An engraving by Theodor de Bry (c. 1591) of Timucua people in Florida cultivating a field and planting crops. The image was based on earlier paintings by Jacques Le Moyne, who had been a member of the 1564 French expedition.
Timucua youths in Florida play ball games, pratice shooting arrows, and run races in this engracing from Theodor de Bry (c. 1591) based on earlier works by Jacques Le Moyne, who was in Florida in 1564.
An engraving of Hernando Cortés (date unknown).
Church of St Stephen (San Estevan del Rey) on the Acoma Pueblo around 1902.
Inscription made by Juan de Oñate during his travels around North America, on a rock outcrop near the modern Arizona-New Mexico state line. It reads: ‘The Adelantado Don Juan de Oñate passed by here from the discovery of the South Sea, on the 16th day of April 1606 [1605].’
Aerial view of Castillo de San Marcos fort, which dates back to 1672, in Saint Augustine, Florida.
A 1791 engraving of Anglo-Spanish hostilities, entitled ‘The Spanish Insult to the British Flag at Nootka Sound,’ by Robert Dodd.
Portrait of Father Miguel Hidalgo in a Mexican broadside published in Mexico City, c. 1890–1913.
The 18th-century San Xavier del Bac mission in 2015.
An engraving of San Xavier del Bac, near Tucson, Arizona in the U.S. Pacific Railroad Expedition and Survey report (c. 1855).
The San José de Tumacácori mission (c. 1753), near Tubac, Arizona, in 2015. Today it is a National Historic Park.
The Alamo (San Antonio de Valero), in 2015.
An engraving published in New York by Henry R. Robinson depicting the surrender of Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna and General Martin Perfecto de Cos to Texian leader Samuel Houston after the Battle of San Jacinto in late April 1836. Houston, holding a musket on the left, says ‘You are two bloody villians, and to treat you as you deserve, I ought to have you shot as an example! Remember the Alamo and Fannin!’ while Santa Anna (center), bows and offers his sword to Houston, saying, ‘I consent to remain your prisoner, most excellent sir!! Me no Alamo!!’ Cos follows suit, saying ‘So do I most valiant Americano!! Me no Alamo!!’
Carl Schuchard’s ‘Town and Valley of Mesilla New-Mexico’ was produced as part of a 1854 railway survey between San Antonio to San Diego.
The 12th edition of the 1847 J. Disturnell map that was at the root of many boundary problems after the Mexican-American war.
An 1848 engraving showing General Winfield Scott’s 1847 entry into Mexico City during the Mexican-American War.
The U.S. army entering Mexico during the Mexican-American War as depicted on the frieze (c. 1880s) of the Capitol rotunda in Washington, D.C.
An 1847 lithograph entitled ‘Battle of Buena Vista,’ which was fought on February 22–23, 1847, by famed print-makers Currier & Ives.
A dish in the ‘Westward Ho!’ pattern produced by James Gillinder & Sons, c. 1880.
A border marker dating back to the International Boundary Commission survey of the 1890s, near Douglas, Arizona.
A park in Ybor City, outside of Tampa, Florida, continues to honour 19th-century Cuban leader José Marti.
Patriotic sheet music from the Spanish-American-Cuban war, 1898.
Red Cross nurses at a bazaar held at a girls’ charity school in San Juan, Puerto Rico, c. 1920.
A print by J.S. Pughe, published in a 1899 edition of Puck magazine, depicting Cuba as a woman, appealing to Uncle Sam for continued help. The caption reads: ‘Cuba – If you leave me to myself it will mean the old troubles. With your help I can have peace and prosperity. Do not desert me!’
The California Mission of San Juan Capistrano around 1918, before its restoration.
San Juan Capistrano in 2015.
A postcard of ‘Ramona’s Marriage place’—alluding to the heroine of the popular eponymous novel—in San Diego c. 1900–1902.
An anonymous photo with the title ‘Americans and Inssurectos at Rio Grande’ was thought to be taken around 1911, at the beginning of the Mexican Revolution.
Mexican Revolutionary General Francisco ‘Pancho’ Villa, pictured on a horse, thought to be taken sometime between 1908 and 1919.
