Juan de Onate

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Juan de Onate

In the late 1500's after the disappointment of Coronado's non-glorious expedition was forgotten, Spain had a renewed interest in New Mexico. King Philip II needed a new conquistador to go to New Mexico to obtain and claim the 3 G's (Gold, Glory, and God) for the crown and for the country. The man chosen to fill this job was Juan de Onate. Being of noble Basque blood it seems that Juan de Onate was destined to become someone of importance. It is said that the Basque people were "Hardy, self-reliant, and stubbornly strong" and "In New Spain won distinction as explorers, soldiers, and discoverers of mines on the frontier." Juan's father Cristobal de Onate was one of those Basque people described above. In 1546 Cristobal along with a few other Basque men discovered a silver mine in Mexico, but was already rich due to his many encomiendas, his salary as a lieutenant-governor, and many other businesses he owned. Given Juan de Onate's tremendous wealth and outstanding family history King Philip thought that he had found an excellent conquistador, but would soon find out that he was wrong.

Juan de Onate's problems started before he even left New Spain. Due to politics and other circumstances Onate's expeditions were delayed many times. As a result of these delays many of the settlers Onate had recruited lost interest and left. The issue of abandonment of his settlers would continue to remain a problem. Abandonment by the settlers came as a result of the bad conditions of the settlements. It was said that "Onate, instead of trying to establish his colony upon a firm economic basis, with his captains, devoted their time and exhausted their resources in explorations and the search for mines." On September 12, 1598 four of Onate's men stole horses to leave back to New Spain. After catching the four men Onate ordered them executed, with no trial. This perhaps began to show that Onate was more a villain than a hero.

Onate would soon have bigger problems than abandonment to deal with. This time Onate's problems would hit closer to home. On December fourth after the Spaniards asked the Acoma Indians to "subscribe to the Act of obedience and Homage," the Acoma Indians attacked the Spaniards.

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