Lope de Aguirre
Lope de Aguirre (; 8 November 1510 – 27 October 1561) was a Basque Spanish conquistador who was active in South America. Nicknamed ''El Loco'' ("the Madman"), he styled himself "Wrath of God, Prince of Freedom." Aguirre is best known for his ...
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Hernando de Alarcón
Hernando de Alarcón (born 1500) was a Spanish explorer and navigator of the 16th century, noted for having led an early expedition to the Baja California Peninsula, during which he became one of the first Europeans to ascend the Colorado River ...
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Diego de Almagro
Diego de Almagro (; – July 8, 1538), also known as El Adelantado and El Viejo, was a Spanish conquistador known for his exploits in western South America. He participated with Francisco Pizarro in the Spanish conquest of Peru. While subd ...
Luis de Moscoso Alvarado
Luis de Moscoso Alvarado (1505–1551) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador. Luis de Moscoso Alvarado assumed command of Hernando De Soto's expedition upon the latter's death.
Early life
Luis de Moscoso Alvarado was born in Badajoz, Spain, t ...
Pascual de Andagoya
Pascual de Andagoya (1495–1548) was a Spanish Basque conquistador. He was born in the village of Andagoya, in the valley of Cuartango (Álava), in Spain.
As often happened at the time, Andagoya left as an explorer of the New World at a very ...
Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón
Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón (c. 1480 – 18 October 1526) was a Spanish magistrate and explorer who in 1526 established the short-lived San Miguel de Gualdape colony, one of the first European attempts at a settlement in what is now the United State ...
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Juan de Ayolas
Juan de Ayolas (died c. 1537) was a conquistador born in Briviesca who explored the watershed of the Río de la Plata for the Spanish Crown. He accompanied Pedro de Mendoza on his 1534 expedition to colonize the region between the Río de la ...
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Vasco Núñez de Balboa
Vasco Núñez de Balboa (; c. 1475around January 12–21, 1519) was a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an ...
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Rodrigo de Bastidas
Rodrigo de Bastidas (; Triana, Seville, Andalusia, c. 1465 – Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, 28 July 1527) was a Spanish conquistador and explorer who mapped the northern coast of South America, discovered Panama, and founded the city of Santa Marta.
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Sebastián de Belalcázar
Sebastián de Belalcázar (; 1479/1480 – 1551) was a Spanish conquistador. De Belalcázar, also written as de Benalcázar, is known as the founder of important early colonial cities in the northwestern part of South America; Quito in 1534 and Ca ...
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Antonio de Berrío
Antonio de Berrío (Segovia, 1527 – Santo Tomé de Guayana, the current Ciudad Bolívar, in the state Bolívar, 1597), was a Spanish soldier, governor and explorer in Colonial America.
Biography
Antonio de Berrío began his military caree ...
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Francisco de Bobadilla
Francisco Fernández de Bobadilla (c. 1448 – 1 July 1502) was an official under the Crown of Castile and a knight of the Order of Calatrava. He was also the brother of Beatriz de Bobadilla, marchioness (''marquesa'') of Moya and of Peñalosa, ...
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Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (; 1488/90/92"Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar Núñez (1492?-1559?)." American Eras. Vol. 1: Early American Civilizations and Exploration to 1600. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 50-51. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 10 Decembe ...
Alonso de Cáceres
Alonso de Cáceres y Retes (Alcántara, late fifteenth century - ?) was a Spanish conquistador and governor-captain of Santa Marta, who traveled extensively throughout the Americas from Mexico, south through Central America, and as far as Peru. ...
Juan de la Cámara
Juan de la Cámara (1525–1602) was a Spanish conquistador and an hidalgo. Born in Alcala de Henares, Spain, he arrived in New Spain (present day Mexico) in 1539 and joined the Spanish Conquest of Yucatán, becoming one of the main collabo ...
