1720 North America Geographicus by Dutchcartographer Henri Abraham Chatelain
The myth of the Seven Cities of Gold, also known as the Seven Cities of Cíbola (/ˈsiːbələ/),
was popular in the 16th century and later featured in several works of
popular culture. According to legend, the seven cities of gold referred
to Aztec mythology revolving around the Pueblos of the Spanish Nuevo México, modern New Mexico and Southwestern United States.
In the 16th century, the Spaniards in New Spain (Mexico) began to hear rumors of "Seven Cities of Gold" called "Cíbola" located across the desert, hundreds of miles to the north.[3] The stories may have their root in an earlier Portuguese legend about seven cities founded on the island of Antillia by a Catholic expedition in the 8th century, or one based on the capture of Mérida, Spain, by the Moors in 1150.
The later Spanish tales were largely caused by reports given by the four shipwrecked survivors of the failed Narváez expedition, which included explorers Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his slave Estevanico. Eventually returning to New Spain, the adventurers said they had heard stories from natives about cities with great and limitless riches. In 1539, Italian FranciscanMarco da Nizza reached Zuni Pueblo and called it Cibola. However, when conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado
finally arrived at Cíbola in 1540, he discovered that the stories were
unfounded and that there were, in fact, no treasures as the friar had
described—only adobe towns.
While among the towns, Coronado heard an additional rumor from a
native he called "the Turk": that there was a city with plenty of gold
called Quivira,
located on the other side of the Great Plains. However, when at last he
reached this place (variously conjectured to be in modern Kansas,
Nebraska, or Missouri), he found little more than straw-thatched
villages.
The historic Cíbola on the other hand is recorded in Spanish
sources as another name for the Zuñi pueblo and the surrounding country.
The Spanish soon discovered rich copper and turquoise mines in the
Pueblo country which made the region famous for its mineral wealth even
in recent times. The Pueblo Indians, including the Zuñi, are still well
known for their turquoise and silver work.
Edward Abbey's autobiographical recount of his summer as a park ranger at Arches National Park, Desert Solitaire, contains a reference to "seven modern cities of Cibola" including Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, and Flagstaff.
Romance author Kristin Hannah's The Enchantment (1992) is about a quest for the legendary lost city of Cibola in the late 1800s.
Cibola Burn is the fourth book in the science fiction novel series The Expanse by James S. A. Corey. The novel describes the flood of humanity out into the galaxy and the race for the newly accessible resources therein.
Films
The 1955 film Seven Cities of Gold
starring Richard Egan, Anthony Quinn, and Michael Rennie tells the
story of a 1769 Spanish expedition to California led by Gaspar De
Portola to search of gold and to set up Spanish colonies. However,
Father Junipero Serra is there to set up a network of Roman Catholic
missions.
The 1992 film ¡O No Coronado! by Craig Baldwin
details Coronado's ill-fated expedition, in the context of contemporary
treatment of indigenous Americans and usage of their traditional lands.
"Seven Cities of Gold" is the seventh track on the Clockwork Angels album by Rush. The lyrics were inspired by lyricist Neil Peart's fascination for southwestern US history.
Comics
Scrooge McDuck and his nephews discover the seven cities in the comic "The Seven Cities of Cibola" (Uncle Scrooge #7, September 1954), written and drawn by Carl Barks.
The Vertigo/DC comic book series Jack of Fables
recently began a storyline called "Americana" which relates the efforts
of Jack of the Tales in entering Cíbola (issue 17, January 8 cover
date).
There is an arc in the Italian Western/science fiction comic Zagor
about seven cities of gold which were abandoned and were remnants of an
ancient highly developed civilization (Zagor #355-357, ITA/CRO: "Le
sette città di Cibola" / "Sedam gradova Cibole").
The video game Uncharted: Golden Abyss uses Quivira (one of the Seven Cities of Gold) as a final destination for the quest. The game also gives an explanation why Marcos de Niza lied about the location of the cities even though he really did find them.
The video game Europa Universalis IV has the El Dorado expansion which gives colonizing nations the ability to hunt for the Seven Cities of Gold in the New World.
In the turn-based strategy game Sid Meier's Colonization
(1994), scouting lost city ruins (tiles in the map) may result in
finding one or more of the Seven Cities of Cibola, granting the player a
treasure with a huge amount of gold.
The Western genre game Gun centers on a land baron's search for Quivira in the 1880s.
In Civilization Revolution
for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo DS, players can find the Seven
Cities of Gold. The player who finds the Seven Cities of Gold receives
200 to 350 gold pieces, depending on the era, to spend on building
cities, military units, settlers (people who found new cities) or roads.
In the turn-based strategy game Sid Meier's Civilization V,
the Spanish unique ability is called Seven Cities of Gold, where the
player receives bonus gold for discovering natural wonders.
Portugal established a route to China in the early 16th century,
sending ships via the southern coast of Africa and founding numerous
coastal enclaves along the route. Following the discovery in 1492 by
Spaniards of the New World with Italian explorer Christopher Columbus' first voyage there and the first circumnavigation of the world by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521, expeditions led by conquistadors in the 16th century established trading routes linking Europe with all these areas.
The Age of Discovery was hallmarked in 1519, shortly after the
European discovery of the Americas, when Hernán Cortés began his
conquest of the Aztec Empire.
As the Spaniards, motivated by gold and fame, established relations and
war with the Aztecs, the slow progression of conquest, erection of
towns, and cultural dominance over the natives brought more Spanish
troops and support to modern-day Mexico. As trading routes over the seas
were established by the works of Columbus, Magellan, and Elcano, land
support system was established as the trails of Cortés' conquest to the
capital.
Human infections gained worldwide transmission vectors for the first time: from Africa and Eurasia to the Americas and vice versa. The spread of Old World diseases, including smallpox, influenza, and typhus, led to the deaths of many indigenous inhabitants of the New World.
In the 16th century, perhaps 240,000 Spaniards entered American ports. By the late 16th century, gold and silver imports from the Americas provided one-fifth of Spain's total budget.
Background
Hernando de Soto and Spanish conquistadors seeing the Mississippi River for the first time.
Contrary to popular belief, many conquistadors were not trained
warriors, but mostly artisans, lesser nobility or farmers seeking an
opportunity to advance themselves in the new world since they had
limited opportunities in Spain. A few also had crude firearms known as arquebuses. Their units (compañia)
would often specialize in forms of combat that required long periods of
training that were too costly for informal groups. Their armies were
mostly composed of Spanish troops, as well as soldiers from other parts
of Europe and Africa.
Native allied troops were largely infantry equipped with armament
and armour that varied geographically. Some groups consisted of young
men without military experience, Catholic clergy
who helped with administrative duties, and soldiers with military
training. These native forces often included African slaves and Native
Americans, some of whom were also slaves. They were not only made to
fight in the battlefield but also to serve as interpreters, informants,
servants, teachers, physicians, and scribes. India Catalina and Malintzin were Native American women slaves who were forced to work for the Spaniards.
Castilian law prohibited foreigners and non-Catholics from
settling in the New World. However, not all conquistadors were
Castilian. Many foreigners Hispanicised their names and/or converted to Catholicism to serve the Castilian Crown. For example, Ioánnis Fokás (known as Juan de Fuca) was a Castilian of Greek origin who discovered the strait that bears his name between Vancouver Island and Washington state in 1592. German-born Nikolaus Federmann, Hispanicised as Nicolás de Federmán, was a conquistador in Venezuela and Colombia. The Venetian Sebastiano Caboto was Sebastián Caboto, Georg von Speyer Hispanicised as Jorge de la Espira, Eusebio Francesco Chini Hispanicised as Eusebio Kino, Wenceslaus Linck was Wenceslao Linck, Ferdinand Konščak, was Fernando Consag, Amerigo Vespucci was Américo Vespucio, and the Portuguese Aleixo Garcia was known as Alejo García in the Castilian army.
The origin of many people in mixed expeditions was not always
distinguished. Various occupations, such as sailors, fishermen, soldiers
and nobles employed different languages (even from unrelated language
groups), so that crew and settlers of Iberian empires recorded as Galicians from Spain were actually using Portuguese, Basque, Catalan, Italian and Languedoc languages, which were wrongly identified.
Castilian law banned Spanish women from travelling to America
unless they were married and accompanied by a husband. Women who
travelled thus include María de Escobar, María Estrada,
Marina Vélez de Ortega, Marina de la Caballería, Francisca de
Valenzuela, Catalina de Salazar. Some conquistadors married Native
American women or had illegitimate children.
Conquistadors praying before a battle at Tenochtitlan
European young men enlisted in the army because it was one way out of
poverty. Catholic priests instructed the soldiers in mathematics,
writing, theology, Latin, Greek, and history, and wrote letters and
official documents for them. King's army officers taught military arts.
An uneducated young recruit could become a military leader, elected by
their fellow professional soldiers, perhaps based on merit. Others were
born into hidalgo families, and as such they were members of the Spanish nobility
with some studies but without economic resources. Even some rich
nobility families' members became soldiers or missionaries, but mostly
not the firstborn heirs.
