Chapter Nine
Threatened Colonies II: The Anglo Invasion
The United States began to pose a new threat to Spanish sovereignty on the northern frontier before the end of the eighteenth century. It was a threat more active and more complex than the British, French, or Russians had presented. Before many years had passed, the threat was translated into an invasion of the Spanish frontier and that invasion changed the character of the culture and the society of the land. Anglo-American met Spanish American in the borderlands; the conflict and the blending of the two cultures provided the foundation of modern society.
The westward movement of English-speaking people had begun soon after
England established her first colonies on the Atlantic seaboard. Like
the Spaniards, Englishmen came from a country where few had owned land.
They came to America filled with an all-consuming desire to own property.
Land-vast expanses of it-would provide the basis for building a colony
and a new life in a New World. As the lands along the coast were claimed,
English colonists began to move inland. This movement characterized the
English colonial period and continued, unabated, after the United States
had won its independence.
Before the end of the eighteenth century, American settlers in Ohio and
Kentucky had begun to exert tremendous pressure on the Spanish authorities
in Louisiana. They demanded of Spain the right of passage down the Mississippi
River; the river was the only way for them to transport goods back and
forth between their homes and the eastern cities. Overland routes were
barred by mountains. The United States government, fearing that lack of
communication might destroy the loyalty of the western territories and
encourage settlers there to create a nation of their own, supported the
Ohio and Kentucky settlers. But President Thomas Jefferson, who believed
that rivers, like oceans, should be free for men of all nations to travel,
took the argument one step further; he demanded of Spain the use of a
port (New Orleans) at the mouth of the Mississippi.
That the American settlers won these rights from Spain is a moot point.
France regained Louisiana after their armies had defeated Spanish forces
on the European continent. Napoleon Bonaparte, seeking new funds to finance
his schemes for military conquest, sold Louisiana to the United States.
The Louisiana Purchase dealt a harsh blow to Spanish security. It brought
the United States up to the very borders of Spanish territory. An aggressive
young nation looked westward from Louisiana to the Pacific Ocean. Increasing
numbers of Americans began to dream of occupying the entire continent.
Only 2,000 miles of Spanish territory separated the Americans from fulfillment
of that dream. They were encouraged by the few people who had already
moved in that direction; for by the time the United States had bought
Louisiana, the Anglo invasion had already begun.
The Americans in Kentucky found more to their liking in Spanish territory than just a river which provided an ideal means of transportation. These frontiersmen saw a great opportunity for self-enrichment in Spanish territories. During this period, beaver fur, used to make men's hats, was in great demand in the eastern United States and in Europe. Beaver were plentiful along the upper Rio Grande in New Mexico. But the colonial government allowed only permanent New Mexican residents to trap beaver and required them to buy special hunting licenses. Into this setting came the mountain men from Kentucky. They began entering New Mexico to trap beaver about 1790, creating untold turmoil among Spanish administrators. They trapped without licenses or purchased licenses from legal residents. Many were arrested and stripped of thousands of dollars worth of furs and supplies. But still they came, encouraged because others escaped and made immense fortunes from the sale of the beaver skins.
Every year the trappers came to Taos, New Mexico, to organize their supplies
and prepare for the long trapping season ahead. And when the season was
ended, they returned to Taos-filthy, bearded creatures, starved for contact
with other human beings after a lonely winter in the mountains. In this
fashion, the people of the Spanish frontier had their first encounters
with the Americans. All too frequently they were appalled by what they
saw. This Anglo, they said, is a wild man, an animal. Indeed, the trapper
often was a wild man. He made his own laws and his manner was coarse and
crude. He dressed in animal skins that became covered with the grime of
many seasons. He was a fighter-a violent man who killed just for the pleasure
of it, and it made little difference to him whether his victim was a wild
animal or a man. He raised havoc in all the towns of New Mexico. And with
the trapper as their model, the people of the frontier formed their impression
of what all Americans-the Anglos-were like.
The trappers, for better or for worse, added yet another element to the
growing diversity of the frontier populations. The beaver trade came to
an abrupt end in the 1830s, when the fashion in men's hats changed. The
trappers were cast adrift and many of them remained in New Mexico. Some
eked out a living in the mountains. But others settled in colonial villages.
