Spanish Conquistadors, Their Motivations for Conquering the New World, and the Native

American Populations

Class/Subject: US History

Date: 10/20/2010

Student Objectives/Student Outcomes:

1. Students will identify the four major Spanish conquistador campaigns: Ponce de
Leon, Cortés, Narváez, and De Soto.
2. In small groups, students will identify and discuss both the actions of the
Spanish explorers and the effect of these actions on the Native Populations.
3. Students will located and map out the journey’s of the Spanish conquistadors.
4. Students will identify and explain the economic motivations of the Spanish
exploration.

Content Standards:
ILS 16.3a (US): Describe economic motivations that attracted Europeans and others to the Americas,
1500-1700.
17.A.3b Explain how to make and use geographic representations to provide and enhance spatial
information including maps, graphs, charts, models, aerial photographs, satellite images.

Materials/Resources/Technology:
1. Textbook
2. Supplemental reading materials

Teacher’s Goals:
1. To show the motivations for the early Spanish exploration in the New World.
2. To demonstrate the effects of conquest on the native peoples of the Americas.
3. To show the lasting role early Spanish conquest played in the Americas.

Time
10:25 Start of Class:
Teacher will ask the students what they think the define the terms conquer and
exploration in either a word or a short phrase. Teacher will right the responses
on the board as students reply.
10:30 Introduction of Lesson:
Teacher will explain the objectives of today's lesson and material is relevant in
a US history. Teacher will also tie in flip book project students had completed
on indigenous American tribes.

10:50 Lesson Instruction:

Teacher will begin the class explaining the Spanish push for conquest in
context in the post-Columbian era.

Teacher will introduce the term conquistador to the students and explain what
role in Spanish exploration these men played.

Teacher will split the students into 4 small groups and assign to each group
one Spanish explorer and ask them to use their textbook and supplemental
material to identify the following about their explorer:
-What was the purpose of the exploration? (What was the explorer seeking to
find?)
-What strategies did the explorers use to accomplish these goals?
-How did the native peoples and the explorers interact?
-What was the end product for the Spanish? the natives?

Students will work together in their groups to answer the above questions.
While students are in their small groups working on the above questions, the
teacher will have the groups come separately up to the smartboard. Using the
information found in their textbook, the groups will use Google Earth on the
smartboard to trace the locations of their assigned explorer’s expiditions.
10:58 Assessments/Checks for Understanding:
After the groups have answered the questions, they will be asked to provide to
the class the answers based upon their explorer. Part of this short presentation
will involve the each group using the smartboard in front of the class to map
out the journey of their assigned explorer to the rest of the class using Google
Earth.

Teacher will ask the students to draw connections between the purposes for
exploration of each explorer and if the way native peoples were treated by
explorers was similar. Further questions will be asked based upon student
responses.

11:00 Closure/Wrap-Up/Review:
The Spanish conquest in the Americas was the first large push by a European
nation to explore and conquer lands in the New World. While their original
goal to obtain large amounts of gold was largely a failure, the exploration of
the conquistadors set the Spanish up to claim large areas of the Americas
before any other European nation, including a significant portion of the present
day United States. This conquest of new territory, however, came at the
expense and exploitation of native peoples and their respective cultures.