Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
Hernando de Soto
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
== Effects of expedition in North America == {{multiple image | direction = vertical | width = 350 | footer = Reverse of a $500 Federal Reserve Note (and the earlier [[Bureau of Engraving and Printing|BEP]] proof [[Art and engraving on United States banknotes|engraving]]) based on [[w:William Henry Powell|William H. Powell's]] painting ''[[:File:Discovery of the Mississippi.jpg|Discovery of the Mississippi]]''. | image1 = US-$500-FRN-1918-Fr-1132d (reverse).jpg | alt1 = Reverse of a $500 Federal Reserve Note | caption1 = | image2 = BEP-GIRSCH-DeSoto Discovering the Mississippi (Powell).jpg | alt2 = Girsch's engraving of DeSoto Discovering the Mississippi | caption2 = }} The Spanish believed that de Soto's excursion to Florida was a failure. They acquired neither gold nor prosperity and founded no colonies. But the expedition had several major consequences. It contributed to the process of the [[Columbian Exchange]]. For instance, some of the [[Domestic pig|swine]] brought by de Soto escaped and became the ancestors of feral [[razorback]] pigs in the [[southeastern United States]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.flheritage.com/archaeology/education/desoto/history.cfm |title=Martin/de Soto Site History |access-date=15 September 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511193509/http://www.flheritage.com/archaeology/education/desoto/history.cfm |archive-date=11 May 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Hernando de Soto Expedition: History, Historiography, and "Discovery" in the Southeast|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zzGphaI83EUC&q=hernando%20de%20soto%20pigs&pg=PA272 |last=Galloway |first=Patricia |year=2006 |pages=172β175 |isbn=978-0-8032-7122-7 |publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/collateral/articles/F07.explorers.are.you.pdf |title=Explorers Are You: Tar Heel Junior Historians, Pigs, and Sir Walter Raleigh |author=Joseph C. Porter |access-date=15 September 2010 |publisher=North Carolina Museum of History |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722011702/http://www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/collateral/articles/F07.explorers.are.you.pdf |archive-date=22 July 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Arkansas]]|title=Razorbacks [Hog]|url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2125|access-date=15 September 2010|author=Tina Easley}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=A Field Guide to Pigs|author=John Pukite|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=FEnGUlTdwaUC&q=de%20soto%20razorbacks&pg=PT24|page=73|publisher=Falcon|isbn=978-1-56044-877-8|year=1999}}</ref> De Soto was instrumental in contributing to the development of a hostile relationship between many Native American tribes and Europeans. When his expedition encountered hostile natives in the new lands, more often than not it was his men who instigated the clashes.<ref>{{cite book | last = Josephy | first = Alvin M. Jr. | title = 500 Nations, An Illustrated History of North American Indians | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf | year = 1994 | location = New York | pages = [https://archive.org/details/500nationsillust00jose/page/142 142β149] | url = https://archive.org/details/500nationsillust00jose/page/142 | isbn = 0-679-42930-1 }}</ref> More devastating than the battles were the diseases which may have been carried by the members of the expedition. Because the indigenous people lacked the immunity which the Europeans had acquired through generations of exposure to these [[Eurasia]]n diseases, [[Native American disease and epidemics|the Native Americans may have suffered epidemics]] of illness after exposure to such diseases as [[measles]], [[smallpox]], and [[chicken pox]]. Several areas traversed by the expedition became depopulated, potentially by disease caused by contact with the Europeans. Seeing the high fatalities and devastation caused, many natives would have fled the populated areas for the surrounding hills and swamps. In some areas, the social structure would have changed because of high population losses due to epidemics.<ref>{{cite book | last = Josephy | first = Alvin M. Jr. | title = 500 Nations, An Illustrated History of North American Indians | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf | year = 1994 | location = New York | pages = [https://archive.org/details/500nationsillust00jose/page/152 152β153] | url = https://archive.org/details/500nationsillust00jose/page/152 | isbn = 0-679-42930-1 }}</ref> However, recent scholars have begun to question whether the expedition brought novel disease at all. The arrival of many diseases, aside from [[malaria]], is disputed and they may not have entered the region until much later.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/907132534 |title=Beyond Germs : Native Depopulation in North America |date=2015 |others=Catherine M. Cameron, Paul Kelton, Alan C. Swedlund |isbn=978-0-8165-0024-6 |location=Tucson |oclc=907132534}}</ref> The first documented smallpox epidemic in the southeast arrived in 1696, and Mississippian social structures persisted in some parts of the region until the 18th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kelton |first=Paul |title=Epidemics and Enslavement: Biological Catastrophe in the Native Southeast, 1492β1715 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8032-1557-3}}</ref> The records of the expedition contributed greatly to European knowledge about the geography, biology, and [[ethnology]] of the New World. The de Soto expedition's descriptions of North American natives are the earliest-known source of information about the societies in the Southeast. They are the only European description of the culture and habits of North American native tribes before these peoples encountered other Europeans. De Soto's men were both the first and nearly the last Europeans to witness the villages and civilization of the [[Mississippian culture]]. De Soto's expedition led the Spanish crown to reconsider Spain's attitude toward the colonies north of [[Mexico]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}} He claimed large parts of North America for Spain.
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
Hernando de Soto
(section)
Add topic