geography

NEW MEXICO Historical/Cultural Geography #3

MEXICAN ERA Geography 325V

Dr. Wright

Interpret the

geographic

significance of this

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WASHINGTON, DC

NM

MEXICO CITY

SPAIN

Mexican Independence from Spain Diez y seis de Septiembre, 1821

Mexico

MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE: 1821

 After 11 years of war in core of Mexico

 Mexico City and surrounding areas (1810-1821)

 Mexican separatist guerilla armies fought Spanish army

 Miguel Costilla appealed to

religious nationalism

La Virgen de Guadalupe

 No battles fought in New Mexico

A VAST SPANISH COLONY

BECOMES MEXICO IN 1821

Parades in Mexico City

Mexican Era in NM lasted only 27 years

1821-1848 (except for Gadsden Purchase area – 1854)

 U.S. “Manifest Destiny” created an inevitable conflict with Mexico over control of a vast region

 To Mexico  This was their northern frontier – a marginal region that

was not easy to control and defend

 To the USA  This was their southwestern frontier – a marginal non-

white region that was still destined to be part of continental America

 For both  It was a land full of natural resources and promise

 A place that must be claimed for wealth & national pride  Mexico – countrymen were endangered

 USA – American expansionism was challenged

The Mexican Era was brief

 New Mexico was in a time of transition  An isolated Spanish colony became a “Territory” of Mexico – but not

part of the core of that country

 New Mexico was La Frontera (“The Frontier”) of Mexico and

remains La Frontera of the United States today

 New Mexico is located on the far margin of power

and it has been a hard place to rule from great

distances  Madrid, Spain: 10,000 miles

 Mexico City: 1,500 miles

 Washington, DC: 2,500 miles

Mexico in

1821

Mexico

1842

Where we are was called Nuevo Mexico

 This Territory was remote from the control of

Mexico City and was changing  Raids by Apaches and Navajos decreased

 Population grew and expanded into new areas

 Cultural identity was neither Spanish or Mexican

 “Hispano” or “Neuvo Mexicano” identity was dominant

 Land grants were given by the President of

Mexico to develop the region and keep it from

falling into American hands  Land grants were used as a Mexican homesteading system much

as the Spanish had done

THE MEXICAN ERA 1821-1848/1854

 Mexican Land Grants

 200 grants, 25 million acres

 Land grants given by the President of Mexico

 Individual land grants

 Community land grants

 Sitio/Rancho land grants

 Land grants grew as Indian raids declined and

threat of Texas and America taking over NM

increased

New Mexico

Land Grants

Mexican Era

land grants became

larger in the north

and were given in

Southern

New Mexico

for the first time

Huge Sitio/Rancho land grants

 Maxwell Grant - 1.7 million acres

 Ted Turner now owns 591,000 acres of it called

the Vermejo Park Ranch

 Sangre de Cristo Grant - 1 million acres

 Pedro Armendaris Grant – 359,000 acres

 Granted 1819, settled during Mexican Era

 Now Ted Turner’s Armendaris Ranch north of Cruces

 Grants extended away from the Rio Grande core into the Great Plains and north into Colorado

Ted Turner

on the Armendaris Ranch • Buffalo ranching, wildlife conservation,

hunting permits

Ted Turner’s Ranches 2 million acres

Largest individual landowner in U.S.

Endangered Species on

Turner Ranchers in NM • Aplomado Falcon, Black-tailed prairie dog, 8 rare Bat species, Black-

footed ferret, Desert bighorn sheep, Bolson tortoise, Chiricahua

leopard frog, Rio Grande cutthroat trout

Mexican Land Grants extended into

Southern Colorado

Incorrectly

called

“Spanish

Land Grants”

on this map

Maxwell Land Grant

 Largest land grant  Was Jicarilla Apache land

 2 times size of Rhode Island

 Included towns of Raton,

Cimarron, Springer,

Elizabethtown

 Stop on Santa Fe Trail

 Buffalo Bill Cody was

ranch manager in 1850s

Lucien Maxwell sold out in 1870

for $750,000 but died broke

5 years later

Maxwell Land Grant conflicts

 English, Dutch, then confused ownership

 “Squatters” and a land grant dispute over ownership

 Phelps Dodge coal mining at Dawson

 Now a ghost town

 Philmont Boy Scout Ranch in 1940s

 Vermejo Park Ranch

 Ted Turner raising bison in cattle country

 Valle Vidal environmental issues

 Oil and gas development on Forest Service land versus wilderness designation – unresolved conflict

Vermejo Park Ranch

Ted Turner’s Bison Herd

Valle Vidal “Valley of Life”

