country, occupied by
a native people--probably Wichita Indians. The Quivira villages
were composed of scattered round grass lodges, and were not the
golden cities the Spanish came searching for. The explorers became
exasperated, and in a Quivira village in the vicinity of modern
day Lyons, Kansas, the Turk was ordered hung. Although Kansas,
abundant in wildlife, reminded the men of Spain, the disappointed
Spanish turned back, returning by a new route through the Oklahoma
and Texas Panhandles.
The majority of his men desired to return to Mexico and in
1542 the Coronado expedition headed home. Coronado returned
to Mexico City with about a hundred men of his mostly disbanded
expedition. Coronado and his party were the first Europeans
and Africans to observe the Zuni and Hopi pueblos, Colorado
River, Grand Canyon, and the Gila River. This expedition was
also the first to establish a winter camp on the banks of the
Río Grande, hunt buffalo on the plains, and explore the
North American interior as far as modern day Kansas.
The De Soto Expedition: Hernando De Soto (1500-1542)
was a captain under Francisco Pizarro, and made a fortune during
the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. De Soto's expedition
into the Southeastern United States began from Cuba. The site
of De Soto's landing in Florida in May 1539 is disputed between
Tampa Bay, Charlotte Harbor and San Carlos Bay. De Soto, leading
600 men, marched north up the Florida peninsula, finding winter
quarters at the American Indian town of Apalache, near the modern
city of Tallahassee, Florida. In March 1540 De Soto headed north
across Georgia, before going up the Savannah River. Here De
Soto encountered the Cherokees, visiting their town Xualla in
the region of the North Carolina-South Carolina border before
crossing the mountains into eastern Tennessee. Turning south
into Alabama, by October 1540, De Soto reached Mavila (today
Mobile, Alabama), where the ancestors of the Creek Nation resisted
the Spanish. In the encounter De Soto's force took the town
of Mavila, but the Spanish lost 18 men and 12 horses, while
150 of the Spanish force received wounds, among them De Soto
himself. Hearing of riches, on November 17 he turned north,
and set up winter quarters at a Chickasaw settlement in northern
Mississippi. By March, the Chickasaw were at war with De Soto's
party, and destroyed most of the expedition's supplies.
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Reenactors cast as the De
Soto party at De Soto National Memorial
Photo from National Park Service digital archives
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In April 1541, on the move again, De Soto and his company stood
on the east bank of the Mississippi, becoming the first Europeans
to encounter the great river. It was in June when he and his men
crossed the Mississippi and passed through central and south Arkansas,
searching for gold. They reached as far north as the village of
Coluca, in northeastern Arkansas, before traveling to the mouth
of the Arkansas River. From there, the Spanish followed the Arkansas
River upstream until they reached near modern-day Little Rock.
De Soto and his party next journeyed west to Tula, near Caddo
Gap, before finding winter quarters on the Ouachita River in southern
Arkansas. The next spring, resolving to go to the Gulf of Mexico
and send for reinforcements, De Soto's party headed south, now
with about 300 efficient fighting men. Near the mouth of the Red
River in Louisiana, on May 21, 1542, De Soto died from a fever
and was buried in the Mississippi River. The remainder of the
expedition returned to Mexico.
DeSoto Trail marker,
De Soto National Memorial, Florida
Photo from National Park Service digital archives |
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Today the National Park Service maintains the De
Soto National Memorial in Bradenton, Florida, which commemorates
the 1539 De Soto expedition. The legacy of the Coronado and De
Soto expeditions, according to the historian Herbert Bolton in
Coronado, Knight of Pueblos and Plain, "made known to the
world in broad outline nearly a third of the area now contained
in the United States, and in several important respects had changed
current ideas regarding the entire land mass of North America
and its geographical relation to the rest of the globe."
French Explorations: The French entered the race for
the Americas in 1534 when King Francis I sent Jacques Cartier
on a voyage of discovery across the Atlantic Ocean. Cartier
first explored Newfoundland before sailing up the Gulf of St.
Lawrence. The following year he continued exploring the St.
Lawrence as far as present-day Montreal. For the next half-century
French fishermen arrived in such numbers around the waters of
Newfoundland that they secured French claims to modern-day eastern
Canada. It was the fur trade and the wealth it generated that
caused King Henry IV, who reigned from 1589 to 1610, to secure
the area for France. Samuel de Champlain traversed much of the
new territory, establishing Quebec in 1608 and exploring the
waterways and paths around Lake Champlain, Lake Huron and the
eastern end of Lake Ontario from 1609-15. In 1663 The French
King Louis XIV created a royal province out of New France and
sent as its administrator Jean Talon, a man of great ability.
