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The Spanish Conquerors

The Spanish Conquerors. Lesson 4. Claiming the Americas. By 1500 Spain has all of the Americas (except Brazil). In the Americas, some Spaniards wanted to: Win fame Convert Native Americans to Christianity Become rich by trading.

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The Spanish Conquerors

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  1. The Spanish Conquerors Lesson 4

  2. Claiming the Americas • By 1500 Spain has all of the Americas (except Brazil). • In the Americas, some Spaniards wanted to: • Win fame • Convert Native Americans to Christianity • Become rich by trading • To encourage expeditions, Spain gave money to explorers known as conquistadors.

  3. Juan Ponce de Leon • Spain wanted conquistadors to go farther than the Bahamas. • Ponce de Leon was looking for the “Fountain of Youth.” • He did not find it but made it to “La Florida” (what we know now as Florida.) • Ponce de Leon was the first Spanish explorer to set foot on the United States.

  4. Cortes in Mexico • Spain wanted GOLD so they sent Hernando Cortes on a journey to find it in the land of the Aztecs. • The Aztec Empire was located in present-day Mexico. • The capital city was called Tenochtitlan • Cortes brought over 650 men and 16 horses with him to defeat the Aztecs and conquer them and their treasures!

  5. Help for Cortes • Indians who were unhappy with Aztec rule joined Cortes and his men. (more people to fight) • Cortes also got lucky because of a religious belief the Aztecs had: • The Aztecs believed a light-skinned god named Quezalcoatl would return to rule them. (They thought it might be Cortes!) • So….the Aztec emperor Motecuhzoma welcomed them with gifts of gold!

  6. Cortes took Motecuhzoma prisoner! • Fighting broke out! • When Motecuhzoma tried to stop the fighting, someone threw a rock at him and the head injury killed him. • A year later the Spanish took over for good! • The capital city was destroyed and rebuilt. • Tenochtitlan became Mexico City.

  7. Panfilo de Narvaez • In 1528 Panfilo de Narvaez led an expedition to Florida. • Only 4 men lived and barely made it back to Mexico City. • THIS EXPEDITION WAS STILL IMPORTANT BECAUSE…

  8. Golden Cities ….The 4 survivors came back with stories speaking of seven cities of gold! • The Spanish were VERY interested. • In 1539 the Spanish sent an African named Esteban and a priest to find the Seven Cities of Gold.

  9. Esteban was killed on the journey but de Niza returned saying he HAD seen a golden city. • In 1540 Spain sent Francisco Vasquez de Coronado (with over 1,000 men!) to find the seven cities. • The Spanish never found the cities but they did see a lot of the new world. • The Spanish now called the new world, “New Spain.”

  10. De Soto in the Southeast • In 1539 a conquistador named Hernando de Soto traveled north of Florida to what is now known as Georgia. • He and his men found no gold. • They kept moving north through the Carolinas. • Along the way, de Soto and his men encountered many Native Americans.

  11. Brutal battles were the results of the encounters. • De Soto and his men marched on finally reaching the Mississippi River. • De Soto died of fever in 1542, but he was responsible for claiming the southeastern U.S. for Spain.

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