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Pedro de Candia
Pedro de Candia (Pietro de Cândia) (; Crete, Kingdom of Candia 1485–1542 Chupas, Viceroyalty of Peru) was a Greek explorer and cartographer at the service of the Kingdom of Spain, an officer of the Royal Spanish Navy that under the Spanish Cro ...
Alonso de Cárdenas
Alonso de Cárdenas was a Spanish noble who served as the 44th and 47th (and last) Grand Master of the Order of Santiago before the title passed to the Catholic Monarchs as the need for a powerful military order outside the direct control of th ...
Juan de Carvajal
Juan de Carvajal was a Spanish conquistador and one of the first governors of Venezuela Province.
Carvajal was born in Spain in 1509. He was in Venezuela in the 1540s, a time when territory there had been assigned to the Welser family by the E ...
Beltrán de Cetina
Beltrán de Cetina y del Castillo (Alcalá de Henares, 1521 – Mérida, Yucatán, Mérida de Yucatán, 1600?) was one of the original conquistadors and founders of Mérida in the modern Mexican state of Yucatán (state), Yucatán. His siblings i ...
Pedro Cieza de León
Pedro Cieza de León ( Llerena, Spain c. 1520 – Seville, Spain July 2, 1554) was a Spanish conquistador and chronicler of Peru and Popayán. He is known primarily for his history and description of Peru, ''Crónicas del Perú''. He wrote this ...
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Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
* lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo
* es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón
* pt, Cristóvão Colombo
* ca, Cristòfor (or )
* la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...
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Francisco Hernández de Córdoba (founder of Nicaragua) :''There were two Spanish ''conquistadores'' at the start of the 16th-century named Francisco Hernández de Córdoba. The one described here founded Nicaragua. The other led a 1517 expedition which provided the first European accounts of the Yucatá ...
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Francisco Hernández de Córdoba (Yucatán conquistador)
Francisco Hernández de Córdoba (, Córdoba, Spain, c. 1467 - Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, 1517) was a Spanish ''conquistador'', known to history mainly for the ill-fated expedition he led in 1517, in the course of which the first European accounts ...
Juan de la Cosa
Juan de la Cosa (c. 1450 – 28 February 1510) was a Castilian navigator and cartographer, known for designing the earliest European world map which incorporated the territories of the Americas discovered in the 15th century.
De la Cosa was th ...
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Bartolomé de Las Casas
Bartolomé de las Casas, OP ( ; ; 11 November 1484 – 18 July 1566) was a 16th-century Spanish landowner, friar, priest, and bishop, famed as a historian and social reformer. He arrived in Hispaniola as a layman then became a Dominican friar ...
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Alonso Díaz Moreno
Alonso is a Spanish name of Germanic origin that is a Castilian variant of ''Adalfuns''.
Geographical distribution
As of 2014, 36.6% of all known bearers of the surname ''Alonso'' were residents of Spain (frequency 1:222), 26.1% of Mexico (1:83 ...
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Bernal Díaz del Castillo
Bernal Díaz del Castillo ( 1492 – 3 February 1584) was a Spanish conquistador, who participated as a soldier in the conquest of the Aztec Empire under Hernán Cortés and late in his life wrote an account of the events. As an experience ...
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Melchor Díaz
Melchor Díaz (or Melchior) (died January, 1541) was an early Spanish explorer of western North America who "was a hard worker and skillful organizer and leader. He inspired confidence in his companions and followers, and always maintained the be ...
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Ambrosius Ehinger
Ambrosius Ehinger, also (Ambrosio Alfínger in Spanish) Dalfinger, Thalfinger, (ca. 1500 in Thalfingen near Ulm – 31 May 1533 near Chinácota in modern-day Colombia) was a German conquistador and the first governor of the Welser concess ...
Nikolaus Federmann
Nikolaus Federmann ( es, link=no, Nicolás Féderman, ) (c. 1505, Ulm – February 1542, Valladolid) was a German adventurer and conquistador in what is modern-day Venezuela and Colombia. He is a significant figure in the history of Klein-Vened ...