Talon sent Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet (1645-1700),
a native-born Canadian fur trader, to explore the Mississippi
River, which they entered on June 17, 1673. Marquette and Jolliet
reached as far as the mouth of the Arkansas River before turning
back.
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A 17th-century artist's rendering of La Salle's landing
in Texas
Image courtesy
of the Texas Historical Commission
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When they returned to Quebec in 1674 René Robert Cavelier, also known as Sieur
de La Salle, listened to the tales of their adventures with great
attention. La Salle envisioned creating a series of trading forts
down the Mississippi that would prevent the Atlantic English colonies
from expanding westward. In February 1682, La Salle and his party
entered the Mississippi from the Illinois River, and by April
they entered the Gulf of Mexico, having successfully navigated
the great river. Returning to France, he received permission to
establish a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi, and with four
ships he embarked across the Atlantic, but landed instead at Matagorda
Bay, in Texas. It was in eastern Texas where mutinous followers
murdered him in 1687. La Salle's vision became a reality when
New Orleans was established in 1718, and the French forts along
the Mississippi River basin were created to secure the alliances
of the local inhabitants.
Other Explorations: Vitus Bering, a Danish navigator
sailing in the service of Russia, set out on a great expedition
in 1741, and with Aleksei Chirikov, successfully mapped the
western coast of Alaska, claiming the land for the Czars. Later
the Russians would reach as far as northern California, when,
in 1812, Russian fur traders established Fort Ross on Bodega
Bay, to the north of San Francisco. England's exploration of
North America began when Genovese navigator John Cabot explored
the seas around Newfoundland in 1497. The successful English
colonization of North America started with the founding of Jamestown
in 1607. The Dutch and the Swedes competed with England for
control of the Hudson and Delaware River valleys, with the Dutch
exploring much of modern New York State from the 1620s until
the English conquered their North American holdings in 1664.
The Dutch had earlier seized the Swedish possessions.
From approximately A.D.
600 through A.D. 1300 people lived and flourished in the
region of Mesa Verde, Colorado, eventually building elaborate
stone villages in the sheltered alcoves of the canyon
walls that the later Spanish would find deserted; both
the American Indians and European newcomers "discovered"
each other
Photo from National Park Service digital archives, Mesa
Verde National Park
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The English exploration of the North American interior was slow
and cautious. Captain Abraham Wood, in 1650, explored the forks
of the Roanoke River in Virginia. James Neeham and Gabriel Arthur
reached the Yadkin River and found a pass through the Carolina
Blue Ridge in 1673. It was the English fur traders who pushed
west into the Shenandoah Valley in the 1680s. By the following
decade they were on the banks of the Ohio River, in disputed territory
claimed by France. After the American Revolution, British and
British Canadian explorers continued to map the North American
continent. Captain George Vancouver was an English explorer whose
ships reached the Strait of Juan de Fuca in May 1792. He explored
the region about modern-day Seattle, naming Puget Sound, Mt. Rainier,
Whidbey Island, and the Hood Canal. David Thompson explored western
North America from 1797 to 1812, including much of the western
United States (including the Columbia River) and Canada, and mapped
the region.
Bibliography
Ambrose, Stephen E. Undaunted Courage Meriwether
Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West.
New York: Simon & Shuster, 1996.
Billington, Ray Allen, with James Blaine Hedges.
Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier.
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1949.
Lamar, Howard R. (editor). The New Encyclopedia
of the American West. New Haven: Yale University Press,
1998. (Especially helpful were the articles by Richard A. Bartlett
on Coronado and De Soto, Homer E. Socolofsky's article on Colonial
Wars, Odie B. Faulk's article on Texas, John L. Loos' article
on the Lewis and Clark Expedition).
Milner II, Clyde A., Carol A. O'Connor, Martha
A. Sandweiss (editors). The Oxford History of the American
West. New York: Oxford University Press. 1994.
National Park Service. Coronado National
Memorial Arizona. (pamphlet) Washington D.C.: Government
Printing Office, 1974.
Seibert, Erika K. Martin (compiler and editor).
The Earliest Americans Theme Study for the Eastern United
States (draft). Washington, D.C.: National Historic Landmarks
Survey, NRHE, National Park Service, 2002.
Slaughter, Thomas P. Exploring Lewis and
Clark: Reflections on Men and Wilderness. New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 2003.
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