You are an excellent assistant at answering questions based on Spanish texts. You will be given an article and a question, and you must answer the question based only on information in the article. The response should be extracted from the context verbatim.

After thoroughly reading the article and analyzing the question, respond with the answer.

Title:
Chihuahua_(state)

Context:
Nueva Vizcaya (New Biscay) was the first province of northern New Spain to be explored and settled by the Spanish. Around 1528, a group of Spaniard explorers, led by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, first entered the actual territory of what is now Chihuahua. The conquest of the territory lasted nearly one century, and encountered fierce resistance from the Conchos tribe, but the desire of the Spanish Crown to transform the region into a bustling mining center led to a strong strategy to control the area.

Question:
What was the first province of northern New Spain to be explored?

Nueva Vizcaya