Mexican Land Grants

 Community Land Grants

 Tierra Amarilla

 524,000 acres

 Mora

 837,000 acres

 Las Vegas

 431,000 acres

 Baca Location #1

 90,000 acres

 Doña Ana Bend

 35,000 acres

 Mesilla Civil Colony (1853 – last grant given)

 36,000 acres

Baca Location #1 Grant Now Valles Caldera National Preserve

Northern Neuvo Mexico

was changing

 The Santa Fe Trail grew in importance as the

Chihuahua Trail weakened

 Mesilla was much more dependent on Mexican trade than

Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Taos

 High quality products brought to Northern New Mexico

by American traders (some of them were Jews)

 Northern Neuvo Mexico was more and more

influenced by the United States and less and less

by Mexico

Santa Fe Trail trade with U.S. rises Mexico loses control over “New Mexico”

American goods flooding in to Santa Fe

Mexican trade dominance weakens

Traces of the Santa Fe Trail in NM

Santa Fe Plaza

Santa Fe Plaza

The end of the Santa Fe Trail

The Inn at the end

of the Santa Fe Trail

Burro

Alley

Saint Francis of Assisi Church

Monument

to

Spanish

conquistadors

and

settlers

Kateri Tekakwitha

1656-1680

Fourth Indian in

North America to

be declared a “Saint”

by the Catholic

Church

Mohawk Nation,

New York

Meanwhile Texans were already

claiming parts of Mexico

 The border between the U.S. and Mexico was in turmoil and U.S. approved of the settling and taking of Mexican land in the Tejas region of Mexico

 “Texicans” – Anglos and Mexicans remote from Mexico City and Washington D.C. formed their own identity

 The idea of separating from Mexico and the USA became widely accepted

Chaos on “the Border”

The Alamo – 1836 Mexicans defeat Texicans

Santa Anna vs. Travis, Davey

Crockett and others

The Alamo

The Alamo was a defeat for Texans

 BUT, ultimately Texans defeated Santa Anna and

the Mexican Army

 The Republic of Texas was established in 1836 as

an independent country that claimed a vast area

of Mexico

 Parts of current New Mexico were claimed by Texas

 This is in the “Disputed Area” that was eventually

bought by the United States as part of the negotiations

for Texas becoming part of our country

Republic of Texas: 1836-1845 Disputed Territory bought by U.S. in 1850

The United States tried to buy land

farther into Mexico

 U.S. made offers to buy what we think of as

“The West” from Mexico

 Some offers extended as far as southern

Chihuahua and Sonora (silver mines of Santa

Barbara), and Baja California

 Mexico rejected all of these offers

How much of

Mexico would become

the USA?

Mexican War 1846-1848 United States invades Mexico

Mexican War 1846-1848

 U.S. invades and conquers Mexico

 To prevent them from re-occupying Texas?

 No - U.S. wanted northern Mexico land and resources

 Santa Fe occupied by U.S. forces

 New Mexico battles: Taos and Valverde

 U.S. Army moves south from El Paso

 Battle of El Brazito (near Las Cruces)

 Matamoros invaded by sea

 Veracruz leveled by Navy bombardment (6,700 shells)

 Mexico City conquered by the U.S.

 Mexico surrenders

Battle of Monterrey, Mexico

U.S. Navy levels Veracruz, Mexico

1847: 3 days of bombardment

U.S. Amphibious Invasion of Veracruz

Mormons settled “Utah” in 1847

 Brigham Young led LDS pioneers into the

Salt Lake Valley to escape persecution and

build a remote, religious colony

 U.S. President Polk “gave” Brigham Young

permission to settle in land within Mexico

 Mormon settlement was illegal “squatting”

in a foreign country – in Mexico

 Part of an aggressive U.S. policy to take Mexican

land – as much of it as possible

Area claimed by Mormons (State of Utah ended up much smaller)

U.S. General Winfield Scott

enters Mexico City

Mexico City captured by U.S.

• Ulysses S. Grant

U.S. Civil War Generals and Leaders

who fought in the Mexican War

• Ulysses S. Grant

• Robert. E. Lee

• Jefferson Davis

• Stonewall Jackson

• William Tecumseh Sherman

• George McClellan

• Winfield Scott

• George Meade

• Pierre Beauregard

General Ulysses S. Grant

On the Mexican War

“One of the most unjust wars ever waged by

a stronger against a weaker nation. It was

an instance of a republic following the bad

example of European monarchies in not

considering justice in their desire to

acquire additional territory.”

