By Keli Holt,
Last month, we began exploring New Mexican political history beginning with the first Spanish entrada of 1540. Marching alongside Spanish conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado were Spanish soldiers, Native nation allies from New Spain (Mexico), and Franciscan friars. While the soldiers were consumed with searching for riches, the friars established a mission system among the Native nations that they called Pueblos. Initially, some Pueblos were amenable to living in the missions, which provided protection from raids by nomadic nations, and access to technology and new animals, like the horse and pig, in return for Spanish dominion and Christianity. Spain’s goal was to convert the farming Pueblos into tax-paying Spanish citizens. When no gold was discovered in New Mexico, however, mission Pueblos were forced into labor for Spanish profit.
By 1542, the mission Pueblos discovered that accepting any part of Spanish culture meant the rejection of their own. As exploitation increased, the Pueblos rebelled, forcing Coronado and his soldiers to flee back to New Spain.
For the next 40 years, Spain was distracted, focused on extracting wealth from South and Central America. However, two short expeditions in 1581 and 1582 rekindled Spanish interest in New Mexico amid fresh rumors of riches. In 1598, Juan de Oñate received royal permission to officially colonize New Mexico. Unlike the later British and French colonies in North America, Spanish citizens required royal permission to immigrate. New Mexico thus never received large numbers of Spanish immigrants. Spain’s monarchs also kept the economy closed by forbidding any trade with Native nations outside the missions. The goal was to create self-sustaining profitable Christian missions in New Mexico on a skeleton budget.
Shepherding Natives into missions in New Mexico allowed Oñate and his successors to exploit their labor for their own personal benefit as well as the crown’s (the encomienda system). Interestingly, Spain forbade any Spanish settlers, excepting the friars, from living in the missions. While it was trying to convert the Pueblos into Spanish citizens, it tried to keep the cultures separated.
Spain was also facing increased pressure from rival European empires, primarily France and England. They appeared in North America, first in Quebec in 1607 and then in Jamestown in 1608. Neither France nor England ever accepted the Papal Bull of 1493, which had divided the “New World” between Spain and Portugal. While Spain used the pope’s edict as direct authorization to politically control the entire New World, the English and French begged to differ. Fearing their European rivals would prey on Spanish gold and silver ships, Spain decided to enlarge its settlements in New Mexico and Florida (Spain’s other tenuous American foothold). Controlling New Mexico would protect the silver mines of New Spain, while Florida would protect Spanish shipping from European rivals, which the infamous Englishman Francis Drake (among others) had made a habit of seizing en route to Europe.
The friars also pressured the Spanish monarchs to create larger, permanent settlements in New Mexico by arguing that it was their duty to minister to recently converted Natives. The combined economic pressures to protect Spanish shipping and Mexican silver mines, and the religious pressure to convert Natives led to further Spanish investments in New Mexico throughout the 1600s.
As more Spaniards came to New Mexico (although never close to the numbers of English settling the 13 colonies), the demands on mission nations increased drastically. This was also a period of drought, further increasing competition for scarce resources among the Spanish, Pueblos, and nomadic Native nations. When many Pueblos returned to local customs to alleviate the drought, the friars harshly punished what they saw as apostasy. By 1680, the Pueblos united, revolted, and forced all Spaniards to retreat to what is now El Paso, Texas.
For 13 years, El Paso served as the capital of New Mexico. During that time the French inched closer as they trapped and traded furs with Native nations from their base in Quebec, down through the Midwest. Seeing French incursions as a direct threat to their lucrative silver mines in Mexico, Spain brutally reconquered New Mexico in 1693 to serve as a buffer zone against future European threats.
However, as Native nations gained access to horses and guns from the French and English who had no qualms about trading with Native nations, the balance of power was greatly reconfigured. Spanish settlers and the Pueblos now faced a common threat: raids by mounted and armed nomadic nations like the Navajo, Utes, and Apaches. To secure the allegiances of the mission Pueblos, Spain eased its demands on labor, relaxed suppression of Native religions, and ended the encomienda system (the system of aristocrats exploiting New Mexico as their personal fiefdoms). No longer could Spain exploit mission nations with impunity.
In the November issue we will explore Spain’s evolving policies as it faced an exploding English population on the East Coast, French forays toward New Mexico, and raids by powerful Native nations.
