Timeline.docx

Timeline:         Makers of America:   - Conquistadores included Hernán Cortes and Francisco Pizarro, who conquered the Aztecs and the Incas respectively. - Within half a century of Columbus? ?discovery? of America, they had claimed, for Spain, territory that stretched form Colorado to Argentina.  - They spread from Cuba through Mexico and from Panama, south through Peru.  - As the Spanish crown tightened its grip on its colonies, though, the conquistadors lost more and more power.  - Most of them never achieved their dreams of glory, though a few received royal titles.  - Many of them married Indian women, creating a new class of people called mestizos.  - The mestizos formed a bridge between Latin America?s Indian and European races. c. 33,000 ? 8000 BC     First humans come to Americas from land bridge connecting Asia and Alaska.     c. 5000 BC     Corn is developed as a stable crop in highland Mexico.     c. 4000 BC     First civilized societies develop in the Middle East.     c. 1200 BC     Corn planting reaches present-day American Southwest.     c. 1000 AD     Norse voyagers discover and briefly settle in Newfoundland (Vinland).     Also, corn cultivation reaches Midwest and southeaster Atlantic seaboard.     c. 1100 AD     Height of Mississippian settlement at Cahokia     c. 1100 ? 1300     Christian crusades arouse European interest in the East.     1295     Marco Polo returns to Europe from Asia.     Late 1400s     Spain unites.     1488     Díaz rounds the southern tip of Africa.     1492     Columbus land in the Bahamas.     1494     Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal.     1498     da Gama reaches India.     Cabot explores northeastern coast of North America for England.     1513     Balboa claims all lands touched by the Pacific Ocean for Spain.     1513 & 1521     Ponce de León explores Florida.     1519 ? 1521     Cortés conquers Mexico for Spain, defeating the Aztecs.     1522     Magellan?s crew completes circumnavigation of the world.     1524     Verrazano explores eastern seaboard of Norh America for France.     1532     Pizarro crushes the Incas.     1534     Cartier journeys up the St. Lawrence River.     1539 ? 1542     de Soto explores the Southeast and discoveres the Mississippi River.     1540 ? 1542     Coronado explores present-day Southwest     1542     Cabrillo explores California coast for Spain.     1565     Spanish build fortress at St. Augustine.     Late 1500s     Iroquois Confederacy founded (according to Iroquois legend)     c. 1598 ? 1609     Spanish under Oñate conquer Pueblo peoples of Rio Grande Valley.     1609     Spanish found New Mexico.     1680     Popé?s rebellion of New Mexico.     1680s     French expedition down Mississippi River under La Salle     1769     Father Junipero Serra founds Mission San Diego, in California.