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo February 2nd, 1848

Mexico surrenders

 529,017 square miles of Mexico became

part of U.S. overnight

 Mexico lost 40% of its land

 U.S. paid Mexico $18 million as war

reparations

“The Mexican Cession” Mexican land added to the USA

Rio Grande in the Mesilla Valley Southern NM becomes geographically important

Mesilla Valley An oasis in the desert

Southern New Mexico Land Grants Occurred between 1848-1853 following the war

 Several Individual Grants in Mesilla Valley

 about 6,000 acres each

 Doña Ana Bend Community Land Grant

 1840s: 35,399 acres

 Most evidence of settlement is gone

 Mesilla Civil Colony Community Land

Grant

 1853: 33,960 acres granted

 21,628 acres confirmed

The Mesilla Valley settled: 1840s

 The Mesilla Valley

 A section of the Rio Grande Valley in Southern New

Mexico with water and excellent farmland

 It was a kind of “No-Man’s Land”

 Doña Ana Bend Colony

 Mexican Land Grant (1840, settled later)

 Jose Costales and 115 farmers create a town based on the

Laws of the Indies

 Doña Ana María de Córdova had tried previously and

failed on the same spot north of present day Las Cruces

Mesilla Valley

Doña Ana today

New Plaza in Doña Ana

Our Lady of Purification

Catholic Church, Doña Ana

Doña Ana grew during 1840s

 U.S.-Mexican War (1846-1848) brought many U.S.

soldiers, merchants, and settlers to the area

 Doña Ana Bend colony became overcrowded

 Mayordomo of colony asked U.S. Army to locate a new

town fives miles to the south

 El Pueblo del Jardin de Las Cruces laid out near graves of

soldiers killed by Apaches years before

 “City of the Garden of Crosses” became Las Cruces

 1848: only 120 people lived in the Las Cruces townsite

 In what is now the Mesquite Historic District

Las Cruces

MESQUITE HISTORIC DISTRICT

Philips chapel

Black church

Alvarez Historic Home

Mesquite District

Classic Mexican Cemetery

Catholic Church – Mesquite District

Wide Streets

Original Las Cruces Town site

Site of Marshall Pat Garrett’s House

Divide between old town

and new downtown redevelopment

New Las Cruces

Federal Courthouse in old downtown area

Site of old St. Genevieve’s Church

Where the old Mexican

downtown of Las Cruces was

New Plaza being constructed right now

Redeveloped downtown Las Cruces

New Las Cruces City Hall

1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Ended war between U.S. and Mexico

 Doña Ana and Las Cruces become part of U.S.

 1849: Father Ramon Ortiz led about 1,500 residents of

Doña Ana Bend Colony across the Rio Grande into

Mexico

 They did not want to live in the United States

 1853: Mesilla Civil Colony land grant given to these

settlers by President of Mexico

 Last land grant given in NM and the West

 36,000 acres centered on flat site next to Rio Grande

 “Mesilla” means “Little Table”

Mesilla 1853 population 2,500; 2015 population 2,500

 Classic Laws of the Indies village

 Plaza with San Albino Church

 Grid of streets with businesses on plaza

 Solares de Riego/Suertes – irrigated farm plots in town

 Acequias – irrigation ditches in town and fields

 Ejido – commons for grazing on West Mesa and in the

Mesilla Valley: extended all the way to Picacho Peak

 Mesilla 4,000 acres in size today down from 22,000

 Ejido was lost or sold but the story is unclear

 No land grant anger among Mesilleros

Mesilla: 1854

Mesilla A classic Mexican Land Grant Village

Mesilla

Ejido

Picacho Peak Private farmland in Mesilla’s former ejido

Picacho Peak Land development on Mesilla’s former ejido

Rio Grande in Mesilla

Mesilla

Laws of the Indies Grid

MESILLA CORE

San Albino Church, 1906

San Albino Church today

Mesilla Plaza

Cinco de Mayo

Diez y seis Fiestas

Mesilla Then and Now

Albert Fountain House

Courtyard House

Adobe Bricks

Acequia madre

Mesilla

CHILIES

Pecan orchard

Old Farmhouse

El Dia de los Muertos

“Day of

the Dead”

altars

for departed

loved ones

Quinceaneras

Mesilla A classic Mexican Land Grant Village

“The Mexican Cession” Land in Mexico that became part of the USA

The Gadsden Purchase - 1854

 U.S. bought 29,670 square miles from

Mexico for $10 million (53 cents per acre)

 Mesilla Valley farmland

 A route for a 2nd transcontinental railroad

 Southern Pacific Railroad became coast to coast

in 1881

 Golden Spike driven at Deming, New Mexico

Gadsden Purchase

Mesilla, NM

 Gadsden Purchase

finalized in Mesilla

by the raising of the

American flag

 Deal also called

La Venta de Mesilla

(“The Sale of Mesilla”)

New Mexico became “American”

 1854 – Gadsden Purchase  Mesilla became part of USA after all, as did all

of what would become the State of New Mexico

But, what did it mean to become “American?”

How would land and life change?

Are these land tenure changes

still relevant?