Hispanic Heritage

Events in Hispanic American history

1492-1600 | 1601-1700 | 1701-1800 | 1801-1825 | 1826-1850 | 1851-1875 | 1876-1900 | 1901-1940 | 1941-1970 | 1971-

1492

October 12. The Spaniards land on an island called San Salvador — either present-day Watling Island or Samana Cay in the eastern Bahamas.

October 27, 1492. Columbus and his crews land on the northeastern shore of Cuba.

1493

November 1493. On his second voyage, Columbus discovers the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

1494

After establishing Isabela on La Española (Hispaniola), the first permanent European settlement in the New World, Columbus sets sail and encounters Jamaica.

1508

Juan Ponce de León sails in a small caravel for Puerto Rico, where he establishes friendly relations with the native chieftain, Agueibana, who presents him with gold.

1509

Ponce de León is appointed governor of Puerto Rico.

1510

Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar departs with more than 300 men to conquer Cuba, and lands at Puerto Escondido. Arawak chieftain Hatuey leads several deadly raids against the Spanish, but the Spanish defeat their resistance.

1511

Velázquez is commissioned governor of Cuba. That same year the Cuban Indians are subjected to the encomienda system, in which each Spaniard is given land and Native American slaves to work it.

1512

The Jeronymite Fathers in La Española decide to save the decimated Arawak population by gathering them into missions. Soon, missions spread like wildfire throughout the Spanish Empire.

1513

Juan Ponce de León lands on the shores of Florida, exploring most of the coastal regions and some of the interior. At the time, there were an estimated 100,000 Native Americans living there.

1514

Ponce de León is granted a patent, empowering him to colonize the island of Bimini and the island of Florida.

Diego Velázquez becomes a virtual feudal lord of Cuba, and establishes what are to become Cuba's two largest cities, Santiago and Havana. He also directs the explorations of the Mexican Gulf.

1518

Hernán Cortés sets out from Cuba to explore the mainland of Mexico in order to confirm reports of the existence of large, native civilizations in the interior.

1519

Alonso Alvarez de Pineda claims Texas for Spain.

Hernán Cortés lands on the coast of Veracruz, Mexico.

1520

Explorer Alvarez de Pineda settles the question of Florida's geography: He proves it is not an island, but part of a vast continent.

July 1. Under the leadership of Cuitlahuac, the Aztecs force the Spaniards out of Veracruz, just a year after the Spaniards had come into the city. The Spaniards called this La noche triste (The Sad Night). Aztec chief Moctezuma was stoned to death by his own people during this debacle.

1520s

Continuing their maritime adventures, the Spanish explorers cruise along the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico, seeing Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas, and also sailing up the Atlantic coast to the Carolinas.

1521

Cortés and his fellow Spaniards level the Aztec empire's city of Tenochtitlán, and begin building Mexico City on the same site.

1524

King Charles establishes the Council of the Indies, designed to oversee the administration of the colonies of the New World.

1536

In Mexico City rumors were that Cabeza de Vaca and his companions had discovered cities laden with gold and silver in the American Southwest, reviving the legend of the Seven Cities, which dated from the Moorish invasion of the Iberian Peninsula.

1537

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca returns to Spain and spends some three years writing La relación, an account of his wanderings in the North American continent. Published in 1542, La relación is a document of inestimable value because of the many first descriptions about the flora, fauna, and inhabitants of what was to become part of the United States.

1539

May 18. From Havana, Cuba, Hernando de Soto sets sail for Florida and begins exploring the present-day U.S. Southeast

1540

There are an estimated 66 Pueblo villages in the area of New Mexico, growing such crops as corn, beans, squash, and cotton.

1541

April 23. Coronado sets out to reach Quivira-thought to be the legendary Cities of Gold-near present-day Great Bend, Kansas.

1542

The New Laws are proclaimed, designed to end Spain's feudal encomienda.

September 28.. Juan Rodríguez de Cabrillo, a Portuguese sailor commissioned by the viceroy to sail north of Mexico's west coast in search of treasures, enters what he describes as an excellent port-present-day San Diego, California.

1564

Spanish missionaries introduce grapes to California.

1565

Saint Augustine, Florida, the earliest settlement in North America, is founded. It remains a possession of Spain until 1819.

1573

The Franciscan order arrives in Florida to establish missions, which a century later would extend along the east coast of North America, from Saint Augustine, Florida, to North Carolina and westward to present-day Tallahassee.

1580s

Diseases have all but wiped out the Indians of Puerto Rico.

1590

Juan de Fuca navigates his ships to the northern coast of the current state of Washington.

1598

Portuguese sailor Juan de Oñate begins the colonization of New Mexico and introduces livestock breeding to the American Southwest.

1492-1600 | 1601-1700 | 1701-1800 | 1801-1825 | 1826-1850
1851-1875 | 1876-1900 | 1901-1940 | 1941-1970 | 1971-