There are numerous signs of the presence of Spain on the North American continent. Place names cover the land from Florida to California. Cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Fe, El Paso, San Antonio, Pensacola, and St. Augustine are built on the foundations of presidios, missions and pueblos of the original Spanish settlers. Spain's contributions have been especially large in the area of farming and ranching, including the livestock the Spanish brought to the New World; horses, burros, cattle, sheep, goats and pigs; and plants such as alfalfa and a variety of fruits, including grapes. The cattle industry, including the development of the vaquero, had its inception with the Spanish.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus made his first voyage to the New World. 1492 was a year of tremendous upheaval in Spain. The Spanish conquered Grenada and expelled the last of the Moors, the conclusion of 800 years of warfare in Spain. The monarchy was consolidated in the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. There was triumph as well as tragedy, for in 1492 Jews were expelled from Spain by order of Isabella; as many as 50,000 may have been burned by the inquisition, and as many as 150,000 expelled to Turkey, The Netherlands, and Portugal. Religions other than Roman Catholicism were recognized in Spain only in 1990.

With Columbus' return from the "New World" in 1493 and news of new "discoveries," the Catholic Church became involved, settling a dispute between Portugal and Spain. Pope Alexander divided the New World in the Treaty of Tordesillas, giving part to Portugal and part to Spain. In 1493, Columbus set out on his second voyage, which lasted three years. This expedition was composed of 17 ships and 1,200 men. Columbus encountered Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Jamaica. While in the Virgin Islands on November 14, 1493, some of Columbus' crew experienced the first hostile encounter with American Indians. When he returned to La Navidad, the settlement he had created on December 26, 1492 and manned with 39 of his sailors, it had been burned and all his men were presumed dead.

There were many impacts of Columbus' first contact with peoples who were unaware of the existence of Europe. Cultural exchanges included:

About 200 common words in English have been adapted from Native American languages; about 80 from North American Languages. Altogether, 2,200 words in the English dictionary are American Indian in origin. These words include, from the Taino alone: Canoe, Tobacco, Barbecue, Hammock, Maize, Yucca, Paw Paw [Papaya], Tuna [Edible fruit of cactus], Cayman, Savannah, Hurricane [God; shared with the Mayan language], Carib [Cannibal], and Manatee.

Natural resources were carried back to Europe, such as gold, silver, copper, and other minerals; corn, beans, squash, tapioca, cocoa, tomatoes, potatoes, fur, and timber. Meanwhile, the Spanish brought horses, cattle, pigs, sugar cane, wheat, and metal goods to the Americas.

There were negative impacts as well. Between 1492 and 1514, as a result of disease and persecution, the native Taino population of the Island of Hispaniola shrank from an estimated 8 million to 28,000. By 1560, the Taino were extinct. Today there are only 3,000 full-blooded Caribs living. Pre-Columbian population figures of the Carib people are unknown. Europeans caused extinctions of six native bird species, 34 mammals and 10 reptiles in the Caribbean.

By 1950, 85% of the population of the Americas was from Europe; this is the greatest legacy of the Columbian exchange.

During the 1500s, there were 320 major expeditions to the New World. The frontier had changed direction from north-south to east-west. The new business opportunities and trade generated caused the rise of the merchant class, and the drift of the population to the cities of Europe, which became manufacturing centers. The balance of political power shifted and became a concern for the first time among the Christian nations. This constant effort to preserve a "balance of power", which can be seen in terms of economic preservation as well, continued in a series of progressively bloody wars between nations from the 1500s to the present. Our lives today are still heavily affected by the legacy of 500 years of colonialism touched off by Columbus.

