Crónicas y testimonios hispanos en los actuales Estados Unidos (siglos XVI y XVII)

Summary:

The current Southern United States (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas) belong to what, for a long time, was inaccurately known as Florida, named after "the pleasant and beautiful view of its grove" and discovered by Juan Ponce de León in the early 16^th century. In this vast territory, big groups of natives lived together without political unity and, often, there would be confrontations for the territory and control of resources. The arrival of Spaniards would crucially change the life of these communities, causing its demise or exodus. For the Spanish monarchs, the control of Florida was key because of its richness in gold and silver, because it constituted the Northern border of their empire, and because of its strategic importance for setting navigation routes with the Iberian Peninsula. It must also be considered the colonizing eagerness and the desire to evangelize native people. A permanent succession of expeditions that set out to discover, conquer, and colonize was promoted, but all expeditions failed, from those of Ponce de León to those of Tristán de Luna y Arellano. The dream of emulating what other conquers achieved was unattainable, which hindered the objectives of domination, enrichment, and evangelization. Based on the accounts and testimonies of the expeditioners who traveled this vast territory in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, this book intends to offer a better knowledge and understanding of the Hispanic history of this part of the United States, attending to what have been their primary sources and authors through analyzing the circumstances, form, and style, as well as the ideas, interests and concerns expressed in these writings.