Spanish Influence on the Old Southwest: A Collision of Cultures

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The traditional view of the American West is that the frontier was settled by colonists emigrating from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific shore. Spanish conquistadors, however, landed in Central America 150 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.

This is the story of how the Spanish pushed north from Mexico in the 1500s seeking riches, in the process colonizing the Southwest 250 years before the American influx of European settlers in the mid-1800s. Much of the culture and many of the traditions brought by these Spanish explorers have influenced what is present and visible today. The wave of conquerors, soldiers, settlers, and men of the church that flowed north from Mexico during the 1600s and 1700s eventually populated a vast area. Spanish explorers established settlements over a broad section extending over the Southwest from Texas to California as they searched for riches in the form of gold and silver.

Along with the original Spanish conquistadors came missionaries who tried to convert the existing native population to Christianity. This forced conversion of the Pueblo and Plains Indians, and suppression of their native religious beliefs, led to cultural clashes that eventually resulted in outright rebellion, and affected the course of history in the Southwest.