In the year 1500 Pedro Alvarez Cabral claimed Brazil for Portugal. By 1503 African slaves were being imported to the Americas, and legislation was passed against runaway slaves, prohibiting them from living in Indian communities. Native Americans were not particularly exploitable as slaves, since they died very quickly in captivity; so Africans were brought in to do the work. In 1513 Balboa crossed Panama and claimed the Pacific Ocean for Spain. That same year Ponce de Leon landed in Florida. In 1519 Magellan circumnavigated the globe, while Cortes entered Tenochtitlan, Mexico. Alonso Alvarez de Pineda explored the Gulf Coast, encountering the mouth of the Mississippi River. In 1526 the first African slaves were brought to what is now the U.S. by a Spanish expedition to Florida. Spanish slavery was different from that which the English later employed. The Spanish system was taken from Roman law. Slaves had the right to own property, and were allowed to work for themselves on feast days and holidays, earning money which they could use to eventually buy their freedom. Their slavery was not perpetual bondage, and they had access to the courts and to the church. The English employed a system of chattel slavery, and considered people as property; these people had little hope for freedom under the law.

Colonialism comes from the Latin word COLONOS. These were farmers in the Roman Empire who were sent out beyond the boundaries to settle and start farms. When the Empire moved forward and caught up with the Colonos, they were able to impose their sovereignty over the entire region. In Pre-Columbian America, the Incas and Aztecs used the same system.

One of the most extreme examples of colonial rivalry was that between the British and the Spanish. By 1585 privateering had reached intolerable levels. Sir Francis Drake burned Santo Domingo, sacked Cartagena, and attacked St. Augustine. King Philip II of Spain, with reduced resources, mounted the Spanish Armada, which was defeated by Britain in 1588.

THE SPANISH FRONTIERS

Once begun on their track of exploration, conquest and administration, the Spanish found that owning a vast empire came at a price. Constant challenges to Spanish authority and claims came from Native American tribes and European powers like England, France, Portugal and Russia. The Spanish found that several specific areas of their empire became established, often unconnected by easy overland routes to one another. The frontiers described below only encompass areas now within the Continental United States. Of course, Spain also administered important colonies in Mexico, the Caribbean, Columbia, Chile and Peru.

The Florida Frontier - St. Augustine was established in reaction to French Huguenot Colony at Fort Caroline [1565]. The first permanent city in what is now the U.S. was founded as direct result of colonial competition. Spain claimed all of New World, up both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America. Florida was important as a defensive area.

The New Mexico Frontier - The first settlement was in 1598, north of El Paso. Santa Fe was founded in 1610. By 1620 (when the "Pilgrims" landed at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts), there were about 50 families living in Santa Fe, (25-30 people in each household). It was a remote outpost on the frontier. A civil Governor served a 4-5 year term; ecclesiastics, on a salary of 300-350 pesos a year from the Spanish crown, had three year assignments; some stayed longer. The Office of the Inquisition was also present. These three ruling groups never got along with one another.

By 1680, there were 2500 hispanics in all of New Mexico, along with about 15,000 Christianized Indians. The Spanish authorities often functioned as the administrators of indigenous, settled people. Taxes were never successful in New Mexico, with Hispanic settlers or the tribes. Native Americans used "creative accounting" to reduce their amounts of tribute. Salt mined in New Mexico was used in the silver rendering process, and was sent south in carretas 800 miles to Zacatecas, Mexico. Elk hides were used for cordage. Trade, especially with Native American groups, was heavy. Missions and mission schools attempted to convert Native Americans, to make them good Spanish citizens, and to create a solid outpost of loyal Spanish subjects on the frontier.

By 1668, the Governor at Santa Fe and the Chief Ecclesiastic actually got along with one another. They began to interfere in the lives of the indigenous people. They closed down kivas and burned katchinas. The weather turned bad; a couple of years passed with no harvests. Plains tribes, such as the Apaches, were also low on food due to the weather and began to raid Santa Fe and other Spanish settlements. In 1680, a Native American alliance led by an Indian named Popé struck hard and quick at the Spanish, driving them from New Mexico. This was the only completely successful Indian revolt against European authority in history. Interestingly enough, within a year the Native American confederation broke down, but communities set up a system based on what the Spanish had taught, a system with a bureaucracy. In 1692 the Spanish returned under Diego de Vargas to "reconquer" New Mexico.

