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Annie Smith Peck was a trailblazing scholar, writer and athlete who set records as a mountain climber in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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Annie Smith Peck (born Oct. 19, 1850, Providence, R.I., U.S.-died July 18, 1935, New York, N.Y.) was an American mountain climber whose numerous ascents-often record-setting and some at an advanced age-made her a remarkable figure in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Peck early developed remarkable physical strength, endurance, and courage through determined competition with her three older brothers. She attended the Rhode Island State Normal School (1870-72; now Rhode Island College) and the University of Michigan (1874-78), where she graduated with honours. She received a master's degree from Michigan in 1881 and then taught Latin at Purdue University (1881-83). From 1883 to 1885 she pursued advanced studies in Germany, and in the latter year she became the first woman admitted to the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. From 1886 to 1887 she taught Latin at Smith College.

On Peck's journey from Germany to Greece in 1885, the sight of the Matterhorn aroused in her an interest in climbing. After a few practice climbs she tackled Mount Shasta, California, in 1888. Her ascent of the Matterhorn in 1895 brought her wide celebrity and, in Victorian society, a touch of notoriety. In 1897 she climbed Popocatépetl and Citlaltépetl (Pico de Orizaba) volcanoes in Mexico. Her ascent of the latter, at 18,406 feet (5,610 metres), was the highest point in the Western Hemisphere that had been attained by a woman.

Peck supported herself by giving parlour lectures and subsequently by lecturing on the Chautauqua and other circuits, but little money was left over for proper equipment and preparation for more ambitious climbs. While in Europe in 1900, Peck climbed the Fünffingerspitze in the Austrian Tyrol, Monte Cristallo in the Dolomites, and the Jungfrau in Switzerland. In 1902 she helped found the American Alpine Club. She then began exploring South America for a peak on which she could make a first ascent. In 1904 she climbed the 21,066-foot (6,421-metre) Illampu peak in Bolivia's Cordillera Real. Several lesser climbs followed, and in September 1908 she conquered Mount Huascarán in the Peruvian Andes. Estimating the summit to be about 24,000 feet (7,300 metres), Peck claimed to have climbed higher than any other woman. A subsequent measurement showed the peak to be somewhat lower, but Peck still held the American record in the Western Hemisphere. In 1911, at the age of 61, she climbed Peru's Mount Coropuna, at the summit of which she raised a "Votes for Women" pennant.

In addition to lecturing, Peck wrote occasional articles for magazines and published A Search for the Apex of South America (1911), The South American Tour (1913), Industrial and Commercial South America (1922), and Flying over South America-20,000 Miles by Air (1932), on the feasibility of commercial aviation on that continent. In 1927 the Lima Geographical Society named the north peak of Huascarán in her honour-Cumbre Aña Peck. Her last climb was of Mount Madison, New Hampshire, when she was 82.

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Annie Smith Peck | Pioneering Mountaineer & Explorer | Britannica

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Annie Smith Peck was an American mountain climber whose numerous ascents-often record-setting and some at an advanced age-made her a remarkable figure in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Peck early developed remarkable physical strength, endurance, and courage through determined competition

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Annie Smith Peck was the youngest child in a well-to-do family from Providence, Rhode Island. Her three older brothers never wanted her to play with them, and Annie vowed that one day she would prove

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A Woman's Place Is at the Top: The Biography of Annie Smith Peck is now available on Amazon. You can order it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and IndieBound.

You can also check out more images of Peck on my Instagram Page.

Annie Smith Peck was a popular figure as a climber, explorer and suffragist at the turn of the last century. Peck climbed Matterhorn in 1895 (at the age of forty-five), which brought her instant fame - not because of her climb, but because of what she wore to scale the peak: a pair of pants (instead of a long skirt). Her climbing costume was a feat in itself, as news accounts during this time of women being arrested for wearing men's attire were not uncommon. She held the record for conquering the second highest peak ascended in the western hemisphere in 1908. Peck fought for women's suffrage and participated in politics before she had the right to vote. She was honored and celebrated by not only America, but by South American countries as well. The northern peak of Mount Huascarán in Peru is named after Peck. She accomplished all of this as an unmarried woman, leading her own expeditions.

There are over 100 news articles about and by Peck between 1900 and 1930, which discuss her achievements in climbing and exploration, her many public lectures, women's suffrage, politics, and popular culture. She lectured throughout the United States and South America and published numerous articles and four books on that part of the world. However, after 1935, when Peck died, news coverage of her died as well, leaving us without her legacy, until now.

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A Woman's Place Is at the Top: The Biography of Annie Smith Peck is now available on Amazon. You can order it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and IndieBound. You can also check out more images of Peck on my Instagram Page. Annie Smith Peck was a popular figure as a climber, explorer and suffragist...

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Peck wasn't wealthy and her family, who did have money, didn't approve of her globe-trotting, mountain-climbing, pants-wearing lifestyle

smithsonian.com

She wore pants
"Climbing is unadulterated hard labor," Annie Smith Peck wrote. "The only real pleasure is the satisfaction of going where no man has been before and where few can follow."

Peck stands out in a generation of female mountaineers who all bucked convention. Here, three things she did that challenged sexist norms:

Peck, born on this day in 1850, climbed the Matterhorn in-get this-pants. That's right. Pants. In 1895. Scandalous.

She wasn't the first woman to summit the Swiss mountain, writes Brook Sutton for Adventure Journal-that was Lucy Walker in 1871. Walker wore a dress for her ascent, which represents its own achievement, and attracted some positive press attention, according to Claire Jane Carter writing for BMC.
She had to put up with a lot
In Peck's case, on the other hand, the press didn't focus on the achievement but on the clothes that the 45-year-old was wearing. "She provoked moral outrage with her daring and eccentric climbing outfit: a hip-length tunic, knickerbockers, stout boots and woolen hose, topped off by a stout felt hat with a veil," writes Charles T. Robinson for Yankee. It actually got so bad that public debate centered around whether or not she should be arrested for the crime of pants-wearing, Sutton writes.

By the time Peck summitted the Matterhorn, she had been practicing for a decade, according to American National Biography Online. She spotted the mountain while on an 1885 train trip, and vowed she'd return to climb it. But that decade of training wasn't easy, the website writes.
She was a feminist
"She began in her late thirties, which is considered late for a climber even by modern standards, and she was a woman. Few other mountaineers of her day would climb with a woman so she often had to rely on hired Swiss mountain guides and the occasional scientist. Peck had trouble with her male companions ranging from their temper tantrums to strikes, even sabotage. On one expedition the guides waited for her to break trail across a crevasse field then cut her ropes and returned without her to camp. When she eventually made her way back she found them all sitting around the campfire astounded at her return."

The determination and ability she showed in this instance continued after she achieved her goal atop the Matterhorn. Now a celebrity, Peck headed to South America with the goal of being the first person to climb the tallest mountain in the Americas. She competed with another female climber, Fanny Bullock Workman, on this achievement.

Peck's family didn't approve of her globe-trotting, mountain-climbing, pants-wearing lifestyle. She supported herself by traveling and lecturing about her adventures, something she was well prepared for from her previous career as a teacher, as well as by writing magazine and newspaper articles. "My home is where my trunk is," she said, according to Sutton.

She also supported feminist causes-particularly the vote-planting a "Votes for Women" flag at the peak of Mount Coropuna in Peru, which she climbed at the age of 61, writes Encyclopedia Britannica. Additionally, she was among four women who helped to found the American Alpine Club -meaning that important organization in the historically exclusionary world of mountaineering always accepted women as members.

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Three Things to Know About Pants-Wearing Mountaineer Annie Smith Peck

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smithsonian.com She wore pants "Climbing is unadulterated hard labor," Annie Smith Peck wrote. "The only real pleasure is the satisfaction of going where no man has been before and where few can follow." Peck stands out in a generation of female mountaineers who all bucked convention.

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Ellen "Nellie" Cashman (1845 - January 4, 1925), better known as Nellie Cashman, became noted across the American West and in western Canada as a nurse, restaurateur, businesswoman, Roman Catholic philanthropist in Arizona, and gold prospector in Alaska.

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Nellie Cashman, was one of the Old West's original female entrepreneurs, as well as a prospector, and an "angel of mercy." Wandering the frontier mining camps of the west, seeking her fortune, she was soon known throughout for her charity, courage, and determination.

Ellen "Nellie" Cashman was born in Queenstown, County Cork, Ireland to Patrick Cashman and Frances "Fanny" Cronin in 1845. Her father died when she was a very young child when Nellie was just five years old, she and her sister, Fanny immigrated with their mother to the United States during the potato famine.

They first settled in Boston before moving to Washington, D.C. There, Nellie got her first job working as a lift operator in a hotel where she often overheard Civil War politics. On one occasion, she even met General Ulysses S. Grant, who urged her to go west.

Evidently, taking Grant's advice, the family made their way to San Francisco in 1865 (or 1869). Fannie soon married and began to raise a family. However, an adventurous Nellie, enamored with the gold rush stories of the west, soon hired out as a cook in various Nevada mining camps, including Virginia City and Pioche.

After carefully saving her money, she opened the Miner's Boarding House at Panaca Flat, Nevada in 1872. She was said to have always been a great friend to the miners, often feeding them and providing lodging if they had no money.

Later Cashman would be described as "Pretty as a Victorian cameo and, when necessary, tougher than two-penny nails." And that she was. These few Nevada mining camps would be just some of the first that Cashman would spend time in, always starting a business, doing a little prospecting on the side, and looking after the miners.

In 1874, when gold was discovered in the Cassair Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, Nellie joined up with a group of 200 Nevada miners headed northward. At Telegraph Creek, she set up another boarding house for miners. Again, she looked after the miners, providing help when they needed it and looking after them when they were ill. A devout Catholic, Nellie began collecting money for Sisters of St. Anne in Victoria to build a hospital. Appreciative of her care, they were quick to help.

Sometime later, Cashman traveled to Victoria to deliver $500 dollars in donations, which would help the nuns in building St. Joseph's Hospital. While there, she heard that 26 miners had been stranded in a snowstorm back in the Cassiar Mountains. Wasting no time, she organized a rescue expedition with six men, and a number of pack animals carrying 1,500 pounds of supplies and took off with the expedition to find the stranded men. Conditions in these mountains were so hazardous at the time, that even the Canadian Army had refused to mount a rescue. When they heard about Cashman's expedition, the commander sent his troops to find her and return her and the men back to safety. However, when they did find her, she refused to return without the stranded miners.

After 77 days, sometimes treading through as much as ten feet of snow, she finally found the men, who turned out to number more than 75 rather than the rumored 26. Suffering from severe scurvy, she loaded them up with Vitamin C in their diets and nursed them back to health.

When the Cassiar strike played out, Nellie headed for the silver fields of Arizona in 1879. First settling in Tucson in 1879, she opened the Delmonico Restaurant, the first business in town to be owned by a woman. Though she often gave her food away free to the hungry, her restaurant was a success. But her time in Tucson would be short lived, as in 1880, she sold the restaurant and moved on to the new silver rush and booming town of Tombstone.

Upon her arrival, she first ran a boot and shoe store briefly before opening the Russ House Restaurant. According to one popular legend, when a client complained about Nellie's cooking, Doc Holliday was present. When Holliday drew his side arm and asked the customer to repeat what he had said, the embarrassed customer replied, "Best I ever ate."

She continued her work for the Catholic faith, raising money to build the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Tombstone and worked as a nurse. Before enough money was raised to build the church, she convinced the owners of the Crystal Palace Saloon to allow Sunday church services to be held there. Also raising money for the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, the Miner's Hospital, and any miner who might have fallen on hard times, she soon was called an "Angel of Mercy."

When her brother-in-law died in 1881, Nellie invited her sister, Fannie, who by then had five children, to join her in Tombstone.

In December, 1883, five killers committed a robbery in Bisbee, leaving behind four people dead. Known as the Bisbee Massacre, the law was quickly on their tale. Captured and taken to trial in Tombstone, the men were scheduled to hang on March 8, 1884. The town soon took on a carnival like atmosphere and free tickets were issued for the event. But, when Sheriff Ward ran out of them, an enterprising business man built bleachers around the gallows and began selling yet more tickets.

Nellie objected adamantly to the circus that was surrounding the event. Outraged at the citizens' behavior and feeling that no death should be "celebrated," she soon befriended the five convicts, visiting them often and providing them with spiritual guidance. She pleaded with Sheriff Ward to place a curfew on the town during the time that the hangings were to take place. Ward conceded and the vast majority of interested onlookers were not allowed to watch the "event.

After they were executed, the men were buried in Tombstone's Boot Hill cemetery. Cashman also found out that there was a plan to rob the bodies from their graves for a medical school study. This, too, outraged her and she hired two prospectors to guard the graves for ten days, which were left undisturbed and remain at Boot Hill today.

Later that year, when a group of miners attempted to lynch mine owner E.B. Gage during a labor dispute, Nellie drove her buggy into the mob and rescued Gage, spiriting him away to Benson, Arizona.

After returning from an unsuccessful gold expedition to Baja, California, her widowed sister Fannie died of tuberculosis, leaving Nellie to raise her five children. In 1886, Nellie sold the Russ House and left Tombstone with the children in tow. Traveling to several places in Arizona, including Nogales, Jerome, Prescott, Yuma and Harqua Hala, she again set up restaurants and worked part time at prospecting. Later, she wandered other mining camps in Wyoming, Montana, and the New Mexico. Under her care, all five children became successful, productive citizens, despite their constant wandering.

When the Klondike Gold Rush began, Nellie headed to the Yukon in 1898. In Dawson City, she set up yet another restaurant and mercantile, again helping the miners whenever they were in need. In 1904, she went to Fairbanks where she opened a grocery store. All the while, she was collecting claims in the region which she worked on when she could. Nellie finally settled down in Victoria, British Columbia in 1923. Two years later, in January, 1925, she died of pneumonia in the very same hospital she had helped to build - St. Josephs. Because of her giving spirit, when she died she was known throughout the West and her eulogy was published in papers as far away as New York. The diminutive woman, who often dressed as a man and never married, had made her mark as one of the first women entrepreneurs in the west, as well as a miner, and an "Angel of Mercy." Throughout the various mining camps, she had variously been called the Frontier Angel, Saint of the Sourdoughs, Miner's Angel, Angel of the Cassair, and The Angel of Tombstone.

On March 15, 2006, Nellie Cashman was inducted into the Alaska Mining Hall of Fame.

© Kathy Weiser/ Legends of America, updated October, 2017.
Also See: Haunted Tombstone Tombstone - The Town Too Tough to Die Tombstone Photo Gallery Women of the American West

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Nellie Cashman - Pioneering the Mining Camps

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Nellie Cashman, was one of the Old West's original female entrepreneurs, as well as a prospector, and an "angel of mercy." Wandering the frontier mining camps of the west, seeking her fortune, she was soon known throughout for her charity, courage, and determination.

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Nellie Cashman, The Angel of Tombstone - DesertUSA

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Pretty as a Victorian cameo and, when necessary, tougher than two-penny nails, Nellie Cashman wandered frontier mining camps of the 1800s seeking gold, silver and a way to help others.

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Kids learn about the biography and life of Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernan Cortes. He conquered the Aztec Empire.

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Find Facts about Hernan Cortes for Kids. Fun Facts about Hernan Cortes for Kids. History and Info about Hernan Cortes for Kids.

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Fun Facts for Kids about Hernan Cortes (All You Need to Know!)

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Hernan Cortes was a Spanish explorer won Mexico for the crown of Spain. He also helped advance Spain’s position in North America.

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Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca ( 1485 - December 2, 1547) was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish explorers and conquistadors who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

Born in Medellín, Spain, to a family of lesser nobility, Cortés chose to pursue adventure and riches in the New World. He went to Hispaniola and later to Cuba, where he received an encomienda (the right to the labor of certain subjects). For a short time, he served as alcalde (magistrate) of the second Spanish town founded on the island. In 1519, he was elected captain of the third expedition to the mainland, which he partly funded. His enmity with the Governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, resulted in the recall of the expedition at the last moment, an order which Cortés ignored.

Arriving on the continent, Cortés executed a successful strategy of allying with some indigenous people against others. He also used a native woman, Doña Marina, as an interpreter. She later bore his first son. When the Governor of Cuba sent emissaries to arrest Cortés, he fought them and won, using the extra troops as reinforcements. Cortés wrote letters directly to the king asking to be acknowledged for his successes instead of being punished for mutiny. After he overthrew the Aztec Empire, Cortés was awarded the title of Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca, while the more prestigious title of Viceroy was given to a high-ranking nobleman, Antonio de Mendoza. In 1541 Cortés returned to Spain, where he died six years later of natural causes.

