What actually happened: After several earlier expeditions failed, in the late 1530s one of the
Spanish conquistadors from Peru by the name of DeSoto decided to use his wealth to outfit an
expedition to conquer Florida (modern day Florida plus the rest of the Southeastern US). He
outfitted an expedition that made the ones that conquered Mexico and Peru look small and poorly
equipped. They landed in Florida and spent the next couple of years wandering through the
Southeastern US looking for something worth conquering. They made it as far north as North
Carolina and as far west as the other side of the Mississippi river.
During those years they went through big stretches of Indian society like a blowtorch--killing
thousands of people, kidnapping leaders, forcing people into service as carriers, stealing large
quantities of food, and spreading diseases. They did this to the richest and most populous areas of
Indian society because those areas had the most potential as conquests. When they went through
the Southeast they found large areas where the Mississippian Mound-Building culture was still
functioning--though a little tattered from European diseases in places. There is a very good
chance that the direct and indirect affects of the DeSoto expedition accelerated the collapse of that
culture, though Mississippian culture survived in some places until the 1630s.
What might have happened: If DeSoto had somehow died in Peru, there would still have been a
Spanish expedition to "Florida", but it probably would have been much less destructive. Most
leaders would not have had the wealth to equip so large an expedition. Most leaders would not
have kept going until they died, which is what DeSoto did. A smaller expedition that wandered
around long enough to see that there really wasn't another Mexico or Peru to be found, then went
away might have been a lot less destructive.
The Consequences: Disease would have still eventually been a big killer and I doubt that the
tribes would have been able to withstand white settlers in the long term. They would have started
from a higher population base, which might have meant more survivors.
If the Mississippian cultures had lasted another fifty or sixty years French and English settlers
would have seen and recorded them, which would have given us a lot more information about the
culture. It might also have changed our image of Southern Indians a bit. The tribes that the
French and English ran into might have been different. Creeks and Cherokees didn't exist as
political entities when DeSoto went through, though groups that would develop into Creeks and
Cherokees were around.
There is no guarantee that they would have developed the same way without DeSoto. What are
the other implications? If you think you know, e-mail me.
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