The Hispanic role in America
CHRONOLOGY
COMPILED BY DR. JUAN M. PEREZ
HISPANIC DIVISION
Library of Congress
1372
Basques arrived in Newfoundland.
1492
Cristóbal Colón discovered America for Spain.
1493
Colón introduced sugar cane in the New World.
1494
January 6. Fray Bernardo Boil celebrated mass in Hispaniola, perhaps the first
mass celebrated in America.
June 7. Treaty of Tordesillas was signed between Spain and Portugal, which
divided the newly discovered lands between the two countries. Under this treaty,
Portugal claimed Brazil.
1499
Vicente Yáñez Pinzón, Alonso de Ojeda, Americo Vespucci, Juan de la Cosa, Alonso
Niño and Cristóbal Guerra were sent by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to
explore new territories. They went along the coast of Brazil to the Gulf of
Mexico and the Florida coast. They also reached the Chesapeake Bay.
1500
Juan de la Cosa drew the first map of America's coastline.
1501
Gaspar Corterreal explored the North American Atlantic coast.
1502
Alberto Cantino drew a map showing Florida's coastline.
1503
European-style architecture was introduced with the construction of the church
of San Nicolás de Bari in Hispaniola, present-day Dominican Republic.
1505
The first elementary school was founded in Hispaniola.
1507
German writer Martin Waldseemüller, thinking that it was Americo Vespucci who
discovered the new lands in 1492, said that the new regions should be called
America.
1508
Juan Ponce de León arrived in the southern part of Puerto Rico and explored it.
Spaniards built the first sugar mill in the New World in the island of
Hispaniola.
1509
August 14. Ponce de León was appointed governor of Puerto Rico.
Pope Julius II authorized the Catholic Kings of Spain (Ferdinand and Isabella)
to administer the church in the New World in exchange for the expenses Spain
would incur in the evangelization process.
1510
Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo wrote Las sergas de Esplandián, a continuation of
the adventure novel Amadís de Gaula. The novel talked about an island called
California, where amazons lived. The Spanish gave this name to what is now the
state of California.
Franciscan missionaries arrived in Puerto Rico.
1511
King Ferdinand granted the Puerto Rican settlement the status of a city and gave
it a coat of arms.
Pope Julius II issued a Papal Bull establishing various dioceses in America.
The first catholic diocese in the United States was established in Puerto Rico
by Pope Julius II. He appointed Alonso Manso as the first bishop.
1512
Ponce de León was granted permission by the king to explore an island called
"Bimini", supposedly north of the Bahamas and search for a fabled fountain of
youth.
Dominicans founded the first hospital in the New World in Hispaniola.
1513
April 2. Juan Ponce de León, landed on the Florida coast, just north of Cape
Canaveral, on Eastern Sunday (Pascua Florida). He then went south around the
Florida peninsula around the Florida Keys and up the coast of the Gulf of
Mexico.
Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and discovered the Pacific
Ocean.
Bishop Alonso, of San Juan, Puerto Rico, founded the first school in the United
States.
The king of Spain issued a royal order by which the natives were to be taught
latin to improve their education.
Antonio de Alaminos, Ponce de León's pilot, discovered the Gulf Stream.
1518
Juan de Grijalva reached the area around Galveston Island, Texas.
Diego Velázquez explored a region of South Carolina.
1519
Alonso Alvarez de Pineda explored the Golf Coast, as far as Texas. A map of his
expedition shows Cuba, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico coast. He was the first
one to realize that Florida was not an island. He discovered the mouth of the
Mississippi River. He entered Mobile Bay (Alabama), which he named "Bahía del
Espíritu Santo." He also probably sighted the bay of Corpus Christi, Texas.
1520
Spaniards from Cuba reached the South Carolina coast.
Francisco de Garay, the governor of Jamaica, sent Diego de Camargo to attempt to
establish a settlement near de mouth of the Rio Grande.
Francisco Gordillo explored the North Atlantic Coast.
1521
Francisco Gordillo and Pedro Quexós reached the North Carolina coast. During
their explorations, they took Indians as slaves. Once Spanish authorities found
about this, they were reprimended and ordered the Indians to be set free and
returned to their homelands.
Ponce de León arrived in Charlotte Harbor, in yet another effort to colonize
Florida. He had brought with him colonists, missionaries and livestock and many
different kinds of seeds. The effort failed.
