Have you ever wondered who had founded the land you always walk on? Or how the places you go to on vacation seem to have come up on the world map? Or maybe you wonder about the people who founded the oceans many people sail on now? Well it’s pretty surprising how it was done. Long ago, starting from the 15th century to the 17th century, the Europeans went through a time called “The Age of Exploration”. During this time period, many explorers had set out to find a new route to Asia due to the fact that the Ottoman Empire had blocked the Silk Road . One of these explorers was Vasco Nunez de Balboa.
Vasco Nunez de Balboa was born in 1475 in Jerez de los Caballeros in Estremadura , Spain . When he was twelve, his father had sent him to a friend of his who was a lord. There, Balboa was trained as a page. He was trained in wrestling, sword fighting, spear fighting and manners. He was much better than the other pages at wielding a sword which is why he became a squire quickly. When he was a squire, he wanted to join the army so that he can serve his country. This was his motivation in everything.
When he became older, her learned about Christopher Columbus discoveries of the new world and became fascinated. In 1500, he embarked on his first journey to the New World on Rodrigo de Bastidas expedition. They sailed and explored the northeast side of South America , until they were running out of men. They then sailed to Hispaniola . Balboa and others stayed on the island and raised farms while Rodrigo de Bastidas left the island to go back to Spain . In 1508, there was news that the king had sent people to govern parts of what is now the Isthmus of Panama . Seeing that this was his only chance and because he was in great debt, he sailed as a stowaway on the ship..
As they got there, they had found that the governor of one of the parts had left and put Francisco Pizzaro in charge of it. He had been waiting for the arrival of Fernandez Ensisco. When he arrived Balboa had persuaded Pizzaro to stay until they had other orders. Once Encisco was on the island, Balboa had suggested that they should move west to the region of Darien where the soil was fertile and there were fewer natives. They had to fight over 500 Native Americans with the little amount of soldiers they had. Miraculously, they won the battle, and the remaining natives ran away.
The victory of the Spanish taking over Darien had given Balboa respect from soldiers. However, the opposite was happening with Encisco. Many of them were beginning to think that Encisco was stealing gold from them and making it look like they had little. They had been talking about overthrowing him from his title and putting Balboa. Hearing this, Balboa forced Encisco to abandon his title because he was told to be a substitute for another governor. Balboa was placed mayor by all of his companions.
Balboa then asked the king for more soldiers to find new land on the other side of the island. The king had told him to stay and that a new governor would arrive soon to take Balboa’s place. Balboa then led a trip by himself across the island to an open ocean. They didn't know what to call it but soon claimed it for Spain ’s majesty. This ocean is modern day Pacific Ocean and has been used by people from every part of the world since that day.. These are some of the many things Vasco Nunez de Balboa has completed during his lifetime.
