Spain Chapter 7 Summary

CHAPTER 7

NEW SPAIN EXPANDS NORTH

1565

One of the first explorations of the New World by Spain was to the continent’s east coast. Ponce de Leon, who had accompanied Columbus on his second voyage, and appointed the first governor of Puerto Rico, set out to explore farther north. Landing on the mainland on Easter Sunday, he named the land La Pascua Florida, Spanish for Flowery Passover, meaning the Easter Season. He was so impressed that he laid plans to return and establish a settlement.

Sailing south along the Florida coast, he charted the rivers he found, passing around the Florida Keys and up the west coast of Flor-ida before returning to Puerto Rico.

In 1521 Ponce organized a colonizing expedition

of two ships, with 200 men, including priests, farmers and artisans, about 50 horses and other domestic animals, and farming implements, to establish America’s first European colony at Saint Augustine, named for Saint Augustine of Hippo.
One of his expedition’s officers, Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, spent nine years wandering through Florida to the Gulf Coast, eventually re-turning to Mexico and then back to Spain.

He wrote extensively of his travels inspiring Hernando De Soto’s expedition in 1539 covering much of the Gulf Coast. Another attempt at colonization on the west coast of Florida area by Tristan Arellano closed after two years. During these expeditions, the Spanish discovered the Gulf Stream current, soon used as the primary return route from the Caribbean to Spain.

Following several unsuccessful attempts to establish relations with the powerful and advanced nation of the Aztec, Spain in 1520 sent a small military force under Hernando Cortez who with the help of many enslaved native tribes, conquered the Aztec leader, Montezuma, restoring the destroyed capital, Tenochtitlan renaming it, Mexico City.

As far as Spain was concerned, its claims and boundaries were definitive. In the North, New Spain extended from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico with maps provided by their early explorations. This Northern line generally followed rivers flowing from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico. Along this line, New Spain con-structed a series of fifteen forts (called Presidios) similar to the forts built in New France along the rivers especially the Ohio and Missis-sippi Rivers that acted not only as garrisons protecting settlers in nearby towns but as trading

posts.

By this time, Spain was in firm control of the New World. A German mapmaker, in honor of the Italian explorer, Amerigo Ves-pucci, who sailed with Columbus and recognized the great land mass as a continent, gave it the name America. Cartographers now could prepare reliable maps of the coastline from Labrador to Tierra del Fuego.
Explorations in Mexico continued at full pace. Viceroy Men-doza appointed Francisco Vazquez de Coronado governor of New Ga-licia and gave him the commission to lead another expedition to the north. With some 300 soldiers and a number of friars, he discovered the Grand Canyon in 1540. During the following year, Coronado led the expedition through today’s Arizona, New Mexico, Arkansas, Kan-sas, Oklahoma and Texas, leaving settlers at several locations.
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a seasoned mariner born in Portugal, and distinguishing himself in the service of Spain, joined the Spaniards in New Spain. Viceroy Mendoza provided Cabrillo with two ships to sail from the recently established port of Acapulco in New Spain to explore northward along the Pacific Ocean. In September 1542, he sailed into the Bay of San Diego and later sailed north as far as San Francisco further extending claims of Spain in America.

Throughout the 1500s, under the brilliant leadership of King Philip II, Spain, starting in Mexico City advanced southward, steadily taking control of all of Central America moving into South America. Centered in Cuzco, Peru was the large population of the Incas, a native American nation even more advanced and highly developed than the Aztec and where the Emperor while authoritarian, built infrastructure and provided for the welfare of his people. The Inca were easily conquered by a small force under Francisco Pizarro in 1553. As eve-rywhere in the Americas, Spain the natives readily accepted the ad-ministrative techniques, culture, Christianity and inter-marriage promoted by the Spanish. By 1580, the city of Lima had fashionable homes and shops, a university, library and European cultural activities.
The native Americans lacked two of the most important attrib-utes of civilization - draft animals and milk producing animals, abun-dant in Europe and Spain began to immediately provide these to the settlers of New Spain. Methodically building cities, establishing laws, creating educational and art facilities, hospitals, instituting a national language (Spanish), bringing European Christianity, and most im-portantly inter-marrying with native populations, the Americas indeed were the New Spain.
Before England established its first settlement on the American continents at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, New Spain was a prospering, enormous country from the now greater Southwest of the United State through Mexico, all of Central America and all of South
America with the one exception - Brazil (a colony of Portugal) and to today these are still Spanish-speaking peoples. Additionally, many Caribbean Islands (e.g. Cuba and Puerto Rico) as well as the peoples of the Philippine Islands continue to speak Spanish.
How then did the United States become an English-speaking country?

