In
1513 the Spanish explorer, Ponce De Leon discovered Florida. Five
years later another captain from Spain, Cabeza de Vaca, led a small
party that explored parts of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Other
Spanish adventurers who made important discoveries included Francisco
Coronado who traveled up the Colorado River (1540) and Hernando de
Soto who explored the Mississippi River (1541).
In the 16th century Spain took control of Florida,
California and the south-west region of America. About 200,000 Spaniards
migrated to the new world and founded some 200 settlements in the
Americas. St. Augustine, Florida, founded by Pedro Merendez in 1565,
was the first permanent settlement established by Europeans in what
is now the United States. Other important settlement established by
the Spanish in America included Sante Fe, Albuquerque, El Paso, San
Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara,
San Jose, Monterey, and Los Angeles.
The Spanish mined precious metals and was able to ship back to Europe
large quantities of gold and silver.
In 1810 the United States annexed West Florida. Three years later
the Americans seized the area around Mobile. When Seminoes based in
Florid began raiding American settlements
in 1817, Spain was warned that it must either police her territory
properly or grant it to the United States. Unable to spare troops
desperately needed to hold onto her Latin American colonies, Spain
agreed to sell Florida in 1819 to the United States for $5 million.
By 1846 there were about 8,000 Spaniards living in California. There
was an estimated 500 Americans but this changed when gold was discovered
in January, 1848 on land owned by John Sutter
in California. News soon spread about the discovery and by 1849 over
100,000 people had arrived in search of gold. The Americans who now
clearly outnumbered the Spaniards, organized a government and in 1850
California was admitted as the 31st state of the Union. After it lost
all its territory in America, emigration from Spain was negligible.
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