Catholic religious orders that participated and supported the exploration, evangelizing and pacifying, were mostly Dominicans, Carmelites, Franciscans and Jesuits, for example Francis Xavier, Bartolomé de Las Casas, Eusebio Kino, Juan de Palafox y Mendoza or Gaspar da Cruz. In 1536, Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas went to Oaxaca
to participate in a series of discussions and debates among the Bishops
of the Dominican and Franciscan orders. The two orders had very
different approaches to the conversion of the Indians. The Franciscans
used a method of mass conversion, sometimes baptizing many thousands of
Indians in a day. This method was championed by prominent Franciscans
such as Toribio de Benavente.
The division of the booty produced bloody conflicts, such as the one
between Pizarro and De Almagro. After present-day Peruvian territories
fell to Spain, Francisco Pizarro dispatched El Adelantado, Diego de Almagro, before they became enemies to the Inca Empire's northern city of Quito to claim it. Their fellow conquistador Sebastián de Belalcázar, who had gone forth without Pizarro's approval, had already reached Quito. The arrival of Pedro de Alvarado from the lands known today as Mexico
in search of Inca gold further complicated the situation for De Almagro
and Belalcázar. De Alvarado left South America in exchange for monetary
compensation from Pizarro. De Almagro was executed in 1538, by Hernando Pizarro's orders. In 1541, supporters of Diego Almagro II assassinated Francisco Pizarro in Lima. In 1546, De Belalcázar ordered the execution of Jorge Robledo,
who governed a neighbouring province in yet another land-related
vendetta. De Belalcázar was tried in absentia, convicted and condemned
for killing Robledo and for other offenses pertaining to his involvement
in the wars between armies of conquistadors. Pedro de Ursúa was killed by his subordinate Lope de Aguirre who crowned himself king while searching for El Dorado. In 1544, Lope de Aguirre and Melchor Verdugo (a converso Jew) were at the side of Peru's first viceroy Blasco Núñez Vela, who had arrived from Spain with orders to implement the New Laws and suppress the encomiendas. Gonzalo Pizarro, another brother of Francisco Pizarro, rose in revolt, killed viceroy Blasco Núñez Vela and most of his Spanish army in the battle in 1546, and Gonzalo attempted to have himself crowned king.
The Emperor commissioned bishop Pedro de la Gasca to restore the peace, naming him president of the Audiencia and providing him with unlimited authority to punish and pardon the rebels. Gasca repealed the New Laws, the issue around which the rebellion had been organized. Gasca convinced Pedro de Valdivia, explorer of Chile, Alonso de Alvarado another searcher for El Dorado, and others that if he were unsuccessful, a royal fleet of 40 ships and 15,000 men was preparing to sail from Seville in June.
Throughout the 15th century, Portuguese explorers sailed the coast of Africa, establishing trading posts for tradable commodities such as firearms, spices, silver, gold, and slaves crossing Africa and India. In 1434 the first consignment of slaves was brought to Lisbon;
slave trading was the most profitable branch of Portuguese commerce
until the Indian subcontinent was reached. Due to the importation of the
slaves as early as 1441, the kingdom of Portugal was able to establish a
number of population of slaves throughout the Iberia due to its slave
markets' dominance within Europe. Before the Age of Conquest began, the
continental Europe already associated darker skin color with
slave-class, attributing to the slaves of African origins. This
sentiment traveled with the conquistadors when they began their
explorations into the Americas. The predisposition inspired a lot of the
entradas to seek slaves as part of the conquest.
Birth of the Spanish Kingdom
After his father's death in 1479, Ferdinand II of Aragón married Isabella of Castile, unifying both kingdoms and creating the Kingdom of Spain.
He later tried to incorporate the kingdom of Portugal by marriage.
Notably, Isabella supported Columbus's first voyage that launched the
Spanish conquistadors into action.
The Iberian Peninsula was largely divided before the hallmark of
this marriage. Five independent kingdoms: Portugal in the West, Aragon
and Navarre in the East, Castile in the large center, and Granada in the
south, all had independent sovereignty and competing interests. The
conflict between Christians and Muslims to control Iberia, which started
with North Africa's Muslim invasion in 711, lasted from the years 718
to 1492.
Christians, fighting for control, successfully pushed the Muslims back
to Granada, which was the Muslims' last control of the Iberian
Peninsula.
The marriage between Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabel of Castile
resulted in joint rule by the spouses of the two kingdoms, honoured as
the "Catholic Monarchs" by Pope Alexander VI.
Together, the Crown Kings saw about the fall of Granada, victory over
the Muslim minority, and expulsion or forcibly converted Jews and
non-Christians to turn Iberia into a religious homogeneity.
Treaties
The 1492 discovery of the New World by Spain rendered desirable a delimitation
of the Spanish and Portuguese spheres of exploration. Thus dividing the
world into two areas of exploration and colonization. This was settled
by the Treaty of Tordesillas (7 June 1494) which modified the delimitation authorized by Pope Alexander VI in two bulls issued on 4 May 1493. The treaty gave to Portugal all lands which might be discovered east of a meridian drawn from the Arctic Pole to the Antarctic, at a distance of 370 leagues (1,800 km) west of Cape Verde. Spain received the lands west of this line.
The known means of measuring longitude were so inexact that the line of demarcation could not in practice be determined,
subjecting the treaty to diverse interpretations. Both the Portuguese
claim to Brazil and the Spanish claim to the Moluccas depended on the
treaty. It was particularly valuable to the Portuguese as a recognition
of their new-found, particularly when, in 1497–1499, Vasco da Gama completed the voyage to India.
Later, when Spain established a route to the Indies from the west, Portugal arranged a second treaty, the Treaty of Zaragoza.
Spanish exploration
Colonization of the Caribbean, Mesoamerica, and South America
Sevilla la Nueva, established in 1509, was the first Spanish settlement on the island of Jamaica, which the Spaniards called Isla de Santiago. The capital was in an unhealthy location and consequently moved around 1534 to the place they called "Villa de Santiago de la Vega", later named Spanish Town, in present-day Saint Catherine Parish.
Vasco Núñez de Balboa and spanish conquistadors claiming the Pacific Ocean for Spain in 1513.
After first landing on "Guanahani" in the Bahamas, Columbus found the island which he called "Isla Juana", later named Cuba. In 1511, the first Adelantado of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founded the island's first Spanish settlement at Baracoa; other towns soon followed, including Havana, which was founded in 1515.
After he pacified Hispaniola, where the native Indians had revolted against the administration of governor Nicolás de Ovando, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar led the conquest of Cuba in 1511 under orders from Viceroy Diego Columbus
and was appointed governor of the island. As governor he authorized
expeditions to explore lands further west, including the 1517 Francisco Hernández de Córdoba expedition to Yucatán. Diego Velázquez, ordered expeditions, one led by his nephew, Juan de Grijalva,
to Yucatán and the Hernán Cortés expedition of 1519. He initially
backed Cortés's expedition to Mexico, but because of his personal enmity
for Cortés later ordered Pánfilo de Narváez to arrest him. Grijalva was sent out with four ships and some 240 men.
A page (folio 67), depicting indigenous Mexican warriors in the Codex Mendoza
Hernán Cortés, led an expedition (entrada) to Mexico, which included
Pedro de Alvarado and Bernardino Vázquez de Tapia. The Spanish campaign
against the Aztec Empire had its final victory on 13 August 1521, when a
coalition army of Spanish forces and native Tlaxcalan warriors led by
Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured the emperor Cuauhtemoc and
Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire. The fall of Tenochtitlan
marks the beginning of Spanish rule in central Mexico, and they
established their capital of Mexico City on the ruins of Tenochtitlan.
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most significant events in world history.
In 1517, Francisco Hernández de Córdoba sailed from Cuba in search of slaves along the coast of Yucatán. The expedition returned to Cuba to report on the discovery of this new land.
After receiving notice from Juan de Grijalva of gold in the area of what is now Tabasco, the governor of Cuba, Diego de Velasquez,
sent a larger force than had previously sailed, and appointed Cortés as
Captain-General of the Armada. Cortés then applied all of his funds,
mortgaged his estates and borrowed from merchants and friends to outfit
his ships. Velásquez may have contributed to the effort, but the
government of Spain offered no financial support.
Pedro Arias Dávila, Governor of the Island La Española was descended from a converso's family. In 1519 Dávila founded Darién,
then in 1524 he founded Panama City and moved his capital there laying
the basis for the exploration of South America's west coast and the
subsequent conquest of Peru. Dávila was a soldier in wars against Moors at Granada in Spain, and in North Africa, under Pedro Navarro intervening in the Conquest of Oran. At the age of nearly seventy years he was made commander in 1514 by Ferdinand of the largest Spanish expedition.
