Spanish Discoveries

Spanish Discoveries

August 3, 1492. Three caravels commanded by Christopher Columbus sailed from the port of Palos de Moguer, Huelva, Spain. The expedition was financed by Ferdinand and Isabella, the 'Catholic Monarchs.

October 12, 1492. Columbus and his men disembarked on the island of Guanahaní in the Bahamas. He named the island San Salvador.

March 15, 1493. Columbus reached the port of Palos from the island of Hispaniola (now Santo Domingo) after his first voyage of discovery.

May 2, 1493. Pope Alexander VI issued a bull dividing the newly discovered lands between Portugal and Spain.

1492. Amerigo Vespucci drew the first map of the New World with information obtained on a voyage of exploration that took him as far as Venezuela.

1496. Columbus made his second voyage, discovering Cuba, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.

In 1500, Christopher Columbus, now admiral, made this third voyage, exploring the coasts of Darien and Central America.

In 1503 the Casa de Contratación (a chamber of commerce) was set up in Seville as the only agency authorized to grant permits for exploration in the New World and also to calculate and collect economic returns due to the Crown. This body later facilitated the economic monopoly of Spain to the detriment of American colonies.

1506. Vicente Yáñez Pinzón explored the east coast of Yucatan

1511. A ship under the command of Captain Francisco de Valdivia was wrecked off the coast of Yucatan. There were only two survivors, taken prisoner by the Mayas: Gonzalo Guerrero, a sailor, and the cleric, Jéronimo de Aguilar, who was an important figure in the Conquest of Mexico.

February 8, 1517. Captain Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba headed an expedition that sailed from the port of Ajaruco, Cuba. He explored the coast of the Yucatan peninsula, landed at Champotón and returned to Cuba seriously wounded after a battle against the Mayas.

Between May and September 1518, Captain Juan de Grijalva explored the coasts of Yucatan, discovered the river in Tabasco that bears his name and reached the coast of what is now the State of Veracruz on June 24 of the same year. He returned to Cuba after making contact the Mexica (Aztecs).

February 10, 1519. An expedition sponsored by the governor of Cuba sailed from Santiago de Cuba to explore the coasts of Mexico under the command of Hernán Cortés.

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