The History of the Americans

In this eclectic episode we round up various minor Spanish incursions into today's United States, including the "discovery" of San Diego, the origin of the name "California," the murder of some friars at -- this is no surprise -- Tampa Bay, and Tristan de Luna's failed expedition to establish a colony at Pensacola. We also wonder why the Spanish were always launching these big expeditions in the Gulf of Mexico during hurricane season, and get a taste of marine archeology. Enjoy! https://subscribebyemail.com/thehistoryoftheamericans.com/?feed=podcast Selected references for this episode Caleb Curren, "Archeological Data Indicates that the University of West Florida’s “Luna Colony” is Actually a Native Village" Pensacola New Journal, "Luna's colony unearthed in Pensacola" Roger C. Smith, "The Emanuel Point Ship: a 16th-century Vessel of Spanish Colonization" Della A. Scott-Ireton, "An Examination of the Luna Colonization Fleet" Charles W. Arnade, "Tristan de Luna and Ochuse (Pensacola Bay) 1559" Luis Cáncer (Wikipedia) Harry Kelsey, Discovering Cabrillo

Our 25th episode is a Sidebar, "Taking Stock." I talk about the origins of the podcast, and how its approach to history fits in with today's trends in scholarship, including the "Atlantic World" and #VastEarlyAmerica. Oh, and I rant about the weaponization of history for partisan political purposes, and the many reasons why we should all avoid doing that. I hope you find it interesting! Selected references for this episode Karin Wulff, "Vast Early America" Thomas Benjamin, The Atlantic World: Europeans, Africans, Indians and their Shared History, 1400–1900

In this episode we conclude the story of the Coronado Entrada into the American Southwest. By the spring of 1540, a few hundred Spaniards, a few free and enslaved Blacks, perhaps a thousand Indios Amigos – literally, friendly and free Indians – hundreds of horses, and herds of cattle, sheep, and pigs, were making their way up the west coast of Mexico aiming for supposed riches of Arizona and New Mexico, all on the basis of a massive intelligence failure. There were no Seven Cities of Gold, but Coronado and his men would be the first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon and they would name Texas, which ain't nothing.  Selected references for this episode Stan Hoig, Came Men on Horses: The Conquistador Expeditions of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and Don Juan de Oñate George Parker Winship, The Journey of Coronado, 1540-1542 F. S. Dellenbaugh, “The True Route of Coronado’s March” Tiguex War Coronado's Expedition, Legends of America Hawikuh and the Zuni-Cibola Complex New Mexico

We are now in late May 1539, almost exactly 482 years ago as I write this. Friar Marcos is alone with a bunch of Indios Amigos – literally, friendly Indians who had not been enslaved -- somewhere in Arizona, possibly in the Salt River Valley east of modern Phoenix.   He has just learned that his guide and advance man Esteban, has died rather gruesomely along with a bunch of his Indian escorts at the hands of the angry chief of Cibola, the “city” purported to be the gateway to the Seven Cities of Gold.  By his own somewhat suspect account, Fray Marcos has a decision to make – does he soldier on to lay eyes on Cibola himself, knowing that if he dies his mission will have been a complete failure, insofar as there will be no European to report on the territory?  Or does he head back to Culiacan, on the west coast of Mexico, where Coronado is waiting for him, and base his report on the tales told by Indians, either at Esteban’s direction or otherwise?  Selected references for this episode Robert Goodwin, Crossing the Continent 1527-1540: The Story of the First African-American Explorer of the American South Stan Hoig, Came Men on Horses: The Conquistador Expeditions of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and Don Juan de Oñate George Parker Winship, The Journey of Coronado, 1540-1542 F. S. Dellenbaugh, "The True Route of Coronado's March" George J. Undreiner, "Fray Marcos de Niza and His Journey to Cibola"

This episode welcomes back our old friend from the Cabeza de Vaca saga, Esteban, and the advance scouting work he led, with a drunken friar, for the Coronado expedition into the American southwest. #VastEarlyAmerica Selected references for this episode Robert Goodwin, Crossing the Continent 1527-1540: The Story of the First African-American Explorer of the American South Stan Hoig, Came Men on Horses: The Conquistador Expeditions of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and Don Juan de Oñate Andrés Reséndez, A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca George Parker Winship, The Journey of Coronado, 1540-1542 Bartolomé de las Casas