Dávila made an agreement with Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro,
which brought about the discovery of Peru, but withdrew in 1526 for a
small compensation, having lost confidence in the outcome. In 1526
Dávila was superseded as Governor of Panama by Pedro de los Ríos, but became governor in 1527 of León in Nicaragua.
An expedition commanded by Pizarro and his brothers explored south from what is today Panama, reaching Inca territory by 1526.
After one more expedition in 1529, Pizarro received royal approval to
conquer the region and be its viceroy. The approval read: "In July 1529
the queen of Spain signed a charter allowing Pizarro to conquer the
Inca. Pizarro was named governor and captain of all conquests in New
Castile." The Viceroyalty of Peru was established in 1542, encompassing all Spanish holdings in South America.
Juan Díaz de Solís arrived again to the renamed Río de la Plata,
literally river of the silver, after the Incan conquest. He sought a
way to transport the Potosi's silver to Europe. For a long time due to
the Incan silver mines, Potosí was the most important site in Colonial Spanish America, located in the current department of Potosí in Bolivia and it was the location of the Spanish colonial mint. The first settlement in the way was the fort of Sancti Spiritu, established in 1527 next to the Paraná River. Buenos Aires was established in 1536, establishing the Governorate of the Río de la Plata.
Africans were also conquistadors in the early conquest campaigns in
the Caribbean and Mexico. In the 1500s there were enslaved black and
free black sailors on Spanish ships crossing the Atlantic and developing new routes of conquest and trade in the Americas.
After 1521, the wealth and credit generated by the acquisition of the
Aztec Empire funded auxiliary forces of black conquistadors that could
number as many as five hundred. Spaniards recognized the value of these
fighters.
One of the black conquistadors who fought against the Aztecs and survived the destruction of their empire was Juan Garrido.
Born in Africa, Garrido lived as a young slave in Portugal before being
sold to a Spaniard and acquiring his freedom fighting in the conquests
of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and other islands. He fought as a free servant or
auxiliary, participating in Spanish expeditions to other parts of Mexico
(including Baja California) in the 1520s and 1530s. Granted a house
plot in Mexico City, he raised a family there, working at times as a
guard and town crier. He claimed to have been the first person to plant
wheat in Mexico.
Sebastian Toral was an African slave and one of the first black
conquistadors in the New World. While a slave, he went with his Spanish
owner on a campaign. He was able to earn his freedom during this
service. He continued as a free conquistador with the Spaniards to fight
the Maya in Yucatán in 1540. After the conquests he settled in the city
of Mérida in the newly formed colony of Yucatán with his family. In
1574, the Spanish crown ordered that all slaves and free blacks in the
colony had to pay a tribute to the crown. However, Toral wrote in
protest of the tax based on his services during his conquests. The
Spanish king responded that Toral need not pay the tax because of his
service. Toral died a veteran of three transatlantic voyages and two
Conquest expeditions, a man who had successfully petitioned the great
Spanish King, walked the streets of Lisbon, Seville, and Mexico City,
and helped found a capital city in the Americas.
Juan Valiente
was born in West Africa and purchased by Portuguese traders from
African slavers. Around 1530 he was purchased by Alonso Valiente to be a
slaved domestic servant in Puebla, Mexico. In 1533, Juan Valiente made a
deal with his owner to allow him to be a conquistador for four years
with the agreement that all earnings would come back to Alonso. He
fought for many years in Chile and Peru. By 1540, he was a captain,
horseman, and partner in Pedro de Valdivia's company in Chile. He was
later awarded an estate in Santiago; a city he would help Valdivia
found. Both Alonso and Valiente tried to contact the other to make an
agreement about Valiente's manumission and send Alonso his awarded
money. They were never able to reach each other and Valiente died in
1553 in the Battle of Tucapel.
Other black conquistadors include Pedro Fulupo, Juan Bardales,
Antonio Pérez, and Juan Portugués. Pedro Fulupo was a black slave that
fought in Costa Rica. Juan Bardales was an African slave that fought in
Honduras and Panama. For his service he was granted manumission and a
pension of 50 pesos. Antonio Pérez was from North Africa, and a free
black. He joined the conquest in Venezuela and was made a captain. Juan
Portugués fought in the conquests in Venezuela.
During the 1500s, the Spanish began to travel through and colonize
North America. They were looking for gold in foreign kingdoms. By 1511
there were rumours of undiscovered lands to the northwest of Hispaniola. Juan Ponce de León
equipped three ships with at least 200 men at his own expense and set
out from Puerto Rico on 4 March 1513 to Florida and surrounding coastal
area. Another early motive was the search for the Seven Cities of Gold, or "Cibola", rumoured to have been built by Native Americans somewhere in the desert Southwest. In 1536 Francisco de Ulloa,
the first documented European to reach the Colorado River, sailed up
the Gulf of California and a short distance into the river's delta.
The Basques were fur trading, fishing cod and whaling in Terranova (Labrador and Newfoundland) in 1520, and in Iceland by at least the early 17th century. They established whaling stations at the former, mainly in Red Bay, and probably established some in the latter as well. In Terranova they hunted bowheads and right whales, while in Iceland
they appear to have only hunted the latter. The Spanish fishery in
Terranova declined over conflicts between Spain and other European
powers during the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
In 1524, the Portuguese Estêvão Gomes, who had sailed in Ferdinand Magellan's fleet, explored Nova Scotia, sailing South through Maine, where he entered New York Harbor and the Hudson River and eventually reached Florida in August 1525. As a result of his expedition, the 1529 Diego Ribeiro world map outlined the East coast of North America almost perfectly.
The Spaniard Cabeza de Vaca was the leader of the Narváez expedition of 600 men that between 1527 and 1535 explored the mainland of North America. From Tampa Bay, Florida,
on 15 April 1528, they marched through Florida. Traveling mostly on
foot, they crossed Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, and Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila. After several months of fighting native inhabitants through wilderness and swamp, the party reached Apalachee Bay
with 242 men. They believed they were near other Spaniards in Mexico,
but there was in fact 1500 miles of coast between them. They followed
the coast westward, until they reached the mouth of the Mississippi River near to Galveston Island.
Later they were enslaved for a few years by various Native American tribes of the upper Gulf Coast. They continued through Coahuila and Nueva Vizcaya; then down the Gulf of California coast to what is now Sinaloa, Mexico, over a period of roughly eight years. They spent years enslaved by the Ananarivo of the Louisiana Gulf Islands. Later they were enslaved by the Hans, the Capoques and others. In 1534 they escaped into the American interior, contacting other Native American tribes along the way. Only four men, Cabeza de Vaca, Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, and an enslaved Moroccan Berber named Estevanico, survived and escaped to reach Mexico City. In 1539, Estevanico was one of four men who accompanied Marcos de Niza as a guide in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola, preceding Coronado.
When the others were struck ill, Estevanico continued alone, opening up
what is now New Mexico and Arizona. He was killed at the Zuni village of Hawikuh in present-day New Mexico.
A map showing the de Soto route through the Southeast, 1539–1542
The viceroy of New SpainAntonio de Mendoza, for whom is named the Codex Mendoza, commissioned several expeditions to explore and establish settlements in the northern lands of New Spain in 1540–1542. Francisco Vázquez de Coronado reached Quivira in central Kansas. Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo explored the western coastline of Alta California
in 1542–1543. Vázquez de Coronado's 1540–1542 expedition began as a
search for the fabled Cities of Gold, but after learning from natives in
New Mexico of a large river to the west, he sent García López de Cárdenas
to lead a small contingent to find it. With the guidance of Hopi
Indians, Cárdenas and his men became the first outsiders to see the
Grand Canyon.
However, Cárdenas was reportedly unimpressed with the canyon, assuming
the width of the Colorado River at six feet (1.8 m) and estimating
300-foot-tall (91 m) rock formations to be the size of a person. After
unsuccessfully attempting to descend to the river, they left the area,
defeated by the difficult terrain and torrid weather.
In 1540, Hernando de Alarcón and his fleet reached the mouth of the Colorado River,
intending to provide additional supplies to Coronado's expedition.
Alarcón may have sailed the Colorado as far upstream as the present-day
California–Arizona border. However, Coronado never reached the Gulf of
California, and Alarcón eventually gave up and left. Melchior Díaz
reached the delta in the same year, intending to establish contact with
Alarcón, but the latter was already gone by the time of Díaz's arrival.
Díaz named the Colorado River Río del Tizón, while the name Colorado ("Red River") was first applied to a tributary of the Gila River.
In 1540, expeditions under Hernando de Alarcon and Melchior Diaz visited the area of Yuma
and immediately saw the natural crossing of the Colorado River from
Mexico to California by land as an ideal spot for a city, as the
Colorado River narrows to slightly under 1000 feet wide in one small
point. Later military expeditions that crossed the Colorado River at the
Yuma Crossing include Juan Bautista de Anza's (1774).
The marriage between Luisa de Abrego, a free black domestic
servant from Seville and Miguel Rodríguez, a white Segovian conquistador
in 1565 in St. Augustine (Spanish Florida), is the first known and
recorded Christian marriage anywhere in the continental United States.