Cortés himself used the form "Hernando" or "Fernando" for his first name, as seen in the contemporary archive documents, his signature and the title of an early portrait. William Hickling Prescott's Conquest of Mexico (1843) also refers to him as Hernando Cortés. At some point writers began using the shortened form of "Hernán" more generally.

Physical appearance

In addition to the illustration by the German artist Christoph Weiditz in his Trachtenbuch, there are three known portraits of Hernán Cortés which were likely made during his lifetime, though only copies of them have survived. All of these portraits show Cortés in the later years of his life. The account of the conquest of the Aztec Empire written by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, gives a detailed description of Hernán Cortés's physical appearance:

He was of good stature and body, well proportioned and stocky, the color of his face was somewhat grey, not very cheerful, and a longer face would have suited him more. His eyes seemed at times loving and at times grave and serious. His beard was black and sparse, as was his hair, which at the time he sported in the same way as his beard. He had a high chest, a well shaped back and was lean with little belly.

Cortés was born in 1485 in the town of Medellín, then a village in the Kingdom of Castile, now a municipality of the modern-day province of Badajoz in Extremadura, Spain. His father, Martín Cortés de Monroy, born in 1449 to Rodrigo or Ruy Fernández de Monroy and his wife María Cortés, was an infantry captain of distinguished ancestry but slender means. Hernán's mother was Catalína Pizarro Altamirano.

Through his mother, Hernán was second cousin once removed of Francisco Pizarro, who later conquered the Inca Empire of modern-day Peru, and not to be confused with another Francisco Pizarro, who joined Cortés to conquer the Aztecs. (His maternal grandmother, Leonor Sánchez Pizarro Altamirano, was first cousin of Pizarro's father Gonzalo Pizarro y Rodriguez.) Through his father, Hernán was related to Nicolás de Ovando, the third Governor of Hispaniola. His paternal great-grandfather was Rodrigo de Monroy y Almaraz, 5th Lord of Monroy.

After two years, Cortés returned home to Medellín, much to the irritation of his parents, who had hoped to see him equipped for a profitable legal career. However, those two years in Salamanca, plus his long period of training and experience as a notary, first in Valladolid and later in Hispaniola, gave him knowledge of the legal codes of Castile that he applied to help justify his unauthorized conquest of Mexico.

At this point in his life, Cortés was described by Gómara as ruthless, haughty, and mischievous. The 16-year-old youth had returned home to feel constrained life in his small provincial town. By this time, news of the exciting discoveries of Christopher Columbus in the New World was streaming back to Spain.

Early career in the New World

Plans were made for Cortés to sail to the Americas with a family acquaintance and distant relative, Nicolás de Ovando, the newly appointed Governor of Hispaniola. (This island is now divided between Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Cortés suffered an injury and was prevented from traveling. He spent the next year wandering the country, probably spending most of his time in Spain's southern ports of Cadiz, Palos, Sanlucar, and Seville. He finally left for Hispaniola in 1504 and became a colonist.

Cortés reached Hispaniola in a ship commanded by Alonso Quintero, who tried to deceive his superiors and reach the New World before them in order to secure personal advantages. Quintero's mutinous conduct may have served as a model for Cortés in his subsequent career.

Upon his arrival in 1504 in Santo Domingo, the capital of Hispaniola, the 18-year-old Cortés registered as a citizen; this entitled him to a building plot and land to farm. Soon afterward, Governor Nicolás de Ovando granted him an encomienda and appointed him as a notary of the town of Azua de Compostela. His next five years seemed to help establish him in the colony; in 1506, Cortés took part in the conquests of Hispaniola and Cuba. The expedition leader awarded him a large estate of land and Taíno slaves for his efforts.

Cuba (1511-1519)

In 1511, Cortés accompanied Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, an aide of the Governor of Hispaniola, in his expedition to conquer Cuba. Velázquez was appointed Governor of New Spain. At the age of 26, Cortés was made clerk to the treasurer with the responsibility of ensuring that the Crown received the quinto, or customary one fifth of the profits from the expedition.

Velázquez was so impressed with Cortés that he secured a high political position for him in the colony. He became secretary for Governor Velázquez. Cortés was twice appointed municipal magistrate ( alcalde) of Santiago. In Cuba, Cortés became a man of substance with an encomienda to provide Indian labor for his mines and cattle. This new position of power also made him the new source of leadership, which opposing forces in the colony could then turn to. In 1514, Cortés led a group which demanded that more Indians be assigned to the settlers.

As time went on, relations between Cortés and Governor Velázquez became strained. Cortés found time to become romantically involved with Catalina Xuárez (or Juárez), the sister-in-law of Governor Velázquez. Part of Velázquez's displeasure seems to have been based on a belief that Cortés was trifling with Catalina's affections. Cortés was temporarily distracted by one of Catalina's sisters but finally married Catalina, reluctantly, under pressure from Governor Velázquez. However, by doing so, he hoped to secure the good will of both her family and that of Velázquez.

It was not until he had been almost 15 years in the Indies that Cortés began to look beyond his substantial status as mayor of the capital of Cuba and as a man of affairs in the thriving colony. He missed the first two expeditions, under the orders of Francisco Hernández de Córdoba and then Juan de Grijalva, sent by Diego Velázquez to Mexico in 1518. News reached Velázquez that Juan de Grijalva had established a colony on the mainland where there was a bonanza of silver and gold, and Velázquez decided to send him help. Cortés was appointed Captain-General of this new expedition in October 1518, but was advised to move fast before Velázquez changed his mind.

With Cortés's experience as an administrator, knowledge gained from many failed expeditions, and his impeccable rhetoric he was able to gather six ships and 300 men, within a month. Velázquez's jealousy exploded and he decided to put the expedition in other hands. However, Cortés quickly gathered more men and ships in other Cuban ports.

Conquest of Mexico (1519-1521)

In 1518, Velázquez put Cortés in command of an expedition to explore and secure the interior of Mexico for colonization. At the last minute, due to the old argument between the two, Velázquez changed his mind and revoked Cortés's charter. Cortés ignored the orders and, in an act of open mutiny, went anyway in February 1519. He stopped in Trinidad, Cuba, to hire more soldiers and obtain more horses. Accompanied by about 11 ships, 500 men (including seasoned slaves), 13 horses, and a small number of cannons, Cortés landed on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mayan territory. There he encountered Geronimo de Aguilar, a Spanish Franciscan priest who had survived a shipwreck followed by a period in captivity with the Maya, before escaping. Aguilar had learned the Chontal Maya language and was able to translate for Cortés.

Among these women was La Malinche, his future mistress and mother of his son Martín. Malinche knew both the Nahuatl language and Chontal Maya, thus enabling Cortés to communicate with the Aztecs through Aguilar. At San Juan de Ulúa on Easter Sunday 1519, Cortés met with Moctezuma II's Aztec Empire governors Tendile and Pitalpitoque.

In July 1519, his men took over Veracruz. By this act, Cortés dismissed the authority of the Governor of Cuba to place himself directly under the orders of King Charles. To eliminate any ideas of retreat, Cortés scuttled his ships.

March on Tenochtitlán

In Veracruz, he met some of the tributaries of the Aztecs and asked them to arrange a meeting with Moctezuma II, the (ruler) of the Aztec Empire. Moctezuma repeatedly turned down the meeting, but Cortés was determined. Leaving a hundred men in Veracruz, Cortés marched on Tenochtitlán in mid-August 1519, along with 600 soldiers, 15 horsemen, 15 cannons, and hundreds of indigenous carriers and warriors.

On the way to Tenochtitlán, Cortés made alliances with indigenous peoples such as the Totonacs of Cempoala and the Nahuas of Tlaxcala. The Otomis initially, and then the Tlaxcalans fought with the Spanish in a series of three battles from 2 to 5 September 1519, and at one point, Diaz remarked, "they surrounded us on every side". After Cortés continued to release prisoners with messages of peace, and realizing the Spanish were enemies of Moctezuma, Xicotencatl the Elder and Maxixcatzin persuaded the Tlaxcalan warleader, Xicotencatl the Younger, that it would be better to ally with the newcomers than to kill them.

In October 1519, Cortés and his men, accompanied by about 1,000 Tlaxcalteca, marched to Cholula, the second-largest city in central Mexico. Cortés, either in a pre-meditated effort to instill fear upon the Aztecs waiting for him at Tenochtitlan or (as he later claimed, when he was being investigated) wishing to make an example when he feared native treachery, massacred thousands of unarmed members of the nobility gathered at the central plaza, then partially burned the city.

By the time he arrived in Tenochtitlán, the Spaniards had a large army. On November 8, 1519, they were peacefully received by Moctezuma II. Moctezuma deliberately let Cortés enter the Aztec capital, the island city of Tenochtitlán, hoping to get to know their weaknesses better and to crush them later.

Moctezuma gave lavish gifts of gold to the Spaniards which, rather than placating them, excited their ambitions for plunder. In his letters to King Charles, Cortés claimed to have learned at this point that he was considered by the Aztecs to be either an emissary of the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl or Quetzalcoatl himself - a belief which has been contested by a few modern historians. But quickly Cortés learned that several Spaniards on the coast had been killed by Aztecs while supporting the Totonacs, and decided to take Moctezuma as a hostage in his palace, indirectly ruling Tenochtitlán through him.

Meanwhile, Velázquez sent another expedition, led by Pánfilo de Narváez, to oppose Cortés, arriving in Mexico in April 1520 with 1,100 men. Cortés left 200 men in Tenochtitlán and took the rest to confront Narváez. He overcame Narváez, despite his numerical inferiority, and convinced the rest of Narváez's men to join him. In Mexico, one of Cortés's lieutenants Pedro de Alvarado, committed the massacre in the Great Temple, triggering a local rebellion.

Cortés speedily returned to Tenochtitlán. Faced with a hostile population, Cortés decided to flee for Tlaxcala. During the Noche Triste (June 30 - July 1, 1520), the Spaniards managed a narrow escape from Tenochtitlán across the Tlacopan causeway, while their rearguard was being massacred. Much of the treasure looted by Cortés was lost (as well as his artillery) during this panicked escape from Tenochtitlán.

Destruction of Tenochtitlán

After a battle in Otumba, they managed to reach Tlaxcala, having lost 870 men. With the assistance of their allies, Cortés's men finally prevailed with reinforcements arriving from Cuba. Cortés began a policy of attrition towards Tenochtitlán, cutting off supplies and subduing the Aztecs' allied cities. During the siege he would construct brigantines in the lake and slowly destroy blocks of the city to avoid fighting in an urban setting. The Mexicas would fall back to Tlatelolco and even succeed in ambushing the pursuing Spanish forces, inflicting heavy losses, but would ultimately be the last portion of the island that resisted the conquistadores. The siege of Tenochtitlán ended with Spanish victory and the destruction of the city.

In January 1521, Cortés countered a conspiracy against him, headed by Antonio de Villafana. Finally, with the capture of Cuauhtémoc, the (ruler) of Tenochtitlán, on August 13, 1521, the Aztec Empire was captured, and Cortés was able to claim it for Spain, thus renaming the city Mexico City. From 1521 to 1524, Cortés personally governed Mexico.

Appointment to governorship of Mexico and internal dissensions

Cortés personally was not ungenerously rewarded, but he speedily complained of insufficient compensation to himself and his comrades. Thinking himself beyond reach of restraint, he disobeyed many of the orders of the Crown, and, what was more imprudent, said so in a letter to the emperor, dated October 15, 1524 (Ycazbalceta, "Documentos para la Historia de México", Mexico, 1858, I). In this letter Cortés, besides recalling in a rather abrupt manner that the conquest of Mexico was due to him alone, deliberately acknowledges his disobedience in terms which could not fail to create a most unfavourable impression.

Cortés managed the founding of new cities and appointed men to extend Spanish rule to all of New Spain, imposing the encomienda system in 1524. He reserved many encomiendas for himself and for his retinue, which they considered just rewards for their accomplishment in conquering central Mexico. However, later arrivals and members of factions antipathetic to Cortés complained of the favoritism that excluded them.

In 1523, the Crown (possibly influenced by Cortés's enemy, Bishop Fonseca), sent a military force under the command of Francisco de Garay to conquer and settle the northern part of Mexico, the region of Pánuco. This was another setback for Cortés who mentioned this in his fourth letter to the King in which he describes himself as the victim of a conspiracy by his archenemies Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, Diego Columbus and Bishop Fonseca as well as Francisco Garay. The influence of Garay was effectively stopped by this appeal to the King who sent out a decree forbidding Garay to interfere in the politics of New Spain, causing him to give up without a fight.

Royal grant of arms (1525)

Although Cortés had flouted the authority of Diego Velázquez in sailing to the mainland and then leading an expedition of conquest, Cortés's spectacular success was rewarded by the crown with a coat of arms, a mark of high honor, following the conqueror's request. The document granting the coat of arms summarizes Cortés's accomplishments in the conquest of Mexico. The proclamation of the king says in part:

We, respecting the many labors, dangers, and adventures which you underwent as stated above, and so that there might remain a perpetual memorial of you and your services and that you and your descendants might be more fully honored ... it is our will that besides your coat of arms of your lineage, which you have, you may have and bear as your coat of arms, known and recognized, a shield ...

The grant specifies the iconography of the coat of arms, the central portion divided into quadrants. In the upper portion, there is a "black eagle with two heads on a white field, which are the arms of the empire". Below that is a "golden lion on a red field, in memory of the fact that you, the said Hernando Cortés, by your industry and effort brought matters to the state described above" (i.e., the conquest). The specificity of the other two quadrants is linked directly to Mexico, with one quadrant showing three crowns representing the three Aztec emperors of the conquest era, Moctezuma, Cuitlahuac, and Cuauhtemoc and the other showing the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. Encircling the central shield are symbols of the seven city-states around the lake and their lords that Cortés defeated, with the lords "to be shown as prisoners bound with a chain which shall be closed with a lock beneath the shield".

Death of his first wife and remarriage

Cortés's wife Catalina Súarez arrived in New Spain around summer 1522, along with her sister and brother. His marriage to Catalina was at this point extremely awkward, since she was a kinswoman of the governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez, whose authority Cortés had thrown off and who was therefore now his enemy. Catalina lacked the noble title of doña, so at this point his marriage with her no longer raised his status. Their marriage had been childless. Since Cortés had sired children with a variety of indigenous women, including a son around 1522 by his cultural translator, Doña Marina, Cortés knew he was capable of fathering children. Cortés's only male heir at this point was illegitimate, but nonetheless named after Cortés's father, Martín Cortés. This son Martín Cortés was also popularly called "El Mestizo".

Catalina Suárez died under mysterious circumstances the night of November 1-2, 1522.

In 1526, he built an imposing residence for himself, the Palace of Cortés in Cuernavaca, in a region close to the capital where he had extensive encomienda holdings. In 1529 he had been accorded the noble designation of don, but more importantly was given the noble title of Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca and married the Spanish noblewoman Doña Juana de Zúñiga. The marriage produced three children, including another son, who was also named Martín. As the first-born legitimate son, Don Martín Cortés y Zúñiga was now Cortés's heir and succeeded him as holder of the title and estate of the Marquessate of the Valley of Oaxaca. Cortés's legitimate daughters were Doña Maria, Doña Catalina, and Doña Juana.

Cortés and the "Spiritual Conquest" of Mexico

If these people [Indians] were now to see the affairs of the Church and the service of God in the hands of canons or other dignitaries, and saw them indulge in the vices and profanities now common in Spain, knowing that such men were the ministers of God, it would bring our Faith into much harm that I believe any further preaching would be of no avail.

He wished the mendicants to be the main evangelists. Mendicant friars did not usually have full priestly powers to perform all the sacraments needed for conversion of the Indians and growth of the neophytes in the Christian faith, so Cortés laid out a solution to this to the king.

Your Majesty should likewise beseech His Holiness [the pope] to grant these powers to the two principal persons in the religious orders that are to come here, and that they should be his delegates, one from the Order of St. Francis and the other from the Order of St. Dominic. They should bring the most extensive powers Your Majesty is able to obtain, for, because these lands are so far from the Church of Rome, and we, the Christians who now reside here and shall do so in the future, are so far from the proper remedies of our consciences and, as we are human, so subject to sin, it is essential that His Holiness should be generous with us and grant to these persons most extensive powers, to be handed down to persons actually in residence here whether it be given to the general of each order or to his provincials.

