beyond the eastern edge of the
Caribbean, foreign powers carved out
colonies on the northern coast of South
America, colonies that developed into
the modern nations of Guyana (a former
British colony) and Suriname (a former
Dutch colony) and the French overseas
department of French Guiana. All this
trespassing on what was once considered
an exclusively Spanish colonial domain
boded poorly for continued Spanish
dominance in the New World.
THE SPANISH
BORDERLANDSSoon after the Spanish settled in Florida,
they also settled in another part of what
is now the United States: the Southwest.
To them it was the far north of New
Spain. By the end of the Spanish colonial
era, far northern territories claimed by
Spain included all or part of what are
now California, Arizona, New Mexico,
Texas, Nevada, Utah, Colorado,
Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
Despite these grandiose claims, these
territories were thinly populated by the
Spanish, and in many areas Native
Americans continued their ancient ways
unmolested by Spain. Other European
powers contested Spanish claims and
encroached on their colonies, particular-
ly in Texas. The area was a frontier, a
region at the edge of an expanding
state—or, as many historians now prefer
to call it, a borderlands area, a region
where boundaries are contested or ill
defined and different cultures are cohab-
iting. Within these borderlands were
some thriving Spanish colonial commu-
nities, particularly Santa Fe, New
Mexico; San Antonio, Texas; and San
Diego, California.
New Mexico
The first Spanish explorer to enter what is
now the state of New Mexico was Álvar
Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, the shipwrecked
survivor of Narváez’s ill-fated Florida
expedition (1528–1536) who walked
across Texas and New Mexico before
returning to New Spain. After him, in
search of the legendary riches of the Seven
Cities of Cíbola, came Francisco
Coronado, whose overland expedition
from Mexico (1540–1542) reached pres-
ent-day Arizona, New Mexico, Texas,
Oklahoma, and Kansas. The Coronado
expedition encountered such wonders as
the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River
but no wealthy empires. The fabled
Cíbola turned out to be only the pueblos,
or adobe villages, of the Zuni people.
For several decades, Spain lost all
interest in the territory. But as New Spain
grew, and its northern frontier expanded as
far as Santa Bárbara, Mexico, soldiers and
missionaries again became curious about
what lay beyond the Rio Grande. Spain’s
strategic interest increased when England’s
first successful circumnavigation of the
globe was completed (1577–1580) by
none other than the privateer Sir Francis
Drake, who explored the California coast
as far north as present-day San Francisco
and claimed the region for England.
Whatever the lands north of Mexico con-
tained, Spain did not want England to
possess them.
Beginning in the 1580s, several small
expeditions reconnoitered the region they
called Nueva México, “New Mexico.”
Beginning in 1598, Juan de Oñate (ca.
1550–ca. 1630) set forth from Mexico
with a royal contract to settle the region
and renew the search for precious metals.
He founded San Juan de los Caballeros,
near present-day Santa Fe, in 1598. For
abuses against the Native Americans, he
was dismissed as governor in 1607. His
successor, Pedro de Peralta, founded the
new provincial capital of Santa Fe in 1610.
Nearly 2,000 miles from Mexico City,
this far northern outpost of New Spain
had little to attract settlers, and it grew
slowly as a farming and ranching commu-
nity, with missions to indoctrinate the
Pueblo in the Catholic faith. As usual, the
Native Americans got the worst of it,
pressed into servitude by various mecha-
nisms and whipped or murdered on the
slightest pretext. In 1680, Spanish abuse
prompted a Native American rebellion
known as the Pueblo Revolt, led by a
Tewa shaman of the San Juan Pueblo
named Popé and supported by the Hopi,
the Zuni, and the people of Acoma.
Wanting to restore their old religion and
drive out the Spanish, the Pueblo
destroyed the missions, killed 400
Spanish, and forced out the rest. For
more than a decade, the Pueblo occupied
Santa Fe. But the Spanish returned inSPAIN IN THE AMERICAS 53