Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
18
They were more tolerant of other reli-
gions, and less ruthless in their demands
and punishments.
ARRIVAL OF THE ANGLOS
In 1739,
the first French trade mission entered
Santa Fe, welcomed by the citizenry but
not by the government. For 24 years, until
1763, a black-market trade thrived
between Louisiana and New Mexico. It
ended only when France lost its toehold
on its North American claims during the
French and Indian War against Great Brit-
ain.
The Native Americans were more fear-
some foes. Apache, Comanche, Ute, and
Navajo launched repeated raids against
each other and the Rio Grande settlements
for most of the 18th century, which led
the Spanish and Pueblos to pull closer
together for mutual protection. Pueblo
and Hispanic militias fought side by side
in campaigns against the invaders. But, by
the 1770s, the attacks had become so sav-
age and destructive that the viceroy in
Mexico City created a military jurisdiction
in the province, and Gov. Juan Bautista de
Anza led a force north to Colorado to
defeat the most feared of the Comanche
chiefs, Cuerno Verde (“Green Horn”), in
1779. Seven years later, the Comanche
and Ute signed a lasting treaty with the
Spanish and thereafter helped keep the
Apache in check.
France sold the Louisiana Territory to
the young United States in 1803, and the
Spanish suddenly had a new intruder to
fear. The Lewis and Clark expedition of
1803 progressed unchallenged by the
Spanish government. But, in 1807, when
Lt. Zebulon Pike built a stockade on a Rio
Grande tributary in Colorado, he and his
troops were taken prisoner by Spanish
troops from Santa Fe. Pike was trans-
ported to the New Mexico capital, where
he was interrogated extensively, and then
to Chihuahua, Mexico. The report he
wrote upon his return was the United
States' first inside look at Spain's frontier
province.
At first, pioneering American mer-
chants—excited by Pike's observations of
the region's economy—were summarily
expelled from Santa Fe or jailed, and their
goods confiscated. But after Mexico gained
independence from Spain in 1821, traders
were welcomed. The wagon ruts of the
Santa Fe Trail soon extended from Mis-
souri to New Mexico, and from there to
Chihuahua. (Later, it became the primary
southern highway to California.)
As the merchants hastened to Santa Fe,
Anglo-American and French Canadian fur
trappers headed into the wilderness. Their
commercial hub became Taos, a tiny vil-
lage near a large pueblo a few days' ride
north of Santa Fe. Many married into
native or Hispanic families. Perhaps the
best known was Kit Carson (1809-68), a
sometime federal agent and sometime
scout whose legend is inextricably inter-
woven with that of the early Southwest.
In 1846, the Mexican-American War
broke out and New Mexico (which
included Arizona) became a territory of
the United States. There were several
causes of the war, including the U.S.
annexation of Texas in 1845, disagreement
over the international boundary, and
unpaid claims owed to American citizens
by the Mexican government. But foremost
was the prevailing U.S. sentiment of
“manifest destiny,” the belief that the
Union should extend “from sea to shining
sea.” Gen. Stephen Kearny marched south
from Colorado; on the plaza in Las Vegas,
New Mexico, he announced that he had
come to take possession of the area for the
United States. His arrival in Santa Fe on
August 18, 1846, went unopposed.
An 1847 revolt in Taos resulted in the
slaying of the new governor of New Mex-
ico, Charles Bent, but U.S. troops defeated
the rebels and executed their leaders. That
was the last threat to American sovereignty
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