Mexican Revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata, pictured in 1911.
Columbus, New Mexico, in the aftermath of Pancho Villa’s 1916 raid.
Roberto Berdecio, an assoicate of Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros, stands in front of the artist’s controversial ‘América Tropical,’ which was unveiled in Los Angeles in 1932 and soon whitewashed over.
‘América Tropical’ in 2015, after a long-running restoration effort.
Seven young men who were arrested during the ‘zoot suit’ riots in June 1942 wait in a Los Angeles courtroom.
A mural at the Chamizal National Memorial, in El Paso, Texas, in 2015.
The border fence in southern Arizona in December 2016.
Participants in the All Souls Procession in Tucson, Arizona, in November 2014.
Time Line of Key Events
1492–1600
1492—Christopher Columbus lands in Hispaniola, claims the island for the monarchs of Castile and Aragon.
1494—The Treaty of Tordesillas divides the Americas between Spanish and Portuguese spheres of influence.
1508—Juan Ponce de León claims the island of Puerto Rico for Spain.
1511—Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar leads an expedition to Cuba.
1513—Juan Ponce de León lands in Florida while searching for the island of Bimini.
1519—Hernán Cortés sets off for Mexico. Álvarez de Píneda sails along the Gulf coast of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi.
1521—The Mexica empire falls to Spain, becoming New Spain (Nueva España). Ponce de León returns to Florida, but is injured in a battle and dies in Cuba. Pedro de Quejo lands in Winyah Bay (near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina).
1525—Pedro de Quejo reconnoiters the Atlantic coast as far north as Cape Fear, North Carolina, also naming the Punta de Santa Elena (today’s Parris Island, South Carolina).
1526—Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón attempts to take settlers to Winyah Bay, but instead ends up farther south, somewhere around Sapelo Sound in Georgia, establishing the first Spanish settlement in North America, San Miguel de Gualdape.
1528—Pánfilo de Narváez makes a failed attempt to colonize Florida, landing around Tampa.
1532—Spain launches a campaign to control the Inca empire and Peru, extending its reach into South America.
1533—Fortún Jiménez crosses the Gulf of California, reaching the Baja Peninsula.
1535—Hernando Cortés sails to Baja California in search of pearls.
1536—Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and three other survivors from the disastrous Narváez expedition resurface in northern New Spain.
1539—Hernando de Soto lands in Florida. Francisco de Ulloa further explores the Gulf of California. Fray Marcos de Niza goes to the frontier of New Spain and claims to have seen the fabled Seven Cities of Cíbola.
1540—On the basis of Fray Marco de Niza’s report, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado sets off for the cities of Cíbola, but fails to find them.
1542—Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo makes a reconnaissance of California’s coastline. De Soto dies somewhere around modern Arkansas or Louisiana.
1559—Tristán de Luna y Arellano’s Florida expedition lands near Pensacola, Florida.
1562—French Huguenots sail into the St. Johns River, near modern Jacksonville, Florida, before going north to Port Royale, South Carolina, establishing their Charlesfort settlement, which they abandoned the following year.
1564—The French return to the St. Johns River in Florida, this time establishing Fort Caroline on a bluff overlooking the river.
1565—Pedro Menéndez de Avilés establishes the first permanent settlement in Florida, in St. Augustine, on the Atlantic coast, and proceeds to drive the French out of Fort Caroline. In the Pacific, the Spanish add the Philippines to their empire.
1566—Fort San Felipe found
ed by the Spanish near the old Charlesfort site in Santa Elena. Juan Pardo goes on an expedition into the interior, through parts of modern North Carolina.
1567—Pardo makes a second inland trip, returning in the spring of 1568 having possibly reached modern Tennessee.
1568—Dominique de Gourgues arrives from France to avenge the deaths of his follow Frenchmen, attacking and killing Spanish troops at San Mateo (the former Fort Caroline) before returning to France.
1577—Pedro Menéndez Marquez is ordered to fortify Santa Elena; this leads to the construction of Fort San Marcos.
