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This episode is Hernando de Soto Part 1. I am recording this on April 14, in Key West, Florida.
Today we kick off the story of the first real invasion of the American south, Hernando de Soto’s reconnaissance-in-force – the Spanish word is entrada — from 1539-1542. Last week’s episode tied up various loose ends that brought us to this point, including that the correct shorthand for Hernando de Soto is, actually, “Soto,” not “de Soto.”
Measured by money and glory, by the late 1530s Hernando de Soto was at the very top of the second rank of Spanish conquistadors. Hernan Cortes had conquered the Aztecs in Tenochtitlan, uncovered staggering wealth, and pushed his territory north and south from there. Francisco Pizzaro had conquered the Incas of Cusco, and Soto enabled that conquest as Pizzaro’s most courageous and brilliant battlefield commander.
Soto returned to Spain in the spring of 1536 after 22 years seeking and finding his fortune in the New World. He was now 36 years old. Soto had by that age gathered a significant pile of loot from his adventures in South America, and no small amount of glory. People who weren’t Soto and could not have achieved his astonishing victories in Central and South America would have called it quits and retired as one of the richest men in Europe’s richest country. Soto was not that kind of man. He knew there was another Cusco or Tenochtitlan to be found and conquered, this time with Soto in command.
Selected references for this episode
David Ewing Duncan, Hernando De Soto: A Savage Quest in the Americas
Final Report of the United States: De Soto Expedition Commission