The Chamuscado and Rodríguez Expedition explored New Mexico in 1581–1582. They explored a part of the route visited by Coronado in New Mexico and other parts in the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542.
The viceroy of New Spain Don Diego García Sarmiento sent another expedition in 1648 to explore, conquer and colonize the Californias.
Asia and Oceania colonization, and Pacific exploration
In 1525, Charles I of Spain ordered an expedition led by friar García Jofre de Loaísa to go to Asia by the western route to colonize the Maluku Islands (known as Spice Islands, now part of Indonesia), thus crossing first the Atlantic and then the Pacific oceans. Ruy López de Villalobos sailed to the Philippines in 1542–1543. From 1546 to 1547 Francis Xavier worked in Maluku among the peoples of Ambon Island, Ternate, and Morotai, and laid the foundations for the Christian religion there.
In 1564, Miguel López de Legazpi was commissioned by the viceroy of New Spain, Luís de Velasco,
to explore the Maluku Islands where Magellan and Ruy López de
Villalobos had landed in 1521 and 1543, respectively. The expedition was
ordered by Philip II of Spain, after whom the Philippines had earlier been named by Villalobos. El Adelantado Legazpi established settlements in the East Indies and the Pacific Islands in 1565. He was the first governor-general of the Spanish East Indies. After obtaining peace with various indigenous tribes, López de Legazpi made the Philippines the capital in 1571.
Hagåtña (Agaña) is the capital of the United States territory of Guam, ancient city of the Spanish possessions in Oceania.
The Spanish settled and took control of Tidore
in 1603 to trade spices and counter Dutch encroachment in the
archipelago of Maluku. The Spanish presence lasted until 1663, when the
settlers and military were moved back to the Philippines. Part of the
Ternatean population chose to leave with the Spanish, settling near Manila in what later became the municipality of Ternate. Spanish galleons traveled across the Pacific Ocean between Acapulco in Mexico and Manila.
Areas of Alaska and British Columbia Explored by Spain
In 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo traversed the coast of California and named many of its features. In 1601, Sebastián Vizcaíno mapped the coastline in detail and gave new names to many features. Martín de Aguilar, lost from the expedition led by Sebastián Vizcaíno, explored the Pacific coast as far north as Coos Bay in present-day Oregon.
Since the 1549 arrival to Kagoshima (Kyushu) of a group of
Jesuits with St. Francis Xavier missionary and Portuguese traders, Spain
was interested in Japan. In this first group of Jesuit missionaries
were included Spaniards Cosme de Torres and Juan Fernandez.
In 1611, Sebastián Vizcaíno surveyed the east coast of Japan and
from the year of 1611 to 1614 he was ambassador of King Felipe III in
Japan returning to Acapulco in the year of 1614.
In 1608, he was sent to search for two mythical islands called Rico de
Oro (island of gold) and Rico de Plata (island of silver).
Bronze figure of a Portuguese soldier made by Benin culture in West Africa around 1600Portuguese expansion in Africa and the Middle East (1415–1801)Two brass plates depicting a bearded Portuguese soldier before 1500 on top and Benin warriors at the bottom
As a seafaring people in the south-westernmost region of Europe, the
Portuguese became natural leaders of exploration during the Middle Ages.
Faced with the options of either accessing other European markets by
sea, by exploiting its seafaring prowess, or by land, and facing the
task of crossing Castile and Aragon territory, it is not surprising that goods were sent via the sea to England, Flanders, Italy and the Hanseatic league towns.
One important reason was the need for alternatives to the expensive eastern trade routes that followed the Silk Road. Those routes were dominated first by the republics of Venice and Genoa, and then by the Ottoman Empire after the conquest of Constantinople
in 1453. The Ottomans barred European access. For decades the Spanish
Netherlands ports produced more revenue than the colonies since all
goods brought from Spain, Mediterranean possessions, and the colonies
were sold directly there to neighbouring European countries: wheat,
olive oil, wine, silver, spice, wool and silk were big businesses.
The gold brought home from Guinea
stimulated the commercial energy of the Portuguese, and its European
neighbours, especially Spain. Apart from their religious and scientific
aspects, these voyages of discovery were highly profitable.
They had benefited from Guinea's connections with neighbouring
Iberians and north African Muslim states. Due to these connections, mathematicians
and experts in naval technology appeared in Portugal. Portuguese and
foreign experts made several breakthroughs in the fields of mathematics,
cartography and naval technology.
Under Afonso V (1443–1481), surnamed the African, the Gulf of Guinea was explored as far as Cape St. Catherine (Cabo Santa Caterina), and three expeditions in 1458, 1461 and 1471, were sent to Morocco; in 1471 Arzila (Asila)
and Tangier were captured from the Moors. Portuguese explored the
Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans before the Iberian Union period
(1580–1640). Under John II (1481–1495) the fortress of São Jorge da Mina, the modern Elmina, was founded for the protection of the Guinea trade. Diogo Cão, or Can, discovered the Congo in 1482 and reached Cape Cross in 1486.
In 1483, Diogo Cão sailed up the uncharted Congo River, finding Kongo villages and becoming the first European to encounter the Kongo kingdom.
On 7 May 1487, two Portuguese envoys, Pero da Covilhã and Afonso de Paiva,
were sent traveling secretly overland to gather information on a
possible sea route to India, but also to inquire about Prester John.
Covilhã managed to reach Ethiopia. Although well received, he was
forbidden to depart. Bartolomeu Dias crossed the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, thus proving that the Indian Ocean was accessible by sea.
In 1498, Vasco da Gama reached India. In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral discovered Brazil, claiming it for Portugal. In 1510, Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Goa in India, Ormuz in the Persian Strait, and Malacca. The Portuguese sailors sailed eastward to such places as Taiwan, Japan, and the island of Timor. Several writers have also suggested the Portuguese were the first Europeans to discover Australia and New Zealand.
Álvaro Caminha, in Cape Verde islands, who received the land as a grant from the crown, established a colony with Jews forced to stay on São Tomé Island. Príncipe
island was settled in 1500 under a similar arrangement. Attracting
settlers proved difficult; however, the Jewish settlement was a success
and their descendants settled many parts of Brazil.
1630 map of the Portuguese fort and the city of MalaccaPortuguese in the Persian Gulf (1507–1750).
From their peaceful settlings in secured islands along Atlantic Ocean
(archipelagos and islands such as Madeira, the Azores, Cape Verde, São
Tomé, Príncipe, and Annobón) they travelled to coastal enclaves trading
almost every goods of African and Islander areas like spices (hemp,
opium, garlic), wine, dry fish, dried meat, toasted flour, leather, fur
of tropical animals and seals, whaling ... but mainly ivory, black
slaves, gold and hardwoods. They maintaining trade ports in Congo
(M'banza), Angola, Natal (City of Cape Good Hope, in Portuguese "Cidade
do Cabo da Boa Esperança"), Mozambique (Sofala), Tanzania (Kilwa
Kisiwani), Kenya (Malindi) to Somalia. The Portuguese following the
maritime trade routes of Muslims and Chinese traders, sailed the Indian
Ocean. They were on Malabar Coast since 1498 when Vasco da Gama reached Anjadir, Kannut, Kochi and Calicut.
Da Gama in 1498 marked the beginning of Portuguese influence in Indian Ocean. In 1503 or 1504, Zanzibar became part of the Portuguese Empire when Captain Ruy Lourenço Ravasco Marques landed and demanded and received tribute from the sultan in exchange for peace.
Zanzibar remained a possession of Portugal for almost two centuries. It
initially became part of the Portuguese province of Arabia and Ethiopia
and was administered by a governor general. Around 1571, Zanzibar
became part of the western division of the Portuguese empire and was
administered from Mozambique. It appears, however, that the Portuguese did not closely administer Zanzibar. The first English ship to visit Unguja, the Edward Bonaventure
in 1591, found that there was no Portuguese fort or garrison. The
extent of their occupation was a trade depot where produce was purchased
and collected for shipment to Mozambique. "In other respects, the
affairs of the island were managed by the local 'king,' the predecessor
of the Mwinyi Mkuu of Dunga." This hands-off approach ended when Portugal established a fort on Pemba around 1635 in response to the Sultan of Mombasa's slaughter of Portuguese residents several years earlier.
After 1500: West and East Africa, Asia, and the Pacific
In west Africa Cidade de Congo de São Salvador was founded some time after the arrival of the Portuguese,
in the pre-existing capital of the local dynasty ruling at that time
(1483), in a city of the Luezi River valley. Portuguese were established
supporting one Christian local dynasty ruling suitor.
When Afonso I of Kongo was established the Roman Catholic Church in Kongo kingdom.
