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Juan Ponce De Leon Essay

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Juan Ponce de Leon was known as a great man who was always well prepared for voyages. A nickname that was given to him by the king was “Adelantado” meaning ahead. He was a great motivator to other explorers and was a husband and father. Many are led to believe that Juan Ponce de Leon was the first to discover Florida but this is not true. Juan Ponce de Leon was the first to discover the Gulf Stream and was the first to try to create a settlement on Florida and tried to inhabit the land with animals and a colony but he was not the first to discover Florida. Juan Ponce De Leon was a great explorer he was born around the 1460’s and came from a village called San Tervas de Campos (Lawson 1). At an early age he trained to become an aristocrat, he was a very intelligent explorer. Before Florida he was the governor of Puerto Rico until the title was prevented to be established by the Crown because of Ovando. A series of events that followed made him believe that there wasn’t anything for him there anymore. This motivated him to go out and find his own land. At the time King Ferdinand wanted to reward Juan Ponce de Leon for his work and duties by granting him a favor. The King gave him the option of finding new settlement or anything he desired up to a negotiation (Lawson 7). Shortly, Juan Ponce de Leon …show more content…

Realizing that the citizens’ complaints would be useless, unless he went to the king himself (Fuson 125). King Ferdinand was pleased with the discovery of Florida. Which led him to have Juan Ponce de Leon knighted and was given a Coat of Arm (Lawson 46; Fuson 127). Which also granted him higher ranks and enabled him to be called Don Juan Ponce de Leon. In the second contract for the voyage was on how he would convert the Natives to Catholicism. If they deny The Requirements then Juan Ponce would be given the right to declare war and take the rebels as

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