History………?

Aimee R: History………?
On what land had Spain established a settlement prior to Cortes’s expedition to Mexico, and why did Cortes go to Mexico in 1519?

Answers and Views:

Answer by The One Truth
Spain settled in Cuba aka Hispaniola. As for why Cortes went to Mexico in 1519, wikipedia says it was because the Governor of Hispaniola sent him to prepare inner lands for colonization.

According to wikipedia, the Governor told him not to go and he still went so here is my theory acquired from the History Channel. According to records from early Spanish explorations of the Caribbean, the spanish found gold in the island natives’ jewelry and other crafts. They eventually realized that the natives did not have any gold mines or tools meant for mining gold so that proved to an extent that the gold came from somewhere else. Eventually discovering more land to the west, they figured the gold must have come from the mainland by sea. Cortes enamored by the thought of gold and land decided to invade Mexico.

Answer by gatita_63109
Spanish Florida (Florida Española) refers to the Spanish colony of Florida. The Spanish first landed on the peninsula in 1513, and laid claim to the land from 1565 to 1763 and again from 1784 to 1821.

Several tribes of Native Americans were living in Florida when Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León arrived in 1513, reportedly searching for the Fountain of Youth. He sighted Florida for the first time, mistaking it for an island, on March 27, 1513, and subsequently landed on the east coast of the newly discovered land on April 2, 1513. He named the land La Pascua Florida, having landed there during the Spanish Easter feast, Pascua Florida.

Ponce de León returned with equipment and settlers to start a colony in 1521, but they were driven off by repeated attacks from the native population. The earliest records of inland Florida are those of conquest survivors. Pánfilo de Narváez explored Florida’s West Coast in 1528, but was lost at sea upon his attempted seaward escape to Mexico. One of his expedition’s officers, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, survived nine years trudging between Florida and Mexico, returned to Spain and published his observations. He inspired Hernando de Soto’s invasion of Florida in 1539. Members of his expedition later published details of Florida’s natives, their lifestyles and behavior. In 1559, Tristán de Luna y Arellano established a brief settlement in Pensacola; it was abandoned in 1561.

But in 1518 Governor Velázquez put him in command of an expedition to explore and secure the interior of Mexico for colonization. At the last minute, due to the old gripe between Velázquez and Cortés, he changed his mind and revoked his charter. Cortés ignored the orders and went ahead anyway, in February 1519, in an act of open mutiny. He landed along with 600 men in the Yucatan Peninsula, in Maya territory [3]. There, he met Jeronimo de Aguilar, a Spaniard who had survived from a shipwreck and joined the troops [3]. Jeronimo de Aguilar, a Franciscan priest, had learnt Maya during his captivity, and could thus translate for Cortés. In March 1519, Cortés formally claimed the land for the Spanish crown. He then won a battle against the Natives of Tabasco, during which he received from the vainquished twenty young indigenous women, among whom La Malinche, his future mistress, who knew both the Nahuatl language and Maya, thus enabling Hernán Cortés was able to communicate with both.

gatita_63109