Francisco Vasquez de Coronado was a Spanish explorer. From 1540 to 1542, he led an expedition to the American
Southwest in search of the legendary Seven Cities of Cíbola. Earlier Spanish
explorers had told of these cities, which were said to be rich in gold and other
treasures. Coronado was born in Salamanca, Spain. In 1535, he sailed
to Mexico with Antonio de Mendoza, the first viceroy of New Spain, which
included what is now Mexico. Coronado became governor of New Galicia province,
northwest of Mexico City, in 1538. In 1539, a Spanish missionary priest, returned to New Spain from a journey to the north.
He claimed to have seen a golden city, Cíbola, among the Zuni Indians in the
region. Niza's account and stories by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and other
Spanish explorers led to Coronado's Cíbola expedition. In July, Coronado reached the place he identified as
Cíbola, in the area of what is now Gallup, New Mexico. The Zuni Indians there
fought to defend their territory, but the Spaniards defeated them and
established a camp at the site. To the Spaniards' bitter disappointment, the
town they thought was the legendary Cíbola was not a golden city. In the winter of 1540, Coronado moved his headquarters
near a cluster of about a dozen Pueblo Indian villages in a region called
Tiguex, which was north of present-day Albuquerque, New Mexico. The winter
brought shortages of food and clothing. After the Spaniards took supplies from
the Pueblo by force, the Indians began to resist the Spaniards. In the war that
followed, Coronado's army destroyed several villages.
The following spring, tempted by new stories of a city
of gold called Quivira, Coronado led an expedition eastward across the Pecos
River. He wandered through the panhandles of present-day Texas and Oklahoma and
eventually reached what is now central Kansas before returning to New Mexico in
the fall.In the spring of 1542, Coronado returned to New Spain.
He remained governor of New Galicia until 1544. That year, he was suspended from
his office during an investigation of his Cíbola expedition. In 1545, Coronado
was charged with mistreatment of Indians, failure to colonize the lands he had
explored, and other misconduct. In 1546, he was cleared of all wrongdoing. He
died on Sept. 22, 1554.
This map shows the explorations of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in the American Southwest. In his search for the legendary cities of Cibola and Quivira, Coronado traveled through Mexico and the present-day states of Arizona, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.