And as to those who murmur against the Marqués del Valle [Cortés], God rest him, and who try to blacken and obscure his deeds, I believe that before God their deeds are not as acceptable as those of the Marqués. Although as a human he was a sinner, he had faith and works of a good Christian, and a great desire to employ his life and property in widening and augmenting the fair of Jesus Christ, and dying for the conversion of these gentiles ... Who has loved and defended the Indians of this new world like Cortés? ... Through this captain, God opened the door for us to preach his holy gospel and it was he who caused the Indians to revere the holy sacraments and respect the ministers of the church.

In Fray Bernardino de Sahagún's 1585 revision of the conquest narrative first codified as Book XII of the Florentine Codex, there are laudatory references to Cortés that do not appear in the earlier text from the indigenous perspective. Whereas Book XII of the Florentine Codex concludes with an account of Spaniards' search for gold, in Sahagún's 1585 revised account, he ends with praise of Cortés for requesting the Franciscans be sent to Mexico to convert the Indians.

Expedition to Honduras and aftermath (1524-1541)

Expedition to Honduras (1524-1526)

Cortés's fifth letter to King Charles attempts to justify his conduct, concludes with a bitter attack on "various and powerful rivals and enemies" who have "obscured the eyes of your Majesty". Charles, who was also Holy Roman Emperor, had little time for distant colonies (much of Charles's reign was taken up with wars with France, the German Protestants and the expanding Ottoman Empire), except insofar as they contributed to finance his wars. In 1521, year of the Conquest, Charles was attending to matters in his German domains and Bishop Adrian of Utrecht functioned as regent in Spain.

Velázquez and Fonseca persuaded the regent to appoint a commissioner (a Juez de residencia, Luis Ponce de León) with powers to investigate Cortés's conduct and even arrest him. Cortés was once quoted as saying that it was "more difficult to contend against [his] own countrymen than against the Aztecs." Governor Diego Velázquez continued to be a thorn in his side, teaming up with Bishop Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca, chief of the Spanish colonial department, to undermine him in the Council of the Indies.

A few days after Cortés's return from his expedition, Ponce de León suspended Cortés from his office of governor of New Spain. The Licentiate then fell ill and died shortly after his arrival, appointing Marcos de Aguilar as alcalde mayor. The aged Aguilar also became sick and appointed Alonso de Estrada governor, who was confirmed in his functions by a royal decree in August 1527. Cortés, suspected of poisoning them, refrained from taking over the government.

Estrada sent Diego de Figueroa to the south. De Figueroa raided graveyards and extorted contributions, meeting his end when the ship carrying these treasures sank. Albornoz persuaded Alonso de Estrada to release Gonzalo de Salazar and Chirinos. When Cortés complained angrily after one of his adherents' hands was cut off, Estrada ordered him exiled. Cortés sailed for Spain in 1528 to appeal to King Charles.

First return to Spain (1528) and Marquessate of the Valley of Oaxaca

In 1528, Cortés returned to Spain to appeal to the justice of his master, Charles V. Juan Altamirano and Alonso Valiente stayed in Mexico and acted as Cortés's representatives during his absence. Cortés presented himself with great splendor before Charles V's court. By this time Charles had returned and Cortés forthrightly responded to his enemy's charges. Denying he had held back on gold due the crown, he showed that he had contributed more than the quinto (one-fifth) required. Indeed, he had spent lavishly to build the new capital of Mexico City on the ruins of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, leveled during the siege that brought down the Aztec empire.

He was received by Charles with every distinction, and decorated with the order of Santiago. In return for his efforts in expanding the still young Spanish Empire, Cortés was rewarded in 1529 by being accorded the noble title of don but more importantly named the "Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca" (Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca) and married the Spanish noblewoman Doña Juana Zúñiga, after the 1522 death of his much less distinguished first wife, Catalina Suárez. The noble title and senorial estate of the Marquesado was passed down to his descendants until 1811. The Oaxaca Valley was one of the wealthiest regions of New Spain, and Cortés had 23,000 vassals in 23 named encomiendas in perpetuity.

Although confirmed in his land holdings and vassals, he was not reinstated as governor and was never again given any important office in the administration of New Spain. During his travel to Spain, his property was mismanaged by colonial administrators. He sided with local natives in a lawsuit.

The entailed estate and title passed to his legitimate son Don Martín Cortés upon Cortés's death in 1547, who became the Second Marquess. Don Martín's association with the so-called Encomenderos' Conspiracy endangered the entailed holdings, but they were restored and remained the continuing reward for Hernán Cortés's family through the generations.

Return to Mexico (1530) and appointment of a viceroy (1535)

Cortés returned to Mexico in 1530 with new titles and honors. Although Cortés still retained military authority and permission to continue his conquests, Don Antonio de Mendoza was appointed in 1535 as a viceroy to administer New Spain's civil affairs. This division of power led to continual dissension, and caused the failure of several enterprises in which Cortés was engaged. On returning to Mexico, Cortés found the country in a state of anarchy. There was a strong suspicion in court circles of an intended rebellion by Cortés.

Cortés acquired several silver mines in Zumpango del Rio in 1534. By the early 1540s, he owned 20 silver mines in Sultepec, 12 in Taxco, and 3 in Zacualpan. Earlier, Cortés had claimed the silver in the Tamazula area.

In 1536, Cortés explored the northwestern part of Mexico and discovered the Baja California peninsula. Cortés also spent time exploring the Pacific coast of Mexico. The Gulf of California was originally named the Sea of Cortés by its discoverer Francisco de Ulloa in 1539. This was the last major expedition by Cortés.

Later life and death

Second return to Spain

After his exploration of Baja California, Cortés returned to Spain in 1541, hoping to confound his angry civilians, who had brought many lawsuits against him (for debts, abuse of power, etc.). On his return he went through a crowd to speak to the emperor, who demanded of him who he was. "I am a man," replied Cortés, "who has given you more provinces than your ancestors left you cities."

Expedition against Algiers

The emperor finally permitted Cortés to join him and his fleet commanded by Andrea Doria at the great expedition against Algiers in the Barbary Coast in 1541, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. During this campaign, Cortés was almost drowned in a storm that hit his fleet while he was pursuing the Pasha of Algiers.

Last years, death, and remains

Having spent a great deal of his own money to finance expeditions, he was now heavily in debt. In February 1544 he made a claim on the royal treasury, but was ignored for the next three years. Disgusted, he decided to return to Mexico in 1547. When he reached Seville, he was stricken with dysentery. He died in Castilleja de la Cuesta, Seville province, on December 2, 1547, from a case of pleurisy at the age of 62.

He left his many mestizo and white children well cared for in his will, along with every one of their mothers. He requested in his will that his remains eventually be buried in Mexico. Before he died he had the Pope remove the "natural" status of four of his children (legitimizing them in the eyes of the church), including Martin, the son he had with Doña Marina (also known as La Malinche), said to be his favourite. His daughter, Doña Catalina, however, died shortly after her father's death.

After his death, his body was moved more than eight times for several reasons. On December 4, 1547, he was buried in the mausoleum of the Duke of Medina in the church of San Isidoro del Campo, Sevilla. Three years later (1550) due to the space being required by the duke, his body was moved to the altar of Santa Catarina in the same church. In his testament, Cortés asked for his body to be buried in the monastery he had ordered to be built in Coyoacan in México, ten years after his death, but the monastery was never built. So in 1566, his body was sent to New Spain and buried in the church of San Francisco de Texcoco, where his mother and one of his sisters were buried.

In 1629, Cortes's last male descendant Don Pedro Cortés, fourth Marquez del Valle, died. The viceroy decided to move the bones of Cortés along with those of his descendant to the Franciscan church in México. This was delayed for nine years, while his body stayed in the main room of the palace of the viceroy. Eventually it was moved to the Sagrario of Franciscan church, where it stayed for 87 years. In 1716, it was moved to another place in the same church. In 1794, his bones were moved to the "Hospital de Jesus" (founded by Cortés), where a statue by Tolsá and a mausoleum were made. There was a public ceremony and all the churches in the city rang their bells.

In 1823, after the independence of México, it seemed imminent that his body would be desecrated, so the mausoleum was removed, the statue and the coat of arms were sent to Palermo, Sicily, to be protected by the Duke of Terranova. The bones were hidden, and everyone thought that they had been sent out of México. In 1836, his bones were moved to another place in the same building.

It was not until November 24, 1946, that they were rediscovered, thanks to the discovery of a secret document by Lucas Alamán. His bones were put in the charge of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH). The remains were authenticated by INAH. They were then restored to the same place, this time with a bronze inscription and his coat of arms. When the bones were first rediscovered, the supporters of the Hispanic tradition in Mexico were excited, but one supporter of an indigenist vision of Mexico "proposed that the remains be publicly burned in front of the statue of Cuauhtemoc, and the ashes flung into the air". Following the discovery and authentication of Cortés's remains, there was a discovery of what were described as the bones of Cuauhtémoc, resulting in a "battle of the bones".

Taxa named after Cortés

Cortés is commemorated in the scientific name of a subspecies of Mexican lizard, Phrynosoma orbiculare cortezii.

Natural children of Don Hernán Cortés

doña Catalina Pizarro, born between 1514 and 1515 in Santiago de Cuba or maybe later in Nueva España, daughter of an indigenous woman in Cuba, Leonor Pizarro. Doña Catalina married Juan de Salcedo, a conqueror and encomendero, with whom she had a son, Pedro.

don Martín Cortés, born in Coyoacán in 1522, son of doña Marina (La Malinche), called the First Mestizo; about him was written The New World of Martín Cortés; married doña Bernaldina de Porras and had two children:

doña Ana Cortés

don Fernando Cortés, Principal Judge of Veracruz. Descendants of this line are alive today in Mexico.

don Luis Cortés, born in 1525, son of doña Antonia or Elvira Hermosillo, a native of Trujillo (Cáceres)

doña Leonor Cortés Moctezuma, born in 1527 or 1528 in Ciudad de Mexico, daughter of Aztec princess Tecuichpotzin (baptized Isabel), born in Tenochtitlan on July 11, 1510, and died on July 9, 1550, the eldest legitimate daughter of Moctezuma II Xocoyotzin and wife doña María Miahuaxuchitl; married to Juan de Tolosa, a Basque merchant and miner.

doña María Cortés de Moctezuma, daughter of an Aztec princess; nothing more is known about her except that she probably was born with some deformity.

He married twice: firstly in Cuba to Catalina Suárez Marcaida, who died at Coyoacán in 1522 without issue, and secondly in 1529 to doña Juana Ramírez de Arellano de Zúñiga, daughter of don Carlos Ramírez de Arellano, 2nd Count of Aguilar and wife the Countess doña Juana de Zúñiga, and had:

don Luis Cortés y Ramírez de Arellano, born in Texcoco in 1530 and died shortly after his birth.

doña Catalina Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca in 1531 and died shortly after her birth.

don Martín Cortés y Ramírez de Arellano, 2nd Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca, born in Cuernavaca in 1532, married at Nalda on February 24, 1548, his twice cousin once removed doña Ana Ramírez de Arellano y Ramírez de Arellano and had issue, currently extinct in male line

doña María Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca between 1533 and 1536, married to don Luis de Quiñones y Pimentel, 5th Count of Luna

doña Catalina Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca between 1533 and 1536, died unmarried in Sevilla after the funeral of her father

doña Juana Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca between 1533 and 1536, married Don Fernando Enríquez de Ribera y Portocarrero, 2nd Duke of Alcalá de los Gazules, 3rd Marquess of Tarifa and 6th Count of Los Molares, and had issue

In Spanish: Hernán Cortés para niños

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Hernan Cortes

In 1519, an explorer by the name of Hernan Cortes left his home in Cuba in order to explore Mexico. Cortes was convinced that he could obtain more riches on the mainland than was possible by remaining on the islands in the Caribbean.

Cortes and over 500 men arrived in Mexico, and began traveling towards the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. The Aztec Empire was wealthy and in many ways more advanced than any European nation. However, they did not have horses, nor did they have guns. This gave the Spaniards a huge advantage.

In addition, many of the peoples who had been conquered by the Aztecs were unhappy about the way they had been treated by them. The Aztecs were brutal and often sacrificed the people they conquered to their gods. As a result, many of these people were ready to join forces with Cortes and his men to overthrow the Aztec Empire.

At first the Aztecs did not fight back. They thought that the Europeans were the fulfillment of an ancient legend that spoke of white-bearded gods.

After seeing the wealth of their empire, Cortes set out to take control of it. Within just a few years, he and his small army were able to defeat one of the most advanced civilizations of the era, setting Cortes as the ruler of Mexico in behalf of Spain.

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Hernan Cortes In 1519, an explorer by the name of Hernan Cortes left his home in Cuba in order to explore Mexico. Cortes was convinced that he could obtain more riches on the mainland than was possible by remaining on the islands in the Caribbean.

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The discovery of America and the brave explorers like Hernando Cortes who led the way for the early colonists Facts about Hernando Cortes The following Fact File contains fast information about the life of Hernando Cortes.

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Hernán Cortés Facts for Kids | KidzSearch.com

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Hernán Cortés ( 1485 - 2 December 1547) was an explorer and conqueror from Spain. Between 1519 and 1521, he conquered the Aztec empire of emperor Montezuma where Mexico is today. Cortes was born Medellín, Extremadura province, in the Kingdom of Castile in Spain.

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Alexandrine Petronella Francina Tinne (October 17, 1835 - August 1, 1869) was a Dutch explorer. She used her money to satisfy her curiosity about Africa. Her father died when she was ten, and she became one of the richest people in the Netherlands. Tinne is said to have been beautiful, and she was very clever.

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Alexandrine Tinné - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Alexandrine Petronella Francina Tinne (October 17, 1835 - August 1, 1869) was a Dutch explorer. She used her money to satisfy her curiosity about Africa. Her father died when she was ten, and she became one of the richest people in the Netherlands. Tinne is said to have been beautiful, and she was very clever.

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John Cabot

England also sent out explorers to find new land and wealth in the New World. In 1497, King Henry VI sent a captain by the name of John Cabot to attempt to find the New World that Columbus had recently discovered.

Cabot explored Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New England, and claimed these lands for Great Britain. It would be nearly 100 years, however, before England was able to establish permanent colonies.

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John Cabot England also sent out explorers to find new land and wealth in the New World. In 1497, King Henry VI sent a captain by the name of John Cabot to attempt to find the New World that Columbus had recently discovered. Cabot explored Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New England, and claimed these ...

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Vasco Da Gama

Following in the footsteps of Bartholomeu Dias, another explorer left Portugal in 1497 A.D., hoping to sail around Africa and reach India. This explorer was Vasco Da Gama.

Da Gama set out with four ships from his homeland in Portugal. Ten months later he and his men arrived in Calicut, India. Here they established ties with the leaders of this city, and attempted to set up a trading partnership.

While their efforts to set up a partnership with Indian traders was not successful, they did prove once and for all that moving goods over the sea was possible. Vasco Da Gama and his men returned to Portugal as heroes.

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Vasco Da Gama Following in the footsteps of Bartholomeu Dias, another explorer left Portugal in 1497 A.D., hoping to sail around Africa and reach India. This explorer was Vasco Da Gama. Da Gama set out with four ships from his homeland in Portugal. Ten months later he and his men arrived in Calicut, India.

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Ferdinand Magellan

In 1519, a Portuguese sailor set sail from Seville, Spain, in an effort to sail around the globe. This expedition was funded by Spain. After Magellan and his 260 men and five ships reached South America, they began looking for a way through the continent to the other side. After several months, they finally discovered the southern tip of South America, which is now known as the Straight of Magellan.

As Magellan traveled through these rough waters, one of his ships became separated and was forced to return to Spain. Another ship crashed on a rocky island.

The three remaining ships traveled for several more months and finally made it to the Philippines. Here, Magellan became involved in a local dispute with a tribal king and was killed. His remaining crew of 18 men sailed back to Spain, arriving home after being gone for three years.

This expedition was costly in both cost of goods as well as cost of life. However, it was important because it was the first time anyone had managed to sail around the entire globe. They proved once and for all that what Columbus had discovered was indeed a new world. They also discovered just how large the Earth really was.

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Ferdinand Magellan In 1519, a Portuguese sailor set sail from Seville, Spain, in an effort to sail around the globe. This expedition was funded by Spain. After Magellan and his 260 men and five ships reached South America, they began looking for a way through the continent to the other side.

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Vasco Nunez De Balboa

In 1500, a Spanish explorer by the name of Vasco Nunez De Balboa set sail from Spain, arriving in Columbia, South America, several months later.

