Hernando Desoto’s Expedition

Hernando De Soto’s Expedition

Hernando and his army had a lot of impact to the natives of north America and to us now. Georgia was forever changed by the dramatic drop in native population because of all the diseases Hernando and his army brought over. Hernando was the first European to step foot on the mainland soil of America. Lastly, the biggest way North America was changed was that Hernando ended the prehistoric age when his servants took notes of what they saw. Hernando Desoto’s expedition through Georgia changed that area forever and years to come.

Hernando Desoto and his men wanted to investigate north of Cuba since Columbus and all the other European explorers sailed around the gulf of Mexico. Desoto and 600 other infantry units, medical support, servants, and explorers marched through what is now Florida and up to Tennessee and over west, to Texas. Hernando and his troops rushed through this area killing, stealing, and baptizing any native in the area, and the explorers, writing notes of the area, were unaware that they were the first to do this. Ending the prehistoric age of North America.

Another radical change Hernando and his army carried out was bring diseases to all of the native inhabitants of north America. When the Spaniards came to America they brought with them diseases that the native Americans had no immunity for. Even simple ones like measles and chicken poxes. Simple diseases that Europeans were so used to that native Americans didn’t stand a chance. These diseases alone killed over 98% of the native Americans in this region. Not including that, the natives were probably so frightened to