down the Spanish flag, explained his peo-
ple’s silence at the ceremony by saying:
“They do not cheer because they are
unused to independence.”Under Spain the Far North had been
divided into the provinces of Alta
California, New Mexico, and Texas,
though the boundaries between those76 ATLAS OF HISPANIC-AMERICAN HISTORY
The Santa Fe and Spanish Trails, 1822–1829
In 1792, Pedro Vial crossed the Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado territories, thus forging the first European trail connecting Santa Fe,
New Mexico, with St. Louis. Only in the 19th century, however, would the significance of this journey become realized. In 1821,
American merchant William Becknell led a string of pack mules from Franklin, Missouri, in the United States to Santa Fe, New
Mexico, thus inaugurating the Santa Fe Trail. For the next 20 years, wagon caravans would leave Independence, Missouri, each
spring carrying goods—and Anglo traders—to Santa Fe. In time, a shortcut known as the Cimarron Cutoff was blazed. However,
the cutoff crossed 60 miles of waterless plain before reaching the Cimarron River. Travelers on the Cimarron Cutoff were also more
vulnerable to attacks by Native Americans than were those taking the longer, more mountainous route. Once in Santa Fe, the trail
joined up with what became known as “The Spanish Trail,” a route to California that had initially been blazed by Father Silvestre
Vélez de Escalante and Father José Juan Domínguez in 1776, before being completed by Antonio Armijo in 1829.