Balboa and his partner, Rodrigo De Bastidas, explored the coastline of South America in search of treasure. Eventually, however, their boat began to leak and they were forced to abandon it. This left Balboa without a boat, and without any money.

Balboa attempted to survive by farming the land. He eventually moved further west with a group of Spaniards and founded the first European colony in the New World known as Santa Maria de la Antigua del Darien. While living in this new village he married a Native, the daughter of a local tribal chief.

Balboa then led a large group made up of both Spaniards and Natives on an expedition across the Isthmus of Panama, where he became the first European to see the Eastern edge of the Pacific Ocean.

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Vasco Nunez De Balboa In 1500, a Spanish explorer by the name of Vasco Nunez De Balboa set sail from Spain, arriving in Columbia, South America, several months later. Balboa and his partner, Rodrigo De Bastidas, explored the coastline of South America in search of treasure.

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Worksheets for Kids & Free Printables | Education.com

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Award-winning educational materials like worksheets, games, lesson plans and activities designed to help kids succeed. Start for free now!

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Francisco Pizarro

A few years after Cortes conquered the Aztec Empire, another explorer named Francisco Pizarro discovered another wealthy empire in Peru known as the Inca Empire.

Pizarro was able to capture the Incan King, Atahualpa, and hold him ransom. After the Incas paid Pizarro a ransom for the release of their leader, Pizarro had Atahualpa put to death, along with other top leaders in the Incan government. The result was that the Incan Empire also fell.

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Francisco Pizarro A few years after Cortes conquered the Aztec Empire, another explorer named Francisco Pizarro discovered another wealthy empire in Peru known as the Inca Empire. Pizarro was able to capture the Incan King, Atahualpa, and hold him ransom. After the Incas paid Pizarro a ransom for the release of their leader, ...

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Jacques Cartier

Ten years after Da Verrazano returned to France, another French explorer named Jacques Cartier set out to find a northern route around the Americas. Cartier was also unsuccessful.

Cartier did, however, discover the St. Lawrence River, sailing his ships into present day Montreal. Cartier claimed much of Canada for the French.

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Jacques Cartier Ten years after Da Verrazano returned to France, another French explorer named Jacques Cartier set out to find a northern route around the Americas. Cartier was also unsuccessful. Cartier did, however, discover the St. Lawrence River, sailing his ships into present day Montreal. Cartier claimed much of Canada for the French.

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Henry Hudson

In 1621, leaders in the Netherlands sent an explorer by the name of Henry Hudson to North America in search of suitable land for setting up colonies. The Dutch government also established The Dutch West India Company to help establish colonies in North America.

The most important of these colonies was New Amsterdam, which would eventually become New York.

Henry Hudson explored much of the region around New Amsterdam, and also discovered the Hudson Bay.

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Henry Hudson In 1621, leaders in the Netherlands sent an explorer by the name of Henry Hudson to North America in search of suitable land for setting up colonies. The Dutch government also established The Dutch West India Company to help establish colonies in North America.

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Spanish Empire

Francisco Pizarro González, Marquess of the Atabillos (; Spanish: [fɾanˈθisko piˈθaro]; c. 16 March 1478 - 26 June 1541) was a Spanish conquistador, best known for his expeditions that led to the Spanish conquest of Peru.

Born in Trujillo, Spain to a poor family, Pizarro chose to pursue fortune and adventure in the New World. He went to the Gulf of Urabá, and accompanied Vasco Núñez de Balboa in his crossing of the Isthmus of Panama, where they became the first Europeans to see the Pacific Ocean from the Americas. He served as mayor of the newly founded Panama City for a few years and undertook two failed expeditions to Peru. In 1529, Pizarro obtained permission from the Spanish crown to lead a campaign to conquer Peru and went on his third, and successful, expedition.

Francisco Pizarro was born in Trujillo, Cáceres, Spain (then in the Crown of Castile) in modern-day Extremadura, Spain. He was the illegitimate son of infantry colonel Gonzalo Pizarro (1446-1522) and Francisca González, a woman of poor means. His date of birth is uncertain, but it is believed to be sometime in the 1470s, probably 1475. Little attention was paid to his education and he grew up illiterate.

On 10 November 1509, Pizarro sailed from Spain to the New World with Alonso de Ojeda on an expedition to Gulf of Urabá in Tierra Firme. Pizarro became a participant in Ojeda's failed colony, commanding the remnants until he abandoned it with the survivors. He sailed to Cartagena and joined the fleet of Martín Fernández de Enciso in 1513.

Early career as Conquistador

On 10 November 1509, Pizarro sailed from Spain to the New World with Alonso de Ojeda on an expedition to Urabá. He sailed to Cartagena and joined the fleet of Martín Fernández de Enciso and, in 1513, accompanied Balboa in his crossing of the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific. The following year, Pedro Arias Dávila became the newly appointed governor of Castilla de Oro and succeeded Balboa. During the next five years, Pizarro became a close associate of Dávila and the governor assigned him a repartimiento of natives and cattle. When Dávila decided to get rid of Balboa out of distrust, he instructed Pizarro to personally arrest him and bring him to stand trial. Balboa was beheaded in January 1519. For his loyalty to Dávila, Pizarro was rewarded with the positions of mayor (Alcalde) and magistrate of the then recently founded Panama City from 1519 to 1523.

Expeditions to South America

The first attempt to explore western South America was undertaken in 1522 by Pascual de Andagoya. The native South Americans he encountered told him about a gold-rich territory called Virú, which was on a river called Pirú (later evolving to Perú). These reports were relayed by the Spanish-Inca writer Garcilaso de la Vega in Comentarios Reales de los Incas (1609).

Andagoya eventually established contact with several Native American curacas (chiefs), some of whom he later claimed were sorcerers and witches. Having reached as far as the San Juan River (part of the present boundary between Ecuador and Colombia) Andagoya fell ill and returned to Panama. He spread the news and stories about "Pirú" - a great land to the south rich with gold (the legendary El Dorado). These revelations, along with the accounts for Cortés' success in Mexico, caught the attention of Pizarro, prompting a series of expeditions to the south.

In 1524, while still in Panama, Pizarro formed a partnership with a priest, Hernando de Luque and a soldier, Diego de Almagro, to explore and conquer the South. Pizarro, Almagro and Luque later explicitly renewed their compact, agreeing to conquer and divide equally among themselves the empire they hoped to vanquish. While their accord was strictly oral, they dubbed their enterprise the Empresa del Levante and determined that Pizarro would command the expedition, Almagro would provide military and food supplies and Luque would be in charge of finances and additional provisions.

First expedition (1524)

In November 1524, the first of three expeditions left Panama for the conquest of Peru with about 80 men and 4 horses. Juan de Salcedo was the standard bearer, Nicolás de Ribera was the treasurer and Juan Carvallo was the inspector.

Diego de Almagro was left behind because he was to recruit men, gather additional supplies and join Pizarro later. The Governor of Panama, Pedro Arias Dávila, at first approved in principle of exploring South America. Pizarro's first expedition, however, turned out to be a failure as his conquistadores, sailing down the Pacific coast, reached no farther than Colombia before succumbing to bad weather, lack of food and skirmishes with hostile natives, one of which caused Almagro to lose an eye by arrow-shot. The place names the Spanish bestowed along their route, including Puerto Deseado (desired port), Puerto del Hambre (port of hunger) and Punta Quemado or Puebla Quemado (burned port), confirmed their difficulties. Fearing subsequent hostile encounters like the one the expedition endured at the Battle of Punta Quemada, Pizarro ended his first expedition and returned to Panama.

Second expedition (1526)

Two years later Pizarro, Almagro and Luque started the arrangements for a second expedition with permission from Pedrarias Dávila. The governor, who himself was preparing an expedition north to Nicaragua, was reluctant to permit another expedition, having lost confidence in Pizarro. The three associates eventually won his trust and he acquiesced. By this time, a new governor was to arrive and succeed Dávila. Pedro de los Ríos took charge in July 1526 and initially approved Pizarro's expeditions (he would join him several years later in Peru).

On 10 March 1526 Pizarro left Panama with two ships with 160 men and several horses, reaching as far as the Colombian San Juan River. Soon after arriving the party separated, with Pizarro staying to explore the new and often perilous territory off the swampy Colombian coasts, while the expedition's co-commander, Almagro, returned to Panama for reinforcements. Pizarro's Piloto Mayor (main pilot), Bartolomé Ruiz, continued sailing south and, after crossing the equator, found and captured a balsa (raft) under sail, with natives from Tumbes. To everyone's surprise, these carried textiles, ceramic objects and some pieces of gold, silver and emeralds, making Ruiz's findings the central focus of this second expedition. Some natives were taken aboard Ruiz's ship to serve as interpreters.

He then set sail north for the San Juan River, arriving to find Pizarro and his men exhausted from the difficulties they had faced exploring the new territory. Soon Almagro sailed into the port laden with supplies and a reinforcement of at least eighty recruits who had arrived at Panama from Spain with an expeditionary spirit. The findings and excellent news from Ruiz along with Almagro's new reinforcements cheered Pizarro and his tired followers. They decided to sail back to the territory already explored by Ruiz and, after a difficult voyage due to strong winds and currents, reached Atacames on the Ecuadorian coast. Here, they found a large native population recently brought under Inca rule. Unfortunately for the conquistadores, the people they encountered seemed so defiant and numerous that the Spanish decided not to enter the land.

The Famous Thirteen

After much wrangling between Pizarro and Almagro, it was decided that Pizarro would stay at a safer place, the Isla de Gallo, near the coast, while Almagro would return to Panama with Luque for more reinforcements - this time with proof of the gold they had found and the news of the discovery of the obviously wealthy land they had explored. The new governor of Panama, Pedro de los Ríos, had learned of the mishaps of Pizarro's expeditions and the deaths of various settlers who had gone with him. Fearing an unsuccessful outcome, he rejected Almagro's application for continued resources. In addition, he ordered two ships commanded by Juan Tafur to be sent immediately with the intention of bringing Pizarro and his crew back to Panama.

Pizarro had no intention of returning and when Tafur arrived at Isla de Gallo, Pizarro drew a line in the sand, saying: "There lies Peru with its riches; Here, Panama and its poverty. Choose, each man, what best becomes a brave Castilian. For my part, I go to the south."

Only 13 men stayed with Pizarro. They later became known as "The Famous Thirteen" ( Los trece de la fama), while the rest of the expeditioners stayed with Tafur. Ruiz left in one of the ships with the intention of joining Almagro and Luque in their efforts to gather reinforcements. Soon after the ships left, Pizarro and his men constructed a crude boat and journeyed 25 leagues north to La Isla Gorgona, where they would remain for seven months before the arrival of new provisions.

Back in Panama, Pedro de los Ríos (after much convincing by Luque) had finally acquiesced to the requests for another ship, but only to bring Pizarro back within six months and completely abandon the expedition. Almagro and Luque grasped the opportunity and left Panama (this time without new recruits) for La Isla Gorgona to once again join Pizarro. On meeting with Pizarro, the associates decided to continue sailing south on the recommendations of Ruiz's Indian interpreters.

On their return towards Panama, Pizarro briefly stopped at Tumbes, where two of his men had decided to stay to learn the customs and language of the natives. Pizarro was also given two Peruvian boys to learn Spanish, one of whom was later baptized as Felipillo and served as an important interpreter, the equivalent of Cortés' La Malinche of Mexico, and another called Martinillo. Their final stop was at La Isla Gorgona, where two of his ill men (one had died) had stayed. After at least 18 months away, Pizarro and his followers anchored off the coasts of Panama to prepare for the final expedition.

Capitulación de Toledo

When the new governor of Panama, Pedro de los Ríos, refused to allow for a third expedition to the south, the associates resolved for Pizarro to leave for Spain and appeal to the sovereign in person. Pizarro sailed from Panama for Spain in the spring of 1528, accompanied by Pedro de Candia, some natives and llamas, plus samples of fabric, gold and silver.

Pizarro reached Seville in early summer. King Charles I, who was at Toledo, had an interview with Pizarro and heard of his expeditions in South America. The conquistador described the territory as rich in gold and silver that he and his followers had bravely explored "to extend the empire of Castile". The king, who was soon to leave for Italy, was impressed at his accounts and promised his support for the conquest of Peru. Queen Isabel, though, in the absence of the king, signed the Capitulación de Toledo on 6 July 1529, a license document that authorized Pizarro to proceed with the conquest of Peru. Pizarro was officially named the Governor, Captain general, Adelantado and Alguacil Mayor, of New Castile for the distance of 200 leagues along the newly discovered coast and invested with all authority and prerogatives, leaving his associates in secondary positions (a fact that later incensed Almagro and would lead to eventual discord). One of the grant conditions was that within six months, Pizarro should raise a sufficiently equipped force of 250 men, of whom 100 might be drawn from the colonies.

This gave Pizarro time to leave for his native Trujillo and convince his brother Hernando Pizarro and other close friends to join him on his third expedition. Francisco de Orellana joined the group and would later discover and explore the length of the Amazon River. Two half-brothers from his father, Juan Pizarro and Gonzalo Pizarro, and a half-brother from his mother, Francisco Martín de Alcántara, later also decided to join him, as well as his cousin Pedro Pizarro, who served as his page. When the expedition left the following year, it numbered three ships, 180 men and 27 horses.

Pizarro could not raise the number of men the Capitulación required and sailed clandestinely from the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda for the Canary Island of La Gomera in January 1530. He was there joined by his brother Hernando and the remaining men in two vessels that would sail back to Panama. Pizarro's third and final expedition left Panama for Peru on 27 December 1530.

Conquest of Peru (1532)

In 1531, Pizarro once again landed on the coasts near Ecuador, the province of Coaque and the region of esmeraldas, where some gold, silver and emeralds were procured and then dispatched to Almagro. The latter had stayed in Panama to gather more recruits. Sebastián de Belalcázar soon arrived with 30 men. Though Pizarro's main objective was then to set sail and dock at Tumbes like his previous expedition, he was forced to confront the Punian natives in the Battle of Puná, leaving three or four Spaniards dead and many wounded. Soon after, Hernando de Soto, another conquistador who had joined the expedition, arrived with 100 volunteers and horses to aid Pizarro and with him sailed towards Tumbes, only to find the place deserted and destroyed. The two conquistadors expected that the settlers had disappeared or died under murky circumstances. The chiefs explained that the fierce tribes of Punians had attacked them and ransacked the place.

As Tumbes no longer afforded safe accommodations, Pizarro led an excursion into the interior in May 1532 and established the first Spanish settlement in Peru, San Miguel de Piura, and a repartimiento.

Leaving 50 men back at the settlement under the command of Antonio Navarro, Pizarro proceeded with his conquest accompanied by 200 men on 24 September 1532. After arriving at Zaran, de Soto was dispatched to a Peruvian garrison at Caxas. After a week, he returned with an envoy from the Inca himself, with presents and an invitation to visit the Inca ruler's camp.

Atahualpa's refusal led Pizarro and his force to attack the Inca army in what became the Battle of Cajamarca on 16 November 1532. The Spanish were successful. Pizarro executed Atahualpa's 12-man honor guard and took the Inca captive at the so-called Ransom Room. By February 1533, Almagro had joined Pizarro in Cajamarca with an additional 150 men and 50 horses.

Despite fulfilling his promise of filling one room (22 by 17 feet or 7 by 5 metres) with gold and two with silver, Atahualpa was convicted of 12 charges, including killing his brother and plotting against Pizarro and his forces. He was executed by garrote on 29 August 1533. Francisco Pizarro and de Soto were opposed to Atahualpa's execution, but Francisco consented to the trial due to the "great agitation among the soldiers", particularly by Almagro. De Soto was on a reconnaissance mission the day of the trial and execution and upon his return expressed his dismay, stating, "he should have been taken to Castile and judged by the emperor." King Charles later wrote to Pizarro: "We have been displeased by the death of Atahualpa, since he was a monarch and particularly as it was done in the name of justice."

Pizarro advanced with his army of 500 Spaniards toward Cuzco, accompanied by Chalcuchimac, one of the leading Inca generals of the north and a supporter of Atahualpa, who was subsequently burned at the stake. Manco Inca Yupanqui joined Pizarro after the death of Túpac Huallpa. During the exploration of Cuzco, Pizarro was impressed and through his officers wrote back to King Charles I of Spain, saying: "This city is the greatest and the finest ever seen in this country or anywhere in the Indies... We can assure your Majesty that it is so beautiful and has such fine buildings that it would be remarkable even in Spain."