Fernando de Magallanes, on a voyage to circumnavigate the world, reached Hawaii
and Guam. He died after arriving in the Philippines.
1522
Juan Sebastián de Elcano finished Magallanes' expedition, arriving in Spain on
September 6, being the first one to circumnavigate the globe.
1523
Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón was named adelantado, in a region north of Florida.
The first sugar mill in the United States was established in Puerto Rico.
Gonzalo de Ocampo explored the area near present-day Brownsville, Texas.
1524
Diego Miruelo explored Florida's western coast.
Gonzalo de Sandoval told in Mexico City a tale of an island called California
that was full of riches and inhabited by women only.
1525
Esteban Gómez left the port city of La Coruña, Galicia (Spain) to explore the
Atlantic Coast from Florida to Labrador, passing by the mouths of the rivers
Connecticut, Hudson and Delaware. On his trek, he reached Newfoundland, New
Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Cape Cod, Long Island, New York Bay and entered the
Chesapeake Bay at White Haven, Maryland.
García Jofre de Loaysa led a seven-ship expedition from La Coruña (Galicia,
Spain) to the Hawaiian Islands. They reached the Pacific the following year.
Disease and weather took a heavy toll on the expedition. By the time it reached
the Moluccas, only one ship was afloat.
Nuño de Guzmán became the governor of the Panuco-Rio Grande area.
1526
Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón, accompanied by Pedro de Quexós as pilot and Dominican
Fathers Pedro Estrada, Antonio Montesinos an Antonio de Cervantes sailed with an
expedition to colonize the Carolinas. The expedition reached the Chesapeake Bay
and Fray Montesinos, celebrated the first mass in Virginia, near Jamestown. One
of the ships ran aground near Cape Fear and another had to be built, perhaps the
first one built in the United States. The expedition founded a settlement at San
Miguel Gualdape, opposite present-day Georgetown, South Carolina. The Spanish
called the area Chícora.
Pánfilo Narváez was granted royal privileges to explore, conquer and settle the
territory from Florida to the Rio Grande.
José de Basconales is believed to have explored Arizona on his trip from Mexico
to the Zuni territory.
1527
Alvaro de Saavedra led an expedition to Hawaii and the Philippines, from
Zacatula, Mexico.
1528
Pánfilo de Nárvaez led an expedition to Florida. The expedition was destroyed by
the weather and hostile natives. He reached Mobile, Alabama.
Sancho de Caniedo was sent by governor Nuño de Guzmán to take possession of the
Rio Grande region. The attempt failed.
1528-1536
The survivors of the Nárvaez expedition to Florida, Hernán Núñez Cabeza de Vaca,
Andrés Dorantes, Alonso Castillo and their black slave Estebanico, wandered for
8 years throughout southern U.S. (Texas and New Mexico). They reached Mexico
City on July 24, 1536. During their ordeal they had to endure all kinds of
things to survive. In one instance, in 1528, Cabeza de Vaca performed a
succesful surgical operation on an Indian. This was, perhaps, the first surgery
performed in the United States.
1529
Map maker Diego Ribeiro published a map showing very clearly the U.S. Atlantic
coast.
1530
Pedro Martyr de Angleria wrote his book, The Decades, on the Spanish
explorations of America.
1533
Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada discovered Baja California.
1535
Hernán Cortés founded a settlement in Santa Cruz, Baja California.
1536
Cortés crossed the Gulf of California and explored the lower regions of Baja
California.
Cabeza de Vaca and his companions wrote in Mexico City a report of their
experiences.
1538
The printing press arrived in Mexico.
Dominicans in Santo Domingo founded the first university in the New World.
1539
Francisco de Ulloa, a lieutenant of Cortés, explored the Gulf of California and
proving that California was not an island.
The diary of the Franciscan Francisco Preciado, a companion of Ulloa, provides
the first printed record of California as applied to that region.
Fray Marcos de Niza led an expedition to find the fabled seven cities of Cíbola,
reaching a region of New Mexico inhabited by the Zuñi Indians. The adobe
buildings of the Pueblo Indians glittered in the sun like gold and Fray Niza,
seeing this from far away thought that he had found such place.