Merchants and the Santa Fe Trail
Trappers opened the road to New Mexico, but it was the merchants who really spearheaded the Anglo invasion of Spanish territory. New Mexico offered a lucrative market to any who wished to exploit it by offering goods at reasonable prices. But the trade probably evolved by accident. It began with trailblazing and led to the establishment of an easy route from Missouri to Santa Fe-the famous Santa Fe Trail. This route allowed merchants to enter New Mexico while avoiding the hazards of illegal east-west travel through Spanish territories; by coming down from the north, they could sneak past most of the Spanish authorities. One John Peyton followed the trail as early as 1773 (Peñuelas, 1964: pp. 91-92), but little came of his efforts. Establishing the route of the Santa Fe Trail was left to Captain Zebulon M. Pike, who led an expedition to Santa Fe in 1806.
In the years that followed, a few traders with mules made their way from
Missouri to New Mexico. But once they reached New Mexico, the traders
faced merciless harassment by Spanish administrators. In 1812, colonial
officials seized traders as spies, confiscated their wares, and threw
them into jail in Chihuahua where they remained for nine years (Gregg,
1967: pp. 5-6).
However, a few merchants continued to brave the dangers, drawn by the
great chance for profit which trade with New Mexico offered. Soon, the
prevailing mood shifted in their favor.
Mexico began her struggle for independence in 1810. For the next eleven
years both Spain and the revolutionary leaders generally ignored the frontier.
Soon, American merchants discovered that they could sneak into New Mexico
undetected, and even if they were discovered, little was done to halt
their progress. They had made great inroads into the colonial market by
the time the Mexicans won their independence. Almost immediately, the
Mexican government took steps to ease the restrictions on commerce with
foreign countries; and a group of people from Santa Fe traveled north
to seek trade with American merchants. Early signs of willingness to trade
were so encouraging that by 1826 the U.S. government was surveying a road
from Missouri to Santa Fe (Branch, 1962: p.113).
The volume of trade that developed soon surpassed the expectations of
even the most optimistic merchants. The first serious traders started
out with about five thousand dollars' worth of merchandise, carried on
pack horses (Gregg, 1967: p. 7). By 1824, they were using wagons and carrying
goods valued at up to thirty thousand dollars (Gregg, 1967: p.10). And
by 1846, the Santa Fe trade was valued at about one million dollars per
year (Horgan, 1954: p.503).
The merchants provided goods that New Mexicans had done without for more than two centuries. But the traders provided New Mexico with much more than mere finished goods. They changed the entire life style of a community that, for two centuries, had been isolated from the lack of outside influences, a community that had changed little over the years for lack of external stimuli. Now, suddenly, the traders brought excitement and different ideas. The people of Santa Fe flocked to meet the arriving wagon trains. Santa Fe was momentarily transformed from a quiet village to a lively market town.
In the bustle and excitement of the marketplace, Anglo-American traders
and Santa Fe residents took another look at one another and added to the
store of impressions that had developed since the first Anglo trappers
entered the territory. For their part, the Mexicans-and of course, the
people of the northern frontier were now Mexican citizens rather than
Spanish subjects-still found the Anglos very strange characters. In appearance,
the traders-who came to town dressed in their Sunday best-were the exact
opposite of the early fur trappers. But their actions often intimidated
the reserved and formal New Mexicans. The traders, adventurers every one,
were boisterous and casual in their dealings with people, and during their
stay they transformed quiet Santa Fe into a rowdy town. More than one
anxious Santa Fe husband locked his wife and family in the house while
the traders were in town. The people of Santa Fe never knew quite what
to expect of their visitors, and so they usually expected the worst.
On the other hand, the traders thought the Mexicans were outlandish creatures,
too. They considered them idle, even to the point of laziness. Few traders
could understand the language of the New Mexicans. But more important,
few understood or sympathized with the people of a different culture.
Almost all the customs of New Mexico were foreign to the Anglos. And the
trader, aggressive and profit-oriented, developed a feeling of superiority
toward the New Mexicans he met. Generally, he saw them in much the same
light that the Spaniards had seen the Indians of Mexico three centuries
earlier-as innocent, childlike people who needed to be educated in the
ways of "civilized" society. It was hardly a good foundation
for friendly relationships between the two peoples.
The Santa Fe trade grew much faster than anyone had expected. More and
more Anglos poured into New Mexico and some of them stayed. The business
represented power and profit for aggressive traders, but the Mexicans
were not prepared for so many people or so much merchandise.
The Mexican government soon began to worry about the long-term effects
of the trade and the consequences of Anglos moving into Mexican territory.
