Spanish Settlement Before Creation of the U.S.

Because its national borders are relatively recent creations, the U.S. now contains territories that formerly were inhabited and controlled by centuries-old Spanish-origin populations. Despite the legend of Thanksgiving, American colonial history did not actually begin in Jamestown or at Plymouth Rock. More exactly, by the time that Pilgrims settled in Plymouth in 1620, the Spanish city of Santa Fe in this country’s southwest was celebrating its first decade. Hence, Hispanics were this country’s earliest European settlers. Beginning in the 1500’s, Spanish colonization took place throughout the southern tier of this country in areas that later became part of the U.S. Spanish settlements were developed along the Gulf coast and Florida peninsula, and throughout the southwest of today’s U.S. Thus, Hispanics have deeper roots in North America than other groups with European backgrounds that settled in this country.

Florida

Florida was where exploration of our country began. Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed along the Florida coast in April of 1513 in search of the “Fountain of Youth.” After claiming the territory in the name of the Spanish crown, he named it La Florida in tribute to Spain’s Easter celebration known as “Pascua Florida,” or Feast of Flowers. He returned to Florida in 1521. Due to the attacks of native tribes, he was unsuccessful in establishing a colony.

Expeditions led by explorers Panfilo de Narvaez in 1528, and by Hernando de Soto in 1539, provided new information about the interior of La Florida, including its native people. Spanish galleons (Spanish sailing ships) began arriving bringing conquistadores (Spanish conquerors), priests and map makers.

In September of 1565, Spanish admiral and explorer Pedro Menendez de Aviles established the settlement of St. Augustine which became the first non-native American city. The city was the key to Spain’s hold on the Florida coast as Spaniards fought the French and British for control of the New World. St. Augustine also served as the base from which Catholic priests began building missions throughout Florida in order to convert the native population and other residents of the region.

St. Augustine is the oldest continually inhabited city in America. While under Spanish rule which lasted for more than two hundred years, the first Catholic Mass celebrated in what is now the U.S. took place in St. Augustine in 1569. By the beginning of the 1600s, Spain claimed an area of roughly 1,000 square miles in Florida. Construction of the Castillo de San Marcos was completed in St. Augustine by 1695, making it the oldest stone fortification in the U.S.

Florida was under Spanish rule until 1763. Following its defeat by England in the Seven Years’ War, Spain gave up control of Florida to the British according to the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1763.

The British ruled the land for the next 20 years until the end of the American Revolution. Spain had joined American revolutionaries and France in the war against the British. “There were more Spaniards fighting in the U.S. Revolution than Americans.” They went as far north as Illinois, not for purposes of conquest, but to engage in combat with the British. The Spanish gave more money than the French to support the American Revolution. Spanish forces led by General Bernardo de Gálvez defeated British troops in the battle of Pensacola in 1781. As a result, Spain regained control of Florida according to the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1783.

With the departure of the British from Florida, Spanish colonists returned to the area. Due to favorable Spanish rules for the purchase of land, many people from the newly formed U.S. became residents. Florida also became a safe haven for escaped slaves, a place where their U.S. masters had no authority and were unable to recapture them. Over the next approximately 40 years, migration from the U.S. transformed Florida from a predominantly Spanish region to an increasingly more ’American‘ territory. Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821 according to terms of the Adams-Onís Treaty. Spain’s willingness to cede Florida followed several official and unofficial U.S. military expeditions into the territory.

In 1822, Joseph Marion Hernandez was elected to Congress as a territorial delegate, making him the first Hispanic to serve in that legislative body. Florida became the 27th state in the U.S. on March 3, 1845.

America’s Southwest

Spanish conquistadors landed in present-day Mexico in 1519. Following the conquest of the Aztec empire’s capital, Tenochtitlan, and the capture of its leader, Emperor Montezuma II, in 1521, the Kingdom of New Spain was officially created. For more than two centuries Spain governed much of the American south and the entire southwest, a territory equal to at least half of the present U.S. mainland.