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Martín Fernández de Enciso
Martín Fernández de Enciso ( 1470 – 1528) was a Spanish lawyer, colonial official and geographer. He was intrumental in the colonization of the Isthmus of Darien, one of Spain's earliest attempts to occupy the mainland of the Americas. His ...
Martín de Goiti
Martín de Goiti (c. 1534 – 1575) was one of the soldiers who accompanied the Spanish colonization of the East Indies and the Pacific in 1565. From his base in Mexico City, he led the expedition to Manila ordered by Miguel López de Legazpi in 15 ...
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Estêvão Gomes
Estêvão Gomes, also known by the Spanish version of his name, Esteban Gómez (c. 1483 – 1538), was a Portuguese cartography, cartographer and explorer. He sailed at the service of Crown of Castile, Castile (Spain) in the fleet of Ferdinand M ...
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Gil González Dávila
Gil González Dávila or Gil González de Ávila (b. 1480 – 21 April 1526) was a Spanish conquistador and the first European to explore present-day Nicaragua.
Early career
González Dávila first appears in historical records in 1508, when he ...
Juan de Grijalva
Juan de Grijalva (; born c. 1490 in Cuéllar, Crown of Castile – 21 January 1527 in Honduras) was a Spanish conquistador, and a relative of Diego Velázquez.Diaz, B., 1963, The Conquest of New Spain, London: Penguin Books, He went to Hispanio ...
Pedro de Heredia
Pedro de Heredia (c. 1505 in Madrid – January 27, 1554 in Zahara de los Atunes, Cádiz) was a Spanish conquistador, founder of the city of Cartagena de Indias and explorer of the northern coast and the interior of present-day Colombia.
Earl ...
Philipp von Hutten
Philipp von Hutten (18 December 1505 – 17 May 1546) was a German adventurer and an early European explorer and conquistador of Venezuela. He is a significant figure in the history of Klein-Venedig (1528 - 1546), the concession of Venezuela Prov ...
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Domingo Martínez de Irala
Domingo Martínez de Irala (; c. 1509 Bergara, Gipuzkoa – c. 1556 Asunción, Paraguay) was a Spanish Basque people, Basque conquistador.
He headed for America in 1535 enrolled in the expedition of Pedro de Mendoza and participated in the foundi ...
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Luis Lanchero
Luis Lanchero, also known as Luis Lancheros (?, Castile - 1562, Tunja, New Kingdom of Granada) was a Spanish conquistador and the founder of the town of Trinidad de los Muzos, Boyacá, the most important emerald settlement in Colombia. Muzo ...
Diego de Losada
Diego de Losada y Cabeza de Vaca (1511 – 1569) was a Spanish conquistador and the founder of Santiago de León de Caracas, the current capital of Venezuela.
Losada was born in Rionegro del Puente, in what is now the province of Zamora. H ...
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Gonzalo Macías
Gonzalo Macías ( 1509, Calamonte, Extremadura, Castile – ?, Tunja, New Kingdom of Granada) was a Spanish conquistador who participated in the expedition from Santa Marta into the Muisca Confederation that was led by Gonzalo Jiménez de Qu ...
Diego de Mazariegos
Diego de Mazariegos y Porres ( Archivo Nacional de Cuba, 1957Boletín del Archivo Nacional, Volume 55 p206 conquistador. He conquered Chiapas in Mexico, and in 1528, together with Andrés de la Tovilla, founded San Cristóbal de las Casas
San ...
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Pedro de Mendoza
Pedro de Mendoza () (c. 1499 – June 23, 1537) was a Spanish ''conquistador'', soldier and explorer, and the first ''adelantado'' of New Andalusia.
Setting sail
Pedro de Mendoza was born in Guadix, Grenada, part of a large noble family that ...
