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Watch this video to get an overview of each explorer.

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European Explorers - Educational Social Studies Video for Elementary Students and Kids

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Voyage of French explorer Jacques Cartier (school project presentation). Legos stop motion.

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Home " World Maps " World Map

This is a large 38" by 48" colorful wall map showing the United States of America and state flags.
More Information.

The map above is a political map of the world centered on Europe and Africa. It shows the location of most of the world's countries and includes their names where space allows.

Representing a round earth on a flat map requires some distortion of the geographic features no matter how the map is done. We have used a Mercator projection for this map because it is the projection most commonly used in schools. On this map, geographic boundaries that trend north-south appear as vertical lines, geographic boundaries that trend east-west appear as horizontal lines. This type of projection causes a minimum of country-shape distortion near the equator, a small amount of distortion at mid-latitudes, but extreme distortion near the poles. For that reason, the map does not extend to the north and south poles.

The United States Central Intelligence Agency standard time zone map of the world in .pdf format. Easy-to-read.

This is a large 33" by 54" wall map with the world's physical features shown.
More Information.

The map shown here is a terrain relief image of the world with the boundaries of major countries shown as white lines. It includes the names of the world's oceans and the names of major bays, gulfs, and seas. Lowest elevations are shown as a dark green color with a gradient from green to dark brown to gray as elevation increases. This allows the major mountain ranges and lowlands to be clearly visible.

This map is also a Mercator projection centered on Europe and Africa. A scale of miles is not shown on these maps because the scale changes with distance north and south of the equator. Scale is highly exaggerated as distance from the equator increases.

Countries of the World:
The United States Department of State recognizes 195 "Independent States in the World". We have listed these countries below, and those that we have a map for are clickable.

Copyright information: The images on this page were composed by Angela King and Brad Cole and are copyright by Geology.com. These images are not available for use beyond our websites. If you would like to share them with others please link to this page. The maps were produced using digital vector graphics licensed from and copyright by Map Resources.

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World Map: A clickable map of world countries :-)

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A large colorful map of the world. When you click a country you go to a more detailed map of that country.

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Vasco Balboa was a Spanish Explorer best known for discovering the Pacific

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Christopher Columbus | PBS World Explorers

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Brilliant explorer? Or violent conqueror? Almost no other explorer inspires as much controversy as Christopher Columbus. Find more about this Italian explorer's historic journey to the Caribbean in 1492.

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Watch a short biography video of English explorer Henry Hudson. Learn more about Henry Hudson: http://bit.ly/15rTkxA Watch more of Henry Hudson's videos: http://bit.ly/1dbKcOt Learn more about Famous Explorers: http://bit.ly/13xl6Lk Learn more about Fantastic Facial Hair: http://bit.ly/12zfKZC English explorer Henry Hudson made two unsuccessful sailing voyages in search of an ice-free passage to Asia.

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This is a presentation for my American History class, enjoy!

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Columbus and Hudson

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John Cabot | PBS World Explorers | PBS LearningMedia

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Five hundred years after the viking exploration of North America, Italian explorer John Cabot became the first known European to reach its mainland. Honing his sailing skills in the Meditteranean, Cabot followed in Columbus's footsteps to explore the Atlantic in search of a route to Asia.

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Henry Hudson video.-- Created using PowToon -- Free sign up at http://www.powtoon.com/ . Make your own animated videos and animated presentations for free. PowToon is a free tool that allows you to develop cool animated clips and animated presentations for your website, office meeting, sales pitch, nonprofit fundraiser, product launch, video resume, or anything else you could use an animated explainer video.

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Jacques Cartier - European Explorer - Educational Social Studies Video - Elementary Students & Kids

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Jacques Cartier - Explorer | Mini Bio | BIO

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John Cabot  Kid Friendly and Educational

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Uploaded by None of your beeswax Leave me alone. on 2015-10-19.

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This video is about Hernando DeSoto by Coyle Fowler

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John Cabot - European Explorer - Educational Social Studies Video for Elementary Students & Kids

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Christopher Columbus - Educational Social Studies & History Video for Elementary Students and Kids

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Conflict & Cooperation between the Explorers & the Native Americans

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Conflict & Cooperation between the Explorers & the Native Americans

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Conflict & Cooperation Between European Explorers and Native American Indians of North America Video

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Readworks

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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.

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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 León | PBS World Explorers | PBS LearningMedia

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Juan Ponce de Leon was famous for his quest for the fountain of youth. But is there more myth than truth to this legend? Learn more about de Leon's journeys to the Caribbean and the Americas.

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Juan Ponce de León: Meet the Spanish explorer who discovered Florida

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Coronado set out in 1540. In what is now New Mexico he indeed found cities, but they were made of adobe (sun-baked clay), not gold. They were the pueblos (villages) of the Zuni Native Americans. Although Coronado and his men did not find riches in the area, they were among the first Europeans to explore the land. Some of the men, led by García López de Cárdenas, became the first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon. Hernando de Alarcón commanded supply ships that traveled up the Gulf of California and discovered the mouth of the Colorado River. When Coronado sent Melchior Díaz to search for Alarcón's ships, Díaz become the first European to cross into what is now California.