In 1598, Juan de Oñate led 400 settlers, soldiers, and missionaries from Mexico into Spanish New Mexico. He established the first town in New Mexico at San Juan Pueblo. Conquistador Don Pedro de Peralta began a settlement in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains called Santa Fe in 1607. Between 1607 and 1610, Santa Fe became the first permanent European settlement in the Southwest, the oldest capital city in North America, and America’s second oldest city.

Because the region was far from Mexico City and the environment of the Southwest was dry and hostile, barely 3,000 colonists settled there. Consequently, except for exploiting the local Puebloan population, the Spanish did not have a commanding presence in the region. Government officials, merchants and a few trappers and hunters from the U.S. lived in small settlements, mostly around a series of mission churches.

Following numerous military expeditions throughout the southern and western half of North America, Spain began an evangelistic strategy to colonize the region. The spread of Catholicism was used as religious justification for Spanish wars of conquest. Missionaries, most of whom were members of the Franciscan religious order, started establishing missions along the Rio Grande in the 17th century. Spanish friars, notably Junipero Serra (regarded as “The Father of the California Missions”), established monasteries along the California coast from San Diego to Monterrey in the 18th century. In 1769, a group of settlers and missionaries led by Gaspar de Portola settled in the area that in 1781 was founded as the city of Los Angeles under Spanish governor Felipe de Neve.

Unfortunately, Spanish rule throughout its colonies was marked by particularly horrific consequences for indigenous peoples. The introduction of disease to which native inhabitants had no immunity caused sickness and death. Violence often was a means to suppress what Spaniards considered religious heresy and idolatry practiced by Native Americans. Torture, maiming, and brutal enslavement of indigenous peoples were practices used throughout Spanish colonies. In 2020, statues commemorating Father Serra were pulled down by people protesting the treatment of Native Americans who were brutalized by evangelists in California missions.

In 1848, land that ultimately became the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming was deeded to the U.S. by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War. Mexico also gave up all claims to Texas and, under the terms of the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, recognized the Rio Grande as America’s southern boundary. With two strokes of a pen, the U.S. acquired about one-third of its present territory. And almost overnight tens of thousands of Mexican citizens became residents of the U.S. with new rights to their property. However, despite these guarantees, Mexican Americans, especially those living in Texas, suffered widespread social and economic discrimination. Until the Civil Rights era in the 1960s, segregated schools, churches and residential neighborhoods were prominent features of Mexican American communities.

Distinct subgroups of Hispanic residents in the Southwest. have emerged. Those who lived in New Mexico and southern Colorado were called “Hispanos.” Hispanic Texas residents became known as “Tejanos,” and California’s Spanish-origin residents were named “Californios.” To this day, cultural differences between Tejanos and Californios exist as spoofed in this humorous video.

The Special Case of Puerto Rico

As a result of the Spanish-American War, Spain turned over its last colony, Puerto Rico, to the U.S. in the Treaty of Paris of 1898. Having been annexed by the U.S., Puerto Ricans became immigrants in a country that already claimed them as residents.

The population of U.S. citizens of Hispanic descent was expanded when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Jones-Shafroth Act in 1917. The Act granted U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans and created a legislative structure for the island territory consisting of a Senate and House of Representatives. This Congressional action occurred when the U.S. was about to enter World War I. Importantly, it provided America with a stronghold in the Caribbean and permitted Puerto Ricans to join the U.S. Army. As a result, 20,000 Puerto Ricans were drafted to serve in the war, many of whom were stationed to protect the Panama Canal. As U.S. citizens Puerto Ricans may travel to the mainland at will, and many have migrated over the years.

In 1948, Puerto Ricans began electing governors. A constitution providing for internal self-government was enacted in 1952. Nevertheless, Puerto Rico remains an unincorporated territory of the U.S. that is neither a sovereign nation nor a U.S. state. Statehood for Puerto Rico has been a controversial issue of longstanding concern. In 2023, the U.S. Congress began considering a bill to grant statehood, thereby affording Puerto Ricans full representation in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and providing the right to vote in presidential elections.