![]() ![]() All the Native Americans were killed along with 20 of de Soto’s men. ![]() In October 1540, however, the tables were turned when a confederation of Native Americans attacked the Spaniards at the fortified town of Mabila, near present-day Mobile, Alabama. For the most part, the Native warriors they met were intimidated by the Spanish horsemen and kept their distance. Decisive conquest eluded the Spaniards, as what would become the United States lacked the large, centralized civilizations of Mexico and Peru.Īs was the method of Spanish conquest elsewhere in the Americas, de Soto ill-treated and enslaved the natives he encountered. Traveling through Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, across the Appalachians, and back to Alabama, de Soto failed to find the gold and silver he desired, but he did seize a valuable collection of pearls at Cofitachequi, in present-day Georgia. From there, the army set about subduing the natives, seizing any valuables they stumbled upon, and preparing the region for eventual Spanish colonization. In late May 1539, de Soto landed on the west coast of Florida with 600 troops, servants, and staff, 200 horses, and a pack of bloodhounds. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V responded by making de Soto governor of Cuba with a right to conquer Florida, and thus the North American mainland. He returned to Spain in 1536 but soon grew restless and jealous of Pizarro and Hernando Cortes, whose fame as conquistadors overshadowed his own. Pizarro, de Soto, and 167 other Spaniards succeeding in conquering the Inca empire, and de Soto became a rich man. In 1532, he joined Francisco Pizarro in the conquest of Peru. A fine horseman and a daring adventurer, de Soto explored Central America and accumulated considerable wealth through the slave trade. By then, the Spanish had established bases in the Caribbean and on the coasts of the American mainland. From there the conquistadors headed into present-day Arkansas, continuing their fruitless two-year-old search for gold and silver in the American wilderness.īorn in the last years of the 15th century, de Soto first came to the New World in 1514. ![]() After building flatboats, de Soto and his 400 ragged troops crossed the great river under the cover of night, in order to avoid the armed Native Americans who patrolled the river daily in war canoes. On May 8, 1541, south of present-day Memphis, Tennessee, Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River, one of the first European explorers to ever do so. ![]()
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