Gutierre de Miranda
Gutierre de Miranda was interim governor of Spanish Florida in the late 16th century. He was a brother of the previous governor of Spanish Florida, Hernando de Miranda, and brother-in-law of the next governor, Pedro Menéndez Márquez
Pedro Menén ...
Francisco de Montejo
Francisco de Montejo (; 1479 – 1553) was a Spanish conquistador in Mexico and Central America.
Early years
Francisco de Montejo was born about 1473 to a family of lesser Spanish nobility in Salamanca, Spain. He never documented his parentage ...
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Diego de Montemayor
Diego de Montemayor ( – 1611) was a Spanish conquistador, explorer, officer, and the governor of Nuevo Reino de León.
Early life
Historians dispute his date of birth, place of birth, and the identity of his parents. However, Antonio Morale ...
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Pánfilo de Narváez
Pánfilo de Narváez (; 147?–1528) was a Spanish '' conquistador'' and soldier in the Americas. Born in Spain, he first embarked to Jamaica in 1510 as a soldier. He came to participate in the conquest of Cuba and led an expedition to Camagü ...
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Diego de Nicuesa
Diego de Nicuesa (; died 1511) was a Spanish conquistador and explorer.
Background
Diego arrived Santo Domingo in April 1502, with Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres' flotilla.
In 1506, Nicuesa was given the job of governing Costa Rica, but ran agro ...
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Alonso de Ojeda
Alonso de Ojeda (; c. 1466 – c. 1515) was a Spanish explorer, governor and conquistador. He travelled through modern-day Guyana, Venezuela, Trinidad, Tobago, Curaçao, Aruba and Colombia. He navigated with Amerigo Vespucci who is famou ...
Diego de Ordaz
Diego de Ordaz also Diego de Ordás (; 1480 in Castroverde de Campos, Zamora province, Spain – 1532 on the Atlantic) was a Spanish explorer and soldier.
Early career
Diego de Ordaz arrived in Cuba at a young age. Serving under the orders ...
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Francisco de Orellana
Francisco de Orellana Bejarano Pizarro y Torres de Altamirano (; 1511 – November 1546) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador. In one of the most improbably successful voyages in known history, Orellana managed to sail the length of the Amaz ...
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Juan de Oñate
Juan de Oñate y Salazar (; 1550–1626) was a Spanish conquistador from New Spain, explorer, and colonial governor of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in the viceroyalty of New Spain. He led early Spanish expeditions to the Great ...
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Rodrigo Orgóñez Rodrigo Orgóñez (1490 – 26 April 1538) was Spanish captain under Diego de Almagro.
Born in Oropesa, Rodrigo participated in the Italian Campaigns. He accompanied Francisco de Godoy from Nicaragua when they joined Diego's men in reinforci ...
Alonso Álvarez de Pineda
Alonso Álvarez de Piñeda (; 1494–1520) was a Spanish conquistador and cartographer who was the first to prove the insularity of the Gulf of Mexico by sailing around its coast. In doing so he created the first map to depict what is now Texas an ...
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Vicente Yáñez Pinzón
Vicente Yáñez Pinzón () (c. 1462 – after 1514) was a Spanish navigator and explorer, the youngest of the Pinzón brothers. Along with his older brother, Martín Alonso Pinzón (''c.'' 1441 – ''c.'' 1493), who captained the '' Pinta'', h ...
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Francisco Pizarro
Francisco Pizarro González, Marquess of the Atabillos (; ; – 26 June 1541) was a Spanish conquistador, best known for his expeditions that led to the Spanish conquest of Peru.
Born in Trujillo, Spain to a poor family, Pizarro chose ...
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Gonzalo Pizarro
Gonzalo Pizarro y Alonso (; 1510 – April 10, 1548) was a Spanish conquistador and younger paternal half-brother of Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of the Inca Empire. Bastard son of Captain Gonzalo Pizarro y Rodríguez de Aguilar (senior) ( ...