In spring 1541 Coronado went on to what is now Kansas because a Native American woman had told him of another fabulously wealthy land called Quivira. It again turned out to be only an Indian village, but the Spaniards became the first Europeans to see the Great Plains and the large bison (buffalo) herds that roamed there.

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Coronado set out in 1540. In what is now New Mexico he indeed found cities, but they were made of adobe (sun-baked clay), not gold. They were the pueblos (villages) of the Zuni Native Americans. Although Coronado and his men did not find riches in the area, they were among the first Europeans to explore the land.

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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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Francisco Vázquez de Coronado | PBS World Explorers | PBS LearningMedia

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Francisco Vázquez de Coronado sought the fabled golden cities thought to be farther north of what was then New Spain. His exploration through the American Southwest turned up no golden cities, but made him the first European to see the Colorado river and the Grand Canyon.

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This is a full biography of Spanish explorer and conquistador Francisco Coronado.

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Social Studies 3rd Grade European Exploration P1 Content Video

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The Spanish conquistador (conqueror) Vasco Núñez de Balboa was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the Americas. He also helped to found the first successful European colony on the mainland of the Americas.

Balboa was born in Spain in 1475. He left for America in 1500 and settled on the island of Hispaniola, in the West Indies. In 1510 he sailed with a group headed for a colony in what is now Colombia. When they arrived they discovered that the colony had been abandoned except for a few people. Balboa persuaded them to go with him to Darién, in what is now Panama. There they established a stable colony.

Indians told Balboa about a great ocean with gold on its shores. Balboa asked for a large expedition from Spain to search for this ocean, but before it arrived he set out on his own with a smaller group. In September 1513 he reached the Pacific, which he called the South Sea, and claimed it for Spain.

The expedition from Spain arrived in 1514, with Pedro Arias Dávila at its head. Balboa and Dávila competed for power. As governor of Darién, Dávila eventually charged Balboa with various crimes. Balboa was found guilty and beheaded in January 1519.

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The Spanish conquistador (conqueror) Vasco Núñez de Balboa was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the Americas. He also helped to found the first successful European colony on the mainland of the Americas. Balboa was born in Spain in 1475.

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Vasco Núñez de Balboa (1475-1519) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador. He was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.

Balboa was one of those who established the settlement at Darién in what is now Panama. He was elected mayor, then governor.

In 1513, he claimed the Pacific Ocean and all of its shores for Spain. He was searching for gold at the time.

In Darién, he had been replaced by a new governor, Pedro Arias Dávila. On orders from Spain, Dávila was to investigate Balboa. On Balboa's return to Darién in 1519, Dávila had him placed on trial, then executed for treason.

Balboa was born in Jerez de los Caballeros, Spain. He was a descendant of the Lord mason of the castle of Balboa, on the borders of León and Galicia. His mother was the Lady de Badajoz, and his father was the hidalgo (nobleman), Nuño Arias de Balboa. Little is known of Vasco's early childhood except that he was the third of four boys in his family. During his adolescence, he served as a page and squire to Don Pedro de Portocarrero, lord of Moguer.

In 1501 he undertook his first trip with the expedition of Rodrigo de Bastidas through the Caribbean islands that belong to present-day Colombia (Santa Marta, Cartagena and the Gulf of Urabá or Darién), during which the coastline of Colombia and Panama was explored. He then tried to settle in Hispaniola and was a pig farmer for a while, but wasn't good at it and lost his money.

In 1508, Alonso de Ojeda and Diego de Nicuesa created two new governorates in the lands between Cabo de la Vela ( Venezuela) and Cabo de Gracias a Dios ( Nicaragua). The government of the east, which included the coast of Venezuela and Colombia, was called Nueva Andalucía, and the one located to the west (Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua), Castilla del Oro.

In 1509 Vasco Núñez de Balboa, was a stowaway on a boat with his dog trying to escape the people who he owed money. The boats expedition was commanded by Martín Fernández de Enciso and he went to meet Alonso de Ojeda, who had founded San Sebastián de Urabá in Nueva Andalucía, leaving a group of men in command headed by Francisco Pizarro.

Shortly after this Balboa was discovered onboard and but he became popular with his shipmates thanks to his charisma and his knowledge of those lands, acquired in the Bastidas expedition.

Later, the regiment moved to Darién, where Núñez de Balboa founded the first permanent establishment in continental America, Santa María de la Antigua del Darién in 1510. He was elected mayor and he sent emissaries to Diego de Nicuesa inviting him to establish himself as governor in Antigua. Nicuesa considered this an intrusion and led a punishment mission, but Balboa defeated him, and Nicuesa was left to his fate on a ship that was lost at sea.

