Francisco Vázquez de Coronado
When Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado explored the "New World," he was in search of treasure. His goal was to make the Spanish empire richer. He knew about wealth. He was born into a noble family in Salamanca, Spain, around 1510. Rumors of seven cities of gold in the New World drove him on. He never found gold, but his expedition did find the Grand Canyon.
New Spain
Coronado traveled to New Spain in 1535, when he was twenty-five years old. New Spain is now Mexico. He soon married the daughter of the colonial treasurer. For this he received a huge estate. He also earned praise for stopping a major slave rebellion. Then he was made governor of an important Mexican province called Nueva Galicia.
In 1539, Antonio de Mendoza, the ruler of New Spain, sent Fray Marcos de Niza north to explore. He came back with stories of the Seven Golden Cities of Cibola. These cities were legendary in Spain. They were supposedly filled with riches and treasure. And they were exactly what the Spanish were looking for. An American Indian told de Niza that the cities existed. De Niza claimed he had seen the cities in the distance. This claim was enough for Mendoza to send a massive expedition north. It was led by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado.
The Seven Cities of Cibola
This was no ordinary expedition. Coronado was accompanied by 300 Spaniards and more than 1,000 Tlaxcalan Indians and enslaved people. He also had horses and herds of livestock. The expedition was se big that it split up into smaller groups. Two ships were even part of the expedition. They sailed up the Gulf of California and found the mouth of the Colorado River.
In February 1540, Coronado headed north with the expedition's main group. They traveled along the west coast of Mexico to a city in northwestern Mexico. There they split up. A small group went north to present-day New Mexico. They found a Zuni pueblo, or settlement, named Hawikuh. There were also five or six other pueblos in New Mexico. Together, it is thought that these settlements were the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola. Coronado may have found one of the cities. It just wasn't filled with riches.Coronado did not make any friends in Hawikuh. The Spanish had a standard speech to give to American Indians they encountered. It required them to acknowledge the Catholic Church as the "ruler and superior of the whole world." The Spaniards threatened war and enslavement if the Zuni did not obey their orders. The Zuni didn't wait for the Spanish to start a war after Coronado made this speech. They attacked the Spaniards with arrows, barely missing Coronado. The Spanish were much stronger and quickly defeated the Zuni, forcing them to flee.
The Grand Canyon and Beyond
While Coronado was escaping death in Hawikuh, another part of his expedition was exploring the Grand Canyon. This group explored along the Colorado River in modern- day Arizona. Then Coronado's groups joined up for the winter, staying near present-day Santa Fe, New Mexico. The group made it to Palo Duro Canyon In the spring of 1541. This is located in the northwest part of present-day Texas. Coronado then left most of his expedition. He headed north with thirty men on horseback in search of Quivira. This was another city supposedly filled with riches. What he found was a small village of American Indians in present-day Kansas. Kansas has many resources. But it did not have the riches he was searching for.
Coronado returned to Mexico very disappointed. Mendoza was also very disappointed. In addition, Coronado was found guilty of committing crimes against American Indians during his expedition. Despite these disappointments, Coronado had made one of the most far-ranging explorations of North America up to that time.
After reading answer the question, After leaving the Zuni Pueblo in modern-day New Mexico, list the places known to have been explored by the Coronado expedition. (Site 1) answer in 2-3 sentences.