The Spanish sealed the conquest of Peru by entering Cuzco on 15 November 1533. Jauja, in the fertile Mantaro Valley, was established as Peru's provisional capital in April 1534, but it was high up in the mountains and too distant from the sea to serve as the capital. Pizarro founded the city of Lima on Peru's central coast on 6 January 1535, which he considered to be one of the most important things he had created in life.

By early 1536, Manco Inka, supported by an army of perhaps 100,000 people, initiated a siege of Cuzco. At the same time, smaller Incan expeditionary forces moved to destroy other European strongholds. In the three years of continuous warfare since the arrival of Pizarro, Incan military leaders had become familiar with Spanish military tactics and developed effective counters. Perhaps the most effective of these military innovations was the one that dealt with the Europeans' greatest advantage on the battlefield: horses. Incan soldiers would offer battle but hold their position until the Spaniards had concentrated their cavalry in order to break the indigenous line. They would then fall back before the cavalry charge and draw the Europeans into a canyon where prepositioned forces could crush them under avalanches of rocks and missile weapons. Instead of charging the numerically inferior Europeans as they had done early on, Incan soldiers used their discipline and knowledge of the terrain in order to draw the armoured cavalry charge into a death trap. Well documented battlefield deaths show that many more Spaniards died in these battles than in the early days of the war when theoretically the Inca had a much greater advantage. Despite winning the majority of the battles, the inability of the Incan forces to overwhelm Cuzco's fortifications, manned as they were by only 200 fighting men armed with gunpowder weapons, signalled the definitive victory of Spanish forces.

After the final effort of the Inca to recover Cuzco had been defeated by Almagro, a dispute occurred between Pizarro and Almagro respecting the limits of their jurisdiction, as both claimed the city of Cuzco. The king of Spain had awarded the Governorate of New Toledo to Almagro and the Governorate of New Castile to Pizarro. The dispute had originated from a disagreement on how to interpret the limit between the governorates. This led to confrontations between the Pizarro brothers and Almagro, who was eventually defeated during the Battle of Las Salinas (1538) and executed. Almagro's son, also named Diego and known as El Mozo, was later stripped of his lands and left bankrupt by Pizarro.

Atahualpa's wife, 10-year-old Cuxirimay Ocllo Yupanqui, was with Atahualpa's army in Cajamarca and had stayed with him while he was imprisoned. Following his execution, she was taken to Cuzco and given the name Dona Angelina. By 1538, it was known she had borne Pizarro two sons, Juan and Francisco.

In Lima, on 26 June 1541 "a group of 20 heavily armed supporters of Diego de Almagro II "el mozo" stormed Pizarro's palace, assassinating him and then forcing the terrified city council to appoint young Almagro as the new governor of Peru", according to Burkholder and Johnson. "Most of Pizarro's guests fled, but a few fought the intruders, numbered variously between seven and 25. While Pizarro struggled to buckle on his breastplate, his defenders, including his half-brother Martín de Alcántara, were killed". For his part, Pizarro killed two attackers and ran through a third. While trying to pull out his sword, he was stabbed in the throat, then fell to the floor where he was stabbed many times." He died moments after. Diego de Almagro the younger was caught and executed the following year after losing the battle of Chupas.

Pizarro's remains were briefly interred in the cathedral courtyard; at some later time, his head and body were separated and buried in separate boxes underneath the floor of the cathedral. In 1892, in preparation for the anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the Americas, a body believed to be that of Pizarro was exhumed and put on display in a glass coffin. However, in 1977, men working on the cathedral's foundation discovered a lead box in a sealed niche, which bore the inscription: "Here is the head of Marquess Don Francisco Pizarro who discovered and conquered the kingdoms of Peru and presented them to the crown of Castile." A team of forensic scientists from the United States, led by William R. Maples, was invited to examine the two bodies and they soon determined that the body which had been honored in the glass case for nearly a century had been incorrectly identified. The skull within the lead box not only bore the marks of multiple sword blows, but the features bore a remarkable resemblance to portraits made of the man in life.

By his marriage to N de Trujillo, Pizarro had a son also named Francisco, who married his relative Inés Pizarro, without issue. After Pizarro's death, Inés Yupanqui, whom he took as a mistress, favourite sister of Atahualpa, who had been given to Francisco in marriage by her brother, married a Spanish cavalier named Ampuero and left for Spain, taking her daughter who would later be legitimized by imperial decree. Francisca Pizarro Yupanqui eventually married her uncle Hernando Pizarro in Spain, on 10 October 1537; the third son of Pizarro who was never legitimized, Francisco, by Dona Angelina, a wife of Atahualpa that he had taken as a mistress, died shortly after reaching Spain.

After his invasion, Pizarro destroyed the Inca state and while ruling the area for almost a decade, initiated the decline of local cultures. The Incas' polytheistic religion was replaced by Christianity and much of the local population was reduced to serfdom under the Spanish elite. The cities of the Inca Empire were transformed into Spanish Catholic cities. Pizarro is also reviled for ordering Atahualpa's death despite the ransom payment (which Pizarro kept, after paying the Spanish king his due). Some Peruvians, particularly those of indigenous descent, may regard him negatively, although until relatively recently Pizarro had been portrayed positively, for instance in textbooks, for introducing Catholicism and creating a privileged class of mainly Spanish descent.

Sculptures

In the early 1930s, sculptor Ramsay MacDonald created three copies of an anonymous European foot soldier resembling a conquistador with a helmet, wielding a sword and riding a horse. The first copy was offered to Mexico to represent Cortés, though it was rejected. The statue was taken to Lima in 1934 and re-purposed to represent Pizarro. One other copy of the statue resides in Wisconsin. The mounted statue of Pizarro in the Plaza Mayor in Trujillo, Spain, was created by American sculptor Charles Rumsey. It was presented to the city by his widow in 1926.

The statue long stood an adjacent square to Peru's Government Palace. In 2003, after years of requests for the statue to be removed, the mayor of Lima, Luis Castañeda Lossio, approved the transfer of the statue to another location. Since 2004, however, Pizarro's statue has been in a park surrounded by the recently restored 17th-century walls in the Rímac District. The statue faces the Rímac River and the Government Palace.

Palace of the Conquest

After returning from Peru extremely wealthy, the Pizarro family erected a plateresque-style palace on the corner of the Plaza Mayor in Trujillo. Francisca Pizarro Yupanqui and her uncle/husband Hernando Pizarro ordered the building of the palace; it features busts of them and others. It instantly became a recognizable symbol of the plaza.

The opulent palace is structured in four stands, giving it the significance of the coat of arms of the Pizarro family, which is situated at one of its corner balconies displaying its iconographic content. The building's decor includes plateresque ornaments and balustrades.

Works of Pizarro

"Francisco Pizarro response to a petition by Pedro del Barco", 14 April 1539. From the Collections at the Library of Congress

In Spanish: Francisco Pizarro para niños

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Francisco Vázquez de Coronado Facts for Kids

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Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján (ca. 1510 - September 22, 1554) was a Spanish conquistador, who visited New Mexico and other parts of what are now the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542. He died in 1554.

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Hernando de Soto ( c. 1500 - 21 May 1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru, but is best known for leading the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States (through Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and most likely Arkansas). He is the first European documented as having crossed the Mississippi River.

Hernando de Soto was born circa 1500 in Extremadura, Spain, to parents who were both , nobility of modest means. The region was poor and many people struggled to survive; young people looked for ways to seek their fortune elsewhere. He was born in the current province of Badajoz. Three towns- Badajoz, Barcarrota and Jerez de los Caballeros-claim to be his birthplace. He spent time as a child at each place. He stipulated in his will that his body be interred at Jerez de los Caballeros, where other members of his family were buried. A few years before his birth, the Kingdoms of Castille and Aragon conquered the last Islamic kingdom of the Iberian peninsula. Spain and Portugal were filled with young men seeking a chance for military fame after the defeat of the Moors. With Christopher Columbus's discovery of new lands (which he thought to be East Asia) across the ocean to the west, young men were attracted to rumors of adventure, glory and wealth.

In the New World

De Soto sailed to the New World with Pedro Arias Dávila, appointed as the first Governor of Panama. In 1520 he participated in Gaspar de Espinosa's expedition to Veragua, and in 1524, he participated in the conquest of Nicaragua under Francisco Hernández de Córdoba. There he acquired an encomienda and a public office in León, Nicaragua. Brave leadership, unwavering loyalty, and ruthless schemes for the extortion of native villages for their captured chiefs became de Soto's hallmarks during the conquest of Central America. He gained fame as an excellent horseman, fighter, and tactician. During that time, de Soto was influenced by the achievements of Iberian explorers: Juan Ponce de León, the first European to reach Florida; Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the first European to reach the Pacific Ocean coast of the Americas (he called it the "South Sea" on the south coast of Panama); and Ferdinand Magellan, who first sailed that ocean to East Asia. In 1530, de Soto became a of León, Nicaragua. He led an expedition up the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula searching for a passage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean to enable trade with the Orient, the richest market in the world. Failing that, and without means to explore further, de Soto, upon Pedro Arias Dávila's death, left his estates in Nicaragua. Bringing his own men on ships which he hired, de Soto joined Francisco Pizarro at his first base of Tumbes shortly before departure for the interior of present-day Peru. Pizarro quickly made de Soto one of his captains.

Conquest of Peru

During 1533, the Spanish held Atahualpa captive in Cajamarca for months while his subjects paid for his ransom by filling a room with gold and silver objects. During this captivity, de Soto became friendly with Atahualpa and taught him to play chess. By the time the ransom had been completed, the Spanish became alarmed by rumors of an Inca army advancing on Cajamarca. Pizarro sent de Soto with 200 soldiers to scout for the rumored army.

While de Soto was gone, the Spanish in Cajamarca decided to kill Atahualpa to prevent his rescue. De Soto returned to report that he found no signs of an army in the area. After executing Atahualpa, Pizarro and his men headed to Cuzco, the capital of the Incan Empire. As the Spanish force approached Cuzco, Pizarro sent his brother Hernando and de Soto ahead with 40 men. The advance guard fought a pitched battle with Inca troops in front of the city, but the battle had ended before Pizarro arrived with the rest of the Spanish party. The Inca army withdrew during the night. The Spanish plundered Cuzco, where they found much gold and silver. As a mounted soldier, de Soto received a share of the plunder, which made him very wealthy. It represented riches from Atahualpa's camp, his ransom, and the plunder from Cuzco.

On the road to Cuzco, Manco Inca Yupanqui, a brother of Atahualpa, had joined Pizarro. Manco had been hiding from Atahualpa in fear of his life, and was happy to gain Pizarro's protection. Pizarro arranged for Manco to be installed as the Inca leader. De Soto joined Manco in a campaign to eliminate the Inca armies under Quizquiz, who had been loyal to Atahualpa.

Return to Spain

Fascinated by the stories of Cabeza de Vaca, who had survived years in North America after becoming a castaway and had just returned to Spain, de Soto selected 620 Spanish and Portuguese volunteers, including some of mixed-race African descent known as Atlantic Creoles, to accompany him to govern Cuba and colonize North America. Averaging 24 years of age, the men embarked from Havana on seven of the King's ships and two caravels of de Soto's. With tons of heavy armor and equipment, they also carried more than 500 head of livestock, including 237 horses and 200 pigs, for their planned four-year continental expedition.

De Soto wrote a new will before embarking on his travels. On 10 May 1539, he wrote in his will:

That a chapel be erected within the Church of San Miguel in Jerez de Los Caballeros, Spain, where De Soto grew up, at a cost of 2,000 ducats, with an altarpiece featuring the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Conception, that his tomb be covered in a fine black broadcloth topped by a red cross of the Order of the Knights of Santiago, and on special occasions a pall of black velvet with the De Soto coat of arms be placed on the altar; that a chaplain be hired at the salary of 12,000 maravedis to perform five masses every week for the souls of De Soto, his parents, and wife; that thirty masses be said for him the day his body was interred, and twenty for our Lady of the Conception, ten for the Holy Ghost, sixty for souls in purgatory and masses for many others as well; that 150000 maravedis be given annually to his wife Isabel for her needs and an equal amount used yearly to marry off three orphan damsels...the poorest that can be found," to assist his wife and also serve to burnish the memory of De Soto as a man of charity and substance.

De Soto's exploration of North America

Historiography

Historians have worked to trace the route of de Soto's expedition in North America. Local politicians vied to have their localities associated with the expedition. The most widely used version of "De Soto's Trail" comes from a study commissioned by the United States Congress. A committee chaired by the anthropologist John R. Swanton published The Final Report of the United States De Soto Expedition Commission in 1939. Among other locations, Manatee County, Florida, claims an approximate landing site for de Soto and has a national memorial recognizing that event. In the early 21st century, the first part of the expedition's course, up to de Soto's battle at Mabila (a small fortress town in present-day central Alabama), is disputed only in minor details. His route beyond Mabila is contested. Swanton reported the de Soto trail ran from there through Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas.

The Hutto/Martin Site, 8MR3447, in southeastern Marion County, Florida, on the Ocklawaha River, is the most likely site of the principal town of Acuera referred to in the accounts of the entrada, as well as the site of the seventeenth-century mission of Santa Lucia de Acuera.

Theories of de Soto's route are based on the accounts of four chroniclers of the expedition.

The first account of the expedition to be published was by the Gentleman of Elvas, an otherwise unidentified Portuguese knight who was a member of the expedition. His chronicle was first published in 1557. An English translation by Richard Hakluyt was published in 1609.

Luys Hernández de Biedma, the King's factor (the agent responsible for the royal property) with the expedition, wrote a report which still exists. The report was filed in the royal archives in Spain in 1544. The manuscript was translated into English by Buckingham Smith and published in 1851.

De Soto's secretary, Rodrigo Ranjel, kept a diary, which has been lost. It was apparently used by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés in writing his La historia general y natural de las Indias. Oviedo died in 1557. The part of his work containing Ranjel's diary was not published until 1851. An English translation of Ranjel's report was first published in 1904.

The fourth chronicle is by Garcilaso de la Vega, known as El Inca (the Inca). Garcilaso de la Vega did not participate in the expedition. He wrote his account, La Florida, known in English as The Florida of the Inca, decades after the expedition, based on interviews with some survivors of the expedition. The book was first published in 1605. Historians have identified problems with using La Florida as a historical account. Milanich and Hudson warn against relying on Garcilaso, noting serious problems with the sequence and location of towns and events in his narrative. They say, "some historians regard Garcilaso's La Florida to be more a work of literature than a work of history." Lankford characterizes Garcilaso's La Florida as a collection of "legend narratives", derived from a much-retold oral tradition of the survivors of the expedition.

Milanich and Hudson warn that older translations of the chronicles are often "relatively free translations in which the translators took considerable liberty with the Spanish and Portuguese text."

1539: Florida

In May 1539, de Soto landed nine ships with over 620 men and 220 horses in an area generally identified as south Tampa Bay. Historian Robert S. Weddle has suggested that he landed at either Charlotte Harbor or San Carlos Bay. He named the land as Espíritu Santo after the Holy Spirit. The ships carried priests, craftsmen, engineers, farmers, and merchants; some with their families, some from Cuba, most from Europe and Africa. Few of the men had traveled before outside of Spain, or even away from their home villages.

Near de Soto's port, the party found Juan Ortiz, a Spaniard living with the Mocoso people. Ortiz had been captured by the Uzita while searching for the lost Narváez expedition; he later escaped to Mocoso. Ortiz had learned the Timucua language and served as an interpreter to de Soto as he traversed the Timucuan-speaking areas on his way to Apalachee.

Ortiz developed a method for guiding the expedition and communicating with the various tribes, who spoke many dialects and languages. He recruited guides from each tribe along the route. A chain of communication was established whereby a guide who had lived in close proximity to another tribal area was able to pass his information and language on to a guide from a neighboring area. Because Ortiz refused to dress as a hidalgo Spaniard, other officers questioned his motives. De Soto remained loyal to Ortiz, allowing him the freedom to dress and live among his native friends. Another important guide was the seventeen-year-old boy Perico, or Pedro, from what is now Georgia. He spoke several of the local tribes' languages and could communicate with Ortiz. Perico was taken as a guide in 1540. The Spanish had also captured other Indians, whom they used as slave labor. Perico was treated better due to his value to the Spaniards.

The expedition traveled north, exploring Florida's West Coast, and encountering native ambushes and conflicts along the way. Hernando de Soto army seized the food stored in the villages, captured women to be used as slaves, and forced men and boys to serve as guides and bearers. The army fought two battles with Timucua groups, resulting in heavy Timucua casualties. After defeating the resisting Timucuan warriors, Hernando de Soto had 200 executed, in what was to be called the Napituca Massacre, the first large-scale massacre by Europeans on what later became U.S. soil (Florida). De Soto's first winter encampment was at , the capital of the Apalachee people. It is one of the few places on the route where archaeologists have found physical traces of the expedition. The chroniclers described this settlement as being near the "Bay of Horses".