In 1511, Núñez de Balboa obtained the position of governor. He wanted to find the sea that the natives spoke of so he set off on September 25, 1513, which became one of the most relevant explorations in the discovery of America and ended with the discovery of the South Sea, which Núñez de Balboa called the Pacific Ocean.

After the arrival of Pedrarias Dávila, the new governor, Núñez de Balboa undertook the exploration of the Pacific coast.

Upon hearing that his father-in-law was going to be replaced, he returned to Acla to support him, but Pedrarias Dávila accused him of conspiring against the Crown, and the explorer was tried, sentenced to death and executed in Acla.

Although Balboa is remembered as the first European to cross America. Several parks and avenues throughout Panama bear the name "Vasco Núñez de Balboa", and a number of monuments honour his discovery of the South Sea. The Panamanian currency is called the Balboa, and his likeness appears on the obverse of most Panamanian coins. His name is also attached to Panama City's main port, Balboa (the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal) and the Balboa District within Panamá Province to which the Pearl Islands that he discovered belong. In San Francisco, California, US, Balboa's name appears among a row of avenues which are named after Spanish conquistadors, in the Balboa Park neighborhood, and Balboa High School in the Excelsior District. There is also a large park ( Balboa Park) adjacent to downtown San Diego, California which was named after Balboa in 1910. Balboa's name is also honoured in Madrid with a street and a metro station.

One of the highest orders granted by the Panamanian government to distinguished and outstanding figures, foreign and domestic, is the Orden Vasco Núñez de Balboa, in various degrees, as established by Law 27 from 28 January 1933.

The lunar crater Balboa was named after him.

Balboa appears in the lyrics to "The Great Nations of Europe" by composer/singer Randy Newman.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa was featured on the 1-cent denomination of the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1913. The 1-cent Balboa paid the one-cent card rate, and it was used in combination with other denominations to meet large weight and foreign destinations. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing issued over 330 million of these to the public.

SENAN's Base Naval Vasco Nuñez de Balboa in Panama City is named for Balboa.

In 2020 Iberdrola commissioned the Núñez de Balboa Photovoltaic Power Plant in Usagre, Badajoz, in western Spain. With 500MW it was the biggest photovoltaic power station in Europe at the time.

In Spanish: Vasco Núñez de Balboa para niños

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Learn Vasco Núñez de Balboa facts for kids

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Vasco Nunez de Balboa  Kid Friendly and Educational

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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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English explorer and navigator Henry Hudson made four difficult and dangerous sea voyages seeking a shortcut from Europe to the Far East. Although he failed to find it, his...

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(1496?-1542). The Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernando de Soto was one of the most famous gold seekers in history. He participated in the Spanish conquests of Central America and Peru. In the course of exploring what was to become the southeastern United States, he and his men became the first Europeans to see the Mississippi River.

De Soto was born about 1496 in Jerez de los Caballeros, Spain. In 1514 he sailed to the New World with Pedro Arias Dávila, governor of Darién (now Panama). De Soto became a ruthless soldier whose men feared his temper but admired his horsemanship. In 1524 and 1526 he took part in expeditions to Central America. In 1532 he joined Francisco Pizarro in the conquest of Peru. De Soto's share of the Peruvian treasures made him rich. He returned to Spain and married Dávila's daughter Isabel.

The Spaniards did not know the country north of Florida. Captive American Indians told stories of lands there richer than Mexico or Peru. De Soto decided to win another fortune from this region. He persuaded the king of Spain to appoint him governor of Cuba and Florida. He recruited hundreds of men and helped pay for their equipment. This great army set sail from Spain in April 1538. At Havana, Cuba, they set up an advance base and made final preparations.

On May 30, 1539, de Soto and his men went ashore at Tampa Bay in Florida. They marched northward to Georgia, then turned westward and followed the Alabama River to Mobile Bay. When their supplies and spirits ran low, de Soto rallied his men with the prospect of riches ahead.

Along the way they met many Indian tribes. De Soto forced the Indians to furnish supplies and tortured their chiefs in a useless effort to make them tell where gold was hidden. This brutality led to many battles. The bloodiest was fought near Mobile Bay. About 70 Spaniards were killed, and many more were hurt. De Soto himself was severely wounded.

De Soto first saw the Mississippi River near the present site of Memphis, Tennessee, on May 21, 1541. De Soto's men built boats and crossed the Mississippi River. By the next autumn they reached the Neosho River in northeastern Oklahoma before they turned eastward again.

Everywhere de Soto searched, the Indians reported gold "just ahead" in order to escape his torture, but after three years he still had found no gold. In the spring of 1542 de Soto led his worn and tattered men southward. Near the junction of the Red and the Mississippi rivers, in what is now Louisiana, de Soto fell ill and died on May 21, 1542.

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(1496?-1542). The Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernando de Soto was one of the most famous gold seekers in history. He participated in the Spanish conquests of Central America and Peru. In the course of exploring what was to become the southeastern United States, he and his men became the first Europeans to see the Mississippi River.

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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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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