May 31, 1539 - De Soto comes to Florida, changes continent forever
Flush with gold from his recent conquest of the Incas in Peru, Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto decided to plunder North America.
De Soto became a rich man in Spain but grew restless after hearing about the New World adventures of Cabeza de Vaca. He sold all of his possessions and assembled a fleet of 10 ships, recruiting 700 men, including priests, craftsmen, farmers, merchants and engineers from Europe, Africa and Cuba. The ships carried more than 500 livestock, including more than 200 horses and 200 pigs. After landing the expedition in south Tampa Bay, De Soto found a Spaniard living with native peoples and recruited him as a translator. Then they set off north, exploring the west coast of La Florida, sparking conflicts, getting ambushed and taking slaves. They made their way from Florida to Georgia and then Alabama, where they were ambushed by the Mobilian tribe and Chief Tuskaloosa. They killed more than 2,000 natives as they won the ensuing nine-hour battle. But it was a costly victory, with 200 Spanish killed and 150 wounded. With a quarter of their horses and most of their equipment gone, they recuperated by spending the winter in Mississippi. The next spring, De Soto lost another 40 men and the rest of his equipment in a battle with the Chicksaw. Yet the conquerors pushed on, across the Mississippi near Memphis and into Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. De Soto caught fever and died in May 1542, on the Mississippi River in Louisiana. By this time, more than half of his men had died in battle or from illness and made their way back to the friendly territories of Texas and Mexico. |
|
From the Spanish perspective, De Soto's expedition was a failure because it did not find vast reserves of gold as in South America. Nor were any colonies established for Spain.
For the native Americans, De Soto's foray was a disaster because the Spanish left behind devastating European diseases to which they had no immunity and over the next century wiped out much of their civilization. The encounters sparked lingering hostility between natives and Europeans that as we know today did not result in the natives' long-term well-being. But De Soto's expedition provided Europe with a wealth of knowledge about the New World. Accounts recorded during the expedition were among the most detailed of North America available at the time and the best descriptions of native American culture before the Europeans began arriving en masse. |
|