Francisco Vázquez de Coronado
1510–September 22, 1554
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led the first Spanish expedition into the Great Plains.
Embarking in 1540, the expedition traveled to the New Mexican pueblos, searching for the golden cities of Cíbola reported by fellow explorer Fray Marcos de Niza. However, as Coronado wrote, "Everything the friar had said was found to be the opposite." Instead of finding another metropolis like Tenochtitlan, the Spaniards encountered only modest farming villages.
Native guides then regaled the explorers with tales of the city of Quivira further inland in modern-day Kansas. The Spaniards set off across the vast, flat grasslands of the Llano Estacado and into the Great Plains to find riches but again came away disappointed.
After more than two years away, Coronado returned to Mexico. He and his companions were the first Europeans to see massive herds of American bison, Palo Duro Canyon, and the land that is now the Texas Panhandle. As one historian put it, his expedition was "one of the most remarkable … recorded in the annals of American history." Coronado "added to the world as known to Europeans an [enormous] extent of country."
Nevertheless, Coronado and others viewed the expedition as a failure. He resumed his position as councilman in Mexico City and died in 1554. Spaniards would return to New Mexico soon enough but would not complete their conquest of Texas for another century.
For More about Francisco Vázquez de Coronado
The Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin offers an on-line exploration of the iconic expeditions that first brought Europeans within the borders of Texas, from Cabeza de Vaca and Francisco Coronado to Luis de Moscoso and Juan de Oñate.
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website features a digital facsimile of the 1540 letter to Coronado written on behalf of King Charles V authorizing Coronado to explore the land that would become the United States in search of wealth, in the hope that "through your excellent efforts you will bring the natives of that province under our sway and dominion and will bring them into the knowledge of the holy catholic faith."
The fact that Coronado historic sites span several states is a testament to the breadth of the Spaniard’s exploration. In Bernalillo, just north of Albuquerque, are the remains of the Kuaua Pueblo, a Tiwa village that Coronado encountered as he entered the Upper Rio Grande Valley. Though soon abandoned due to the demographic collapse that attended European contact, excavations in the 1930s taught us much about life in the Southwest before the Spanish conquest. Archaeologists have reconstructed the main kiva, and the historic site welcomes visitors to imagine the Southwestern landscape and lifeways at the time of Coronado’s arrival.
Kansas is not the first place that comes to mind when considering the history of the conquistadors, but it is here that Coronado made his furthest incursion into what is today the United States. The Coronado Quivira Museum in Lyons, Kansas, explores the history of Rice County and the intersection of the Midwestern heartland with global history through the lenses of the Quivira inhabitants, the Coronado Expedition, and the Santa Fe Trail. The museum also houses the largest collection of Quiviran artifacts in the Midwest and is constructing an online database for users to explore Quivira history.
Selected Bibliography
Bolton, Herbert. Coronado: Knight of Pueblo and Plains. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1949.
Day, A. Grove. Coronado’s Quest: The Discovery of the Southwestern States. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1940.
Flint, Richard. No Settlement, No Conquest: A History of the Coronado Entrada. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008.
Flint, Richard and Shirley Cushing Flint, eds. The Coronado Expedition: From the Distance of 460 Years. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2003.
Flint, Richard and Shirley Cushing Flint, eds. Documents of the Coronado Expedition, 1539-42: "They Were Not Familiar with His Majesty, nor Did They Wish to Be His Subjects." Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2012.
Hartmann, William K. Searching for Golden Empires: Epic Cultural Collisions in Sixteenth-Century America. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2014.
Hoig, Stan. Came Men on Horses: The Conquistador Expeditions of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado and Don Juan de Oñate. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2013.
Winship, George Parker, ed. The Journey of Coronado, 1540-42. Golden: Fulcrum Publishing, 1990.
Spanish Translation
Download the Spanish translation of this Texas Originals script.
Letter written on behalf of the king of Spain by Francisco Garcia de Loaysa, president of the Council of the Indies, to Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, June 21, 1540.