After the Pueblo revolt, New Mexico became a true buffer zone, especially against the French, who had settled along the Mississippi River. There was a reduction in the authority of the Church, and a greater tolerance of Pueblo religions. Pueblo lands were protected by the government, preventing encroachment by new settlers. The area of major silver production shifted from Peru to Mexico in the early 1700s.

Texas and the Great Plains - An offshoot of New Mexico, the Spanish explored the region in 1519, finding an inhospitable land and hostile Indians. Cabeza de Vaca saw the Great Plains in 1536, and gave the Spanish their first description of the buffalo. In 1540, Coronado was amazed by the vastness of the Great Plains - they seemed endless. Robert de La Salle founded a French colony at Matagorda Bay, called "St. Louis," 1684. The colony failed due to disease and Indian attack. Spain shifted its attention to Texas, and six land expeditions were sent out by the Spanish to locate this French colony and destroy it. Finally found in 1689; few survivors. In 1690, the first of the Texas missions was founded by De Leon expedition. French threat ends only with conclusion of Seven Years War in 1763.

The Louisiana Frontier - The Louisiana Frontier was begun and named by the French, but later administered by the Spanish for a period of 40 years. In 1673 French explorers Marquette and Joliet reached the headwaters of the Mississippi River, and descended it to the mouth of the Arkansas River with a seven man corps. In 1682 Robert De La Salle traveled down the Mississippi to its mouth, and claimed it for France. LaSalle's unsuccessful St. Louis colony at Matagorda Bay in Texas lasted from 1684 to 1687 and promoted Spanish interest in securing Texas for themselves. In 1685 Henri Tonti established Arkansas Post for the French, and in 1699 the mission at Cahokia was founded. New Orleans was established in 1718. In 1719 French troops from Natchitoches, Louisiana (founded 1714), invaded East Texas, forcing the Franciscans to abandon their Spanish missions there. Spain drove the French out in 1721. [England and France were at war with Spain from 1718 to 1729].

Knowing they would lose the Seven Years War [French and Indian War] by 1762, the French ceded Louisiana west of the Mississippi to the Spanish. The Spanish administered Louisiana for 40 years, up to 1804. This situation was extremely advantageous to the Spanish, as they wanted a buffer zone between the Anglos and the silver mines of New Spain. Defense was difficult due to distance, difficulty of the terrain and hostile Native Americans. Louisiana under the Spanish was governed with this power structure:

The Louisiana frontier was a geopolitical, economic and defensive frontier. The first Spanish Governor, Ulloa, was a world-class intellectual. Unpopular, he was forced out of New Orleans by the Creole French, and returned to Havana with less than 100 men. In 1769 Count Alexandre O'Reilly (an Irish-born civil servant working for Spain) was sent back to New Orleans with 2,000 Spanish troops to restore order. He arrested members of the 1768 revolt, and executed five of the ringleaders. Amnesty was granted to the remainder. O'Reilly reorganized the colony, and his Code O'Reilly set up Parish divisions. Luis de Unzaga, who succeeded O'Reilly, was Governor for seven years. Franco-Spanish cooperation and sense of community was engendered under Ungaza. He closed the border to the Anglos, but helped the U.S. in its revolution against Britain, although he did not like "Republicans."

In 1777, Bernardo de Galvez became governor of Louisiana. Pro-American, he secretly sent supplies for the Rebels to Fort Pitt. George Rogers Clark received supplies from Galvez in New Orleans and Lt. Gov. Fernando DeLeyba in St. Louis, which served as the capital of Upper Louisiana. In 1779 Spain, after years of covert help to the American cause, entered the war against England as an ally of France. De Galvez reinforced St. Louis, and attacked and reduced British posts on the lower Mississippi. By 1780, Spain had complete control of the Mississippi. Galvez took Mobile in 1780, and Pensacola in 1781. His army was supplied with beef from the San Antonio and La Bahia missions in Texas. By 1781, British power in the western theater of the American war had been nullified.

