The Conquistadores and other early Explorers Photography and story by Kenneth E. Thompson MLHS Class of '72 This chapter of our story concerns the white man and his exploration of the New World. After Columbus' discovery of the New World, Spain declared ownership and called it New Spain, or Nueva España. The first real settlement by the Spaniards was in Cuba and from that base camp they explored the areas along the Gulf of Mexico. The Spaniards, being devout Catholics, considered the Native America peoples to be savages and found it necessary to convert them to Christianity. The Aztecs, for example, were doing human sacrifices at the time when Hernán Cortés first made contact with them. Every troup of Spanish explorers included priests and monks and other clergymen who took on the task of converting the natives to Christianity. After Cortes conquered the Aztecs in 1521, it was discovered that those Native Americans had gold. This set off a frenzy of gold rushes that lasted over 3 centuries. The explorers were called "conquistadores" based on the word for "conqueror". All of that gold that was taken from the New World was loaded onto the Spanish galleons to be transported back to Europe. Some of those ships were caught in storms and sank off the coast, which is where sunken treasure ships come from. Part of the frenzy of searching for gold led to pirating. The pirates knew the Spanish galleons were loaded with gold, and there was no law and order in the New World to keep them from stealing it from the Spaniards. Englishmen, Frenchmen and other Europeans became pirates sometimes not as independents but with directions from their kings to steal that gold away from the Spaniards. Since Spain owned the New World, all of that gold and other products from the New World made Spain the richest country in the world. From the time of the discovery of the New World until about the middle 1800's, Spain was the superpower, the mightiest country in the world. The pictures on your left represent the Spaniards and the pictures on your right show the Conquistadores with their red flags.

This following series of pictures represents the interchange of control of the New World by the major countries of Europe between the 1600's and the 1800's. The flag of a large horizontal bar of gold with red across the top and bottom is the flag of Spain. The flag with red, white and blue in vertical stripes is the flag of France. The blue flag with white and red stripes forming an X is the Union flag of England--when it's on a ship it's called the Union Jack. Englishmen, of course, had made the settlements of Virginia and Plymouth Rock on the northern Atlantic coast. French fur trappers traveled up the Mississippi, and named the area after Louis the 14th, which later became the Louisiana Purchase. Many of the French fur traders were the first white men to make contact with the Plains Indians, which is why so many of the Indian words have a french spelling or pronunciation, for example, Sioux or Iraquoix. Many place names along the Mississippi have french names, for example, Pierre or De la Croix.

The picture on your left is the colonial rule of the Spaniards. Along with them are some French fur trappers.

Another famous explorer was Zebulon Pike. In this short reenactment, Pike encounters a group of indian braves who challenge him to a fight. The fight turns into a wrestling match. Pike orders the strongest of his young officers to fight the indian brave. Fortunately for Pike, his officer defeats the indian brave, and the braves have to allow Pikes troop to pass over their land.

The fur traders and trappers were known as the Mountain Men. They were not just French but from all the countries of Europe. Each year the Mountain Men would meet at the Rendevous, their big social gathering of the year. They would trade their furs for food, guns, ammunition, clothing, and all sorts of supplies. They would have contests of all types. In this reenactment there is a marksmanship contest going on while a couple of other mountain men race their horses to see who is the fastest.

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