European Exploration

christopher columbus

Apr 1, 1492

Columbus, an Italian explorer working for the Spanish crown, originally sought a short water route to China that would give Spain an advantage in the spice trade. Native peoples, however, were at first little troubled by the arrival of Christopher Columbus's ships off the coast of Central America in 1492.

european exploration

Jan 1, 1500

First Spain and then France considered the area now know as Oklahoma to be a likely spot for economic expansion in the New World. Native peoples who already lived there were seen both as a barrier to conquest and as a resource to exploit for economic and religious purposes. Oklahoma lay on the northern fringe of Spanish exploration of North America, which took place in the 1500s and 1600s, and on the western fringe of French exploration, which took place in the 1600s and 1700s

european trade

Jun 24, 1500

The Columbian exchange, comprising what the Europeans obtained from the American Indians and what the Indians obtained from the Europeans, became a hot topic for historians in the last decades of the twentieth century. Europeans obtained mineral wealth, new foods (including corn, beans, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco, and chile peppers), Christian converts, slaves, and other products. After observing the Native inhabitants, the newcomers also began to be interested in new ideas, such as "na

Hernardo de soto

Mar 5, 1539

Another Spanish expedition penetrated the interior from the east. In 1539 Hernando de Soto began an exploration designed to find gold and converts in "Florida." The men traveled further and further westward and reached west-central Arkansas before turning back. Soto died of a fever in May 1542. Early histories of Oklahoma credit his men with crossing into and exploring far eastern Oklahoma. Best evidence, based on geographical description, indicates that scouting parties from the Soto expedition

andres do campo

Jun 3, 1542

Andrés do Campo, a Portuguese soldier, and several Franciscans, including Friar Juan de Padilla, had been with the Coronado expedition on its journey from New Mexico to Kansas and back. Interested in establishing a mission to convert the Wichita people, they returned to Quivira, probably in spring 1542. In 1544 they were attacked by a party of Kaw (Kansas) Indians, who killed Padilla and held do Campo and two others captive for a year. After escaping, the prisoners fled due south across the cent

exploration travel

Dec 18, 1550

It took a generation or more for European explorers to visit the interior of North America for the first time. When they came, they were looking for gold and, as had become their custom, for Native peoples to convert to Christianity. Spaniards came northward out of Mexico to investigate New Mexico in the mid-1500s. Their efforts were prompted by rumors of seven golden cities, called "Cíbola," which Friar Marcos de Niza said he had discovered there in 1539. These towns, with buildings said to be

Fransisco Leyva

Oct 24, 1591

A generation later, others became interested in the Quivira story. A small party led by Francisco Leyva de Bonilla and his lieutenant, Antonio Gutiérrez de Humaña, left Mexico for the north, wintered among the Pueblos in 1591, and, without permission from the Spanish government, headed east in search of Quivira. They perhaps traveled across the present Oklahoma Panhandle on their way north to Wichita settlements in Kansas in 1592-93.

spain activities

Jul 9, 1682

More importantly for Spain, the activities of these intrepid explorers over a fifty-year period made it possible for that nation to lay tentative claim to the region, despite the fact that ownership seemed to offer little in the way of economic compensation. The vast area that contained present Oklahoma technically remained French Louisiana from 1682 to 1763. The "border" between the two New World empires was unsurveyed and vaguely defined. Mythical Quivira notwithstanding, however, the Spanish

pierre,pedro,vial

Jul 30, 1792

That also was the duty of Pierre, or Pedro, Vial, who in 1784 was commissioned by the Texas governor to travel along the Red River to find and talk with the Comanche. He subsequently conducted a series of expeditions to open a route to Santa Fe, none of which passed through Oklahoma. However, in 1792 he journeyed across country from Santa Fe to St. Louis, following a path generally consistent with the route of the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail, which was opened in the 1820s across the Ok

Napoleon Bonaparte

Jun 5, 1800

In 1800 French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte acquired Louisiana from Spain in the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso. His aspiration for a great North American empire fell victim to his European ambitions and campaigns, however, and in 1803 he sold the entire region to the United States for $15 million. Thus in the space of a century the vast trans-Mississippi region of Louisiana had three masters. However, the area of present Oklahoma had experienced no European settlement whatever, and, except for th