Skip to main content

The timeline can be navigated with the “Scroll Left” and “Scroll Right” buttons or by dragging the pointer to a date on the timeline waveform (located at the bottom of the screen on the desktop version and on the left of the screen on mobile). To filter by a particular topic and see a smaller section of the data, make a selection on the dropdown “Filters” menu or click “Search” to do a keyword search. Hover over the abbreviated filter tags in the blue boxes to see the complete name of the filter, or click a filter to display all the data with this tag. If you want to take a deeper dive into a specific topic by viewing a narrative essay page and a curated timeline, click on “Stories.”

Read More
Black and white illustration of Spanish soldiers with weapons attacking/slaining indigenous people. In the background there is a fire.
Illustration of Hernando de Soto's brutal conquests. (Photo: Library of Congress)

Spain wages war against the Southeastern Native communities.

Date: 1539

COL
INDG
WAR
RES
Illustration of Hernando de Soto's brutal conquests. (Photo: Library of Congress)

Under Hernando de Soto, the Spanish launch a war to steal gold and enslave people from large Native settlements in Florida to northern Arkansas all the way to eastern Texas. The Choctaw and Mobile people drive him out of the Southeast.