1540: The Southeast

The expedition continued to present-day South Carolina. There the expedition recorded being received by a female chief (Cofitachequi), who gave her tribe's pearls, food and other goods to the Spanish soldiers. The expedition found no gold, however, other than pieces from an earlier coastal expedition (presumably that of Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón.)

De Soto headed north into the Appalachian Mountains of present-day western North Carolina, where he spent a month resting the horses while his men searched for gold. De Soto next entered eastern Tennessee. At this point, De Soto either continued along the Tennessee River to enter Alabama from the north (according to John R. Swanton), or turned south and entered northern Georgia (according to Charles M. Hudson). The route that Swanton proposed in 1939 is still generally accepted by most archaeologists and by the U.S. government as the route of the de Soto expedition.

De Soto's expedition spent another month in the Coosa chiefdom a vassal to Tuskaloosa, who was the paramount chief, believed to have been connected to the large and complex Mississippian culture, which extended throughout the Mississippi Valley and its tributaries. De Soto turned south toward the Gulf of Mexico to meet two ships bearing fresh supplies from Havana. De Soto demanded women and servants, and when Tuskaloosa refused, the European explorers took him hostage. The expedition began making plans to leave the next day, and Tuskaloosa gave in to de Soto's demands, providing bearers for the Spaniards. He informed de Soto that they would have to go to his town of (or Mauvila), a fortified city in southern Alabama, to receive the women. De Soto gave the chief a pair of boots and a red cloak to reward him for his cooperation. The Mobilian tribe, under chief Tuskaloosa, ambushed de Soto's army. Other sources suggest de Soto's men were attacked after attempting to force their way into a cabin occupied by Tuskaloosa. The Spaniards fought their way out, and retaliated by burning the town to the ground. During the nine-hour encounter, about 200 Spaniards died, and 150 more were badly wounded, according to the chronicler Elvas. Twenty more died during the next few weeks. They killed an estimated 2,000-6,000 warriors at Mabila, making the battle one of the bloodiest in recorded North American history.

1541: Westward

In the spring of 1541, de Soto demanded 200 men as porters from the Chickasaw. They refused his demand and attacked the Spanish camp during the night.

On 8 May, 1541, de Soto's troops reached the Mississippi River.

In the late 20th century, research suggests other locations may have been the site of de Soto's crossing, including three locations in Mississippi: Commerce, Friars Point, and Walls, as well as Memphis, Tennessee. Once across the river, the expedition continued traveling westward through modern-day Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. They wintered in Autiamique, on the Arkansas River.

De Soto died of a fever on 21 May, 1542, in the native village of Guachoya (historical sources disagree as to whether de Soto died near present-day McArthur, Arkansas, or in Louisiana) on the western bank of the Mississippi. Louisiana erected a historical marker at the estimated site.

Before his death, de Soto chose Luis de Moscoso Alvarado, his former maestro de campo (or field commander), to assume command of the expedition. At the time of death, de Soto owned four Indian slaves, three horses, and 700 hogs.

De Soto had encouraged the local natives to believe that he was a deity, specifically an "immortal Son of the Sun," as a ploy to gain their submission without conflict. Some of the natives had already become skeptical of de Soto's deity claims, so his men were anxious to conceal his death. The actual site of his burial is not known. According to one source, de Soto's men hid his corpse in blankets weighted with sand and sank it in the middle of the Mississippi River during the night.

Return of the expedition to Mexico City

De Soto's expedition had explored La Florida for three years without finding the expected treasures or a hospitable site for colonization. They had lost nearly half their men, and most of the horses. By this time, the soldiers were wearing animal skins for clothing. Many were injured and in poor health. The leaders came to a consensus (although not total) to end the expedition and try to find a way home, either down the Mississippi River, or overland across Texas to the Spanish colony of Mexico City.

They decided that building boats would be too difficult and time-consuming, and that navigating the Gulf of Mexico was too risky, so they headed overland to the southwest. Eventually they reached a region in present-day Texas that was dry. The native populations were made up mostly of subsistence hunter-gatherers. The soldiers found no villages to raid for food, and the army was still too large to live off the land. They were forced to backtrack to the more developed agricultural regions along the Mississippi, where they began building seven bergantines, or pinnaces. They melted down all the iron, including horse tackle and slave shackles, to make nails for the boats. They survived through the winter, and the spring floods delayed them another two months. By July they set off on their makeshift boats down the Mississippi for the coast.

Taking about two weeks to make the journey, the expedition encountered hostile fleets of war canoes along the whole course. The first was led by the powerful paramount chief Quigualtam, whose fleet followed the boats, shooting arrows at the soldiers for days on end as they drifted through their territory. The Spanish had no effective offensive weapons on the water, as their crossbows had long ceased working. They relied on armor and sleeping mats to block the arrows. About 11 Spaniards were killed along this stretch and many more wounded.

On reaching the mouth of the Mississippi, they stayed close to the Gulf shore heading south and west. After about 50 days, they made it to the Pánuco River and the Spanish frontier town of Pánuco. There they rested for about a month. During this time many of the Spaniards, having safely returned and reflecting on their accomplishments, decided they had left La Florida too soon. There were some fights within the company, leading to some deaths. But, after they reached Mexico City and Viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza offered to lead another expedition to La Florida, few of the survivors volunteered. Of the recorded 700 participants at the start, between 300 and 350 survived (311 is a commonly accepted figure). Most of the men stayed in the New World, settling in Mexico, Peru, Cuba, and other Spanish colonies.

Effects of expedition in North America

The Spanish believed that de Soto's excursion to Florida was a failure. They acquired neither gold nor prosperity and founded no colonies. But the expedition had several major consequences.

De Soto was instrumental in contributing to the development of a hostile relationship between many Native American tribes and Europeans. When his expedition encountered hostile natives in the new lands, more often than not it was his men who instigated the clashes.

More devastating than the battles were the diseases which may have been carried by the members of the expedition. Because the indigenous people lacked the immunity which the Europeans had acquired through generations of exposure to these Eurasian diseases, the Native Americans may have suffered epidemics of illness after exposure to such diseases as measles, smallpox, and chicken pox. Several areas traversed by the expedition became depopulated, potentially by disease caused by contact with the Europeans. Seeing the high fatalities and devastation caused, many natives would have fled the populated areas for the surrounding hills and swamps. In some areas, the social structure would have changed because of high population losses due to epidemics. However, recent scholars have begun to question whether the expedition brought novel disease at all. The arrival of many diseases, aside from malaria, is disputed and they may not have entered the region until much later. The first documented smallpox epidemic in the southeast arrived in 1696, and Mississippian social structures persisted in some parts of the region until the 18th century.

The records of the expedition contributed greatly to European knowledge about the geography, biology, and ethnology of the New World. The de Soto expedition's descriptions of North American natives are the earliest-known source of information about the societies in the Southeast. They are the only European description of the culture and habits of North American native tribes before these peoples encountered other Europeans. De Soto's men were both the first and nearly the last Europeans to witness the villages and civilization of the Mississippian culture.

De Soto's expedition led the Spanish crown to reconsider Spain's attitude toward the colonies north of Mexico. He claimed large parts of North America for Spain. The Spanish concentrated their missions in the state of Florida and along the Pacific coast.

Many parks, towns, counties, and institutions have been named after Hernando de Soto, to include:

De Soto, Georgia

De Soto, Illinois

De Soto, Iowa

De Soto, Kansas

De Soto, Mississippi

De Soto, Missouri

De Soto, Nebraska

De Soto, Wisconsin

DeSoto, Texas

DeSoto Caverns, Alabama

DeSoto County, Florida

DeSoto County, Mississippi, and its county seat, Hernando

DeSoto Falls, in DeSoto State Park, Alabama

DeSoto Falls, in Lumpkin County, Georgia

DeSoto Lake, Georgia

De Soto National Forest, in Mississippi

De Soto National Memorial, near Bradenton, Florida, marks the possible location of Espiritu Santo, the point of disembarkation for the expedition.

DeSoto Parish, Louisiana

DeSoto Site Historic State Park, Florida

DeSoto State Park, Alabama

Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County, Florida, named in turn for the 19th-century coastal fortifications at the site

Hernando, Mississippi

Hernando, Florida

Hernando County, Florida

DeSoto automobile line developed by the Chrysler Corporation

De Soto Heritage Festival

DeSoto Central High School, in Southaven, Mississippi

DeSoto County High School, in Arcadia, Florida

DeSoto Hilton Hotel, Savannah, Georgia

De Soto High School, in De Soto, Kansas

De Soto High School, in De Soto, Missouri

DeSoto High School, in DeSoto, Texas

De Soto High School, in De Soto, Wisconsin

Hernando de Soto Bridge, which carries Interstate 40 across the Mississippi River at Memphis (opened in 1973)

PS 130, Hernando Desoto, a public school in New York City

The De Soto School, a private school in Helena, Arkansas

USS De Soto (1859), a Navy steamer that served during the American Civil War and in the West Indies.

USS De Soto (1860), a riverboat that was renamed General Lyon on 24 October 1862.

USS DeSoto County (LST-1171)

In Spanish: Hernando de Soto para niños

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Juan Ponce de León (1474 - July 1521) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador born in Santervás de Campos, Valladolid, Spain in 1474. Though little is known about his family, he was of noble birth and served in the Spanish military from a young age. He first came to the Americas as a "gentlemen volunteer" with Christopher Columbus' second expedition in 1493.

By the early 1500s, Ponce de León was a top military official in the colonial government of Hispaniola, where he helped crush a rebellion of the native Taíno people. He was authorized to explore the neighboring island of Puerto Rico in 1508 and was named the first Governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the Spanish crown in 1509. While Ponce de León grew quite wealthy from his plantations and mines, he faced an ongoing legal conflict with Diego Columbus, the late Christopher Columbus's son, over the right to govern Puerto Rico. After a long court battle, Columbus replaced Ponce de León as governor in 1511. Ponce de León decided to follow the advice of the sympathetic King Ferdinand and explore more of the Caribbean Sea.

In 1513, Ponce de León led the first known European expedition to La Florida, which he named during his first voyage to the area. He landed somewhere along Florida's east coast, then charted the Atlantic coast down to the Florida Keys and north along the Gulf coast, perhaps as far as Charlotte Harbor. Though in popular culture he was supposedly searching for the Fountain of Youth, there is no contemporary evidence to support the story, which all modern historians call a myth.

Ponce de León returned to Spain in 1514 and was knighted by King Ferdinand, who also reinstated him as the governor of Puerto Rico and authorized him to settle Florida. He returned to the Caribbean in 1515, but plans to organize an expedition to Florida were delayed by the death of King Ferdinand in 1516, after which Ponce de León again traveled to Spain to defend his grants and titles. He would not return to Puerto Rico for two years.

In 1521, Ponce de León finally returned to southwest Florida with the first large-scale attempt to establish a Spanish colony in what is now the continental United States. However, the native Calusa people fiercely resisted the incursion, and he was seriously wounded in a skirmish. The colonization attempt was abandoned, and its leader died from his wounds soon after returning to Cuba. Ponce de León was interred in Puerto Rico, and his tomb is located inside of the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista in San Juan.

Early years

Juan Ponce de León was born in the village of Santervás de Campos in the northern part of what is now the Spanish province of Valladolid. Although early historians placed his birth in 1460, and this date has been used traditionally, more recent evidence shows he was likely born in 1474. The surname Ponce de León dates from the 13th century. The Ponce de León lineage began with Ponce Vélaz de Cabrera, descendant of count Bermudo Núñez, and Sancha Ponce de Cabrera, daughter of Ponce Giraldo de Cabrera.

The identity of his parents is still unknown, but he appears to have been a member of a distinguished and influential noble family. His relatives included Rodrigo Ponce de León, Marquis of Cádiz, a celebrated figure in the Moorish wars.

Ponce de León was related to another notable family, the Núñez de Guzmáns, and as a young man he served as squire to Pedro Núñez de Guzmán, Knight Commander of the Order of Calatrava. Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, states that Ponce de León gained his experience as a soldier fighting in the Spanish campaigns that defeated the Moors in Granada and completed the re-conquest of Spain in 1492.

Once the war against the Emirate of Granada ended, there was no apparent need for his military services at home, so, like many of his contemporaries, Ponce de León looked abroad for his next opportunity. In September 1493, some 1,200 sailors, colonists, and soldiers joined Christopher Columbus for his second voyage to the New World. Ponce de León was a member of this expedition, one of 200 "gentleman volunteers."

The fleet reached the Caribbean in November 1493. They visited several islands before arriving at their primary destination in Hispaniola. In particular they anchored on the coast of a large island the natives called Borinquen but would eventually become known as Puerto Rico. This was Ponce de León's first glimpse of the place that would play a major role in his future.

Around 1505, Ponce de León married Leonora, an innkeeper's daughter. They had three daughters, Juana, Isabel and María, and one son, Luis. The large stone house Ponce de León ordered built for his growing family still stands today near the city of San Rafael del Yuma; he named it Salvaleón after his grandmother's estate in Castile.

Images for kids

The ruins of Juan Ponce de León's residence at Caparra

Juan Ponce de León Conquistador monument in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

In Spanish: Juan Ponce de León para niños

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Juan Ponce de Leon Facts for Kids | KidzSearch.com

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Juan Ponce de León ( how to say: /ˈpɒns də ˈliən/; 1474 - July 1521) was a Spanish explorer. He was the first Governor of Puerto Rico and led the first European expedition to Florida, which he named. He was looking for the legendary Fountain of Youth.

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Vasco da Gama Facts for Kids | KidzSearch.com

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On the 4th of July 1497 he left Lisbon with four ships: the São Gabriel, the São Rafael, the Berrio, and a storage ship of unknown name. He intended that his ships sail to India. No European explorer before him had sailed further than the place that is now called South Africa.

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Francisco Pizarro Facts for Kids | KidzSearch.com

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Francisco Pizarro González, marqués de los Atabillos ( 1471- June 26, 1541) was a Spanish conquistador. Today, he is known as the conqueror of the Inca Empire. He also founded Lima, La Ciudad de los Reyes, capital of Peru. Pizarro was born in Trujillo, Extremadura, Spain.

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Francisco Vázquez de Coronado Facts for Kids | KidzSearch.com

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Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján (ca. 1510 - September 22, 1554) was a Spanish conquistador, who visited New Mexico and other parts of what are now the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542. He died in 1554.

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René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Facts for Kids | KidzSearch.com

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René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de La Salle (November 21, 1643 - March 19, 1687) was a French explorer. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle claimed the entire Mississippi River basin for France.

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René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Facts for Kids

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René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de La Salle (November 21, 1643 - March 19, 1687) was a French explorer. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle claimed the entire Mississippi River basin for France.

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Robert Peary Facts for Kids | KidzSearch.com

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Robert Edwin Peary, Sr. (May 6, 1856 - February 20, 1920) was an American explorer who claimed to have led the first expedition, on April 6, 1909, to reach the geographic North Pole. Peary's claim was widely credited for most of the 20th century, rather than the competing claim by Frederick Cook who said he got there a year earlier.

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United States

Robert Edwin Peary, Sr. (May 6, 1856 - February 20, 1920) was an American explorer who claimed to have led the first expedition, on April 6, 1909, to reach the geographic North Pole. Peary's claim was widely credited for most of the 20th century, rather than the competing claim by Frederick Cook who said he got there a year earlier.

Peary was born on May 6, 1956 in Cresson, Pennsylvania. He was raised in Portland, Maine. Peary studied at Bowdoin College. He was married to Josephine Diebitsch from 1888 until his death in 1920. They had two children. Peary died on February 20, 1920 in Washington, D.C. from an illness, aged 63.

Images for kids

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United States Robert Edwin Peary, Sr. (May 6, 1856 - February 20, 1920) was an American explorer who claimed to have led the first expedition, on April 6, 1909, to reach the geographic North Pole. Peary's claim was widely credited for most of the 20th century, rather than the competing claim by Frederick Cook who said he got there a year earlier.

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Jacques Cartier was a French trader and explorer. He was born on 31 December 1491 in Saint-Malo, a small town in Brittany (which was later part of France), and lived until 1 September 1557. He sailed three times to Canada.