Back in April 2021, as we traveled the Florida Keys for a vacation much-deserved by my wife, who has been working very hard, and not-at-all deserved by me, I read a good part of Samuel Bawlf’s book “The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake 1577-1580.”  This was part of my advance reading for Drake’s exploration of the west coast of the United States on, well, a secret mission for Queen Elizabeth I of England.  The book includes a prelude chapter that I thought so good, and so evocative of the tradition of privateering in exactly the part of the country in which I was vacationing, that I am going to read it aloud. Herewith, a pirate’s story, with another remarkable story of survival in the New World toward the end. Selected references for this episode Samuel Bawlf, The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake: 1577-1580 John Toohey, "The Long, Forgotten Walk of David Ingram" Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation

In this episode, we follow the Soto expedition in the American south from the aftermath of the battle of Mabila to the “discovery” of the Mississippi River with more than the usual number of qualifiers, Soto's anticlimactic death, the first true exploration of northeastern Texas, a journey past the site of New Orleans, the ultimate escape of almost half the expeditionaries and, as promised, a short review of the weird recommendations of the Federal government's De Soto Expedition Commission. Enjoy! Selected references for this episode David Ewing Duncan, Hernando De Soto: A Savage Quest in the Americas Final Report of the United States: De Soto Expedition Commission Quigualtam (Wikipedia) Luis de Moscoso Alvarado (Wikipedia) Rex W. Strickland, "Moscoso's Journey through Texas," The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, October 1942.

This episode is the third to explore Hernando de Soto’s invasion of the American southeast from 1539-1542.  Our goal, as always, is to make history fun and interesting, even when it is also brutal and ugly! Hernando de Soto and his army spent the winter of 1539-40 in the center of Apalachee territory, now downtown Tallahassee. During 1540, the entrada explored Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, east Tennessee in the Knoxville area, and Alabama, finally coming to blows with the great chief Tascalusa in an epic and very bloody battle somewhere between Mobile and Selma. At the end of this episode, Soto is nominally victorious, but he is on the brink of losing everything. Selected references for this episode David Ewing Duncan, Hernando De Soto: A Savage Quest in the Americas Final Report of the United States: De Soto Expedition Commission

Welcome to the History of the Americans Podcast, episode 18.  This episode is Hernando de Soto part 2.  Last week we introduced the story of Hernando de Soto’s three year invasion of the American south, from 1539 to his death in 1542, ending the episode just as his 600 man expedition arrived on the gulf coast of Florida, probably Tampa Bay.  Ponce de Leon had gone ashore in roughly the same place in 1521, and Panfilo de Narvaez had disembarked his doomed expedition there in 1528.  Soto, like Ponce and Narvaez before him, would claim all of North America for Spain from roughly the same spot. He would survive longer than either Ponce or Narvaez, but not by much. Claiming North America for Spain was a dangerous business! Credit: David Ewing Duncan Selected references for this episode David Ewing Duncan, Hernando De Soto: A Savage Quest in the Americas Final Report of the United States: De Soto Expedition Commission

This episode is Hernando de Soto Part 1.  I am recording this on April 14, in Key West, Florida. Today we kick off the story of the first real invasion of the American south, Hernando de Soto’s reconnaissance-in-force – the Spanish word is entrada -- from 1539-1542. Last week’s episode tied up various loose ends that brought us to this point, including that the correct shorthand for Hernando de Soto is, actually, “Soto,” not “de Soto.”  Measured by money and glory, by the late 1530s Hernando de Soto was at the very top of the second rank of Spanish conquistadors.  Hernan Cortes had conquered the Aztecs in Tenochtitlan, uncovered staggering wealth, and pushed his territory north and south from there.  Francisco Pizzaro had conquered the Incas of Cusco, and Soto enabled that conquest as Pizzaro’s most courageous and brilliant battlefield commander. Soto returned to Spain in the spring of 1536 after 22 years seeking and finding his fortune in the New World.  He was now 36 years old.  Soto had by that age gathered a significant pile of loot from his adventures in South America, and no small amount of glory.  People who weren’t Soto and could not have achieved his astonishing victories in Central and South America would have called it quits and retired as one of the richest men in Europe’s richest country.  Soto was not that kind of man.  He knew there was another Cusco or Tenochtitlan to be found and conquered, this time with Soto in command. Selected references for this episode David Ewing Duncan, Hernando De Soto: A Savage Quest in the Americas Final Report of the United States: De Soto Expedition Commission