Juan Ponce De Leon Research Paper

Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451 as the son of a merchant, most likely into a Christian household. As a teenager, he worked on a merchant ship and gained experience in trading voyages in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. He continued similar jobs at sea until his first voyage into the Atlantic Ocean in 1470, when the French attacked his ship along the Portuguese Coast. Despite his sunken ship, Columbus floated to Lisbon, where he married Felipa Perestrello and had a son. At this time, he also began studies in mathematics, astronomy, and navigation, thus inspiring him to begin formulating his world changing plan. After the death of his wife, he moved to Spain, remarried and had another son. Meanwhile, he

PerceivJuan ponce de Leon discovers the present Florida. De Leon became a very rich person by finding gold and farming. Another thing is he sold things to sailors traveling to Spain. Overall De Leon was a good man aka he was a hero rather than a villain.

He was loved in Spain because of his discoveries. Later that year he left to sea once again, this time he went to explore more of the Islands in the Caribbean. Columbus and his crew found the Navidad settlement destroyed and everyone was killed. Since the Queen felt slavery was offensive, Columbus created a forced labor policy to rebuild the destroyed settlement. He rebuilt the settlement to find gold and other goods to sell. He found small pieces of gold and sold it, but a lot of the people disliked what he did. Before he returned to Spain, Columbus left his brothers in Hispaniola and explored more of the Caribean thinking it was Islands of China. Columbus’s third voyage led him to finally exploring the mainlands. He discovered the Orinoco River, which is now in Venezuela. The Hispaniola was also falling apart at the time because of the poor leading of his brothers and because people thought they were being deceived by Columbus. The Spanish Crown sent an official to arrest Columbus and took his authority. He returned to Spain to go to the Royal Court, but his charges were later dropped. Columbus lost his ability to be governor of the Indies and for a while, lost his riches from his voyages. Columbus later convinced King Ferdinand to go on another voyage and he promised to bring back a lot of riches. He went on his last voyage ever in 1502 and this time he was traveling along the eastern coast of Central America. He was unsuccessful in finding a route to the Indian Ocean. A brutal storm left them stranded in an island of Cuba. Islanders eventually got tired of their gold obsession and unfair treatment, they decided to starve the Spaniards. Columbus decided to punish the islanders by taking away the moon. On February 29, 1504, There was a lunar eclipse and it startled the islanders, so they made trades with the Spaniards again. The Royal Governor of the Hispaniola sent people to rescue the stranded Spaniards. In July, Columbus and

ill and was forced to stay behind. In 1504 he left to seek fortune in the West Indies, eventually joining Diego Velazquez in the

Juan Ponce de Leon was known as a great man who was always well prepared for voyages. A nickname that was given to him by the king was “Adelantado” meaning ahead. He was a great motivator to other explorers and was a husband and father. Many are led to believe that Juan Ponce de Leon was the first to discover Florida but this is not true. Juan Ponce de Leon was the first to discover the Gulf Stream and was the first to try to create a settlement on Florida and tried to inhabit the land with animals and a colony

     Francisco Pizarro was a conquistador born in Trujillo, Spain in about 1471. His father, Gonzalo Pizarro, was an infantry captain and he taught Francisco how to fight at an early age. Francisco Pizarro never learned to read and write but he was full of adventure.

Supported by Spain, seeking a water route to the spice islands in 1492 Christopher Columbus left Spain on his first voyage. After more then a month had passed, the crew started to loose all hope and the voyage seemed like a failure. Until on October 12, 1492 land was sighted. The land that was sighted was not what Columbus had originally intended to find. Columbus landed in the Caribbean Sea in the Bahamas, which was thousands of miles away from his original destination. It was there that he met the indigenous people of the islands. These encounters that he had along with the treatment of these native people would eventually help shape his legacy, but at the

Hook: “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor”-Franklin D Roosevelt. Introduce Topic: Juan Cabrillo had mapped out the California coasts, discovered a port and named it San Miguel until it was named San Diego later on. Background info: Cabrillo was a Portuguese soldier who lived in Spain and later explored the coasts of California. The point of Cabrillo’s exploration was to find treasures on the California coasts and to claim land for the Spanish Government. Thesis: Cabrillo accomplished three things; discovering San Diego bay, mapping the coasts of California, and claiming land for Spain.

First and foremost, Columbus’ experience was of high value to the Spanish monarchy. Despite initially following in the footsteps of his father as a member of the wool weaving industry, Columbus was quick to pick up mapmaking and sailing as studies (Mariners Museum). Columbus was on the sea even as a teen, joining expeditions through the Aegean and Mediterranean seas (Don Quijote). It was difficult to find such an experienced and educated seaman in contemporary Spain. Many of the future influential conquistadors had yet to be born; the oldest was Francisco Pizarro, and even he was only sixteen years of age when Columbus set sail in 1492. With experience being such a valuable commodity, it was difficult for the Spanish monarchy to justify allowing Columbus to simply offer his skills to another country. Columbus’

De Soto's North American expedition was a vast undertaking. It ranged throughout the southeastern United States, both searching for gold, reported by various Indian tribes and earlier explorers, and a passage to China or the Pacific coast. De Soto died in 1542 on the banks of the Mississippi River[5] in what is now Guachoya, Arkansas or Ferriday, Louisiana.

* When he got to Cuba, he assumed it was China and went back to Spain to tell of his success - a year later, he went back with a larger expedition, discovering more islands and formed a small but short - lived colony on the island Hispaniola.

Columbus, the first Spanish explorer to reach America, initially thought that the he had landed in the East Indies, which had been his ultimate goal. “His sea wanderings would have been written off as an expensive failure, once it was realized that he had not found the illusive water route to India, had it not been for the discovery of gold on Hispaniola in 1493”(Nash, 18). Once it became known that there were gold and other precious metals on this continent, people from Spain began to journey to America in hopes of gaining immense wealth. The Spanish claimed Panama, Mexico, parts of South America, and southern areas of what is now North America and these expeditions were typically led by military figures. The Spanish viewed America as land to be conquered and they viewed Native Americans

In 1497, John Cabot sailed to the Florida peninsula. Sixteen years later, Juan Ponce de Leon of Spain traveled to North America and more specifically, Florida’s east coast. He claimed the land for Spain and named it “La Florida.” Panfilo de Narvaez and Hernando de Soto went on a mission to acquire riches such as silver and gold. They were told by an Indian tribe in the Tampa Bay, Florida area that they could find what they were looking for in Tallahassee. Hernando de Soto took his men to Tallahassee, Florida and did not

When Columbus returned in November 1493 he was surprised to learn that the settlement he had left behind had been destroyed. Some of the 39 men had clashed with the Taino Indians, and were killed. Other crewmembers had become sick, unable to cope with the harsh environment of the Caribbean. As time progressed, small settlements were founded across the island, and the heart of the Spanish conquest in the New World, Hispaniola, began to develop accordingly. In April 1493 a settlement on the northern coast called La Isabela was founded in what is now the province of Puerto Plata, and in 1494 Concepcion de la Vega was founded.

On the other side he discovered a vast body of water that he named "South