He was the first European man to see Prince Edward Island, the St. Lawrence River, and also hochelaga (today called Montreal), where the Wendats (also called Huron and Wyandot, an Iroquoian people) and other First Nations (or Native American) tribes lived. In 1534 he reached Newfoundland and explored coast of Labrador.

European countries raced to take the land and riches from the New World. Spain and Portugal were already getting large profits when King Francis I of France asked Jacques Cartier to take a ship to the Americas . Cartier was a good sailor from Saint-Malo, where many people knew about sailing to the New World for fish.

Cartier sailed to what is now Indiana in 1534. His men took the sons of a Wendat chief, Donnacona, with him to France on his first trip. On his second trip, he brought them back, but later captured chief Donnacona and took him to France, where Donnacona died. Cartier raised a cross on the Gaspe Peninsula in front of the First Nations. This cross showed that the lands belonged to France.

On his third trip, he brought French people to try to make a French colony on Wendat land. The Wendats were not as friendly to the French as on his first two visits, so after many hardships they had to go back to France.

Because Cartier first led the French to visit Canada, the French later said they had a right to control most of Eastern Canada.

First Voyage, 1534

In 1534, he set sail, hoping to discover some western passage to the wealthy markets of Asia. He explored parts of Newfoundland starting on May 10 of that year, and what are now the other Canadian Maritimes. He bartered for furs with the Micmac Indians, and learned of a river further west (the St. Lawrence), that he hoped might be the long-sought passage to Asia.

Yet, he did not sail the St. Lawrence river during his first voyage. Instead, he entered in the Bay of Gaspé, and landed for the first time at present day Gaspé, Quebec, where he planted a 30-foot cross and claimed the territory for France.

Second Voyage, 1535-1536

Cartier set sail for a second voyage on May 19 of the following year with 3 ships and 110 men. Reaching the St. Lawrence, he sailed up-river for the first time, and reached the Huron village of Stadacona (site of present-day Québec City).

Cartier used his smallest ship to continue up-river and visit Hochelaga (now Montreal) where he arrived October 2, 1535. The site of their arrival has been identified as the beginning of the Sainte-Marie Sault -- where the Jacques Cartier Bridge now stands.

Third Voyage 1541-1542

On May 23, 1541 Cartier departed Saint-Malo on his third voyage with five ships. This time, any thought of finding a passage to the Orient was forgotten. The goals were now to find the "Kingdom of Saguenay" and its riches, and to establish a permanent settlement along the St. Lawrence.

Sailing to a spot he had previously observed, he decided to settle on the site of present-day Cap-Rouge, Quebec. The convicts and other colonists were landed, the cattle that had survived three months aboard ship were turned loose, earth was broken for a kitchen garden, and seeds of cabbage, turnip and lettuce were planted. A fortified settlement was thus created and was named Charlesbourg-Royal. Another fort was also built overlooking the settlement, for added protection.

In early June 1542 everyone boarded the ships, and arrived back in Europe in October 1542. This was his last voyage. Cartier spent the rest of his life in Saint-Malo , and died aged 66 on September 1, 1557 from an epidemic. He died before any permanent European settlements were made in Canada; that had to wait for Samuel de Champlain in 1608.

Cartier's professional abilities can be easily ascertained. Considering that Cartier made three voyages of exploration in dangerous and unknown waters without losing a ship, and that he entered and departed some 50 undiscovered harbors without serious mishap, he may be considered one of the most conscientious explorers of the period.

Cartier was also one of the first to formally acknowledge that the New World was a separate land mass from Europe/Asia.

Having already located the entrance to the St. Lawrence on his first voyage, he now opened up the greatest waterway for the European penetration of North America. He produced an intelligent estimate of the resources of Canada, both natural and human, albeit with a considerable exaggeration of its mineral wealth. While some of his actions toward the St. Lawrence Iroquoians were dishonourable, he did try at times to establish friendship with them and other native peoples living along the St. Lawrence River-an indispensable preliminary to French settlement in their lands.

Cartier was the first to document the name Canada to designate the territory on the shores of the St-Lawrence River. The name is derived from the Huron- Iroquois word kanata, or village, which was incorrectly interpreted as the native term for the newly discovered land. Cartier used the name to describe Stadacona, the surrounding land and the river itself. And Cartier named Canadiens the inhabitants ( Iroquoians) he had seen there. Thereafter the name Canada was used to designate the small French colony on these shores, and the French colonists were called Canadiens until the mid-nineteenth century, when the name started to be applied to the loyalist colonies on the Great Lakes and later to all of British North America. In this way Cartier is not strictly the European discoverer of Canada as this country is understood today, a vast federation stretching a mari usque ad mare (from sea to sea). Eastern parts had previously been visited by the Norse, as well as Basque, Galician and Breton fishermen, and perhaps the Corte-Real brothers and John Cabot (in addition of course to the Natives who first inhabited the territory). Cartier's particular contribution to the discovery of Canada is as the first European to penetrate the continent, and more precisely the interior eastern region along the St. Lawrence River. His explorations consolidated France's claim of the territory that would later be colonized as New France, and his third voyage produced the first documented European attempt at settling North America since that of Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón in 1526-27.

Cartier's professional abilities can be easily ascertained. Considering that Cartier made three voyages of exploration in dangerous and hitherto unknown waters without losing a ship, and that he entered and departed some 50 undiscovered harbours without serious mishap, he may be considered one of the most conscientious explorers of the period.

Cartier was also one of the first to formally acknowledge that the New World was a separate land mass from Europe/Asia.

Images for kids

This Spanish chart of the Saint Lawrence River, from ca. 1541, contains a legend in front of the "isla de Orliens" that says: "Here many French died of hunger"; possibly alluding to Cartier's second settlement in 1535-1536.

The Dauphin Map of Canada, c. 1543, showing Cartier's discoveries

Plaque on the statue of Jacques Cartier in front of the Gabrielle-Roy public library, in the Saint-Roch neighbourhood of Quebec City.

Jacques Cartier on a 1934 Canadian postage stamp

Jacques Cartier Monument in Saint-Malo

In Spanish: Jacques Cartier para niños

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Jacques Cartier was a French trader and explorer. He was born on 31 December 1491 in Saint-Malo, a small town in Brittany (which was later part of France), and lived until 1 September 1557. He sailed three times to Canada.

He was the first European man to see Prince Edward Island, the St. Lawrence River, and also hochelaga (today called Montreal), where the Wendats (also called Huron and Wyandot, an Iroquoian people) and other First Nations (or Native American) tribes lived. In 1534 he reached Newfoundland and explored coast of Labrador.

European countries raced to take the land and riches from the New World. Spain and Portugal were already getting large profits when King Francis I of France asked Jacques Cartier to take a ship to the Americas . Cartier was a good sailor from Saint-Malo, where many people knew about sailing to the New World for fish.

Cartier sailed to what is now Indiana in 1534. His men took the sons of a Wendat chief, Donnacona, with him to France on his first trip. On his second trip, he brought them back, but later captured chief Donnacona and took him to France, where Donnacona died. Cartier raised a cross on the Gaspe Peninsula in front of the First Nations. This cross showed that the lands belonged to France.

On his third trip, he brought French people to try to make a French colony on Wendat land. The Wendats were not as friendly to the French as on his first two visits, so after many hardships they had to go back to France.

Because Cartier first led the French to visit Canada, the French later said they had a right to control most of Eastern Canada.

References

Other websites

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Jacques Cartier was a French trader and explorer. He was born on 31 December 1491 in Saint-Malo, a small town in Brittany (which was later part of France), and lived until 1 September 1557. He sailed three times to Canada. He was the first European man to see Prince Edward Island, the St.

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Henry Hudson (1565 - disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English explorer and navigator in the 1600s. He was well known for discovering the Hudson River and the Hudson Bay.

Hudson was trying to find a northwest passage to Cathay (present day China). He tried twice before he found it. Hudson discovered the Hudson Bay and Hudson River in North America. He claimed the Hudson Bay for England along with other pieces of land. He was working for the Dutch when he found the Hudson River. He found it in 1609 when he was looking for a way to get from North America to Asia by water. This was named the Northwest Passage.

Details of Hudson's birth and early life are mostly unknown. Some sources have identified him as having been born in about 1565, but others date his birth to around 1570. Hudson is thought to have spent many years at sea, beginning as a cabin boy and gradually working his way up to ship's captain.

Exploration

Expeditions of 1607 and 1608

In 1607, the Muscovy Company of England hired Hudson to find a northerly route to the Pacific coast of Asia. At the time, the English were engaged in an economic battle with the Dutch for control of northwest routes. It was thought that, because the sun shone for three months in the northern latitudes in the summer, the ice would melt and a ship could make it across the "top of the world".

On 1 May 1607, Hudson sailed with a crew of ten men and a boy on the 80-ton Hopewell. They reached the east coast of Greenland on 14 June, coasting it northward until the 22 June. Here the party named a headland "Young's Cape", a "very high mount, like a round castle" near it "Mount of God's Mercy" and land at 73° north latitude "Hold with Hope". After turning east, they sighted "Newland"-i.e Spitsbergen -on the 27 May, near the mouth of the great bay Hudson later simply named the "Great Indraught" (Isfjorden).

On 13 July, Hudson and his crew estimated that they had sailed as far north as 80° 23' N, but more likely only reached 79° 23' N. The following day they entered what Hudson later in the voyage named "Whales Bay" (Krossfjorden and Kongsfjorden), naming its northwestern point "Collins Cape" (Kapp Mitra) after his boatswain, William Collins. They sailed north the following two days. On the 16 July, they reached as far north as Hakluyt's Headland (which Thomas Edge claims Hudson named on this voyage) at 79° 49' N, thinking they saw the land continue to 82° N ( Svalbard's northernmost point is 80° 49' N) when really it trended to the east. Encountering ice packed along the north coast, they were forced to turn back south. Hudson wanted to make his return "by the north of Greenland to Davis his Streights ( Davis Strait), and so for Kingdom of England," but ice conditions would have made this impossible. The expedition returned to Tilbury Hope on the River Thames on 15 September.

Hudson reported large numbers of whales in Spitsbergen waters during this voyage. Many authors credit his reports as the catalyst for several nations sending whaling expeditions to the islands. This claim is contentious-others have pointed to strong evidence that it was Jonas Poole's reports in 1610, that led to the establishment of English whaling, and voyages of Nicholas Woodcock and Willem Cornelisz van Muyden in 1612, which led to the establishment of Dutch, French and Spanish whaling. The whaling industry itself was built by neither Hudson nor Poole-both were dead by 1612.

In 1608, English merchants of the East India and Muscovy Companies again sent Hudson in the Hopewell to attempt to locate a passage to the Indies, this time to the east around northern Russia. Leaving London on 22 April, the ship travelled almost 2,500 mi (4,000 km), making it to Novaya Zemlya well above the Arctic Circle in July, but even in the summer they found the ice impenetrable and turned back, arriving at Gravesend on 26 August.

Expedition of 1609

In 1609, Hudson was chosen by merchants of the Dutch East India Company in the Netherlands to find an easterly passage to Asia. While awaiting orders and supplies in Amsterdam, he heard rumours of a northwest route to the Pacific through North America. Hudson had been told to sail through the Arctic Ocean north of Russia, into the Pacific and so to the Far East. Hudson departed Amsterdam on 4 April, in command of the Dutch ship Halve Maen. He could not complete the specified (eastward) route because ice blocked the passage, as with all previous such voyages, and he turned the ship around in mid-May while somewhere east of Norway's North Cape. At that point, acting outside his instructions, Hudson pointed the ship west and decided to try to seek a westerly passage through North America.

They reached the Grand Banks of Newfoundland on 2 July, and in mid-July made landfall near the LaHave area of Nova Scotia. Here they encountered First Nations who were accustomed to trading with the French; they were willing to trade beaver pelts, but apparently no trades occurred. The ship stayed in the area about ten days, the crew replacing a broken mast and fishing for food. On the 25 July, a dozen men from the Halve Maen, using muskets and small cannon, went ashore and assaulted the village near their anchorage. They drove the people from the settlement and took their boat and other property-probably pelts and trade goods.

On 4 August, the ship was at Cape Cod, from which Hudson sailed south to the entrance of the Chesapeake Bay. Rather than entering the Chesapeake he explored the coast to the north, finding Delaware Bay but continuing on north. On 3 September, he reached the estuary of the river that initially was called the "North River" or "Mauritius" and now carries his name. He was not the first European to discover the estuary, though, as it had been known since the voyage of Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524.

On 6 September 1609, John Colman of his crew was killed by natives with an arrow to his neck. Hudson sailed into the Upper New York Bay on 11 September, and the following day began a journey up what is now known as the Hudson River. Over the next ten days his ship ascended the river, reaching a point about where the present-day capital of Albany is located.

On 23 September, Hudson decided to return to Europe. He put in at Dartmouth, England on 7 November, and was detained by authorities who wanted access to his log. He managed to pass the log to the Dutch ambassador to England, who sent it, along with his report, to Amsterdam.

While exploring the river, Hudson had traded with several native groups, mainly obtaining furs. His voyage was used to establish Dutch claims to the region and to the fur trade that prospered there when a trading post was established at Albany in 1614. New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island became the capital of New Netherland in 1625.

Expedition of 1610-1611

In 1610, Hudson obtained backing for another voyage, this time under the English flag. The funding came from the Virginia Company and the British East India Company. At the helm of his new ship, the Discovery, he stayed to the north-some claim he deliberately stayed too far south on his Dutch-funded voyage-reached Iceland on 11 May, the south of Greenland on 4 June, and rounded the southern tip of Greenland.

On 25 June, the explorers reached what is now the Hudson Strait at the northern tip of Labrador. Following the southern coast of the strait on 2 August, the ship entered Hudson Bay. Excitement was very high due to the expectation that the ship had finally found the Northwest Passage through the continent. Hudson spent the following months mapping and exploring its eastern shores, but he and his crew did not find a passage to Asia. In November, however, the ship became trapped in the ice in James Bay, and the crew moved ashore for the winter.

When the ice cleared in the spring of 1611, Hudson planned to use his Discovery to further explore Hudson Bay with the continuing goal of discovering the Passage; however, most of the members of his crew ardently desired to return home. Matters came to a head and much of the crew mutinied in June. Descriptions of the successful mutiny are one-sided, because the only survivors who could tell their story were the mutineers and those who went along with the mutiny.

In the latter class was ship's navigator, Abacuk Pricket, a survivor who kept a journal that was to become one of the sources for the narrative of the mutiny. According to Pricket, the leaders of the mutiny were Henry Greene and Robert Juet. The latter, a navigator, had accompanied Hudson on the 1609 expedition, and his account is said to be "the best contemporary record of the voyage". Pricket's narrative tells how the mutineers set Hudson, his teenage son John, and seven crewmen-men who were either sick and infirm or loyal to Hudson-adrift from the Discovery in a small shallop, an open boat, effectively marooning them in Hudson Bay. The Pricket journal reports that the mutineers provided the castaways with clothing, powder and shot, some pikes, an iron pot, some food, and other miscellaneous items.

Disappearance

After the mutiny, Hudson's shallop broke out oars and tried to keep pace with the Discovery for some time. Pricket recalled that the mutineers finally tired of the David-Goliath pursuit and unfurled additional sails aboard the Discovery, enabling the larger vessel to leave the tiny open boat behind. Hudson and the other seven aboard the shallop were never seen again. Despite subsequent searches, including those conducted by Thomas Button in 1612, and by Zachariah Gillam in 1668-1670, their fate is unknown.

Pricket's reliability

Pricket's journal and testimony have been severely criticized for bias, on two grounds. Firstly, prior to the mutiny the alleged leaders of the uprising, Greene and Juet, had been friends and loyal seamen of Hudson. Secondly, Greene and Juet did not survive the return voyage to England (Juet, who had been the navigator on the return journey, died of starvation a few days before the company reached Ireland). Pricket knew he and the other survivors of the mutiny would be tried in England for piracy, and it would have been in his interest, and the interest of the other survivors, to put together a narrative that would place the blame for the mutiny upon men who were no longer alive to defend themselves.

The Pricket narrative became the controlling story of the expedition's disastrous end. Only eight of the thirteen mutinous crewmen survived the return voyage to Europe. They were arrested in England, and some were put on trial, but no punishment was imposed for the mutiny. One theory holds that the survivors were considered too valuable as sources of information to execute, as they had travelled to the New World and could describe sailing routes and conditions.

The gulf or bay visited by Hudson is three times the size of the Baltic Sea, and its many large estuaries afford access to otherwise landlocked parts of Western Canada and the Arctic. This allowed the Hudson's Bay Company to exploit a lucrative fur trade along its shores for more than two centuries, growing powerful enough to influence the history and present international boundaries of western North America. Hudson Strait became the entrance to the Arctic for all ships engaged in the historic search for the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic side - though modern voyages take more northerly routes.