1579—Francis Drake arrives in northern California, naming it Nova Albion (New England).
1586—Francis Drake attacks St. Augustine.
1587—Santa Elena is abandoned and its residents are moved to St. Augustine.
1597—There is an uprising led by the Guale, also known as Juanillo’s Revolt, against the Spanish missions.
1598—Juan de Oñate leaves for New Mexico to establish a Spanish settlement.
1600–1700
1602—Sebastián Vizcaino manages to reach Cape Mendocino, California, naming Monterey and San Diego along the way.
1607—English settlers establish the Virginia Colony.
1609—Francisco Fernández de Écija explores the coast of the Carolinas, reaching Chesapeake Bay, in a search for signs of English activity.
1610—Santa Fe (Nuevo Mexico) founded.
1620—The Mayflower lands, and its Pilgrim settlers establish Plymouth Colony.
1670—The English settlement of Charles Town (today’s Charleston, South Carolina) is established.
1680—The Pueblo Revolt against the Spanish begins, as Native Americans drive out Spanish settlers from many of the pueblos, leaving some five hundred dead and forcing them south of the Río Grande, to El Paso.
1682—René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, travels down the Mississippi River and claims the area for France, calling it La Louisiane in honor of Louis XIV.
1683—The Jesuits, led by Eusebio Kino, begin to explore Baja California, later building missions there.
1700–1800
1701—Europe becomes engulfed in the War of the Spanish Succession, and the conflict reaches North America the following year in Queen Anne’s War.
1706—Alburquerque (Nuevo Mexico) founded.
1714—War of the Spanish Succession ends, and the British are ceded much of French Canada; they also win the slave asiento, a lucrative contract permitting them the right to supply Spanish America with African slaves.
1718—A military presidio, San Antonio de Béxar, is built in southern Texas. It is followed by the construction of the mission San Antonio de Valero, later known as the Alamo. In Louisiana, La Nouvelle-Orléans (New Orleans) is founded.
1721—The Spanish continue to fortify Texas, adding the presidio of Nuestra Señora de la Bahía de Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga on the Gulf coast, though it is later moved.
1732—British settlers are granted a charter to put a debtor colony between the Savannah and Altamaha Rivers, creating Georgia.
1754—The French and Indian War begins in the upper Ohio River Valley, and this conflict later segues into the Seven Years’ War that erupts in Europe in 1756.
1762—The French sign a secret treaty ceding the Louisiana territory to Spain, in order to keep it out of British hands.
1763—Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris, which ends the Seven Years’ War, Britain is given Spanish Florida in exchange for returning Havana, which it occupied in 1762, to Spain. The British divide Florida into East and West. The Spanish retain the Louisiana territory, while France loses its Canadian regions and some Caribbean islands.
1767—Spain’s Carlos III banishes the Jesuit order from the entire Spanish realm.
1769—The “Sacred Expedition” to California begins, and San Diego de Alcalá is founded.
1774—Juan Pérez reaches as far as N 55°, around the Haida Gwaii island (Queen Charlotte Islands). Juan Baustista de Anza starts his journey overland from New Mexico to California.
1775—The American Revolution begins. Juan Francisco Bodega y Quadra is dispatched to explore the northernmost reaches of Spain’s Alta California; he makes another trip in 1779.
1776—Benjamin Franklin holds secret talks with the Count of Aranda, the Spanish ambassador to France, in hopes of securing support.
1777—Bernado de Gálvez arrives as governor of Louisiana.
1778—Captain James Cook sails into Nootka Bay.
1779—Spain enters the American Revolution, following France’s decision to back the rebels in 1778. Gálvez organizes his West Florida Campaign.
1781—Gálvez takes Pensacola from the British. The town of Los Angeles in Alta California is founded.
1783—The Treaty of Paris brings the conflict between Britain and its thirteen colonies, France, and Spain to an end. Florida returns to Spanish control.
1790—Competing claims to Nootka Sound by the British and Spanish renew hostilities between the two nations. Spain agrees to the first of three conventions ceding it to British claims.
1800–1900
1803—The United States buys the Louisiana territory from France, which had signed a treaty to take it back from Spain.
