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European colonization in North America
European conquest and colonization of America
European conquest and colonization of America
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Juan Ponce de León and the Spanish Discovery of Puerto Rico and Florida is an extensive biography about a young Castilian, Juan Ponce de León, who probably emigrated to the Caribbean with Christopher Columbus. While many people are familiar with the name Ponce de León, only a handful know the historical truth about what he did – and did not – do. He was a very important, but misrepresented, figure in the early history of America. He had a major impact on the course of events that occurred in three places: today’s Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Florida. Juan Ponce accomplished many wonderful things in the New World, and failed attempting others. Historical records reveal that Juan Ponce was an unusual man whose ambitions followed paths different from his contemporaries. However, they still managed to lead him to personal, social, political, and financial success – achievements that are all the more noteworthy when one considers the turbulence that existed during this period of history.
The young Juan Ponce de León, fresh from the Moorish wars, sailed with the Second Voyage of Columbus. The voyage departed from Cádiz, Spain around September of 1493. They finally reached their destination, Puerto Rico, on November 18. The man in charge of preparing this voyage to sail was Bishop Fonseca. On this particular trip, only 1000 men should have boarded the boats; however, detailed documentation and letters indicate that closer to 1500 were loaded onto the ships headed to the New World. Defective materials were loaded, good food was replaced with bad, armor and weapons were sold instead of being loaded, and 25 Arabian horses were exchanged for nags. It is very possible that Fonseca’s spiteful management could explain how Juan Ponce ha...
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...entury exploration, and a geographer with strong interests in the Caribbean and Central America. He was also the founding chairman of the Geography-Anthropology department at the University of South Florida in 1960. Fuson was an accomplished Jazz and Classical musician playing both the saxophone and the clarinet. He published in the Playboy Magazine, and he was an award-winning author of books on exploration and discovery. He has authored more than 140 publications, including ten books, among which are the classic Fundamentals of Place-Name Geography, and the award winning The Log of Christopher Columbus. Fuson met his unfortunate death on October 4, 2004. He died at age 77 of Melanoma in Temple Terrace, Florida.
Works Cited
Fuson, Robert H. Juan Ponce De Leon: And the Spanish Discovery of Puerto Rico and Florida. Blacksburg, VA: McDonald & Woodward, 2000. Print.
The passage from Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s The True History of the Conquest of New Spain is a clear example of a narrative source. Díaz is presenting his personal account of Hernan Cortes’s expedition into Tenochtitlan. An interesting aspect of this narrative is that it was written almost 50 years after the events described occurred . Bernal Díaz del Castillo was only 24 years old when on November 8, 1519 he and the rest of Hernán Cortés’s expedition first entered the city of Tenochtitlán . He did not finish his account, titled The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, which many suspect was intended as a slight to Francisco López de Gómara’s accounts of the expeditions , until 1567 . This was not his first travel to the New World, in fact, it was his fourth . Díaz del Castillo was 19 years old the first time he traveled to the Americas, this time was to Panama . Díaz later became a governor in Guatemala, mostly as a reward for his actions as a conquistador . The event that is commonly seen as spurring the not-well-educated Bernal Díaz del Castillo to write of his experiences with Cortés was the publication of Francisco López de Gómara’s Coleccion de historiadores primitivos de las Indias Occidentales, which Díaz saw as seriously flawed and underappreciating the work of the conquistadors . The book this passage comes from languished on shelves until it was published in 1632, posthumously .
Slide 2- the man the Spanish monarchy chose was Christopher Columbus. Columbus is known for stumbling into America while looking for Asia.
Edward W. Lawson, The Discovery of Florida and Its Discoverer (St. Augustine: Edward W. Lawson, 1946) , accessed March 15, 2014, http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00026726/00001/2j
On October 12, 1492 Christopher Columbus landed on unknown territory, however, in his perspective of Earth he thought he made a new route to Asia. He travels throughout the lands, soon, he discovers new forms of inhabitant plants, as well as, indigenous people that were native to those lands. Years later he soon unravels that it was all unaccustomed terrain. The monarchy of Spain also discovers Columbus’s new discoveries, then, they send more explorers to conquer the lands. In 1520, Hernan Cortes goes with the order from Spanish royalty to go to the newly discovered lands to conquer them, also, help expand the Spanish empire. Overall, Columbus and Cortes both reported the new lands they recently discovered back to Spain, however, their descriptions
The features of the formation of the Puerto Rican people under Spanish rule are therefore critical in addressing questions on Puerto Rican identity. The migration of thousands of Spaniards both from the mainland and its islands to Puerto Rico, the development of subsequent Creole populations, the formation of the agricultural sectors and their labor needs are some of the contributing features that will hopefully lead toward a better understanding of the complexities that surround the concept of Puertoricaness.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus was a self-made man who worked his way up to being the Captain of a merchant vessel. He gained the support of the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, for an expedition to the Indies. With the support of the Spanish monarchy, he set off to find a new and faster trade route to the Indies. Upon the arrival of his first voyage, Columbus wrote a letter to Luis de Santangel, a “royal official and an early supporter of his venture,” in February 1493 (35). The epistle, letter, entitled “Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage” was copied and then distributed in Spain before being translated and spread throughout Europe. The Letter is held in such regard with the people as it is considered the first printed description of the new world. Through his description of the nature of the islands, Columbus decided the future fate of the islands. His description of the vast beauty of the nature around him, declares both the economic and nationalistic motivations for colonizing the new world.