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Francisco, grandson of Nuño Mariano of Mexico City, now 27, announced to his parents, Carlos and Theresa Mariano -
“Mama and Papa, we are leaving our home here and moving to St. Augustine in the New Spain Province of Florida”
Astounded and rather irritated Carlos said, “I cannot believe this is so. You have a good education and we are fortunate to have a large home here in Mexico City with servants and a garden and…”
“You are married but a few years, Francisco” interrupted his mother “with a lovely wife and son, my grandson, and you are going

to move so far away?”
“Yes, Mama, it is far but not as far as our family moved here from Spain. Maria and I have a venturesome spirit. We want to know what exciting life may exist in other places. Besides it is just too bloody hot here in the City.”
“St. Augustine is less than 25 years old. It does not have the structure, the roads or schools. I don’t believe that it is safe there ei-ther.”
“Papa, there is a good harbor and a large fort to protect the people if necessary and I have heard that crops grow very well and the few Indians living in those parts are very friendly and helpful. We will be there in the beginning and will be landowners and shopkeepers of the city, and best of all, Mama we will live by the great ocean with a lovely sea breeze. You can come to visit us and rest on the sandy beach. Wouldn’t you like that?”
“But what about your son, little Juan? He is only two years old.”
“Perhaps you will let me take one of the servants with us; per-haps Patna? She really loves Juan and she would be a great help to Maria.”
“Yes, yes, certainly.”
“Then you agree, Mama? Thank you. Thank you”
“Not so fast. Oh, Francisco, I will miss you all so much.”
“What do you say, Maria? You have been very quiet through all this. Do you want to put up with this craziness?” asked Carlos.
Maria smiled. “Yes, Father. I rather look forward to our ad-venture.”
“You would say that whether you believed it or not. Well I cannot agree that it is in your best interest, but I know that it is in our family’s blood and it would be no good to try to stop you. Via con Dios my little ones.”
With a heavy heart, Carlos called for a bottle of his finest Spanish wine.

At first, the departure of Francisco, his wife, Maria, their young son, Juan with their maid, Patna, to St. Augustine in Spanish Florida in 1587, left an empty feeling in the home of the Mariano family in Mexico City

The young Mariano family in Florida did well locating a place to live and with the money Carlos gave them, Francisco was able to establish a trading business in St. Augustine. Everything went well for three years until early one morning, loud explosions rocked the city. Ships carrying no national flag fired cannons at the fort, caught off guard but quickly manned the guns and returned fire. It was too late to avoid widespread damage and fires, but with a few fortunately accurate shots, managed some damage to the lead ship and prevented any landing. The ships turned away satisfied that they had all but destroyed the city.
The townspeople were thankful that the damage was not as bad as first thought and that their Church was untouched and so held a great Mass to thank God for his blessings.
It was not until later that St. Augustine had learned it had be-come a target of the marauding pirate, Francis Drake, who had been very successful in plundering treasure ships and Spanish possessions in New Spain. He was English and decided to turn over much of his booty to the English crown. Queen Elizabeth was most grateful as she had been quite upset and angry that Spain and now France were reaping great rewards in the Americas while England remained idle with no colonies or possessions in the new world. As a reward, the Queen appointed Drake an admiral in the English Navy and finally knighted him.
In addition to the city of St. Augustine, the Spanish continued to build missionary sites as far north as the Carolinas, the southernmost colony of the English.
From one year to the next, there were bombardments from English ships and attacks and threats from the Seminole tribes. As time rolled by, sieges and seizures from the Georgia English colony, invasion of French colonists on the border at the Mississippi River and toss in a hurricane from time to time made life unbearable for the Spanish colonists in St. Augustine. In all this turmoil and wars, records of the brave young family, Francisco and Maria Mariano and their son, Juan were lost.

Sometime during the 1630s, descendants of Joaquin Mariano (brother of Francisco who moved his family to St. Augustine, Florida) relocated with his family to the city of Santa Fe (New Mexico) settled by Spain at the same time as they founded St. Augustine, Florida, in the Northern provinces of New Spain where his progenies took root and thrived.

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During almost all of the 1500s, war engulfed Europe. Ostensibly, these wars were a result of the Reformation initiated by Martin Luther. As usual, wars were blamed on religion - “God is on my side” the other side is evil, but indeed the Reformation did produce overpowering change in all of Europe and its timing significantly affected the discoveries in the New World. Again, most of the time wars are the result of a desire for power and the envy between the “haves and have-nots.” The innocent are talked into to the destruction and are the ones who suffer the most. And so it was, in 16th century Europe as the Wars of Religion ignited.
The first major conflict, known as the Peasants’ War, no doubt named for all the poor serfs killed, began in 1524 by a large group of Princes and noblemen wanting more control of their fiefdoms and more freedom from the Holy Roman Empire. In the end, with some 100,000 people killed, mostly in Germany and Austria, little had changed.

