Q 01/05

William Powell's huge painting of de Soto reaching the great river hangs in which Washington building?

A) The White House

B) The US Capitol

C) The Supreme Court

D) The Library of Congress

Answer · why

B) The US Capitol

The US Capitol's Rotunda holds it, the last of eight big history paintings Congress commissioned; the real scene was far less grand, the river first g...

Q 02/05

In which Spanish region was de Soto born?

A) Castile

B) Andalusia

C) Extremadura

D) Galicia

Answer · why

C) Extremadura

Extremadura was poor, so its young men looked overseas for their fortune; three towns in its province of Badajoz still claim to be de Soto's birthplac...

Q 03/05

Which order of knights held de Soto's boyhood home, Jerez de los Caballeros, in the 13th century?

A) The Teutonic Knights

B) The Knights Hospitaller

C) The Knights of Calatrava

D) The Knights Templar

Answer · why

D) The Knights Templar

The Knights Templar held the town until the order was dissolved in 1312; de Soto's will asked that he be buried there among his family.

Q 04/05

Pedrarias Dávila, the governor who took the teenage de Soto to the Americas, had which famous explorer beheaded in 1519?

A) Ferdinand Magellan

B) Juan Ponce de León

C) Diego de Almagro

D) Vasco Núñez de Balboa

Answer · why

D) Vasco Núñez de Balboa

Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the first European to reach the Pacific from the Americas, had been promised one of the governor's daughters before Pedrarias h...

Q 05/05

De Soto grew rich trading enslaved Indians in which Central American land?

A) Guatemala

B) Honduras

C) Nicaragua

D) El Salvador

Answer · why

C) Nicaragua

Nicaragua: he helped conquer it in 1524, sat on the town council of León and traded in enslaved Indians, wealth that paid for the ships he later took ...