32.8 America: a.d. 1701 to 1800  (Page 17/20)

The southwest and far west

West of the Mississippi whites and Indians alike were little affected by the American Revolution or the events leading up to it. The spread of horsemanship from the Spanish contact had worked a rapid transformation in the Great Plains, but this was only the beginning of a radical cultural adjustment to a nomadic life. (Ref. 139 ) Between 1720 and 1722 Mexican Spaniards occupied Texas, fearing loss of the territory to France. A mission was founded at San Antonio in 1718. Around 1700, using the horse, Comanches came out of Wyoming and fought against the Apaches first and then kept the Texas settlements in a permanent state of siege, after a big battle on the Red River in 1759. Spanish Governor Domingo Cabello listed the population of Texas in 1783 as 2,819 Spanish people. In the adjacent area of Louisiana, by 1797, American squatters made up nearly 1/2 of the population of 50,000. (Ref. 198 ) New Orleans had been founded about 1720 by Le Moyne de Bienville to control river traffic. After 1763, however, Spain controlled this area until the French Consulate forced its return to France in 1800.

Besides Texas and New Mexico, most of Colorado and Arizona, with slices of Utah, Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma, all belonged to Spain in an area called the Kingdom of New Mexico, by Madrid. White settlements were made chiefly along the Rio Grande River. Albuquerque was established in 1706, with Taos soon after and there were Spaniards about Pueblo, Colorado by 1750. There was extensive trade between that area and Chihuahua in old Mexico, some 600 miles south. In some years as many as 500,000 sheep were sent there. It is unfortunate that even the Franciscan priests treated the Indians as servants and serfs. In the 1770s almost 1700 Spaniards were killed by Apaches and Comanches, now teaming up against the white invaders. But the area continued to be populated, particularly after Governor de Anza persuaded the Comanches and Apaches to fight each other again instead of the Spaniards. The Utes joined forces with the Apaches. By 1799 the Spanish population in that area was 18,826. (Ref. 198 , 165 ) The Pima Indians

In the far west, Spain was also active both by land and by sea. The land between Mexico and California was mapped by Father Kino, who went overland to San Diego in 1769 and established missions in the Baja peninsula. The last great military expedition of the Spaniards came about in the 1750s when there were rumors that the Russians were going to take upper California (the state of California, today) and the Spanish considered this a part of New Spain. Actually the Russians were only chasing the sea otter, but King Carlos, of Spain, ordered out expeditions by land and sea to build a chain of forts and hold the California coast. With the military went priests and in particular one Father Serra, who built 21 missions, the main architectural legacy of Spain in California. He personally walked between 4,000 and 5,000 miles up and down the coast line, over mountains and deserts. The Spanish did bring oats, wheat, barley and oranges to America and refined the culture of maize. (Ref. 39 ) The earliest California missions were in San Diego, San Gabriel and San Luis Obispo, all established by 1773. In 1775 Don Bruno Heceta, sailing the "Santiago" found the Columbia River mouth, naming the river "Rio St. Roc". Spain had a settlement at Cape Medocino, about 130 miles north of San Francisco. (Ref. 63 The Presidio of San Francisco was founded by Bautista de Anza, subsequently the governor of New Mexico, in 1776. All overland routes from Mexico to California were interrupted in 1781, however, by bloody Yuma Indian rebellions. At the very end of the century (1792-1794) George Vancouver made three sea visits to California for Great Britain. (Ref. 198 )