By 1516, Afonso I sent various of his children and nobles to Europe to
study, including his son Henrique Kinu a Mvemba, who was elevated to the
status of bishop in 1518. Afonso I wrote a series of letters to the
kings of Portugal Manuel I and João III of Portugal concerning to the behavior of the Portuguese in his country and their role in the developing slave trade,
complaining of Portuguese complicity in purchasing illegally enslaved
people and the connections between Afonso's men, Portuguese mercenaries
in Kongo's service and the capture and sale of slaves by Portuguese.
The aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India were Portuguese India. The period of European contact of Ceylon began with the arrival of Portuguese soldiers and explorers of the expedition of Lourenço de Almeida, the son of Francisco de Almeida, in 1505. The Portuguese founded a fort at the port city of Colombo
in 1517 and gradually extended their control over the coastal areas and
inland. In a series of military conflicts, political manoeuvres and
conquests, the Portuguese extended their control over the Sinhalese kingdoms, including Jaffna (1591), Raigama (1593), Sitawaka (1593), and Kotte (1594,) but the aim of unifying the entire island under Portuguese control failed. The Portuguese, led by Pedro Lopes de Sousa, launched a full-scale military invasion of the Kingdom of Kandy in the Danture campaign of 1594. The invasion was a disaster for the Portuguese, with their entire army wiped out by Kandyan guerrilla warfare.
More envoys were sent in 1507 to Ethiopia, after Socotra was taken by the Portuguese. As a result of this mission, and facing Muslim expansion, Queen Regent Eleni of Ethiopia sent ambassador Mateus to King Manuel I of Portugal
and to the Pope, in search of a coalition. Mateus reached Portugal via
Goa, having returned with a Portuguese embassy, along with priest Francisco Álvares in 1520. Francisco Álvares book, which included the testimony of Covilhã, the Verdadeira Informação das Terras do Preste João das Indias
("A True Relation of the Lands of Prester John of the Indies") was the
first direct account of Ethiopia, greatly increasing European knowledge
at the time, as it was presented to the pope, published and quoted by Giovanni Battista Ramusio.
In 1509, the Portuguese under Francisco de Almeida won a critical victory in the Battle of Diu against a joint Mamluk and Arab fleet sent to counteract their presence in the Arabian Sea. The retreat of the Mamluks and Arabs enabled the Portuguese to implement their strategy of controlling the Indian Ocean.
Afonso de Albuquerque set sail in April 1511 from Goa to Malacca with a force of 1,200 men and seventeen or eighteen ships. Following his capture
of the city on 24 August 1511, it became a strategic base for
Portuguese expansion in the East Indies; consequently the Portuguese
were obliged to build a fort they named A Famosa to defend it. That same year, the Portuguese, desiring a commercial alliance, sent an ambassador, Duarte Fernandes, to the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, where he was well received by King Ramathibodi II. In 1526, a large force of Portuguese ships under the command of Pedro Mascarenhas was sent to conquer Bintan, where Sultan Mahmud was based. Earlier expeditions by Diogo Dias and Afonso de Albuquerque
had explored that part of the Indian Ocean, and discovered several
islands new to Europeans. Mascarenhas served as Captain-Major of the
Portuguese colony of Malacca from 1525 to 1526, and as viceroy of Goa, capital of the Portuguese possessions in Asia, from 1554 until his death in 1555. He was succeeded by Francisco Barreto, who served with the title of "governor-general".
To enforce a trade monopoly, Muscat, and Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, were seized by Afonso de Albuquerque in 1507, and in 1507 and 1515, respectively. He also entered into diplomatic relations with Persia. In 1513 while trying to conquer Aden, an expedition led by Albuquerque cruised the Red Sea inside the Bab al-Mandab, and sheltered at Kamaran island. In 1521, a force under António Correia conquered Bahrain, ushering in a period of almost eighty years of Portuguese rule of the Persian Gulf. In the Red Sea, Massawa was the most northerly point frequented by the Portuguese until 1541, when a fleet under Estevão da Gama penetrated as far as Suez.
In 1511, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach the city of Guangzhou
by the sea, and they settled on its port for a commercial monopoly of
trade with other nations. They were later expelled from their
settlements, but they were allowed the use of Macau,
which was also occupied in 1511, and to be appointed in 1557 as the
base for doing business with Guangzhou. The quasi-monopoly on foreign
trade in the region would be maintained by the Portuguese until the
early seventeenth century, when the Spanish and Dutch arrived.
The Portuguese Diogo Rodrigues explored the Indian Ocean in 1528, he explored the islands of Réunion, Mauritius, and Rodrigues, naming it the Mascarene or Mascarenhas Islands,
after his countryman Pedro Mascarenhas, who had been there before. The
Portuguese presence disrupted and reorganised the Southeast Asian trade,
and in eastern Indonesia they introduced Christianity. After the Portuguese annexed Malacca in August 1511, one Portuguese diary noted 'it is thirty years since they became Moors'–
giving a sense of the competition then taking place between Islamic and
European influences in the region. Afonso de Albuquerque learned of the
route to the Banda Islands and other "Spice Islands", and sent an exploratory expedition of three vessels under the command of António de Abreu, Simão Afonso Bisigudo and Francisco Serrão. On the return trip, Francisco Serrão was shipwrecked at Hitu Island (northern Ambon)
in 1512. There he established ties with the local ruler who was
impressed with his martial skills. The rulers of the competing island
states of Ternate and Tidore
also sought Portuguese assistance and the newcomers were welcomed in
the area as buyers of supplies and spices during a lull in the regional
trade due to the temporary disruption of Javanese and Malay
sailings to the area following the 1511 conflict in Malacca. The spice
trade soon revived but the Portuguese would not be able to fully
monopolize nor disrupt this trade.
Allying himself with Ternate's ruler, Serrão constructed a fortress on that tiny island and served as the head of a mercenary band of Portuguese seamen under the service of one of the two local feuding sultans who controlled most of the spice
trade. Such an outpost far from Europe generally only attracted the
most desperate and avaricious, and as such the feeble attempts at
Christianization only strained relations with Ternate's Muslim ruler. Serrão urged Ferdinand Magellan
to join him in Maluku, and sent the explorer information about the
Spice Islands. Both Serrão and Magellan, however, perished before they
could meet one another, with Magellan dying in battle in Macatan.
In 1535 Sultan Tabariji was deposed and sent to Goa in chains, where he
converted to Christianity and changed his name to Dom Manuel. After
being declared innocent of the charges against him he was sent back to
reassume his throne, but died en route at Malacca in 1545. He had
however, already bequeathed the island of Ambon
to his Portuguese godfather Jordão de Freitas. Following the murder of
Sultan Hairun at the hands of the Europeans, the Ternateans expelled the
hated foreigners in 1575 after a five-year siege.
The Portuguese first landed in Ambon
in 1513, but it only became the new centre for their activities in
Maluku following the expulsion from Ternate. European power in the
region was weak and Ternate became an expanding, fiercely Islamic and
anti-European state under the rule of Sultan Baab Ullah (r. 1570–1583)
and his son Sultan Said.
The Portuguese in Ambon, however, were regularly attacked by native
Muslims on the island's northern coast, in particular Hitu which had
trading and religious links with major port cities on Java's north
coast. Altogether, the Portuguese never had the resources or manpower to
control the local trade in spices, and failed in attempts to establish
their authority over the crucial Banda Islands, the nearby centre of
most nutmeg and mace production. Following Portuguese missionary work,
there have been large Christian communities in eastern Indonesia
particularly among the Ambonese.
By the 1560s there were 10,000 Catholics in the area, mostly on Ambon,
and by the 1590s there were 50,000 to 60,000, although most of the
region surrounding Ambon remained Muslim.
Mauritius
was visited by the Portuguese between 1507 (by Diogo Fernandes Pereira)
and 1513. The Portuguese took no interest in the isolated Mascarene islands. Their main African base was in Mozambique, and therefore the Portuguese navigators preferred to use the Mozambique Channel to go to India. The Comoros at the north proved to be a more practical port of call.
Portuguese North America (in present-day Canada); Vaz Dourado, c. 1576.
Based on the Treaty of Tordesillas, Manuel I claimed territorial rights in the area visited by John Cabot in 1497 and 1498. To that end, in 1499 and 1500, the Portuguese mariner João Fernandes Lavrador visited the northeast Atlantic coast and Greenland and the north Atlantic coast of Canada, which accounts for the appearance of "Labrador" on topographical maps of the period. Subsequently, in 1501 and 1502 the Corte-Real brothers explored and charted Greenland and the coasts of present-day Newfoundland and Labrador, claiming these lands as part of the Portuguese Empire. Whether or not the Corte-Reals expeditions were also inspired by or continuing the alleged voyages of their father, João Vaz Corte-Real (with other Europeans) in 1473, to Terra Nova do Bacalhau (Newfoundland of the Codfish), remains controversial, as the 16th century accounts of the 1473 expedition differ considerably. In 1520–1521, João Álvares Fagundes was granted donatary rights to the inner islands of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Accompanied by colonists from mainland Portugal and the Azores, he explored Newfoundland and Nova Scotia (possibly reaching the Bay of Fundy on the Minas Basin), and established a fishing colony on Cape Breton Island, that would last some years or until at least 1570s, based on contemporary accounts.