Hernando de Soto reached Bahía Honda (Tampa Bay) on June 1, at the head of the
largest attempt yet, to conquer and settle Florida. He was a man of great
experience having been Francisco Pizarro's military advisor in Peru.
Juan de Añasco, one of De Soto's lieutenants, founded the settlement of Espíritu
Santo, Florida. This was the beginning of Tampa.
Hernando de Soto and his companions celebrated Christmas in the area of
Tallahassee, Florida. This was the first Christmas celebration in the
continental U.S.
1539-1541
Hernando de Soto explored the regions of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and
then crossed the Appalachian mountains into Tennessee. Other regions explored by
him were Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas. The source of the Mississippi river
was discovered.
1540
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led an expedition of 336 Spaniards, 100 Indians,
552 horses, 600 mules, 5,000 sheep and 500 head of cattle, through Arizona, New
Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and Kansas, some of the territories described by Fray
Niza. Coronado sent García López de Cárdenas to explore the northwest, reaching
the Grand Canyon, all the while another expedition explored the northeast and
another one led by Hernando de Alarcón reached the Colorado river and Yuma,
Arizona. Hernando de Alarcón is also possibly to be the first European to have
set foot on California soil entering the Gulf of California and ascending the
Colorado River. Coronado also reached Río Grande.
Pedro de Tovar, a lieutenant of Coronado, discovered Hopi country, Arizona.
García López de Cárdenas, another of Coronado's lieutenant's, was the first
European to have sighted the Grand Canyon.
Hernando de Soto and his men entered Mississipi territory and spent the winter
in the area. While there, some Indians were caught stealing from them. Two were
killed in the attempt, while the other, De Soto ordered his hands cut off. Some
time later, four Spaniards were caught stealing from the Indian village nearby
and, De Soto, in a masterful display of equal justice, sentenced two of them to
death and confiscated the properties of the others.
1541
Hernando de Soto crossed the Mississippi River. He reached Arkansas. There, a
number of pigs left behind by the expedition, became wild. They are the
ancestors of the famous razor-back pigs of Nebraska.
Vázquez de Coronado reached Palo Duro Canyon, Texas. There, on May 29, Fray Juan
Padilla celebrated a thanksgiving mass. This was the first Thanksgiving
celebration in the United States.
Domingo de Alarcón, one of the pilots in the Alarcón expedition, re-explored the
Gulf of California and chartered its shores on a map. He described California as
a peninsula.
1542
Ruy López Villalobos, Juan Gaetano and Gaspar Rico reached the Hawaiian Islands.
Luis de Moscoso de Alvarado, after the Soto's death in the Mississippi,
organised an expedition west hoping to catch up with Coronado. The expedition
reached as far as the Brazos River (Texas).
Fray Juan de Padilla was killed in Kansas by the natives. He is considered to be
the first martyr in the United States.
A group of Spaniards reached present-day Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Cabeza de Vaca published in Spain, Naufragios, an account of his adventures.
This is the first history of the United States. Cabeza de Vaca can also be
considered the first anthropologist and ethnologist.
1542-1543
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese in the service of Spain, and Bartolomé
Ferrelo explored the West coast, from San Diego to Oregon.
1543
Luis Moscoso was the first European to discover oil in Texas when he used oil
seepage near Nacogdoches.
1549
Dominican friars Friars Luis Cáncer, Gregorio de Beteta, Diego de Tolosa, Juan
García and Brother Fuentes, arrived in Tampa Bay. Fray Cáncer, Fray Tolosa and
Brother Fuentes suffered martyrdom at the hands of the natives, soon after their
arrival.
1550-1600
Spanish explorers introduced crops and livestocks from Europe in the United
States.
1551
The first university in North America was founded in Mexico City.
1553
A hurricane destroyed a convoy from Mexico to Cuba, near Corpus Christi, Texas,
with one thousand people. Few survived.
1554
Captain Angel de Villafana explored the Texas coast in an effort to find the
shipwreck of 1553.
1555
Spanish officials in Cuba and Mexico urged the king of Spain to start the
colonization of Florida.
1557
Dr. Pedro de Santander, a crown official, urged king Philip II to establish
settlements, missions and forts from Pensacola, Florida, to Port Royal, South
Carolina.