In 1783, with the end of the American War for Independence, the Mississippi River became the boundary between the United States and Spanish territory. Governor Esteban Miro [1782-1791] noted U.S. migration westward, and allowed settlement in Spanish territory if people pledged themselves to Spain and the Catholic Church. Miro wanted to create a buffer zone in Louisiana, even if he had to drum up citizens from Non-Spanish cultures to do it. In 1796, Spain declared war on Great Britain. In 1800, Spain ceded Louisiana to France, but continued to administer the area. In 1802 the Spanish revoked the right of deposit at New Orleans for the Americans, prompting President Jefferson to try to buy Louisiana from the French. The 1803 Louisiana Purchase ended Spanish administration of the colony, although Spanish officials lingered into late 1804.

Between 1804 and 1806, the Spanish tried to intercept Lewis and Clark; at one point their troops were within 100 miles of the American camp. The Spanish feared that Lewis and Clark would penetrate their territories near Santa Fe, and perhaps find the location of their lucrative silver mines in Mexico. In the winter of 1806, a Spanish expedition of 300 men and 600 horses, led by Facundo Malgardes, went out onto the Great Plains with the purpose of initiating trade with the plains Indians, to try to quell intertribal warfare and to prevent raids on Santa Fe. Zebulon Montgomery Pike and his American expedition, lost in a snowstorm, found and followed the track of Malgardes. Malgardes arrested Pike north of Taos, a trespasser on Spanish soil.

In 1810 a movement began in Mexico for independence from Spain. By 1821 the Republic of Mexico was established. The Mexicans sought three basic liberties: Political Independence, Religious Independence, and the Union of disparate areas. They also abolished slavery. Between 1833 and 1855, Mexico had 55 presidents. With the new government in place in Mexico, the American trader William Becknell was able to open the trade route later called the Santa Fe Trail, between Santa Fe and St. Louis. This route had already existed for many years, but was not used during the years after the United States took over Louisiana.

The California Frontier - The California Missions represent a typical form of colonization and settlement used by the Spanish. The missions were established along the Camino Real (King's Highway) from San Diego to San Francisco and north to Sonoma. They formed a chain of missions located a "stiff day's march" (30 miles - the "march" was on horseback) apart from one another. These missions established Spain's claim to Alta (Upper) California. This claim was urgent in the mid-18th century, for although Spain had claimed this territory since the early 1500s, it was barely explored, there were no Spanish colonies or settlers there, and Russian fur traders were rapidly proceeding down the California coast in search of sea otter furs. By 1812, the Russians established Fort Ross just 80 miles north of San Francisco Bay. Establishing missions seemed to be a quick way to colonize and hold the area for Spain. Eventually there were 21 missions in the chain along the Camino Real, which was similar to an earlier chain of 14 missions set up along the Baja California coast by the Jesuit priest Father Kino. Colonial settlement was developed under close cooperation between the military and the clergy. Sometimes, as in Mexico, the acquisition of territory was a military conquest, consolidated under the clergy and later given over to civil authority. In some areas, like California, the Indians were thought to be "docile," so the clergy opened the frontier with only a military escort. More>

The Spanish Empire, once huge and encompassing nearly all of North and South America, was reduced during the early 19th century to a few small colonies, primarily in the Caribbean. Revolutions swept Spanish territories, and the overextended Spanish Army was powerless to prevent them. During 400 years of rule, the Spanish made many lasting contributions in language, religion, political administration, laws, and other areas of endeavor. Although their empire was never populated with large numbers of Spaniards, they were able to colonize and missionize native populations to create Spanish citizens from Native Americans and even former African slaves. Spanish colonies were "melting pots" where there was a great deal of intermarriage between a polyglot population. The final and most lasting legacy of Spanish exploration and rule is seen in the faces of the inhabitants of North and South America.