8 a short history of the united states
ladder were black slaves brought from Africa to work in the mines and
fields of the Spanish conquerors.
Most important was the position of the Roman Catholic church.
Like Spain, the church and state were intricately entwined, each serv-
ing the other to the advantage of both.
Spanish expeditions also resulted in the discovery, in 1513 , of the
Pacific Ocean by Vasco de Balboa, and Florida by Juan Ponce de Leon.
Even the globe was circumnavigated by an expedition that started from
St. Lucar in 1519 and led by Ferdinand Magellan, who was killed in a
battle with natives in what today are known as the Philippine Islands.
Of the five ships and 250 original sailors that set out on this remarkable
voyage in 1519 , only one ship and eighteen men returned home in 1522.
Hernando de Soto fought his way north into present- day Georgia and
the Carolinas from 1539 to 1542 , and then westward through Tennessee,
Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas. And Francisco de Coronado led a
force from Mexico in 1540 into the interior of North America in search
of the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola, that were believed to be paved
with gold. California was explored by Juan Cabrillo in 1542; and Catho-
lic priests established missions to convert Indian tribes to Christianity.
The great success Spain enjoyed in establishing a worldwide
empire, and raking in a fabulous fortune in the process, encouraged
other emerging nations in Europe to follow suit and carve out areas for
colonization for themselves. France began its reach for empire in 1534 ,
when the king commissioned Jacques Cartier to search for a Northwest
Passage that would lead to the Indies. Cartier failed to find such a pas-
sage, but in several voyages he laid claim to the eastern half of Canada
and a slice of land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mis-
sissippi River. Later, Samuel de Champlain explored the St. Lawrence
River area and founded the cities of Quebec and Montreal. The lucra-
tive fur trade in the Great Lakes area became a source of wealth, but it
did not attract many French settlers. The Indians constituted the bulk
of the population in New France, and Champlain succeeded in forging
an alliance with the Hurons that helped that tribe defeat their ancient
enemy, the Iroquois.
The Iroquois were probably more culturally advanced than some