Mexican authorities backed off from their original position favoring the
trade. They ceased supporting the efforts to build a road from Missouri
to Santa Fe. They stopped encouraging the trade and slowly developed a
policy of actually hindering it. Soon, traders found they were being subjected
to strict and thorough customs inspections at the Mexican border. They
were repeatedly stopped at other towns along the trail and the whole customs
examination repeated. Finally, in 1843, the president of Mexico, Antonio
L6pez de Santa Anna, outlawed the trade. But he had failed to take into
consideration the reliance of the New Mexicans on merchandise from the
north. They had suffered for centuries from lack of goods; now that the
goods were available, they refused to give them up. Faced with a shocked
and protesting population, Santa Anna was forced to rescind the law in
1844.
Anglo economic domination of New Mexico, based on the Santa Fe Trail trade,
was virtually complete by the 1840s. Yet few Americans settled in New
Mexico. Rather, it was Texas that bore the full weight of an invasion
of American settlers. Especially inviting was East Texas, with its vast
unsettled lands, its rich soil and mild climate. East Texas, not cut off
from the United States by mountains or deserts, was open to invasion.
And more Americans settled there than in all the other Spanish frontier
areas combined.
Americans began making their way into Texas before the end of the eighteenth
century, perhaps as early as 1785. They first came with filibustering
expeditions-private armies-fighting Indians and the few Spanish friars
and families who had settled there. Soon, they were looking for plots
of land and demonstrating a desire to settle down and make their homes
in the region. Spanish colonial government, desperately anxious to establish
settlements that would deter Indian attacks and French and English intrusions,
willingly allowed a few Americans into the territory. It hoped such action
would encourage Spanish colonization of Texas. Thus Spain issued a few
land grants to Americans. In 1795, for example, three traders were granted
207,000 acres of land in Texas. But Spanish friendship soon gave way to
fear.
The situation was in no way helped by the actions of Philip Nolan, a dashing,
Irish-born adventurer. Nolan apparently dreamed of conquering Texas. He
made his first recorded trip to the territory in 1791, when Spanish authorities
arrested him as a spy and confiscated his wares (Loomis and Nasatir, 1967:
p.207). A few years later, in 1801, he led an armed expedition into Texas.
Nolan, whose actions considerably damaged Spanish-American relations,
was killed in a chance meeting with Spanish soldiers.
Despite the antagonism created by men like Nolan, the Spaniards did not
halt Anglo immigration and the invasion of Texas began in earnest after
the Louisiana Purchase brought the United States to the very edge of Spanish
Texas.
In 1820, Moses Austin of Missouri obtained a charter from the Spanish government to settle three hundred American families in Texas (Peñuelas, 1964: p. 97). Under the charter's terms, the colonists agreed to become Spanish subjects, renouncing their American citizenship, and to accept the Roman Catholic faith. Moses Austin died before the effort got off the ground, but his son Stephen carried on with plans for the colony. Meanwhile, Mexican revolutionaries succeeded in winning their long-fought struggle for independence. The government delayed approval of Austin colony. Texas was still sparsely populated and the government, therefore, decided to permit Anglo colonization if the settlers would become Catholics and Mexican citizens.
By the time the Mexican government made its decisions in 1823 (Horgan,
1954: p.459), approval of the Austin colony was immaterial. Stephen Austin
had already, in 1821, led the settlers into Texas and founded the community
of San Felipe de Austin. After that, Anglo settlement in Texas mushroomed.
By 1835, there were probably between twenty-five and thirty-five thousand
Americans living throughout Texas (Manuel, 1965: p. 16). In contrast,
only about five thousand Mexicans lived there, and most of them had concentrated
in the south, along the Rio Grande (McWilliams, 1949: p. 99).
The Mexican government quite naturally began to fear that the Americans
might take over Texas by default, possession being nine-tenths of the
law. Moreover, the Anglos nominally accepted Mexican citizenship, but
more often than not ignored the requirement that they become Roman Catholics.
This introduced an element of religious heterogeneity that the Mexican
authorities considered potentially disruptive.
The Anglo settlers created further confusion by doing as they wanted,
with little respect for Mexican law. The most important example of this
occurred over the issue of slavery. Mexico emancipated the slaves when
independence was declared and, consequently, slavery was illegal in Texas.
But most of the American settlers had migrated to Texas from the southern
states. Their whole life style depended on maintaining the institution
of slavery and they brought black slaves with them into Texas. In 1830,
the frantic Mexican government forbade both the importation of slaves
and further American immigration to Texas. But the steps were taken too
late. The Anglos, vastly superior in numbers, paid little heed. Their
overwhelming invasion had made the Mexican government a force without
authority in Texas.