South America
Cabral's voyage to Brazil and India, 1500
Brazil was claimed by Portugal in April 1500, on the arrival of the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral. The Portuguese encountered natives divided into several tribes. The first settlement was founded in 1532.
Some European countries, especially France, were also sending excursions to Brazil to extract brazilwood.
Worried about the foreign incursions and hoping to find mineral riches,
the Portuguese crown decided to send large missions to take possession
of the land and combat the French. In 1530, an expedition led by Martim Afonso de Sousa
arrived to patrol the entire coast, ban the French, and to create the
first colonial villages, like São Vicente, at the coast. As time passed,
the Portuguese created the Viceroyalty of Brazil. Colonization was
effectively begun in 1534, when DomJoão III divided the territory into twelve hereditary captaincies, a model that had previously been used successfully in the colonization of the Madeira Island, but this arrangement proved problematic and in 1549 the king assigned a Governor-General to administer the entire colony, Tomé de Sousa.
The Portuguese frequently relied on the help of Jesuits and European adventurers who lived together with the aborigines and knew their languages and culture, such as João Ramalho, who lived among the Guaianaz tribe near today's São Paulo, and Diogo Álvares Correia, who lived among the Tupinamba natives near today's Salvador de Bahia.
The Portuguese assimilated some of the native tribes while others were enslaved or exterminated in long wars or by European diseases to which they had no immunity. By the mid-16th century, sugar had become Brazil's most important export and the Portuguese imported African slaves to produce it.
António Raposo Tavares,
a bandeirante, led in 1648–1652 the largest continental expedition made
in the Americas until then, from São Paulo to the east, near the Andes
(via Mato Grosso, the Paraguay River, the Grande River, the Mamoré River, and the Madeira River), and to the Amazon River and the Atlantic
The Dutch sacked Bahia in 1604, and temporarily captured the capital Salvador.
In the 1620s and 1630s, the Dutch West India Company
established many trade posts or colonies. The Spanish silver fleet,
which carried silver from Spanish colonies to Spain, were seized by Piet Heyn in 1628. In 1629 Suriname and Guyana were established. In 1630 the West India Company conquered part of Brazil, and the colony of New Holland (capital Mauritsstad, present-day Recife) was founded.
John Maurice of Nassau prince of Nassau-Siegen, was appointed as the governor of the Dutch possessions in Brazil in 1636 by the Dutch West India Company on recommendation of Frederick Henry. He landed at Recife, the port of Pernambuco and the chief stronghold of the Dutch, in January 1637.
By a series of successful expeditions, he gradually extended the Dutch possessions from Sergipe on the south to São Luís de Maranhão in the north.
In 1624 most of the inhabitants of the town Pernambuco (Recife), in the future Dutch colony of Brazil were Sephardic Jews who had been banned by the Portuguese Inquisition
to this town at the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. As some years
afterward the Dutch in Brazil appealed to Holland for craftsmen of all
kinds, many Jews went to Brazil; about 600 Jews left Amsterdam in 1642,
accompanied by two distinguished scholars – Isaac Aboab da Fonseca and Moses Raphael de Aguilar. In the struggle between Holland and Portugal for the possession of Brazil the Dutch were supported by the Jews.
From 1630 to 1654, the Dutch set up more permanently in the Nordeste
and controlled a long stretch of the coast most accessible to Europe,
without, however, penetrating the interior. But the colonists of the Dutch West India Company in Brazil were in a constant state of siege, in spite of the presence in Recife of John Maurice of Nassau as governor. After several years of open warfare, the Dutch formally withdrew in 1661.
Portuguese sent military expeditions to the Amazon rainforest and conquered British and Dutch strongholds, founding villages and forts from 1669. In 1680 they reached the far south and founded Sacramento on the bank of the Rio de la Plata, in the Eastern Strip region (present-day Uruguay).
In the 1690s, gold was discovered by explorers in the region that would later be called Minas Gerais (General Mines) in current Mato Grosso and Goiás.
Before the Iberian Union period (1580–1640), Spain tried to prevent Portuguese expansion into Brazil with the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas. After the Iberian Union period, the Eastern Strip were settled by Portugal. This was disputed in vain, and in 1777 Spain confirmed Portuguese sovereignty.
Iberian Union period (1580–1640)
Battle of Cartagena de Indias,
March–May 1741, during this battle the Spanish Empire defeated a
British fleet of over 30,000 professional soldiers, 51 warships and 135
transport ships counting the glorious Spanish army only less than 2400
professional soldiers, 600 natives and 6 ships.
In 1578, the Saadi sultanAhmad al-Mansur, contemporary of Queen Elizabeth I, defeated Portugal at the Battle of Ksar El Kebir, beating the young king Sebastian I, a devout Christian who believed in the crusade to defeat Islam. Portugal had landed in North Africa after Abu Abdallah
asked him to help recover the Saadian throne. Abu Abdallah's uncle, Abd
Al-Malik, had taken it from Abu Abdallah with Ottoman Empire support.
The defeat of Abu Abdallah and the death of Portugal's king led to the
end of the Portuguese Aviz dynasty and later to the integration of Portugal and its empire at the Iberian Union for 60 years under Sebastian's uncle Philip II of Spain. Philip was married to his relative Mary I cousin of his father, due to this, Philip was King of England and Ireland in a dynastic union with Spain.
Álvaro de Bazán, Spanish admiral famous for never having lost a battle.
As a result of the Iberian Union, Phillip II's enemies became Portugal's enemies, such as the Dutch in the Dutch–Portuguese War, England or France. The English-Spanish wars of 1585–1604
were clashes not only in English and Spanish ports or on the sea
between them but also in and around the present-day territories of
Florida, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Panama. War
with the Dutch led to invasions of many countries in Asia, including
Ceylon and commercial interests in Japan, Africa (Mina),
and South America. Even though the Portuguese were unable to capture
the entire island of Ceylon, they were able to control its coastal
regions for a considerable time.
From 1580 to 1670 mostly, the Bandeirantes in Brazil focused on slave hunting, then from 1670 to 1750 they focused on mineral wealth. Through these expeditions and the Dutch–Portuguese War, Colonial Brazil expanded from the small limits of the Tordesilhas Line to roughly the same borders as current Brazil.
The combined Spanish and Portuguese empires during the Iberian Union (1580–1640)
In the 17th century, taking advantage of this period of Portuguese
weakness, the Dutch occupied many Portuguese territories in Brazil. John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen was appointed as the governor of the Dutch possessions in Brazil in 1637 by the Dutch West India Company.
He landed at Recife, the port of Pernambuco, in January 1637. In a
series of expeditions, he gradually expanded from Sergipe on the south
to São Luís de Maranhão in the north. He likewise conquered the
Portuguese possessions of Elmina Castle, Saint Thomas, and Luanda and Angola. The Dutch intrusion into Brazil was long lasting and troublesome to Portugal. The Seventeen Provinces captured a large portion of the Brazilian coast including the provinces of Bahia, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, Ceará, and Sergipe,
while Dutch privateers sacked Portuguese ships in both the Atlantic and
Indian Oceans. The large area of Bahia and its city, the strategically
important Salvador, was recovered quickly by an Iberian military
expedition in 1625.
After the dissolution of the Iberian Union in 1640, Portugal
re-established authority over its lost territories including remaining
Dutch controlled areas. The other smaller, less developed areas were
recovered in stages and relieved of Dutch piracy in the next two decades
by local resistance and Portuguese expeditions.
Spanish Formosa was established in Taiwan, first by Portugal in 1544 and later renamed and repositioned by Spain in Keelung.
It became a natural defence site for the Iberian Union. The colony was
designed to protect Spanish and Portuguese trade from interference by
the Dutch base in the south of Taiwan. The Spanish colony was
short-lived due to the unwillingness of Spanish colonial authorities in Manila to defend it.
While technological superiority, military strategy and forging local
alliances played an important role in the victories of the conquistadors
in the Americas, their conquest was greatly facilitated by Old World
diseases: smallpox, chicken pox, diphtheria, typhus, influenza, measles, malaria, and yellow fever.
The diseases were carried to distant tribes and villages. This typical
path of disease transmission moved much faster than the conquistadors,
so that as they advanced, resistance weakened. Epidemic disease is commonly cited as the primary reason for the population collapse. The American natives lacked immunity to these infections.
When Francisco Coronado and the Spaniards first explored the Rio Grande Valley in 1540, in modern New Mexico, some of the chieftains complained of new diseases that affected their tribes. Cabeza de Vaca reported that in 1528, when the Spanish landed in Texas, "half the natives died from a disease of the bowels and blamed us." When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Incan empire, a large portion of the population had already died in a smallpox epidemic. The first epidemic was recorded in 1529 and killed the emperor Huayna Capac, the father of Atahualpa.