1558
Guido de los Bazares was sent from Mexico to find a good place in Florida to
establish a settlement. He arrived at the Bay of Mobile (Alabama), which he
named Filipina Bay in honor of his king, Philip II. On the opposite shore, the
expedition reached the Tensaw River and Montrose, in Baldwin County, Alabama
1559
Tristán de Luna arrived at Santa Rosa Island, Pensacola Bay, Florida, and
founded a settlement, which ended up in failure soon thereafter. He also reached
Nanipacana de la Santa Cruz, near Clairborne, and Mobile Bay, Alabama.
1560
Mateo del Saúz, Fray Domingo de la Anunciación and Fray Domingo Salazar, members
of Luna's expedition, navigated the Choosa River up the area of Talladega. Fray
Pedro Feria, with another group of Luna's expedition, went up the Escambia
River. Luna later established a mission in Santa Cruz de Nanicapan (Clairborne).
1561
Angel Villafañe, Antonio Velázquez, Alonso González de Arroche and Juan Torres,
reached the Virginia coast. They continued south to North Carolina and to Santa
Elena (Parris Island), South Carolina.
1562
Diego Gutiérrez published a map where California appeared for the first time.
1563
Tomás Terrenot, Spanish ambassador in France, informed Philip II that both the
English and the French had lent their support to an expedition of French
Huguenots to Florida. He warned of the possible threat this could pose to
Spanish shipping in the area.
1564
Miguel López de Legazpi and Fray Andrés de Urdaneta led an expedition to find a
commercial route from Mexico to the Philippines. Legazpi founded the city of
Manila.
Diego de Mazariegos, governor of Cuba, sent captain Hernán Manrique to find the
place where the French had established a settlement and fort. Manrique searched
the bays and inlets north of Cape Canaveral. He found Charlesfort at Port Royal,
which had already been abandoned by the French.
Spaniards introduced grapes in California.
Between 1559 and 1564, Spain spent over two hundred thousand gold pesos on her
various attempts to colonize Florida.
1565
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine, the first permanent European
settlement in the United States. Fray Martín Francisco López de Mendoza
Grajales, founded the first Catholic parish in the United States. With the
founding of the city, the Spanish system of local government (Cabildo) was
introduced in the continental U.S. The cabildo was an elected town council, with
an elected mayor (Alcalde). Thus, when St, Augustine conducted the first
elections for the cabildo, they were the first democratic elections held in the
continental U.S. The principle of local rights goes back to the Middle Ages in
Spain.
Menéndez de Avilés started construction of a road linking St. Augustine with the
San Mateo Fort, near Jacksonville. This was the first road built in the United
States.
Menéndez de Avilés established forts at Santa Elena, South Carolina, Cape
Canaveral, Tequesta (Miami), Calus (Charlotte Harbor) and Tocobaga (Tampa).
1566
Jesuits founded a mission in Florida. Their first in the country.
Menéndez de Avilés established San Felipe Fort on Parris Island, South Carolina.
Juan Pardo and Hernando Boyano, companions of Menéndez de Avilés, led another
group through what is now Polk County, North Carolina. A fort was built near the
mouth of the Wateree River. Pardo continued eastward to Guatari, where Fray
Sebastián Moreno founded a mission. Meanwhile, Boyano headed westward to the
Little Tennessee River, in present-day Jackson County.
Pardo and Boyano led another group to Guimae in present-day Orangeburg County,
South Carolina. During their explorations during 1566 and 1567, they travelled
through what are now North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.
Martín de Argüelles was born in St. Augustine. He was the first "American" of
whom documented proof exists.
Fray Pedro Martínez arrived at Cumberland Island (Georgia). He was killed by the
natives as soon as he got ashore. Later the Spanish built a fort.
Spaniards from St. Augustine established a settlement on St. Catherine's Island,
Georgia.
1567
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés became governor of Cuba and Florida
Jesuits founded a mission to minister to the Tequesta Indians, near present-day
Miami.
Jesuits founded the San Carlos Mission on Estero Island, on the Florida Keys.
The missionaries assigned to it were Fray Juan Rangel and Fray Francisco de
Villareal. A fort had been built the previous year and was under the command of
Francisco de Reinosa.
1568
Alvaro de Mendaña and Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa discovered the Solomon Islands.
1569
Jesuit Brother Agustín Báez wrote a grammar of the Güale language spoken by the
natives in the area of Georgia and South Carolina. This may very well be the
first book published in the United States.