biography
| name: |
Balboa, Vasco Núñez de
|
pronunciation:
[balboha]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1475–1519)
|
| biography:
| Explorer, born in Jerez de los Caballeros, SW Spain. In 1511 he joined an expedition to Darién as a stowaway. Taking advantage of an insurrection, he took command, founded a colony at Darién, and extended Spanish influence into neighbouring areas. On one of these expeditions he climbed a peak and sighted the Pacific Ocean (1513), the first European to do so, and took possession for Spain. The governorship was granted in 1514 to Pedro Arias de Ávila, for whom Balboa undertook many successful expeditions, but after a disagreement in 1519 Balboa was beheaded. |
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