Spain in America

European Explorers and Conquerors

• Native Americans told tales of gold, silver, and kingdoms wealthy beyond belief.

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• Spanish explorers, conquistadors, got encouragement to explore and create settlements in Americas.

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• In return, the conquistadors had to give Spain ⅕ of the treasures they found.

The Conquest of Mexico and Peru

• Wealthy empires, Aztecs in Central America and the Incas in South America, discovered and claimed by conquistadors

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• In 1519, Hernan Cortes landed on the east coast of present day Mexico.
• Cortes conquered the Aztec region, making Spain and Cortes wealthy.

The Conquest of Mexico and Peru

• Cortes’s success encouraged other conquistadors.
• Francisco Pizarro led an army into Inca capital
• captured and executed the Inca ruler.
• Without their ruler, the Incas couldn’t fight back
• Pizarro soon controlled most of the vast Inca empire.

Why Spain Won

• The Spanish had weapons and animals the Aztecs and Empires had never seen.

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• Natives had no immunity to European diseases.
• Many died

Spain in North America

• Spanish headed north of Mexico.
• Explored the southeastern and southwestern parts of the US.
• Juan Ponce de Leon made the first Spanish landing on the east coast of Florida in 1513.
• first Spanish settlement in the US in St. Augustine, Florida

The Seven Cities of Gold

• Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was part of a Spanish expedition to Florida in 1528.
• After coming to conflict with Native Americans, they sailed south towards Mexico.

The Seven Cities of Gold

• Three of the five boats were lost in a storm
• The two surviving boats stuck on an island near Texas.
• Most conquistadors died.
• To survive, de Vaca persuaded the Natives that he had healing powers and blessed them by breathing on them.

The Seven Cities of Gold

• In 1533, Spaniards set off on a long trek across the southwest.
• Searched for the “Seven cities of Gold”
• When Cabeza de Vaca finally made it to Mexico, he told eager listeners about these cities.

De Soto searches for Gold

• Inspired by the stories, Hernando De Soto led an unsuccessful expedition to explore Florida and the Southeast US.
• Searched for gold (3 years)
• De Soto crossed the Mississippi River in 1541.
• After traveling as far west as Oklahoma, De Soto died of fever.

• De Soto would often have violent clashes with the Native Americans on his journey.
• Why do you think this might be?

• Francisco Vasquez de Coronado took up the search for the 7 cities.
• Went through northern Mexico and present-day Arizona and New Mexico.
• Convinced of no gold, they traveled into the Colorado River and east into Kansas.

Life Under Spanish Rule

• Spanish set up 3 kinds of settlements in Americas.
• Pueblos: towns or centers of trade
• Missions: religious communities
• Presidio: a type of fort and usually built near a mission.
• In 1598, Juan de Onate converted natives to Christianity.
• founded New Mexico, introduced cattle and horses to the Pueblo people.

Spanish Colonial Society

• Spanish colonies had a very clear class system.
• Highest rank = peninsulares, people born in Spain (landowners, leaders, heads of the Catholic Church)
• Creoles = second in rank, people who had Spanish parents but were born in colonies.
• Mestizos = third, people with one Spanish parent and one Native American parent.
• Last = the Native Americans and the enslaved Africans.

Spanish Colonial Society

• Spanish government granted conquistadors the right to demand taxes or labor from the Native Americans who lived on the land.
• This made Native Americans slaves.
• In 1549, silver ore was discovered in northern Mexico.
• Spanish forced the Native Americans to dig up ore
• Natives died from malnutrition and disease
• Slavery became essential part of the colonies’ economy.

Spanish Colonial Society

• A Spanish priest, Bartolome de Las Casas, spoke out against the cruel treatment of Native Americans.
• His reports convinced Spanish leaders to pass the New Laws forbidding the enslavement of Native Americans.
• But laws were not always enforced.

The Plantation System

• Some Spaniards found wealth shipping crops
• tobacco and sugarcane

• Spanish developed a plantation system (large farm), for lucrative crops

Spanish Settlement in the Southwest

• In 1600s and 1700s, Spanish settled the Southwest
• (including New Mexico, Texas, and California)
• Spanish Explorer Juan Cabrillo first sighted California in 1542.
• Yet did not settle there for 200 years

Spanish Settlement in the Southwest

• Around 1769, Spanish made California their new frontier

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• Also wanted to convert more Native Americans to Christianity
• Spanish settlers = mostly missionaries
• Lived in missions as farmers
• Became profitable

Effects on Native American Life

• California’s many Native American groups had well-ordered societies before the Spanish arrived.
• Spanish disrupted these practices and forced native peoples to convert Christianity and to live and work at the missions.