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Historical Background

The Spanish Conquistadors and Padres (continued)

DOWNFALL AND DEMISE

Although indeed continuous on the maps, the Spanish provinces were in no sense unified; each was a separate entity, having little political or economic connection with the others. Spanish claims in the present United States reached their maximum extent in the years between 1783 and 1803—when Spain's dominion stretched from Florida to California in one vast empire. In 1763, by the Treaty of Paris, Spain had lost Florida but 1 year earlier she had gained western Louisiana. In 1783, the treaty ending the American War for Independence restored Florida to her domain.

Surprisingly, Spain's empire in the New World reached its acme long after Spain had begun to lose her dominance in Europe—a process set in motion by the defeat of her armada by the English in 1588. By international politics, not active colonization, she obtained Louisiana and regained Florida, then but a remnant of a once lively colony. In the vast territory of Louisiana, Spanish control rested lightly on already existing French institutions. Not until more than 3 years after Spain acquired the territory did she form even a superficial government, at New Orleans. By 1800, the settlements in Texas had dwindled to a few thousand persons. The little colony along the upper Rio Grande, in New Mexico, was as dormant as ever. Southern Arizona showed even fewer signs of life, and in California the last burst of Spanish energy quickly spent itself.

Wife of a Monterey soldier. From a drawing, in 1791, by Jose Cardero, a member of the Malaspina expedition. (Courtesy, Bancroft Library, University of California.)	A Monterey soldier. From a drawing, in 1791, by José Cardero, one of several artists on the Malaspina expedition. (Courtesy, Bancroft Library, University of California.)

In the 19th century, disintegration and dismemberment of the empire were rapid. In 1803, France regained Louisiana and immediately sold it to the United States. In 1810 and 1812, settlers in West Florida—a few French and Spanish but mostly newcomers from the United States—revolted and sought annexation by the United States. In 1818, Gen. Andrew Jackson, directly asserting U.S. interest in Florida, marched into West Florida and captured Pensacola. Because of these troubles and her inability to control the Florida Indians, Spain, in the Adams-Onis Treaty (1819), ceded Florida to the United States and obtained a delineation of the disputed Texas boundary.

At about the same time, came the greatest blow. Imbued with the ideas of the French Revolution—liberty, equality, and fraternity—and inspired by the example of U.S. independence to the north, Spain's own colonies in North and South America began breaking away early in the 19th century. When Mexico gained independence in 1821, she acquired the Spanish possessions of Texas, New Mexico (including most of present Arizona), and California. These areas grew as restive a few years later under the despotism that evolved in Mexico, as Old Mexico had grown under Spanish rule. Texas, colonized by many Anglo-Americans, gained independence in 1836, and 9 years later the United States annexed the Republic of Texas. New Mexico lay supine under the iron control of Manuel Armijo, a minion of the Mexican centralists, but California trembled for 15 years on the verge of open rebellion. When war broke out between the United States and Mexico in 1846, many residents of the Southwest welcomed the American troops as liberators. In 1848, by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the bulk of the old Spanish border lands passed to the United States. Then the Gadsden Purchase, in 1853, added a strip of land to southern Arizona and New Mexico.