Spain Chapter 7 Summary

CHAPTER 7

NEW SPAIN EXPANDS NORTH

1565

One of the first explorations of the New World by Spain was to the continent’s east coast. Ponce de Leon, who had accompanied Columbus on his second voyage, and appointed the first governor of Puerto Rico, set out to explore farther north. Landing on the mainland on Easter Sunday, he named the land La Pascua Florida, Spanish for Flowery Passover, meaning the Easter Season. He was so impressed that he laid plans to return and establish a settlement. Sailing south along the Florida coast, he charted the rivers he found, passing around the Florida Keys and up the west coast of Flor-ida before returning to Puerto Rico. In 1521 Ponce organized a colonizing expedition

He wrote extensively of his travels inspiring Hernando De Soto’s expedition in 1539 covering much of the Gulf Coast. Another attempt at colonization on the west coast of Florida area by Tristan Arellano closed after two years. During these expeditions, the Spanish discovered the Gulf Stream current, soon used as the primary return route from the Caribbean to Spain. Following several unsuccessful attempts to establish relations with the powerful and advanced nation of the Aztec, Spain in 1520 sent a small military force under Hernando Cortez who with the help of many enslaved native tribes, conquered the Aztec leader, Montezuma, restoring the destroyed capital, Tenochtitlan renaming it, Mexico City. As far as Spain was concerned, its claims and boundaries were definitive. In the North, New Spain extended from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico with maps provided by their early explorations. This Northern line generally followed rivers flowing from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico. Along this line, New Spain con-structed a series of fifteen forts (called Presidios) similar to the forts built in New France along the rivers especially the Ohio and Missis-sippi Rivers that acted not only as garrisons protecting settlers in nearby towns but as trading

Spain again lost, forcing Philip to give up Gibraltar and Minorca to Britain as well the Catholic Netherlands (Flanders and Luxembourg) and Spain’s Italian possessions to Austria. Spanish culture and domi-nance in the Netherlands ended along with Spain’s dream of becoming a European empire. In the early 1700’s, Philip V, the grandson of King Louis XIV of France became the first Bourbon King of Spain and his appointment to the throne set off the War of the Spanish Succession ending with the Treaty of Utrecht that greatly reduced Spanish power. Further, Spain became involved in yet another war in attempting to regain the lost Spanish possessions in Italy submitting to the Quadruple Alliance in 1720. In the interests of the Bourbon dynasty, Spain once again became involved in one more conflict, the War of the Austrian Succession. Needless to state, Spanish power in Europe and the world declined dramatically, but somehow continue to grow in the New World. As late as 1775, Spain constructed a fort at the Presidio overlooking the entrance to San Francisco