what land did vasco da gama claim or setteled

While Balboa foraged the countryside, Encisco was undermining him at the court in Spain. Strengthened by reinforcements form Spain and Hispanola, the group accumulated hoards of gold ornaments they also learned about a sea to the south, bordered (so the Native Americans said) by fabulously gold-rich kingdoms. Balboa extended his conquest westward along the Central American coast and into the interior, subjugating the Native Americans or allying with them by a combination of terror and diplomacy. They were soon returned to the mercies of the sea in a leaky, meagerly supplied ship.īy the end of 1510 Balboa's authority was certified by King Ferdinand, who commissioned him captain generalĪnd interim governor of Darién. Nicuesa, another potential rival, was picked up with survivors and brought to Darién. There Balboa dispensed with the nominal authority of Encisco, sending him back to Spain. He convinced the men to leave the inhospitable site of Ojeda's camp at San Sebastián and to cross the Gulf of Urabá (now the Gulf of Darién) to a new location on the Isthmus ( Santa Maria la Antigua, commonly called Darién). With these qualities and his knowledge of the area he soon became the group's leader. At 35 the intelligent and willful Balboa was at the height of his physical powers. One of Encisco's provision casks contained an unusual cargo: Balboa had stowed away to escape his creditors in Hispaniola. Ojeda returned to Hispaniola, leaving his remnant under Francisco Pizarro to wait for the relief expedition of Martin Fernández de Encisco. Within a few months hostile Native Americans, disease, and starvation had reduced their combined forces to less than 100.

Ojeda headed for the northern Colombian coast late in 1509 with 300 men, while Nicuesa sailed toward the Panamanian Isthmus with a force numbering over 700. Meanwhile, two would-be conquistadores, Alonso de Ojeda and Diego de Nicuesa, received crown licenses to settle the regions explored by Bastidas. He then settled in Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and tried farming but failed and fell heavily into debt. In 1500 he sailed with Rodrigo de Bastidas on a preliminary reconnaissance of the Colombian and northern Panamanian coasts. To improve his meager fortune, Balboa went to the new Spanish colonies in America. He was descended from an old and noble Galician family. Vasco Núñez de Balboa was born at Jerez de los Caballeros in the province of Estremadura. He was the first Spanish explorer to gain a permanent foothold on the American mainland.

1475-1519) explored Central America and discovered the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa (ca.

What land did vasco da gama claim or setteled