| A | B |
|---|
| Christopher Columbus | Italian explorer for Queen Isabella and king Ferdinand of Spain who discovered North America in 1492 |
| Alonso Álvarez de Pineda | Spanish explorer who mapped the Texas coastline in 1519 |
| Hernán Cortés | Spanish explorer who defeated the Aztec empire and Montezuma in 1521 |
| Panfilo de Narváez | Spanish explorer who led a very unfortunate expedition that shipwrecked on the Texas coast in 1527. He drowned near Matagorda Bay |
| Cabeza de Vaca | Spanish explorer and member of Narvaez’s group who was captured and enslaved by the Karankawa Indians in Texas. Later met Estevanico and eventually went back to Spain |
| Estevanico | African explorer captured by the Coahuiltican’s. Later met up with Cabeza de Vaca and worked as a translator between Native Americans and explorers. Was later killed by Native Americans while searching for gold |
| Fray Marcos de Niza | Catholic Spaniard who searched for Cibola (the lost city of gold) in 1539 with Estevanico |
| Francisco Vázquez de Coronado | Spanish explorer who traveled through Texas looking for gold in 1541 |
| Alvarado | Spanish explorer who went through East Texas in 1543 and discovered oil, but because it wasn’t gold, no one cared |
| Juan de Oñate | Wealthy Spaniard who lead first Spanish colony into Texas and tried to settle in the South Coastal Plain subregion in 1598 |
| Corpus Christi de la Isleta | the first successful Spanish colony in Texas in 1682 near modern day El Paso |
| René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle | French explorer who landed in Matagorda Bay in 1682 and built Fort St. Louis which threatened Spanish colonization of Texas |
