Spain, in its exploration and exploitation of the New World, finds an outlet for the crusading energies that the war against the Muslims had stimulated.

Portuguese mariners are opening a route around Africa to the East in the fifteenth century.

At the same time as the Castilians, they have planted colonies in the Azores and in the Canary Islands (also Canaries; Spanish, Canarias), the latter of which have been assigned to Spain by papal decree.

The conquest of Granada allows the Catholic Kings to divert their attention to exploration, although Christopher Columbus's first voyage in 1492 is financed by foreign bankers.

In 1493 Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia, a Catalan) formally approves the division of the unexplored world between Spain and Portugal.

The Treaty of Tordesillas, which Spain and Portugal sign one year later, moves the line of division westward and allows Portugal to claim Brazil.

New discoveries and conquests come in quick succession.

Vasco Núñez de Balboa reaches the Pacific in 1513, and the survivors of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition complete the circumnavigation of the globe in 1522.

In 1519 the conquistador Hernán Cortes subdues the Aztecs in Mexico with a handful of followers, and between 1531 and 1533 Francisco Pizarro overthrows the empire of the Incas and establishes Spanish dominion over Peru.

In 1493, when Columbus brought fifteen hundred colonists with him on his second voyage, a royal administrator had already been appointed for the Indies.

The Council of the Indies (Consejo de Indias), established in 1524, acts as an advisory board to the crown on colonial affairs, and the House of Trade (Casa de Contratacion) regulates trade with the colonies.

The newly established colonies are not Spanish but Castilian.

They are administered as appendages of Castile, and the Aragonese are prohibited from trading or settling there.

King Ferdinand (Queen Isabella having opposed the exploitation of natives but dying in 1504) authorizes Ponce de León in 1508 to conquer the remaining Tainos and exploit them in gold mining.

Around this time, Ponce de León marries Leonora, an innkeeper's daughter.

They will have three daughters (Juana, Isabel and Maria) and one son (Luis).

The large stone house Ponce de León orders built for his growing family still stands today near the city of Salvaleón de Higüey.

As provincial governor, Ponce de León has occasion to meet with the Taínos who visit his province from neighboring Borinquen (Puerto Rico).

They tell him stories of a fertile land with much gold to be found in the many rivers.

Inspired by the possibility of riches, Ponce de León requests and receives permission from Ovando to explore the island.

Ponce de Leon’s first reconnaissance of the island is usually dated to 1508 but there is evidence that he had made a previous exploration as early as 1506.

This earlier trip had been done quietly because the Spanish crown had in 1505 commissioned Vicente Yáñez Pinzón one of three Pinzon brothers to accompany Columbus on his first expedition, to settle the island.

Pinzón had not fulfilled his commission and it had expired in 1507, leaving the way clear for Ponce de León.

His earlier exploration had confirmed the presence of gold and had given him a good understanding of the geography of the island.

In 1508, Ferdinand II of Aragon gives permission to Ponce de León for the first official expedition to the island, which the Spanish then call San Juan Bautista.

This expedition, consisting of about fifty men in one ship, leaves Hispaniola on July 12, 1508 and eventually anchors in San Juan Bay, near today's city of San Juan.

Ponce de León searches inland until he finds a suitable site about two miles from the bay.

Here he erects a storehouse and a fortified house, creating the first settlement in Puerto Rico, Caparra (named after the province of Cáceres, Spain, the birthplace of Nicolás de Ovando).

Although a few crops are planted, they spend most of their time and energy searching for gold.

Ponce de León decides to return to Hispaniola by early 1509.

His expedition has collected a good quantity of the precious metal but is running low on food and supplies.

The expedition is deemed a great success and Ovando appoints Ponce de León governor of San Juan Bautista.

This appointment is later confirmed by Ferdinand II on August 14, 1509.

He is instructed to extend the settlement of the island and continue mining for gold.

The new governor returns to the island as instructed, bringing with him his wife and children.

Ponce de León, back on his island, had parceled out the native Taínos among himself and other settlers using a system of forced labor known as encomienda.

The Spanish colonists had at first been well treated by the island’s Arawak inhabitants, but relations with the locals had quickly deteriorated when the Spaniards force the natives to grow food crops and mine for gold.

Many of the Spaniards treat the Taínos very harshly and newly introduced diseases like smallpox and measles take a severe toll on the local population.

A series of minor uprisings culminates in June 1511, when the cacique Agueybana II foments an island-wide revolt.

Ponce de León, informed of Agueybana’s plan, assembles one hundred and twenty Spaniards armed with crossbows and arquebuses, marches through the forests, and attacks Agueybana and his forces while they sleep, killing hundreds of Arawaks.

Agueybana and other escapees from the violence attack the Spaniards several days later but are defeated in battle, during which Agueybana himself is killed.

The surviving Arawak warriors retreat, some concluding peace with Ponce de León, others fleeing to neighboring islands to join forces with their former enemies, the Caribs.

The political struggle between Colón and Ponce de León continue.

