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De Soto's expedition through what became the southeastern U.S. sighted many sophisticated and populous natives. However, disease and devastation in his wake were such that when explorers came a century later the area appeared to be a much less populated and much less sophisticated wilderness.

It is interesting that Mexico and Peru and other Spanish conquests saw mass die-offs, but that there were still native people and resources left to exploit and rebuild with.

What if the Spanish explorers of the southeast had found Appalachian gold enough to make permanent settlements and missions seem worthwhile? Could a large "Florida" east of the Mississippi and south of the Ohio have become a third pillar of the Spanish empire in the Americas, a source of mineral and then plantation wealth attracting decent numbers of Spaniards and leading to a mestizo people and culture that preserved more of a written and artistic record of the pre-contact cultures than survived in OTL?
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