De soto hernando biography sample

He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro 's conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru, but is best known for leading the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States through Florida , Georgia , Alabama , North Carolina , South Carolina , Mississippi , and most likely Arkansas. De Soto's North American expedition was a vast undertaking.

It ranged throughout what is now the southeastern United States , searching both for gold, which had been reported by various Native American tribes and earlier coastal explorers, and for a passage to China or the Pacific coast. De Soto died in on the banks of the Mississippi River; [ 6 ] sources disagree on the exact location, whether it was what is now Lake Village, Arkansas , or Ferriday, Louisiana.

Hernando de Soto was born around the late s or early s in Extremadura , Spain, to parents who were both hidalgos , nobility of modest means. The region was poor and many people struggled to survive; young people looked for ways to seek their fortune elsewhere. He was born in the current province of Badajoz.

Hernando de soto accomplishments

Historian Ursula Lamb writes that the Barcarrota claim can be traced to Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and is probably incorrect, having been written down 45 years after De Soto's death. According to Lamb, his birthplace is most likely Jerez de los Caballeros. A few years before his birth, the Kingdoms of Castille and Aragon conquered the last Islamic kingdom of the Iberian Peninsula.

Spain and Portugal were filled with young men seeking a chance for military fame after the defeat of the Moors.