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Contreras

CALIFORNIA AND THE SOUTHWEST

Page 356-359

The entire

southwest

belonged to

Mexico in the

1840s.New

Mexico Territory included Arizona,

New Mexico,

all of Nevada,

and Utah, and

parts of Colorado.

New Mexico Territory

Santa Fe

Juan de Onate claimed the terri tory of new Mexico for Spain in 1598. Spain made Santa Fe the capital of New Mexico terri tory. Spain would not let American’s cross into Santa Fe unti l after Mexico won Independence. Wil l iam Becknel l was the fi rst American to travel in this area. Soon other Americans fol lowed his route which was cal led the Santa Fe Trai l .

Father Junipero Serra

And Captain

Gaspar de Portola.

Spanish soldiers and priests build the fi rst permanent European settlements in California. In 1769 Captain Gaspar de Portola led a group of soldiers and missionaries up the Pacifi c coast. The chief Missionary was Father Junipero Serra. He built His fi rst mission in San Diego.

Father Junipero Serra bui l t miss ion in San Diego. He went to bui ld e ight others. Eventual ly , there were 21 Spanish miss ions a long the Cal i fornia Coast . Each miss ion c la imed the surrounding land and soon was able to take care of a l l i ts own needs. Spanish soldiers bui l t forts near the miss ions. The miss ions suppl ied meat, gra in, and other foods to the fort .

Ind ians were forced to work at the miss ions. They herded sheep and catt le and ra ised crops for the miss ions. In return, they l ived at the miss ion and learned about the Roman Cato l ic re l ig ion. Many Spanish miss ionar ies were tru ly concerned with convert ing the Indians to Chr ist ian i ty. However , miss ion l i fe was hard. Thousand of nat ive Amer icans d ied f rom overwork and d iseases. Others s imply ran away.

Many people believed that America should own California. The phrase Manifest Destiny was used by a New York newspaper editor to mean that American expansion would obviously happened. Manifest means clear or obvious.

During the t ime of Manifest Destiny there was an election. The two running presidents were James K. Polk and Henry Clay. Democrats made a campaign to win Oregon so America could expand it was 54’40’N or fi ght. James K. Polk supported it . Later on James K. Polk became the 11 t h President of the United States in 1844.

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