Search Results: Miami florida

The Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto (c. 1500-1542) landed on the west coast of Florida on 30 May 1539, hoping to find wealthy kingdoms to conquer and plunder. His crew journeyed for over four years in southeastern North America, savaging...

Juan Ponce de León (1474-1521) was a Spanish conquistador who led expeditions from Puerto Rico to the coast of Florida, giving the region its current name. He also served as the first governor of Puerto Rico and discovered the Gulf Stream...

Hernando de Soto (c. 1500-1542) was a Spanish conquistador who fought in Panama and Nicaragua and accompanied Francisco Pizarro (c. 1478-1541) in the conquest of the Inca civilization in Peru. He famously explored North America, including...

The Spanish Main refers, in its widest sense, to the Spanish Empire in the Americas from Florida in the north to the northern coast of Brazil in the south, including the Caribbean. The term was initially more limited and referred only to...

The establishment of the Middle and Southern English Colonies of North America was encouraged by the earlier English settlements of Jamestown Colony of Virginia in the south (founded 1607) and Plymouth Colony and, especially, Massachusetts...

A modern statue of Juan Ponce de León (c. 1460-1521) in St. Augustine, Florida. Ponce de León was a conquistador who became the first governor of Puerto Rico and, landing in Florida on an expedition of exploration, gave the region that name...

This type of unusual pottery was made by the Nazca civilization that inhabited what is now present-day Peru. This piece features skeletal figures, and it was made c. 200 BCE-600 CE. (The Department of Anthropology and Museum of Fine Arts...

The Aztec civilization of ancient Mesoamerica believed that dead warriors were reincarnated as hummingbirds or butterflies. These whistling pots often included such birds, and they were considered spiritual conduits. This fine specimen dates...

The Seven Cities of Cibola are the mythical lands of gold that the Spanish of the 16th century believed existed somewhere in the southwest of North America, comparable to the better-known mythical city of El Dorado. No sites matching the...

David Ingram was an Elizabethan explorer who famously walked over 3500 miles from Veracruz to New Brunswick in 1568-9. In 1567, Ingram had sailed down the Thames on the flagship Queen Elizabeth I of England (r. 1558-1603) had loaned John...