Bartolomé Ruiz
Bartolomé Ruiz (c. 1482 in Moguer, Spain – c. 1532 in Cajamarca, Peru) was a Spanish conquistador. He started his career as Christopher Columbus's pilot, before joining Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro on their conquest of Peru. Ru ...
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Juan de Salcedo
Juan de Salcedo (; 1549 – March 11, 1576) was a Spanish- Novohispanic conquistador. He was born in Mexico in 1549 and he was the grandson of Miguel López de Legazpi and brother of Felipe de Salcedo. Salcedo was one of the soldiers who accompa ...
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Juan de Sanct Martín
Juan de Sanct Martín, also known as Juan de San Martín, was a Spanish conquistador. Little is known about De Sanct Martín, apart from a passage in ''El Carnero'' (1638) by Juan Rodríguez Freyle and '' Epítome de la conquista del Nuevo Reino ...
Gonzalo de Sandoval
Gonzalo de Sandoval (1497, Medellín, Spain – late in 1528, Palos de la Frontera, Spain) was a Spanish conquistador in New Spain (Mexico)Diaz, B., 1963, The Conquest of New Spain, London: Penguin Books, and briefly co-governor of the colo ...
Juan Díaz de Solís
Juan Díaz de Solís ( – 20 January 1516) was a 16th-century navigator and explorer. He is also said to be the first European to land on what is now modern day Uruguay.
Biography
His origins are disputed. One document records him as a Portuguese ...
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Georg von Speyer
Georg von Speyer (1500, Speyer, Holy Roman Empire – 11 June 1540, Coro, Klein-Venedig) was a German conquistador in New Granada and Venezuela. His birth name was Georg Hohermuth but he chose to call himself after his place of birth. He ...
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Gonzalo Suárez Rendón
Gonzalo Suárez Rendón (1503, Málaga, Castile – 1590 (or 1583), Tunja, New Kingdom of Granada) was a Spanish conquistador, known as the founder of the capital of Boyacá; Tunja, second city of the New Kingdom of Granada. A veteran of the It ...
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Pedro de Tovar
Pedro de Tovar (born 1501) was a Spanish explorer, military man and colonial administrator. He was part of Francisco Vazquez de Coronado's expedition and led the first expedition to Cibola in 1540. Tovar was also the first European to hear abo ...
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Francisco de Ulloa
Francisco de Ulloa () (died 1540) was a Spanish explorer who explored the west coast of present-day Mexico and the Baja California Peninsula under the commission of Hernán Cortés. Ulloa's voyage was among the first to disprove the cartograph ...
Pedro de Ursúa
Pedro de Ursúa (1526 – 1561) was a Spanish conquistador from Baztan in Navarre. He is best known for his final trip with Lope de Aguirre in search for El Dorado, where he found death in a plot.
He was born in Arizkun, Baztan, to a Beaumon ...
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Pedro de Valdivia
Pedro Gutiérrez de Valdivia or Valdiva (; April 17, 1497 – December 25, 1553) was a Spanish conquistador and the first royal governor of Chile. After serving with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders, he was sent to South America in 1534, wh ...
Ortún Velázquez de Velasco
Ortún Velázquez de Velasco (, Cuéllar, Castile – 4November 1584, Pamplona, New Kingdom of Granada) was a Spanish conquistador. He is known as the co-founder and first governor of Pamplona in the Norte de Santander department of Colombia ...
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Hernán Venegas Carrillo
Hernán Venegas Carrillo Manosalvas (1513 – 2 February 1583) was a Spanish conquistador for who participated in the Spanish conquest of the Muisca and Panche people in the New Kingdom of Granada, present-day Colombia. Venegas Carrillo was ...
List of conquistadors in Colombia
This is a list of conquistadors who were active in the conquest of terrains that presently belong to Colombia. The nationalities listed refer to the state the conquistador was born into; Granada and Castile are currently part of Spain, but were s ...
Conquistadors
Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, ...