Tying up loose ends...
During the Conquest of Mexico, Ferdinand Magellan was on his own expedition. He sailed under the tip of South America, crossed into the South Sea and upon realizing how much calmer it was than the stormy seas he had just left, renamed the South Sea to “Mar Pacifico”, or the Peaceful Sea. Today's Pacific Ocean. Magellan’s expeditions were the first to successfully circumnavigate the globe.
Ferdinand Magellan - From Biography.com
Antonio Medoza - From Wikipedia After the fall of Tenochtitlan, Cortes was granted governorship of the newly dubbed Mexico City, but he wasn't trusted enough to become its Viceroy, instead, the title of Viceroy was given to one of Cortes' rivals, Antonio de Mendoza. By 1525, Cortes had executed Cuahtémoc, the last Aztec King, and was fighting in the region of Honduras to expand his control. By now, he and his translator, Malintzin begin having babies and his deeds were honored by the King of Spain, who gave him his own Coat of Arms. Alverado founded the city of Santiago before helping Cortes conquer more lands and right along side them was Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. Cabrillo was given a large plot of good grazing land and ownership of any natives living there, receiving his title in January 1529. He had natives pay him tribute in the form of grown foods and also had them working in gold mines, making him a rich man.
King Charles I of Spain - From WIkipedia Meanwhile in Spain, the Spanish King Charles I was profiting greatly from all of the expeditions and conquests. They helped to solidify his rule, and convinced him of his mission to spread Christianity throughout the world. He also had an interesting idea: For some time, explorers had searched for a water passage through the American Continent in order to reach Asia, where a real profit could be made. But over 20 years’ worth of voyages had failed to find one. Charles had an interesting solution: If they couldn’t find a water passage through the Americas, perhaps they could try to build one: The plan was to construct a canal through the Isthmus of Panama. However, it was never started during the King's life time.
In 1533, Cortés paid for a one ship expedition, in charge of searching for a previous expedition that was looking for a northwest passage through the Americas led by Diego de Becerra. But Becerra was killed in a revolt led by one of his crewman, Fortún Ximénez. They then landed in what they thought was an offshore island, but in reality, it was on an enormous peninsula. Ximénez himself, was soon killed by the natives of this "island" and the survivors of the voyage returned to Mexico City. Cortés, being told of the island, decided to check it out.
This was the "Island" that was found. Shows the location of La Paz - Google Maps
Meanwhile, in 1534, Cabrillo took his ship, the San Salvador, on a voyage of trade. The trip helped pay for the construction of the new ship and trained the crew for future voyages. In 1535, Cortés set out on a voyage, arriving at present day La Paz and establishing a temporary colony there that he called Santa Cruz.
Francisco de Ulloa - From Wikipedia In 1539 Cortés paid for a three ship expedition up the Pacific Coast, hiring Francisco de Ulloa to lead it. Ulloa found the "island" coast on July 8th and named the waters between the lands the "Sea of Cortés", or the present day Gulf of California. Ulloa went up the west coast of the continent, and tried to sail up the peninsula but had to turn back due to strong winds. Once he returned however he was stabbed to death. Ulloa wasn’t well recognized for this feat at the time, because though he explored the peninsula as what it was... a peninsula and not an island, cartographers were still creating maps of the Americas depicting it as an island.
This map from the early 1500s shows California as a peninsula sticking out of Asia. - Wikipedia
After a Spanish priest boasted of seeing a golden city in North America, a land expedition of almost four thousand men set out February 23, 1540 from Compostela, Mexico headed by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. Sailing the Sea of Cortés, they then rowed up the Colorado River, hoping that it led to a passage to the Atlantic, and also in search for the mythical city of gold. When they needed supplies, they would head to the nearest native village and demand supplies, which sometimes led to skirmishes between them and the natives. In turn, word of these skirmishes would travel all around the region through native trade routes until eventually reaching the Ipai and Tipai. To cover more ground, Coronado split his expedition in two; one to follow the Colorado River, and one to follow a native guide named “The Turk” who had bragged about seeing this city himself and had promised to show Coronado the way.
In this map from 1630, California is depicted as an island, surrounded by unmapped territory - From Wikipedia
Hearing of all these things, Viceroy Mendoza sent Hernando de Alarcón to verify the discoveries. He set out in 1540, completing Ulloa's voyage, and entering the Colorado river. In describing the land, Alarcón sarcastically referred to it as "California", after the mythical island in the famous book. Apparently the name stuck.
A map from 1650. California is still depicted as an island in this map. - From Wikipedia
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo - From Wikipedia Meanwhile, Cabrillo was well off: Married with children and rich, but with more money came more problems. His land soon became the subject of disputes and eventually, lawsuits. He needed money, luckily he had connections. Alverado had decided to return to Spain to take care of some business and so commissioned Cabrillo to build a fleet of ships while he was away. After picking the place and getting the Viceroy's blessing, Cabrillo then focused his attention on building the small fleet of ships.
Coronado - From Wikipedia While Cabrillo was busy building ships, Coronado's team had failed in their expedition. When he finally reached his destination and looked upon what he thought would be a city of gold, he instead saw large clusters of native adobe pueblos. Boy was he mad! Wouldn't you? Before returning back to Mexico City, he had the Spanish priest sent home in disgrace, and had The Turk strangled. Coronado never found the golden city and returned to Mexico City in March of 1542 empty handed and facing possible war crimes. However, he did make it all the way up to modern day Kansas and the other part of his expedition “discovered” what would later be known as the Grand Canyon.
Back in Spain, Charles I was traveling by carriage, when a man forced his way through a crowd of onlookers, demanding an audience with the King. Irritated by the nerve of the man, the King came out and demanded to know who this person was and what he wanted. He probably asked something like "Who do you think you are to demand my time?" to which the man may have replied, “I am a man who has given you more provinces than your ancestors left you cities”. The man demanding the King's attention was Hernán Cortés, and he had indeed left him more provinces than his ancestors did. Over the years however, lawsuits and claims had been piling up for Cortes and so he decided to return to Spain to defend himself, but nobody would listen to him. His last bet was to appeal directly to the King. Feeling sorry for Cortes, the King allowed him to join one last voyage headed by Andrea Doria to the Barbary Coast. Cortes would be dead by 1547 famous, but very bitter.
Come back for Background History, Part Nine, coming January 15, 2015.
Sources:
Ferdinand Magellan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan
Hernan Cortes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hern%C3%A1n_Cort%C3%A9s
King Charles I: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_V,_Holy_Roman_Emperor
Hernando de Alarcón: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernando_de_Alarc%C3%B3n
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Rodr%C3%ADguez_Cabrillo
Book: Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo by Harry Kelsey - http://www.amazon.com/Rodriguez-Cabrillo-Huntington-Library-Classics/dp/0873281764
Hernan Cortes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hern%C3%A1n_Cort%C3%A9s
King Charles I: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_V,_Holy_Roman_Emperor
Hernando de Alarcón: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernando_de_Alarc%C3%B3n
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Rodr%C3%ADguez_Cabrillo
Book: Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo by Harry Kelsey - http://www.amazon.com/Rodriguez-Cabrillo-Huntington-Library-Classics/dp/0873281764
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