Search Results: Pedro pires

As the 15th century ended, Europeans were still mostly in the dark about the Eastern world. Early travelers like Marco Polo had given the West tidbits of information, but these accounts were too highly colored and fragmentary to provide a...

Pedro de Alvarado (c. 1485-1541) was a Spanish conquistador who became the first governor of Guatemala in 1527. Living an extraordinary life of adventure, Alvarado participated in separate expeditions to Mexico, Central America, South America...

A 19th-century painting by Pedro Lira Rencoret showing the foundation of Santiago de Chile in 1541 by the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia. (National History Museum, Santiago)

Edward of Woodstock (1330-1376 CE), better known as the Black Prince after his distinctive armour or martial reputation, was the eldest son of Edward III of England (r. 1327-1377 CE). Made the Prince of Wales in 1343 CE, Edward would fight...

Homo naledi is an extinct species of human discovered in Rising Star Cave in South Africa in 2013 CE in what has become the biggest single-species hominin find in Africa to this day, which is moreover set to cause a bit of an avalanche within...

Tonatiuh, 'Turquoise Lord,' was the 5th and present sun in the Aztec view of the cosmos and the fierce sun god of several other Postclassic Mesoamerican cultures, including the Toltecs. It was thought that only the regular offering of hearts...

The Council of the Indies (El Real y Supremo Consejo de las Indias) operated from 1524 to 1834 and was the supreme governing body of the Spanish Empire in the Americas and Spanish East Indies. Reporting directly to the monarch, the Council...

Adelantado was an office awarded by the Spanish Crown to conduct military campaigns in the medieval period but then repurposed during the Age of Exploration to grant an individual the right to privately fund expeditions of discovery and conquest...

A 1635 map of Portuguese Cochin on the southwest coast of India. Cochin (modern Kochi) was a major hub of the spice trade and was colonised by Portugal in the early years of the 16th century. (Livro das Plantas de Todas as Fortalezas, António...

A 20th-century mural by Pedro Subercaseaux showing Diego de Almagro (c. 1475-1538), the Spanish conquistador on his expedition of conquest in Chile from 1535 to 1537.