For most of its history, Puerto Rico has been controlled by an outside power, and its people oppressed. While Puerto Rico is currently a U.S. territory, Spanish colonialism has had a significant impact on the island’s development and identity. The history of the island itself is proof of this fact, demonstrating each step Puerto Rico took to reach its current state. By examining the stages of Spanish control that Puerto Rico experienced, we can determine how each stage affected the structure and identity of Puerto Rico.
The first instance of colonialism forced upon the inhabitants of the Dominican Republic was the “discovery” by Christopher Columbus on October 12, 1492. Ernesto Sagas and Orlando Inoa presented the interaction in their book The Dominican People: A Documentary History. The confrontation between these two diametrically opposed cultures proved to be “far from equal; the Amerindians’ Stone Age culture was no match for European military technology. The initial encounter took place on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, part of which is now the Dominican Republic” (Inoa pg. 1). This was the first step in a trek through five and a half centuries of Dominican Republic history, and unfortunately much of it was filled with the horror of colonialism. In fact, the Dominican Republic became the “hub” for the colonization of the America’s, and acted as the stepping-stone for European colonizers into a vast, never before exploited goldmine for both natural and human resources. As Sagas and Inoa discuss, the island of Hispaniola, "became the center of the Spanish colonial enterprise in the New World. It was in Hispaniola where the first major contacts between Europeans and Amerindians took place, where the first exploitative economic activities in the New World were developed, where Europeans first established permanent settlements and colonial institutions, and where the stage was set for the colonization of the rest of the New World (Inoa pg. 1.)." Thus the groundwork was established for colonialism not only for the Dominican Republic, but for the entire hemisphere. According to Sagas and Inoa, colonization was inevitable because interaction with Europeans was predictable. They wrote, “[i]f Christopher Columbus had...
When Puerto Ricans migrated to the United States they did it in two major waves. The first wave of emigration occurred in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The second wave occurred from the 1940s to the present. The workings of Bernando Vega and Jose Cruz deal with the different generations of Puerto Ricans that these two waves brought to the United States. While Vega discusses the early emigration of Puerto Ricans to New York City, Cruz discusses the later emigration of Puerto Ricans to Connecticut. Each author describes a different Puerto Rican experience in the United States. The experiences differed in most aspects; from the context in which each wave of emigration occurred to the type of politics that was practiced.
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. However, even after centuries later, little is truly known of the mysterious voyage and findings of the new world.1 By examining “Letter from Columbus to Luis Santangel”, one can further contextualize the events of Columbus' exploration of the New World. The letter uncovers Columbus' subtle hints of his true intentions and exposes his exaggerated tone that catered to his lavish demands with Spain. Likewise, The Columbian Voyage Map read in accordance with the letter helps the reader track Columbus' first, second, third, and fourth voyage to the New World carefully and conveniently. Thus, the letter and map's rarity and description render invaluable insight into Columbus' intentionality of the New World and its indigenous inhabitants.
In order to understand the current situation of Puerto Ricans one must look at their history and retrace the sequence of events that led to the current formation of the Puerto Rican people. An important component of this history is the time Puerto Rico spent under Spanish rule. Studying this portion of Puerto Rican history forces us to acknowledge the contribution the Spaniards, European immigrants, and African slaves had on Puerto Rican identity as we consider it today. This also addresses contemporary debates on Puerto Rican identity. An example of this is evident in an essay written by Jose Luis Gonzales entitled "Puerto Rico : Th Four Storied Country". In the article Gonzales points out what he feels is a disregard toward the African contribution to the Puerto Rican identity. He argues that the first Puerto Ricans were black , based on his interpretation that Africans were the first group to come to Puerto Rico and reproduce who did not have ties to a "motherland" because they were slaves. This is unlike the Spaniard elites and Criolles that demonstrated their commitment and loyalty to Spain. Since they had no other place to go, Puerto Rico was their motherland. Gonzalez also points out that the culture of a region is always the culture of the elite, not the popular culture.
First it was too risky of an expedition to put money towards and give your men for that trip and secondly who is to say that Columbus was really actually going on this voyage. You can tell that a lot of people liked to play things safe to where they knew what would happen. In the end King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella ended up getting very lucky. Not only were they able to convert many people to Christianity, but they also were able to collect gold without even having to do
	Don Juan Ponce de Leon was a Spanish conqueror and explorer. He was born around 1460 in San Tervas de Campos, Spain. Ponce de Leon lived during an age of great discovery and excitement. Ponce de Leon is well known, claiming and naming what is now Florida, the discovery of Puerto Rico, and his never-ending search for the old time classic, the Fountain of Youth!
No one is entirely sure of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo’s birth and early life, but they are sure of his accomplishments as and explorer. Cabrillo was an asset to the exploration of earth and the spread of civilization. Cabrillo was an educated man and taught the natives of the New World many things. He was held in high regard in the Americas which gave Spain, the place he explored for, a good foothold on things like territories and goods. Lastly, he was one of the very first Europeans to scout out the west coast of North America.
Many people have heard of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. However, only some know of all the things they accomplished. They might be best known for funding the voyages of Christopher Columbus, but they also greatly contributed to the unity of Spain (“Isabella l”). Together, they brought many kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula together to form what Spain is today. Through Spain’s unification, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella strengthened Spain into an economic and dominant world power, enabling the spread of Christianity and the colonization of a New World.