1694: The Jesuits Make Contact With the Pima

(source)

1694 Padre Eusebio Kino, S.J., missionary, records a visit to the Akimel O'odham (Pima) people. It is the first known European contact with the people of the the Salt and Gila River valleys. He identifies villages named Kina, Equituni and Uturituc.

1692 Eusebio Kino records a visit to the Tohono O'odham (formerly Papago Indians) in the Santa Cruz River valley (vicinity of present-day Tucson). He establishes San Xavier del Bac, built by Tohono O'odham, and named for the co-founder of the Society of Jesus. The present building, located one maile from the original Kino-period location, dates from 1785 and is the oldest European structure in present-day Arizona. "The site is also known in Tohono O'odham language as the “place where the water appears,” as there were once natural springs in the area."

1692 The Spanish reconquer Santa Fe, New Mexico under Don Diego de Vargas. It remains Spain's provincial seat until 1810.

1687 Jesuit missionary priest Eusebio Kino reaches the the Pimería Alta in present-day Sonora, Mexico, interacting with 16 tribes there. He establishes Mission Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (abandoned 1744).  "Kino opposed the slavery and compulsory hard labor in the silver mines that the Spaniards forced on the native people. This also caused great controversy among his co-missionaries, many of whom acted according to the laws imposed by Spain on their territory."

"Kino was also a writer, authoring books on religion, astronomy and cartography. He established over twenty missions extending from the present day states of Mexican Sonora, northeast for 150 miles, into present-day Arizona, where the San Xavier del Bac mission, near Tucson, a popular National Historic Landmark, is still a functioning Franciscan parish church. Kino constructed nineteen rancherías (villages), which supplied cattle to new settlements. Kino drew the first accurate maps of the Pimería Alta, the Gulf of California, and Baja California."

1685 After a prolonged drought, Eusebio Kino and the Jesuit missionaries abandon the Misión San Bruno in Baja California and return to the viceregal capital of Mexico City.

1683 Eusebio Kino leads the Atondo expedition to the Baja California peninsula where he establishes the Misión San Bruno.

1680-1681 Exposición astronómica de el cometa, Eusebio Kino. After receiving his orders, Kino is  delayed a year before sailing for New Spain. "Although Kino wanted to go to the Orient after his ordination, he was sent to New Spain. Due to travel delays while crossing Europe, he missed the ship on which he was to travel and had to wait a year for another ship. While waiting in Cadiz, Spain, he wrote some observations, done during late 1680 and early 1681, about his study of a comet (later known as the Great Comet of 1680), which he published. This publication was later the subject of a sonnet by the noted colonial nun and poetess of New Spain, Sor (Sister) Juana Inés de la Cruz, O.S.H.

1680 Pueblo Rebellion. "an uprising of most of the indigenous Pueblo people against the Spanish colonizers in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, present day New Mexico. The Pueblo Revolt killed 400 Spanish and drove the remaining 2,000 settlers out of the province. Twelve years later the Spanish returned and were able to reoccupy New Mexico with little opposition.

1677 (Jun 12) Eusebio Kino is ordained as a Jesuit priest after completing a final stage of training, during which he taught mathematics in Ingolstadt,

1665 (Nov. 20) Eusebio Kino joins the Society of Jesus.  "Following a serious illness, from 1664-69, he received religious training as a member of the Society at Freiburg, Ingolstadt, and Landsberg, Bavaria."

1660s Armed uprising of the Totono O'odham against the Spanish.

1645 Eusebius Chinus (Spanicized to Eusebio Kino) is born in Segno, Bishopric of Trent, Holy Roman Empire. (later part of Austria, present-day northern Italy) Tthe name Kino was the version for use in Spanish-speaking domains. As a young man, Kino is educated in Innsbruck.

1598 First Spanish attempt to settle in New Mexico. Santa Fe de Nuevo México established as the capital of the new province of New Spain.

1542 Juan Cabrillo sails north from Barra de Navidad, exploring the coast of California. He puts ashore in San Diego Bay, the first known European to set foot in present-day California. "Cabrillo's nationality has been debated for centuries. He was described as Portuguese by Spanish chronicler Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas; in his Historia General de los hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas y tierra firme del Mar Oceano, written 60 years after Cabrillo's death, Herrera referred to Cabrillo as Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo Português. The Portuguese claim him as a national hero, and several locations in Portugal claim to be his birthplace."

The voyages of Coronado 1540-1542 (source)

1540-42 Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (born 1510, Salamanca, Spain) explores the present-day American southwest in search of the Cities of Cíbola as reported by Fray Marcos de Niza in Descubrimiento de las siete ciudade, with Marcos acting as the guid.e He sets out north from Culiacán. First European sightings of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. Coronado bypasses the Gila and Salt River valleys on his way through Arizona. He visits the Zuni Pueblo, in present-day New Mexico,

1540 Juan Cabrillo sails north from Acajutla. Reaches Barra de Navidad on the coast of Jalisco on Dec. 25.

1539, Francisco de Ulloa, who had been commissioned by Hernán Cortés, discovered the Gulf of California and reached nearly as far north as the 30th parallel.

1539 Spurred by reports of Cabeza de Vaca, Fray Marcos de Niza leaves Culiacán (Mar) on a journey northward through Sonora. He becomes the first European to enter present-day Arizona, crossing south-eastern Arizona near the present-day Lochiel. He penetrated to the Zuni and returned to Culiacán in September, having seen the Seven Cities of Cibola. "He saw Cibola only from a distance, and his description of it as equal in size to Mexico City was probably exact; but he embodied much mere hearsay in his report, Descubrimiento de las siete ciudades."

1537 Fray Marcos de Niza arrives in Mexico City.

becomes first known European to enter present-day Arizona.

1536 Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, one of the survivors of the 1527 Narváez expedition, reconnects with the Spanish at Culiacán.after eight years' journey among the Indian.

1531 Culiacán established on the west coast of Mexico by the Spanish captain Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán .

1527 The Narváez expedition. Spanish attempt to establish colonial settlements and garrisons in Florida.

1524 Conquest of El Salvador. Acajutla is established. "Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado, under the command of Hernán Cortés, had conquered Mexico and Guatemala before coming to the vicinity of Acajutla. There he met heavy resistance, but defeated the indigenous people in 1524 and conquered all of present-day El Salvador at the Battle of Acajutla."

1519-1521 Spanish conquest of Mexico led by Hernán Cortés. Overthrow of the Aztec Empire.

c. 1495 Fray Marcos de Niza born in Nice, which was at that time under the control of the Italian House of Savoy.

c. 1450 Abandonment of Hohokam pueblos in the Salt and Gila valleys, including Casa Grande.

1428 Aztec Empire is created by the Triple Alliance.

c. 1350 Hohokam culture at its height in the Salt and Gila valleys.  135 miles of canals in use.