Further epidemics of smallpox broke out in 1533, 1535, 1558 and 1565,
as well as typhus in 1546, influenza in 1558, diphtheria in 1614 and
measles in 1618.
Recently developed tree-ring
evidence shows that the illness which reduced the population in Aztec
Mexico was aided by a great drought in the 16th century, and which
continued through the arrival of the Spanish conquest.This has added to the body of epidemiological evidence indicating that cocoliztli epidemics (Nahuatl name for viral haemorrhagic fever) were indigenous fevers transmitted by rodents and aggravated by the drought. The cocoliztli epidemic from 1545 to 1548
killed an estimated 5 to 15 million people, or up to 80% of the native
population. The cocoliztli epidemic from 1576 to 1578 killed an
estimated, additional 2 to 2.5 million people, or about 50% of the
remainder.
The American researcher Henry Dobyns said that 95% of the total population of the Americas died in the first 130 years, and that 90% of the population of the Inca Empire died in epidemics. Cook and Borah of the University of California at Berkeley believe that the indigenous population in Mexico declined from 25.2 million in 1518 to 700,000 people in 1623, less than 3% of the original population.
Mythic lands
The conquistadors found new animal species, but reports confused these with monsters such as giants, dragons, or ghosts. Stories about castaways on mysterious islands were common.
An early motive for exploration was the search for Cipango, the
place where gold was born. Cathay and Cibao were later goals. The Seven Cities of Gold, or "Cibola", was rumoured to have been built by Native Americans somewhere in the desert Southwest.
As early as 1611, Sebastián Vizcaíno surveyed the east coast of Japan
and searched for two mythical islands called Rico de Oro ('Rich in
Gold') and Rico de Plata ('Rich in Silver').
Francisco de Orellana monument in Guápulo, point of departure (from Quito) to the Amazon.
Books such as The Travels of Marco Polo fuelled rumours of mythical places. Stories included the half-fabulous Christian Empire of "Prester John", the kingdom of the White Queen on the "Western Nile" (Sénégal River), the Fountain of Youth, cities of Gold in North and South America such as Quivira, Zuni-Cibola Complex, and El Dorado, and wonderful kingdoms of the Ten Lost Tribes and women called Amazons. In 1542, Francisco de Orellana reached the Amazon River, naming it after a tribe of warlike women he claimed to have fought there. Others claimed that the similarity between Indio and Iudio, the Spanish-language word for 'Jew' around 1500, revealed the indigenous peoples' origin. Portuguese traveller Antonio de Montezinos reported that some of the Lost Tribes were living among the Native Americans of the Andes in South America. Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés wrote that Ponce de León was looking for the waters of Bimini to cure his aging. A similar account appears in Francisco López de Gómara's Historia General de las Indias of 1551. Then in 1575, Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda,
a shipwreck survivor who had lived with the Native Americans of Florida
for 17 years, published his memoir in which he locates the Fountain of
Youth in Florida, and says that Ponce de León was supposed to have
looked for them there. This land somehow also became confused with the Boinca or Boyuca mentioned by Juan de Solis, although Solis's navigational data placed it in the Gulf of Honduras.
Sir Walter Raleigh
and some Italian, Spanish, Dutch, French and Portuguese expeditions
were looking for the wonderful Guiana empire that gave its name to the
present day countries of the Guianas.
Several expeditions went in search of these fabulous places, but
returned empty-handed, or brought less gold than they had hoped. They
found other precious metals such as silver, which was particularly abundant in Potosí, in modern-day Bolivia. They discovered new routes, ocean currents, trade winds, crops, spices and other products. In the sail era knowledge of winds and currents was essential, for example, the Agulhas current
long prevented Portuguese sailors from reaching India. Various places
in Africa and the Americas have been named after the imagined cities
made of gold, rivers of gold and precious stones.
Shipwrecked off Santa Catarina island in present-day Brazil, Aleixo Garcia
living among the Guaranís heard tales of a "White King" who lived to
the west, ruling cities of incomparable riches and splendour. Marching
westward in 1524 to find the land of the "White King", he was the first
European to cross South America from the East. He discovered a great
waterfall and the Chaco Plain. He managed to penetrate the outer defences of the Inca Empire on the hills of the Andes, in present-day Bolivia, the first European to do so, eight years before Francisco Pizarro.
Garcia looted a booty of silver. When the army of Huayna Cápac arrived to challenge him, Garcia then retreated with the spoils, only to be assassinated by his Indian allies near San Pedro on the Paraguay River.
The Spanish discovery of what they thought at that time was India,
and the constant competition of Portugal and Spain led to a desire for
secrecy about every trade route and every colony. As a consequence, many
documents that could reach other European countries included fake dates
and faked facts, to mislead any other nation's possible efforts. For
example, the Island of California refers to a famous cartographic
error propagated on many maps during the 17th and 18th centuries,
despite contradictory evidence from various explorers. The legend was
initially infused with the idea that California was a terrestrial
paradise, peopled by black Amazons.
The tendency to secrecy and falsification of dates casts doubts about the authenticity of many primary sources. Several historians
have hypothesized that John II may have known of the existence of
Brazil and North America as early as 1480, thus explaining his wish in
1494 at the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas,
to push the line of influence further west. Many historians suspect
that the real documents would have been placed in the Library of Lisbon. Unfortunately, a fire following the 1755 Lisbon earthquake destroyed nearly all of the library's records, but an extra copy
available in Goa was transferred to Lisbon's Tower of Tombo, during the
following 100 years. The Corpo Cronológico (Chronological Corpus), a
collection of manuscripts on the Portuguese explorations and discoveries
in Africa, Asia and Latin America, was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register
in 2007 in recognition of its historical value "for acquiring knowledge
of the political, diplomatic, military, economic and religious history
of numerous countries at the time of the Portuguese Discoveries."
Ferdinand II King of Aragon and Regent of Castile, incorporated the
American territories into the Kingdom of Castile and then withdrew the
authority granted to governor Christopher Columbus and the first
conquistadors. He established direct royal control with the Council of the Indies, the most important administrative organ of the Spanish Empire,
both in the Americas and in Asia. After unifying Castile, Ferdinand
introduced to Castile many laws, regulations and institutions such as
the Inquisition, that were typical in Aragon. These laws were later used in the new lands.
The Laws of Burgos,
created in 1512–1513, were the first codified set of laws governing the
behavior of settlers in Spanish colonial America, particularly with
regards to Native Americans. They forbade the maltreatment of indigenous people, and endorsed their conversion to Catholicism.
The evolving structure of colonial government was not fully formed until the third quarter of the 16th century; however, los Reyes Católicos designated Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca
to study the problems related to the colonization process. Rodríguez de
Fonseca effectively became minister for the Indies and laid the
foundations for the creation of a colonial bureaucracy, combining
legislative, executive and judicial functions. Rodríguez de Fonseca
presided over the council, which contained a number of members of the Council of Castile (Consejo de Castilla), and formed a Junta de Indias of about eight counsellors. Emperor Charles V was already using the term "Council of the Indies" in 1519.
The Crown reserved for itself important tools of intervention. The
"capitulacion" clearly stated that the conquered territories belonged to
the Crown, not to the individual. On the other hand, concessions
allowed the Crown to guide the Companies conquests to certain
territories, depending on their interests. In addition, the leader of
the expedition received clear instructions about their duties towards
the army, the native population, the type of military action. A written
report about the results was mandatory. The army had a royal official,
the "veedor". The "veedor" or notary, ensured they complied with orders
and instructions and preserved the King's share of the booty.
In practice the Capitán had almost unlimited power. Besides the
Crown and the conquistador, they were very important the backers who
were charged with anticipating the money to the Capitán and guarantee
payment of obligations.
Armed groups sought supplies and funds in various ways. Financing
was requested from the King, delegates of the Crown, the nobility, rich
merchants or the troops themselves. The more professional campaigns
were funded by the Crown. Campaigns were sometimes initiated by
inexperienced governors, because in Spanish Colonial America,
offices were bought or handed to relatives or cronies. Sometimes, an
expedition of conquistadors were a group of influential men who had
recruited and equipped their fighters, by promising a share of the
booty.
Aside from the explorations predominated by Spain and Portugal,
other parts of Europe also aided in colonization of the New World. King
Charles I was documented to receive loans from the German Welser family to help finance the Venezuela expedition for gold.
With numerous armed groups aiming to launch explorations well into the
Age of Conquest, the Crown became indebted, allowing opportunity for
foreign European creditors to finance the explorations.
The conquistador borrowed as little as possible, preferring to
invest all their belongings. Sometimes, every soldier brought his own
equipment and supplies, other times the soldiers received gear as an
advance from the conquistador.
The Pinzón brothers, seamen of the Tinto–Odiel participated in Columbus's undertaking. They also supported the project economically, supplying money from their personal fortunes.
Sponsors included governments, the king, viceroys, and local
governors backed by rich men. The contribution of each individual
conditioned the subsequent division of the booty, receiving a portion
the pawn (lancero, piquero, alabardero, rodelero) and twice a man on
horseback (caballero) owner of a horse.