In 1533, Henry VIII of England broke with the Catholic Church over his desire for divorce and numerous marriages. By 1565, after a series of revolts, uprisings and civil wars, England, Wales and Scotland settled into a Protestant Church of England. But this was not the end of religious strife in the British Isles.
However, England also had more internal problems and civil wars. The Protestant Parliament under Oliver Cromwell decided to rid Ireland of Catholicism. His scorched-earth policy during those four years succeeded in eliminating 30% of Ireland’s population, con-fiscating land and property for distribution among Parliament’s friends and English royalty. Cromwell was equally successful in squelching the rebellion in Scotland putting to rest any ideas of a separate nation-ality for the Scots.

Another revolt in the Holy Roman Empire at this time lasted until a peace accord was reached in 1555 where the nearly 300 German princes were allowed a form of independence choosing to have all the subjects in their estates be Lutheran or Catholic. Catholic King Francis of France and later his successor King Henry supported the revolt of the German Princes against the Emperor Charles V with both financial and military aid.
The aging Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, in 1555 divided his realm between Spain and Austria making his son, King Philip of Spain, ruler of Spanish America, the Italian provinces and the Low Countries as the Reformation introduced the Netherlands to Calvinism. Charles appointed his brother, Ferdinand as Emperor of the Germanic provinces. Anti-Catholic protests together with the desire to be rid of the foreign rule of Spain resulted in war. Although Spain maintained control of the southern provinces, the north formed an independent United Provinces called The Dutch Republic.
The wave of Lutheranism soon hit Denmark and a civil war over religion ended with defeat of the Catholics and Church lands confiscated. Now it became the turn for France to face wars from religious trouble as Calvinism became popular giving the House of Bourbon an opportunity to unseat the ruling House of Guise. In 1562, the two factions were at war. The Bourbon dukes were backed by Queen Elizabeth of England while the Spanish King Philip II support-ing the ruling House of Guise in 1588, sent the vaunted Spanish Ar-mada in an ill-fated attempt to attack England as part of a long series of wars, this time on French soil.
There were so many civil wars and treaties in France that historians named the conflicts The First War, then The Second War, until finally in 1589, The Eighth War ended. These wars resulted in a general degree of religious freedom to both Protestants and Catholics
Switzerland fought the same religious wars dividing the country into a patchwork of Protestant cantons and Catholic cantons.

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When a new generation of baby boys reached the age of sol-diers, Europe searched for new reasons to wage war. In 1618 Matthias, now Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire crowned his son Ferdinand, King of Bohemia and soon after, King of Hungary. In Bohemia Ferdinand was unpopular to say the least, and in the uprising deposed the King. Resentful of the ever-increasing power of the Hapsburg dynasty, the many princes of Germany as well as other rulers in Europe joined in the protests of the Bohemians. Before long most of the European powers became involved in what was to become a very long and devastating conflict known as The Thirty Years War. It was a struggle of local German princes backed by foreign powers such as France, Sweden, Denmark and England, against the unity of the Holy Roman Empire and the house of Hapsburg, which then ruled Spain, the Empire, Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, most of Italy, and the Southern Low Countries. Alliances shifted from time to time and local treaties made. A comprehensive treaty, the Peace of Westphalia, ended the fighting with a separate treaty that France and Spain signed. Germany was in ruins and starving. It lost almost half of its population and one-third of its towns and 18,000 villages destroyed as well as 2,000 castles. The Holy Roman Empire divided into more than a hundred different entities becoming a hollow shell. The house of Austria began its decline.

In these wars, there were many losers and few if any winners. The costs in lost lives and national treasure were enormous. The advantages that France and Spain had gained from their early explorations in the New World were not maximized and the ability of other European nations to colonize the new continent were placed on hold.

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A century later, between 1665 and 1700 Spain had lost two wars to France and now the new King Philip of Spain, had to fight a war with Austria and her new allies, the English, Dutch and Savoy.

Spain again lost, forcing Philip to give up Gibraltar and Minorca to Britain as well the Catholic Netherlands (Flanders and Luxembourg) and Spain’s Italian possessions to Austria. Spanish culture and domi-nance in the Netherlands ended along with Spain’s dream of becoming a European empire.

In the early 1700’s, Philip V, the grandson of King Louis XIV of France became the first Bourbon King of Spain and his appointment to the throne set off the War of the Spanish Succession ending with the Treaty of Utrecht that greatly reduced Spanish power. Further, Spain became involved in yet another war in attempting to regain the lost Spanish possessions in Italy submitting to the Quadruple Alliance in 1720. In the interests of the Bourbon dynasty, Spain once again became involved in one more conflict, the War of the Austrian Succession. Needless to state, Spanish power in Europe and the world declined dramatically, but somehow continue to grow in the New World. As late as 1775, Spain constructed a fort at the Presidio overlooking the entrance to San Francisco

Bay.
However, the damage was complete and Spain unable to ex-pand its influence, culture or language to the remaining regions of what was to become the United States of America.