He played an important role in the Spanish conquest of Nicaragua: Who is Hernando De Soto?

(1500-1542) Spanish, explorer. He made discoveries along the Mississippi River in North America.

He was born in Jerez de los Caballeros, Estremadura region of Spain, and died on May 21, 1542, in the area where the Arkansas River meets the Mississippi River.

Despite all his family's insistence on him becoming a lawyer, he left his family at a very young age to participate in research on the American continent on behalf of the Kingdom of Spain.

Hernando de Soto (c. 1500 – 21 May 1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru, but is best known for leading the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States (through Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and most likely Arkansas). He is the first European documented as having crossed the Mississippi River.

Between 1516 and 1520, Pedrarias traveled with his expedition to Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. He played an important role in the conquest of Nicaragua in 1523 and participated in the conquest of Peru under the command of Pizarro in 1531. He returned to his birthplace in 1536, having acquired great wealth.

In the same year, he was appointed commander of the expedition to be made in North America, which was unknown at that time, by Charles V, Emperor of Spain and Habsburg. In 1538, he left Cuba, the important operational center of the Spanish expeditions, and landed in Tampa Bay, Florida, on May 30, 1539. When the expedition heading north could not find the land of gold they were looking for, they headed southwest, passing the Smoky Mountains, hoping to find the pearl-filled tombs that the locals had told them about.

He reached the Mississippi River on May 21, 1540. Hernando De Soto, who lost the pearls he obtained from the graves he dug along his route in his wars with the natives, reached the Arkansas River from the branches of the Mississippi River in May 1541. The delegation continued to travel in the northwest direction for a while and decided to turn back when they started encountering poorer people instead of the gold country they were looking for. But Hernando De Soto died of fever before he could make this return. His men reached Tampico in Mexico in 1543 by following the Mississippi River and then the coastline with the boats they had barely built.