Sometimes part of the booty consisted of women and/or slaves. Even the
dogs, important weapons of war in their own right, were in some cases
rewarded. The division of the booty produced conflicts, such as the one
between Pizarro and Almagro.
Though vastly outnumbered on foreign and unknown territory,
Conquistadors had several military advantages over the native peoples
they conquered, military strategies and tactics that were mostly learned
from the 781 year war of the Reconquista.
A
group of 16th century conquistadors that participated in the Spanish
conquest of Peru (second expedition) along with their leader, Francisco Pizarro.
Strategy
One
factor was the ability of the conquistadors to manipulate the political
situation between indigenous peoples and make alliances against larger
empires. To beat the Inca civilization, they supported one side of a civil war. The Spanish overthrew the Aztec
civilization by allying with natives who had been subjugated by more
powerful neighbouring tribes and kingdoms. These tactics had been used
by the Spanish, for example, in the Granada War, the conquest of the Canary Islands and conquest of Navarre.
Throughout the conquest, the indigenous people greatly outnumbered the
conquistadors; the conquistador troops never exceeded 2% of the native
population. The army with which Hernán Cortés besieged Tenochtitlan was composed of 200,000 soldiers, of which fewer than 1% were Spaniards.
Tactics
Spanish
and Portuguese forces were capable of quickly moving long distances in
foreign land, allowing for speed of maneuver to catch outnumbering
forces by surprise. Wars were mainly between clans, expelling intruders.
On land, these wars combined some European methods with techniques from
Muslim bandits in Al-Andalus. These tactics consisted of small groups who attempted to catch their opponents by surprise, through an ambush.
In Mombasa, Vasco da Gama resorted to attacking Arab merchant ships, which were generally unarmed trading vessels without heavy cannons.
Weapons and animals
Weapons
Spanish conquistador in the Pavilion of Navigation in Seville, Spain.
Spanish conquistadors in the Americas made extensive use of swords, pikes, and crossbows, with arquebuses becoming widespread only from the 1570s. A scarcity of firearms did not prevent conquistadors to pioneer the use of mounted arquebusiers, an early form of dragoon. In the 1540s Francisco de Carvajal's use of firearms in the Spanish civil war in Peru prefigured the volley fire technique that developed in Europe many decades after.
Animals
Basque
Countrymen near the France–Spain border in 1898, with characteristic
horse, donkey and dogs. These were the type of animals introduced to
America.Spanish Mastiff used in expeditions and guard
Animals were another important factor for Spanish triumph. On the one
hand, the introduction of the horse and other domesticated pack animals
allowed them greater mobility unknown to the Indian cultures. However,
in the mountains and jungles, the Spaniards were less able to use narrow
Amerindian roads and bridges made for pedestrian traffic, which were
sometimes no wider than a few feet. In places such as Argentina, New Mexico and California,
the indigenous people learned horsemanship, cattle raising, and sheep
herding. The use of the new techniques by indigenous groups later became
a disputed factor in native resistance to the colonial and American
governments.
The Spaniards were also skilled at breeding dogs for war, hunting and protection. The mastiffs, Spanish war dogs, and sheep dogs
they used in battle were effective as a psychological weapon against
the natives, who, in many cases, had never seen domesticated dogs.
Although some indigenous peoples did have domestic dogs during the
conquest of the Americas, Spanish conquistadors used Spanish Mastiffs and other Molossers in battle against the Taíno, Aztecs, and Maya.
These specially trained dogs were feared because of their strength and
ferocity. The strongest big breeds of broad-mouthed dogs were specifically trained for battle. These war dogs were used against barely clothed troops. They were armoured dogs trained to kill and disembowel.
The most famous of these dogs of war was a mascot of Ponce de Leon called Becerrillo, the first European dog known to reach North America; another famous dog called Leoncico, the son of Becerillo, and the first European dog known to see the Pacific Ocean, was a mascot of Vasco Núñez de Balboa and accompanied him on several expeditions.
The successive expeditions and experience of the Spanish and
Portuguese pilots led to a rapid evolution of European nautical science.
Navigation
In the thirteenth century they were guided by the sun position. For celestial navigation like other Europeans, they used Greek tools, like the astrolabe and quadrant, which they made easier and simpler. They also created the cross-staff, or cane of Jacob, for measuring at sea the height of the sun and other stars. The Southern Cross became a reference upon the arrival of João de Santarém and Pedro Escobar
in the Southern hemisphere in 1471, starting its use in celestial
navigation. The results varied throughout the year, which required
corrections. To address this the Portuguese used the astronomical tables
(Ephemeris),
a precious tool for oceanic navigation, which spread widely in the
fifteenth century. These tables revolutionized navigation, enabling latitude calculations. The tables of the Almanach Perpetuum, by astronomer Abraham Zacuto, published in Leiria in 1496, were used along with its improved astrolabe, by Vasco da Gama and Pedro Álvares Cabral.
The ship that truly launched the first phase of the discoveries along the African coast was the Portuguese caravel.
Iberians quickly adopted it for their merchant navy. It was a
development based on African fishing boats. They were agile and easier
to navigate, with a tonnage of 50 to 160 tons and one to three masts,
with lateen triangular sails allowing luffing. The caravel particularly benefited from a greater capacity to tack.
The limited capacity for cargo and crew were their main drawbacks, but
have not hindered its success. Limited crew and cargo space was
acceptable, initially, because as exploratory ships, their "cargo" was
what was in the explorer's discoveries about a new territory, which only
took up the space of one person. Among the famous caravels are Berrio and Caravela Annunciation. Columbus also used them in his travels.
Long oceanic voyages led to larger ships. "Nau" was the Portuguese archaic synonym for any large ship, primarily merchant ships.
Due to the piracy that plagued the coasts, they began to be used in the
navy and were provided with cannon windows, which led to the
classification of "naus" according to the power of its artillery. The carrack or nau was a three- or four-masted ship. It had a high rounded stern with large aftcastle, forecastle and bowsprit
at the stem. It was first used by the Portuguese, and later by the
Spanish. They were also adapted to the increasing maritime trade. They
grew from 200 tons capacity in the 15th century to 500. In the 16th
century they usually had two decks,
stern castles fore and aft, two to four masts with overlapping sails.
In India travels in the sixteenth century used carracks, large merchant
ships with a high edge and three masts with square sails, that reached
2,000 tons.
The knowledge of wind patterns and currents, the trade winds and the oceanic gyres
in the Atlantic, and the determination of latitude led to the discovery
of the best ocean route back from Africa: crossing the Central Atlantic
to the Azores, using the winds and currents that spin clockwise in the
Northern Hemisphere because of atmospheric circulation and the effect of Coriolis,
facilitating the way to Lisbon and thus enabling the Portuguese to
venture farther from shore, a manoeuvre that became known as the "volta do mar" (return of the sea). In 1565, the application of this principle in the Pacific Ocean led the Spanish discovering the Manila galleon trade route.
In 1339, Angelino Dulcert of Majorca produced the portolan chart map. Evidently drawing from the information provided in 1336 by Lanceloto Malocello sponsored by King Dinis of Portugal. It showed Lanzarote island, named Insula de Lanzarotus Marocelus and marked by a Genoese shield, as well as the island of Forte Vetura (Fuerteventura) and Vegi Mari (Lobos), although Dulcert also included some imaginary islands himself, notably Saint Brendan's Island, and three islands he names Primaria, Capraria, and Canaria.
Mestre Jacome was a Majorcan cartographer induced by Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator to move to Portugal in the 1420s to train Portuguese map-makers in Majorcan-style cartography. 'Jacome of Majorca' is even sometimes described as the head of Henry's observatory and "school" at Sagres.
It is thought that Jehuda Cresques, son of Jewish cartographer Abraham Cresques of Palma in Majorca, and Italian-Majorcan Angelino Dulcert
were cartographers at the service of Prince Henry. Majorca had many
skilled Jewish cartographers. However, the oldest signed Portuguese sea
chart is a Portolan made by Pedro Reinel in 1485 representing the Western Europe and parts of Africa, reflecting the explorations made by Diogo Cão.
Reinel was also author of the first nautical chart known with an
indication of latitudes in 1504 and the first representation of a wind rose.
With his son, cartographer Jorge Reinel and Lopo Homem, they participated in the making of the atlas known as "Lopo Homem-Reinés Atlas" or "Miller Atlas",
in 1519. They were considered the best cartographers of their time.
Emperor Charles V wanted them to work for him. In 1517 King Manuel I of Portugal handed Lopo Homem a charter giving him the privilege to certify and amend all compass needles in vessels.
The third phase of nautical cartography was characterized by the abandonment of Ptolemy's representation of the East and more accuracy in the representation of lands and continents. Fernão Vaz Dourado
(Goa ≈1520 – ≈1580), produced work of extraordinary quality and beauty,
giving him a reputation as one of the best cartographers of the time.
Many of his charts are large scale.
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