California presented a third attractive target for American invasion. During the eighteenth century clipper ships sailing between Boston and the Far East had stopped in California ports. The sailors, on returning to New England, marveled over the California climate, scenery, and vast fields farmed by the friars and mission Indians. Snowbound victims of an eastern winter began to dream of a fairyland they had never seen. Soon, the dream was reinforced by the rapidly spreading idea that it was the Americans' God-given right to possess all the continent from Atlantic to Pacific-their Manifest Destiny. California and the Pacific Coast became the ultimate goal of American expansionists.
Owing to its distance from the thirteen original colonies, American penetration
of California was considerably behind that of Texas. About the time of
Mexican independence, a few Anglo fur trappers were hunting in the mountains
of eastern California. They were the trailblazers; they established routes
across the mountains and the pioneers followed. Soon, a few Anglo men
migrated to the larger towns of California, especially to San Francisco.
These first immigrants were not guided by the ideals of Manifest Destiny,
the goal of winning California for the United States. Instead, they came
in search of opportunity and a new life for themselves. Most of them married
the daughters of California's gente de razon-the wealthy and socially
prominent families of the territory. They became Mexican citizens and
(unlike the settlers in Texas) willingly accepted the Catholic faith.
Many even adopted Spanish names. They were soon assimilated into Mexican
society and played no part later in the American invasion.
The Anglo invasion of California really got underway in the 1840s. It
was based on an advertising campaign. Most newspapers and popular magazines
published in major East Coast cities carried advertisements extolling
the virtues of California, the magnificent opportunities California could
offer. Attracted by the real or imagined glories of the distant land,
thousands of urban Americans dreamed of migrating. Some made the dream
a reality by packing up their belongings and setting off across the continent.
One who backed the advertising campaign was John Sutter, a German wanderer who had immigrated to the United States and eventually landed in California. Sutter dreamed of becoming a feudal lord and he proposed that he be given a tract of land in the Sacramento Valley where he might establish a settlement. The area suited his needs, for that part of California was quite barren of European settlement; the friars had never succeeded in pacifying the Indians of the interior and Spanish settlement clung precariously to the narrow coastal shelf. Governor Alvarado of California, making the same error in judgment as the authorities in Texas, saw in Sutter's proposal a chance to create a buffer colony which would protect the coastal settlements. John Sutter was granted 50,000 acres of land.
Sutter called his little kingdom New Helvetia. He set out to build a strong
military post and to encourage Americans and Europeans to settle in his
colony. He was successful to some extent, but Anglo settlement of Mexican
California never did reach the proportions it had in Texas. By 1845, there
were only about seven hundred Americans in California-scarcely ten percent
of the total white population, with New Helvetia boasting the greatest
concentration of settlers (Cleland, 1962: p.107). The full-scale invasion
would not take place until after California had fallen to the United States
(chapter 11).
The American invasion of Mexican territories would have far-reaching implications.
It brought together peoples of different cultures and societies, people
whose ideas and approaches to life were radically different. As we have
seen, both thought the other group to be made up of the strangest possible
creatures. Their initial timidity toward each other was intensified by
the basic and growing animosity between Mexican authorities and Anglo
settlers. Good relationships between the Anglos and the people of the
frontier were marred by lack of communication-the inability to speak each
other's language-and by the ruthless violence of fur trappers and the
aggression of men like Philip Nolan.
Yet not all the early contacts were disagreeable. Indeed, they were more
often friendly. In some areas, Mexicans and Anglos were drawn together
to make a success of their farming and each learned from the other. Many
of the American men who migrated to the frontier married Mexican women.
Thus from the earliest days the two cultures began to fuse.
This peaceful blending process was interrupted by an era of conflict-and
war. Texas, California, and New Mexico were to be a breeding ground for
a conflict of cultures. And a wound that was opened a century ago has
never healed.
REFERENCES
Branch, E. Douglas. The Hunting of the Buffalo. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1962.
Cleland, Robert Glass, From Wilderness to Empire: A History of California. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962.
Gregg, Josiah, The Commerce of the Prairies. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967. A facsimile reproduction.
Horgan, Paul. Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History. 2 vols. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1954.
Loomis, Noel H., and Nasatir, Abraham P. Pedro Vial and the Roads to New Spain. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1967.
Manuel, Herschel. Spanish-Speaking Children of the Southwest. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1965.
McWilliams, Carey. North from Mexico. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1949.
Peñuelas, Marcelino C. Lo Espanol en el Suroeste de los Estados Unidos. Madrid: Ediciones Cultura Hispanica, 1964.
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