Answer:
Hernando De Soto claimed all of the land drained by the Mississippi for Spain.
Explanation:
Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and Conquistador. He led the first white expedition to current US territories and first discovered the Mississippi River as white.
Born in the Extremadura region of Spain, he participated in the conquest of Central America on the part of Governor Pedrarias Davila. He joined the expedition of Francisco Pizarro, who conquered South America in the early 1530s, and became very wealthy, occupying Inca plunder. In 1539, De Soto embarked on the biggest expedition to the early Spanish colonies, and his great business extended to the southeastern United States in search of gold and the way to China. In 1542 he died on the bank of the current Mississippi River in Lake Village, Arkansas.