Ponce de León has influential supporters in Spain and Ferdinand regards him as a loyal servant.

However, Colón's position as Viceroy makes him a powerful opponent and eventually it becomes clear that Ponce de León's position on San Juan is not tenable.

Finally, on November 28, 1511, Ceron returns from Spain and is officially reinstated as governor.

The first inhabitants of the Turks and Caicos Islands were Arawakan-speaking Taíno people, who crossed over from Hispaniola sometime from CE 500 to 800.

Together with Taino who migrated from Cuba to the southern Bahamas around the same time, these people developed as the Lucayan.

The Turks and Caicos Islands around 1200 had been resettled by Classical Taínos from Hispaniola.

The first European documented to sight the islands is Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León, who does so in 1512.

Soon after the Spanish arrive in the islands in 1512, they begin capturing the Taíno of the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Lucayan as slaves (technically, as workers in the encomienda system) to replace the largely depleted native population of Hispaniola.

The southern Bahama Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands will be completely depopulated by about 1513, and will remain so until the seventeenth century.

Rumors of undiscovered islands to the northwest of Hispaniola had reached Spain by 1511, and Ferdinand is interested in forestalling further exploration and discovery by Colón.

In an effort to reward Ponce de León for his services, Ferdinand urges him to seek these new lands outside the authority of Colón.

Ponce de León readily agrees to a new venture, and in February 1512 a royal contract is dispatched outlining his rights and authorities to search for "the Islands of Benimy".

The contract stipulates that Ponce de León hold exclusive rights to the discovery of Benimy and neighboring islands for the next three years.

He will be governor for life of any lands he discovers, but he is expected to finance for himself all costs of exploration and settlement.

In addition, the contract gives specific instructions for the distribution of gold, Native Americans, and other profits extracted from the new lands.

Notably, there is no mention of a rejuvenating fountain.

Ponce de León equips three ships with at least two hundred men at his own expense and sets out from Puerto Rico on March 4, 1513.

The only near contemporary description known for this expedition comes from Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, a Spanish historian who apparently had access to the original ships' logs or related secondary sources from which he creates a summary of the voyage published in 1601.

The brevity of the account and occasional gaps in the record have led historians to speculate and dispute many details of the voyage.

The three ships in this small fleet are the Santiago, the San Cristobal and the Santa Maria de la Consolacion.

Anton de Alaminos is their chief pilot.

He is already an experienced sailor, and will become one of the most respected pilots in the region.

Ponce de Leon’s expedition, departing from Puerto Rico, sails northwest along the great chain of Bahama Islands, known then as the Lucayos.

On March 27, Easter Sunday, they sight an island that is unfamiliar to the sailors on the expedition.

Because many Spanish seamen are acquainted with the Bahamas, which has been depopulated by slaving ventures, some scholars believe that this "island" was actually Florida, as it was thought to be an island for several years after its formal discovery.

Other scholars have speculated that this island was one of the northern Bahama islands, perhaps Great Abaco.

Ponce de Leon’s fleet, departing the Bahamas, crosses open water for the next several days until April 2, 1513, when they sight land that Ponce de León believes is another island.

He names it La Florida in recognition of the verdant landscape and because it is the Easter season, which the Spaniards call Pascua Florida (Festival of Flowers).

The following day they come ashore to seek information and take possession of this new land.

The precise location of their landing on the Florida coast has been disputed for many years.

Some historians believe it occurred at St. Augustine; others prefer a more southern landing at a small harbor now called Ponce de León Inlet; but many now agree that Ponce came ashore even farther south near the present location of Melbourne Beach.

The latitude coordinate recorded in the ship's log closest to the landing site, reported by Herrera, is 30 degrees, 8 minutes, most likely exaggerated to enforce land claims to justify the removal of French Protestants nearly fifty years later.

This sighting is recorded at noon the day before with either a quadrant or a mariner's astrolabe, and the expedition sails north for the remainder of the day before anchoring for the night and rowing ashore the following morning.

This latitude corresponds to a spot north of St. Augustine between what is now the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve and Ponte Vedra Beach.

After remaining in the area of their first landing for about five days, the ships turn south for further exploration of the coast.

On April 8 they encounter a current so strong that it pushes them backwards and forces them to seek anchorage.

The tiniest ship, the San Cristobal, is carried out of sight and lost for two days.

This is the first encounter with the Gulf Stream where it reaches maximum force between the Florida coast and the Bahamas.

Because of the powerful boost provided by the current, it will soon become the primary route for eastbound ships leaving the Spanish Indies bound for Europe.

Although Ponce de León is widely credited with the discovery of Florida, he almost certainly is not the first European to reach the peninsula.

Spanish slave expeditions have been regularly raiding the Bahamas since 1494 and there is some evidence that one or more of these slavers had made it as far as the shores of Florida.

Another piece of evidence that others came before Ponce de León is the Cantino Map from 1502, which shows a peninsula near Cuba that looks like Florida's and includes characteristic place names.