Spanish Borderlands of the Eighteenth Century

1. Spanish Borderlands of the Eighteenth Century By: Nicole Cabrera and PatyPadron

2. Introduction • There is a large misconception of Spanish influence in North America. • We only know of the Spanish as conquistadores and when they conquered Mexico, they seemed to have distanced from the continent after that time.

3. Continued… • This is not true because they left a large imprint in the American Southwest. • They struggled to control their settlements but Europeans mixed them with people from other races and created multi-cultural societies.

4. Conquering the Northern Frontier • In the late 1500’s, Juan de Oñate led Spanish settlers to establish European communities north of Rio Grande. • These pueblos resisted invasion from many people such as soldiers, colonists and missionaries. • In 1680, El Popé led the natives to drive the whites out of New Mexico. • But in 1692, the Spanish were able to conquer the area again.

5. Continued… • The governor of Cuba said that only hoodlums and the mischievous go there because of the horror it has painted. • California received little attention because of lack of natural resources, the distance from Mexico City, and the Indians who lived there. • Fear than Russians may conquer, made the Spanish gain activity, but two servants of empire made missions and forts in San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Monterey.

6. Peoples of the Spanish Borderlands • Spanish outposts developed very slowly in North America. • Indian attacks ad harsh environmental conditions discouraged colonists to travel to the Northern provinces and few catholic priests and imperial administrators went. • The migrants were mostly male soldiers and since there were few European women at the frontier, the men had to mix with the Indian women, mixing the race.

7. Continued… • Native American cultures were changed and different than their relationship with the British. • The Spanish abused of Native American labor, lived in close proximity to the natives, considered the natives as the lowest social class, and pressured them to convert into Catholicism.

8. Continued… • The Spanish empire’s northern frontier was never fully secured due to lack of resources and they had small military posts which were supposed to scare away other powers to take their territory. • The architecture still show signs of early Spanish settlers and the old borderlands people are Spanish speakers to this day.

9. Learning to live with Diversity in the 1700’s • Social diversity was a debatable topic and it was not until recently that it’s viewed as good thing. • It was hard for the early Americans to deal with diversity, they wanted the foreigners to be like them and adapt to their culture and customs. They were afraid that they’d separate people from their English heritage.

10. Continued… • The migrants refused to change leading to conflict and they didn’t want to mix people outside their culture. The tension decreased little by little and at the end, the Americans realized that much of the success the country had was owed to the immigrants. • Even though the English were the first to settle, what made the country whole were also the people from the other parts of Europe.

11. The End 