1808—Napoleon Bonaparte invades Spain and places his brother on the Spanish throne.
1810—The short-lived Republic of West Florida is declared in September, with U.S. troops taking control of part of the area by December. In New Spain, Padre Miguel Hidalgo issues his grito, or cry, of Dolores, rebelling against Spanish officials.
1812—Independence of East Florida is declared in March, but unravels after a failed attack on St. Augustine. War of 1812 begins over British and U.S. disputed land in Canada. Spain issues a constitution.
1814—Peninsular War in Spain ends and Fernando VII is restored to the throne, where he rejects the reforms in the 1812 constitution. In the United States, Andrew Jackson attacks Pensacola, temporarily taking it from the Spanish.
1818—Andrew Jackson takes Pensacola again, this time permanently.
1819—The Adams-Onís Treaty is signed, ceding both East and West Florida to the United States.
1821—Mexico issues its Declaration of Independence.
1822—Agustín de Iturbide becomes Mexico’s emperor, Agustín I. The United States recognizes Mexico’s independence.
1823—Anglo settlers, led by Stephen Austin, begin to arrive in East Texas.
1824—The Mexican empire is replaced by a republic with a president, and a constitution is drawn up. Mexico also bans the slave trade. In California, the Chumash revolt, attacking three missions.
1826—The Edwards brothers try to declare independence from Mexico and briefly establish the Republic of Fredonia near Nacogdoches, Texas.
1829—Spain loses a battle in Tampico in an attempt to retake Mexico. Later that year slavery is abolished in Mexico.
1830—The Mexican government passes legislation to curb immigration from the United States.
1836—Anglo settlers in Texas declare their independence from Mexico on March 2. Mexican troops, led by Antonio López de Santa Anna, rout rebelling Anglos at the Battle of the Alamo on March 6. The Anglos manage to win the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, securing Texan independence, which Mexico refuses to recognize.
1845—Texas is admitted to the union as a slave state.
1846—The Mexican-American War begins.
1848—The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed, bringing the Mexican-American War to an end. The United States is ceded Mexico’s Alta California and New Mexico territories—51 percent of its land. That territory today comprises California, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and part of Wyoming and Colorado.
1849—Joint United States and Mexican Boundary Commission surveys the border, a project that lasts nearly seven years. The gold rush in California begins.
1850–51—Narciso López makes two failed efforts, with the backing of slaveholding southerners, to f
ree Cuba from Spanish rule.
1853—Mexico agrees to the Gadsden Purchase and the United States pays $10 million for the Mesilla valley, a strip of land south of the Gila River—today’s southern Arizona and New Mexico. President Franklin Pierce offers Spain $130 million for Cuba. The U.S. filibuster William Walker lands in Baja and declares himself president of Lower California.
1861—The U.S. Civil War begins. Texas joins the Confederacy, and a Confederate territory of Arizona is established.
1862—Battle of Glorieta Pass on March 26–28 leads to the Confederates being driven out of New Mexico. France sends troops to Mexico.
1864—Austrian archduke Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph becomes Mexico’s Maximilian I.
1865—The U.S. Civil War ends.
1867—Maximilian I is executed and Benito Juárez returns to power in Mexico.
1868—The Ten Years’ War begins in Cuba, while Puerto Rico’s attempt at a rebellion, the Grito de Lares, is suppressed.
1873—Slavery is abolished in Puerto Rico.
1878—The pact of Zanjón ends Cuba’s Ten Years’ War, but leaves the Spanish in power.
1886—Slavery ends in Cuba.
1895—The Cuban War of Independence begins.
1898—The USS Maine explodes in Havana’s harbor on February 15 and Spanish-American-Cuban War is declared by April and is over by the summer. Cuba is placed under temporary U.S. administration, but Puerto Rico and the Philippines are put under full U.S. rule.
1900–2000s
1910—Francisco Madero issues his Plan de San Luis Postosi in Mexico, calling for the end of the existing regime and triggering a series of uprisings and political transformations over the next decade, known as the Mexican Revolution.
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