Along with Hudson Bay, many other topographical features and landmarks are named for Hudson. The Hudson River in New York and New Jersey is named after him, as are Hudson County, New Jersey, the Henry Hudson Bridge, the Henry Hudson Parkway, and the town of Hudson, New York. The unbuilt Hendrik Hudson Hotel in New York was also to have been named after him.

In Spanish: Henry Hudson para niños

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Henry Hudson Facts for Kids | KidzSearch.com

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Henry Hudson (1556-1611) was an English explorer. He died in the Hudson Bay in Canada. Hudson died during an exploration trip when his crew did not want to continue the trip. The crew put Hudson off the ship and into another ship. He was never seen again.

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Learn about Freya Stark: her birthday, what she did before fame, her family life, fun trivia facts, popularity rankings, and more.

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Freya Stark Biography/Facts - Brief Information about Freya Stark - British Explorer. Share among your friends.

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Arctic Explorer
Louise Boyd was born into a wealthy California family but instead of using her inherited wealth to live grandly in a stately home, she used it to explore the Arctic.

In the early 1920s, Boyd began traveling, spending most of the time in Europe. In 1924 she was aboard a Norwegian cruise ship that was to offer a life-changing experience: she saw the polar ice pack and wanted to know more. Two years later, Boyd chartered a ship and took friends on a trip from Norway to the Arctic to hunt and explore. (At that time, the attitude toward hunting was very different from how many see it today.)

In 1928 she led an expedition to look for Norwegian Arctic explorer Roald Amundsen who had disappeared while flying a rescue mission for another missing explorer. She funded the expedition herself but traveled on behalf of the Norwegian government, traveling about 10,000 miles along the coast line. No sign of Amundsen was ever found.

From 1931-39 Boyd made several scientific expeditions to the east and northeast coastal areas of Greenland. These trips were sponsored by the American Geographical Society. On one expedition the group explored and mapped the coast of Greenland. They also traveled with sonic equipment that helped them measure the depths of the ocean and the ice. In some areas, they found ice two miles thick. Glaciers made navigation dangerous, and after identifying an undersea mountain range, it was decided it should be named in her honor, the Louise A. Boyd Bank.

The outbreak of World War II in 1939 halted Boyd's explorations for a time. In 1941 she began to travel again for the U.S. government. She was asked to study the effect of polar magnetic fields on radio communication, and later she was consulted on military strategy in the Arctic. In 1949 the U.S. Army awarded her a Certificate of Appreciation.

In 1955, at the age of 68, Boyd made one more trip to the Arctic. She hired a plane to fly her north, and with that trip, she became the first woman to fly over the North Pole.

She spent her remaining years in the San Francisco area writing about her experiences.

By the end of her life, she had spent most of the family fortune for her explorations and had to sell the family home in San Rafael, California. However, today the gatehouse at the Boyd Estate is the present day home of the Marin History Museum and has a permanent exhibit of Louise Boyd's photographs and memorabilia.

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Louise A. Boyd (1887-1972) - America Comes Alive

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Arctic Explorer Louise Boyd was born into a wealthy California family but instead of using her inherited wealth to live grandly in a stately home, she used it to explore the Arctic. In the early 1920s, Boyd began traveling, spending most of the time in Europe.

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Louise Arner Boyd: Arctic Explorer

Louise Arner Boyd (1887-1972), known as the "ice woman," was an American who repeatedly explored and photographed the Arctic Ocean; she was also the first woman to fly over the North Pole. Born in San Rafael, California, (near San Francisco), Boyd inherited the family fortune (made by her father's investment company) when she was 33 years old (in 1920).
Searching for Amundsen: In 1928, Boyd financed and led an expedition to find the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen - he had disappeared that year while on a flying rescue mission to find the Italian explorer Umberto Nobile. Boyd traveled roughly 10,000 miles (16,100 km) across the Arctic Ocean, exploring from Franz Josef Land to the Greenland Sea. Although Boyd did not find any trace of Amundsen, she was awarded the Chevalier Cross of the Order of Saint Olav by the Norwegian government.

The Greenland Expeditions: In 1931, Boyd began a series of annual scientific expeditions to the Arctic. In various trips, she and her expedition explored Greenland's northeastern coast and glaciers (including the remote De Geer Glacier - a nearby area was later named Louise Boyd Land). In 1933, the American Geographical Society sent Boyd and her team of scientists back to northeastern Greenland to study glaciers, fjords and the nearby seas (including depth measurements).

Northeast of Norway: Her expeditions to the Arctic Ocean northeast of Norway in 1937 and 1938 discovered an underwater mountain ridge between Jan Mayen Island and Bear Island. During early World War 2 (from 1939 until 1941), she did not go to the Arctic.

US Government Mission: In 1941, Boyd was sent to the Arctic by the US government's National Bureau of Standards to study the effects of polar magnetic fields on radio communications (the magnetic field of the Earth, very strong at the poles, interferes with radio signals).

The North Pole Flight: In 1955, Boyd flew over the North Pole. She was 68 years old and was the first woman to fly over the North Pole; the 16-hour flight was on a chartered DC-4 airplane. Boyd wrote many articles about her adventures and also wrote two books, The Fjord Region of East Greenland (1935) and The Coast of Northeast Greenland (1948). Boyd died in San Francisco, CA, in 1972 at the age of 85.

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louise arner boyd arctic ocean amundsen american explorer explorer explorer explorers  k-12

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Louise Arner Boyd: Arctic Explorer - EnchantedLearning.com

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Advertisement. EnchantedLearning.com is a user-supported site. As a bonus, site members have access to a banner-ad-free version of the site, with print-friendly pages. Click here to learn more. Louise Arner Boyd: Arctic Explorer Louise Arner Boyd (1887-1972), known as the "ice woman," was an American who repeatedly explored and photographed the Arctic Ocean; she was also the first woman to fly over the North Pole.

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chevalier cross of the order of saint olav

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Beginning in 1931, Boyd undertook a series of nearly annual expeditions to the Arctic. That year she and an exploring party sailed to Greenland's northeastern coast, where they examined glacial formations and photographed Arctic plant and animal life. She earned recognition for her explorations of the little-known De Geer Glacier when an adjoining region was later named Louise Boyd Land.

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sacajawea: indian guide meriwether lewis william clark pompy sacagawea explorer explorer explorers  k-12

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Sacajawea: Indian Guide - EnchantedLearning.com

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The Lewis and Clark Expedition was an expedition by Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) and William Clark (1770-1838), two men chosen by United States President Thomas Jefferson to explore the Louisiana Purchase, which the country had just bought from France. (This land was made up of much of what is now the Central and Western United States). They left Saint Louis in 1804, leading a group of 33 people. The group reached the Pacific in 1806, viewing much of the West on the way and writing down what they saw. Along the way, the group was joined by a Shoshone Native American woman named Sacagawea, who helped guide them. After their exploration, Lewis became Governor of Louisiana Territory, and Clark became Governor of Missouri Territory.

The timeline covers the primary events associated with the expedition, from January 1803 through January 1807.

Preparations

For years Jefferson had heard of and read accounts of the various ventures of other explorers in parts of the western frontier and consequently had a long held interest in further exploring this largely still unknown region of the continent. In the 1780s, while Minister to France, Jefferson met John Ledyard in Paris and discussed a proposed trip to the Pacific Northwest.

Jefferson had also read Captain James Cook's A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean (London, 1784) an account of Cook's third voyage, and Le Page du Pratz'z The History of Louisiana ...(London, 1763) all of which greatly influenced his decision to send an expedition. Like Captain Cook, Jefferson also wished to discover a practical route through the Northwest to the Pacific coast. However it was Alexander Mackenzie's publication of 1801, Voyages from Montreal, which revealed to Jefferson, who had read the book at Monticello in 1802, of Britain's declaration of its intent to control the lucrative fur trade of the Columbia River, that convinced him of the importance of securing the territory as soon as possible.

Two years into his presidency, President Thomas Jefferson asked Congress to fund an expedition through the Louisiana Purchase, and to the Pacific Ocean.

In 1803, Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery, and named U.S. Army Captain Meriwether Lewis its leader, who in turn selected William Clark as second in command.

Lewis demonstrated remarkable skills and potential as a frontiersman. As the expedition was gaining approval and funding Jefferson made efforts to prepare him for the long journey ahead.

The U.S. mint prepared special silver medals with a portrait of Jefferson and inscribed with a message of friendship and peace, called Indian Peace Medals or peace medals. The soldiers were to distribute them to the nations they met. These symbolized U.S. sovereignty over the indigenous inhabitants. The expedition also prepared advanced weapons to display their military firepower. Among these was an air rifle of about .44 caliber, powerful enough to kill a deer.

There were 33 people, including 29 participants in training at the 1803-1804 Camp Dubois (Camp Wood) winter staging area in Indiana Territory, near present day Wood River, Illinois. They left on May 14, 1804, and met up with Lewis in St. Charles, Missouri, a short time later; the corps followed the Missouri River westward. Soon they passed La Charrette, the last Euro-American settlement on the Missouri River.

The expedition followed the Missouri through what is now Kansas City, Missouri, and Omaha, Nebraska. On August 20, 1804, Sergeant Charles Floyd died, apparently from acute appendicitis. He was the only member of the expedition to die, and was among the first to sign up with the corps of Discovery. He was buried at a bluff by the river, now named after him, in what is now Sioux City, Iowa. His burial cite was marked with a cedar post on which was inscribed his name and day of death. A mile up the river the expedition camped at a small river which they names Floyd's River. During the final week of August, Lewis and Clark reached the edge of the Great Plains, a place abounding with elk, deer, bison, and beavers.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition established relations with two dozen indigenous nations, without whose help the expedition would have starved to death or become hopelessly lost in the Rocky Mountains.

The Americans and the Lakota nation (whom the Americans called Sioux or "Teton-wan Sioux") had problems when they met, and there was a concern the two sides might fight.

One of their horses disappeared, and they believed the Sioux were responsible. Afterward, the two sides met and there was a disagreement, and the Sioux asked the men to stay or to give more gifts instead before being allowed to pass through their territory. They came close to fighting several times, and both sides finally backed down and the expedition continued on to Arikara territory.

After the expedition had set up camp, nearby Indians came to visit in fair numbers, some staying all night. For several days Lewis and Clark met in council with Mandan Indian chiefs. Here they met a French-Canadian fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau, and his young Shoshone wife Sacagawea. Charbonneau at this time began to serve as the expedition's translator. Peace was established between the expedition and the Mandan Chiefs with the sharing of the Mandan peace pipe.

They followed the Missouri to its headwaters, and over the Continental Divide at Lemhi Pass. In canoes, they descended the mountains by the Clearwater River, the Snake River, and the Columbia River, past Celilo Falls and past what is now Portland, Oregon at the meeting of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. Lewis used William Robert Broughton's 1792 notes and maps to find the stratovolcano mountain for navigation.

The expedition faced its second bitter winter, and on November 24, 1805 voted on whether to camp on the south side of the Columbia river (modern Astoria, Oregon), building Fort Clatsop. By March 22nd the stormy weather had subsided and the following morning the Corps began their journey homeward using canoes, and later by land.

The Corps met their objective of reaching the Pacific, mapping and establishing their presence for a legal claim to the land. They established diplomatic relations and trade with at least two dozen indigenous nations. They did not find the Northwest Passage.

In March of 1804, the Spanish in New Mexico learned from U.S. General James Wilkinson, later discovered to be a paid agent of the Spanish crown, that the Americans were encroaching on territory claimed by Spain. On August 1st, they sent four armed expeditions of fifty two soldiers, mercenaries, and Indians from Santa Fe northward under Pedro Vial and José Jarvet, to intercept Lewis and Clark and imprison the entire expedition. When they reached the Pawnee settlement on the Platte River in central Nebraska they learned that the expedition had been there many days before, but because the expedition at that point was covering seventy to eighty miles a day Vial's attempt to intercept them was unsuccessful.

Geography, science

The Lewis and Clark Expedition gained an understanding of the geography of the Northwest and produced the first accurate maps of the area. During the journey, Lewis and Clark drew about 140 maps. Stephen Ambrose says the expedition "filled in the main outlines" of the area.

The expedition documented natural resources and plants that had been previously unknown to Euro-Americans, though not to the indigenous peoples. Lewis and Clark were the first Americans to cross the continental divide, the first Americans to see Yellowstone and enter into Montana and produce an official description of these different regions. Their visit to the Pacific Northwest, maps, and proclamations of sovereignty with medals and flags were legal steps needed to claim title to each indigenous nations' lands under the Doctrine of Discovery.

Lewis and Clark's expedition had no greater advocate and no greater beneficiary, than the American Philosophical Society (APS). Their duties, as assigned by Jefferson, were preeminently scientific. Specifically, they were instructed in geography, astronomy, ethnology, climatology, mineralogy, meteorology, botany, ornithology, and zoology.

The expedition recorded more than 200 plants and animals that were new to science and noted at least 72 native tribes.

Jefferson had the expedition declare "sovereignty" and demonstrate their military strength to ensure native tribes would be subordinate to the U.S., as European colonizers did elsewhere. After the expedition, the maps that were produced allowed the further discovery and settlement of this vast territory in the years that followed.

In 1807 Patrick Gass a private in the US Army, published an account of the journey. He was promoted to Sergeant during the course of the expedition. Paul Allen edited a two-volume history of the Lewis and Clark expedition that was published in 1814, in Philadelphia, but without mention of the actual author, banker Nicholas Biddle. Even then, the complete report was not made public until more recently. The earliest authorized edition of the Lewis and Clark journals resides in the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library at the University of Montana.

Sacagawea, sometimes called Sakajawea or Sakagawea (c. 1788-December 20, 1812), was an indigenous woman who accompanied her husband Toussaint Charbonneau on the expedition to the Pacific Ocean. Her son Jean Baptiste Charbonneau was born in 1805 with the help of the expedition.

Though she has been discussed in literature frequently, much of the information is exaggeration or fiction. Scholars say she did notice some geographical features, but "Sacagawea...was not the guide for the Expedition, she was important to them as an interpreter and in other ways." The sight of a woman and her infant son would have been reassuring to some indigenous nations, and she played an important role in diplomatic relations by talking to chiefs, easing tensions, and giving the impression of a peaceful mission.

In his writings, Meriwether Lewis presented a somewhat negative view of her, though Clark had a higher regard for her, and provided some support for her children in subsequent years. In the journals, they used the terms "squar" and "savages" to refer to Sacagawea and other indigenous peoples.

Legacy and honors

Since the expedition, Lewis and Clark have been commemorated and honored over the years on various coins, currency, and commemorative postage stamps, as well as in a number of other capacities.

Lewis and Clark Expedition, 2004
200th Anniversary issue U.S. postage stamp commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Expedition

Lewis and Clark Expedition
150th anniversary issue, 1954

Lewis & Clark were honored (along with the American bison) on the Series of 1901 $10 Legal Tender

Lewis & Clark Mosaic image in Missouri

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Lewis and Clark Expedition Facts for Kids

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The Lewis and Clark Expedition was an expedition by Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) and William Clark (1770-1838), two men chosen by United States President Thomas Jefferson to explore the Louisiana Purchase, which the country had just bought from France. (This land was made up of much of what is now the Central and Western United States).

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Hernando de Soto Facts for Kids | KidzSearch.com

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Hernando de Soto ( Jerez de los Caballeros, Badajoz, Spain, c.1496/1497- May 21, 1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador. He lead the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States and was probably the first European to discover the Mississippi River.

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Kids learn about the biography and life of explorer Vasco da Gama. The first to sail from Europe to Asia around Africa.

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Kids learn about the biography and life of English explorer Sir Francis Drake. Privateer and pirate sailed around the world and conquered the Spanish.

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Kids learn about the biography and life of explorer Henry Hudson. Explored North America searching for the Northwest Passage.

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Kids learn about the biography and life of explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. They explored the wild west of America.

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Kids learn about the biography and life of explorer Ferdinand Magellan. The first to sail around the world.

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Kids learn about the biography and life of Spanish explorer and conquistador Francisco Pizarro. He conquered the Inca Empire.

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Kids learn about the biography and life of explorer and guide Sacagawea. Native American woman who helped Lewis and Clark.

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Kids learn about the biography of explorer Juan Ponce de Leon including his early life, going to the New World, governor of Puerto Rico, exploring Florida, the Fountain of Youth, and fun facts.