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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.

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.