THE NATIVE VILLAGE THAT HID HERNANDO DE SOTO’S FIRST CAMP IN AMERICA
De Soto had seen what Spanish conquest had produced elsewhere.
The riches extracted from the Caribbean, Panama, and Peru had created expectations that the interior of North America might contain another wealthy civilization waiting to be exploited.
Instead, the expedition encountered something the Spanish did not understand nearly as well.
A complex network of Native societies.
These communities had their own political leaders, territories, farming systems, religious traditions, trade relationships, rivalries, and military forces.
The Spanish were entering a continent that was not empty and not politically unorganized.
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