The Colonization Of North America Part 6

Plans to Occupy Monterey Bay.--Plans were now made for occupying the port of Monterey, but delays ensued and a new viceroy concluded that a port in the mid-Pacific was more needed than one on the California coast. Accordingly, in 1611 Vizcaino was sent to explore certain islands called Rica de Oro and Rica de Plata, but the expedition failed.

THE FOUNDING OF NEW MEXICO

Renewed exploration of New Mexico.--The expansion of Nueva Vizcaya and renewed activities on the Pacific coast in the later sixteenth century stimulated a new advance into New Mexico. Coronado's expedition had proved disappointing, and for four decades no further explorations had been made in the region. Nevertheless, the tales of great cities had not been forgotten, and in the meantime a new line of approach to New Mexico had been opened by way of the central plateau. By 1580 mines and missions had reached Santa Barbara, while slave hunting expeditions had descended the Conchos to the Rio Grande. Through reports given by the outlying tribes, a new interest in the Pueblo region was aroused.

Rodriguez and Espejo.--To follow up these reports, with a view to missionary work, trade, and exploration, an expedition was organized at Santa Barbara in 1580 by Fray Augustin Rodriguez, a Franciscan lay brother, and Francisco Sanchez Chamuscado. In the next year the party of three friars and nine soldiers and traders descended the Conchos River, ascended the Rio Grande to the Pueblo region, visited the buffalo plains, acoma, and Zuni, and returned, leaving two friars at Puaray, one having been killed. In the following year a rescue and trading party was led to New Mexico over the same trail by Fray Bernaldino Beltran and Antonio de Espejo. The friars had already been slain by the natives, but before returning Espejo went to Zuni, Moqui, and western Arizona, where he discovered mines, returning to Santa Barbara by way of the Pecos River.

Plans to colonize New Mexico.--The expeditions of Rodriguez and Espejo aroused new zeal for northern exploration and settlement, and there were dreams now, not only of conquering New Mexico, but of going beyond to colonize Quivira and the sh.o.r.es of the Strait of Anian. The king ordered a contract made for the purpose, and soon there was a crowd of applicants for the honor. While these men were competing for the desired contract, Castano de Sosa in 1590 led a colony from Nuevo Leon up the Pecos to the Pueblos and began their conquest, but was soon arrested and taken back. Some three years later two men named Leyva and Gutierrez de Humana led an unlicensed expedition from Nueva Vizcaya to New Mexico, whence Gutierrez went to northeastern Kansas, and apparently reached the Platte River.

Onate and the founding of New Mexico.--The contract to colonize New Mexico was finally a.s.signed in 1595 to Juan de Onate, son of Cristobal, one of the founders of Zacatecas. In accordance with the ordinances of 1573 he was made governor, adelantado, and captain-general, granted extensive privileges, lands, and encomiendas, while his colonists were given the usual privileges of first settlers (_primeros pobladores_). It was February, 1598, when Onate left northern Nueva Vizcaya with his colony. It included one hundred and thirty soldiers, some with their families, a band of Franciscans under Father Martinez, and more than seven thousand head of stock. Previous expeditions had followed the Conchos, but Onate opened a more direct route through El Paso. Without difficulty he secured the submission of the tribes, settled his colony at San Juan, and distributed the friars among the pueblos.

Onate's explorations.--Having established his colony, Onate turned to exploration in the east and the west. In the fall of 1598 Vicente Zaldivar was sent to the Buffalo Plains, while the governor set out for the South Sea. At Moqui he turned back, but Marcos Farfan continued west with a party, and staked out mining claims on Bill Williams Fork. acoma rebelled at this time and as a punishment was razed. In 1599 Zaldivar was sent to the South Sea and seems to have reached the lower Colorado.

Early in 1601 Onate, with seventy men, descended the Canadian River and crossed the Arkansas to an Indian settlement called Quivira, apparently at Wichita, Kansas. During Onate's absence most of the colonists deserted, but they were brought back, with reinforcements. Still bent on reaching the South Sea, in 1604 Onate descended Bill Williams Fork and the Colorado to the Gulf of California, where he got the idea that California was an island. He had reexplored most of the ground covered by Coronado and had opened new trails. But he had lost the confidence and support of the authorities, and in 1608 resigned and was displaced by a royal governor.

Santa Fe founded.--In 1609 Santa Fe was founded and became the new capital. This event, which occurred just a hundred years after the occupation of Darien, may be regarded as the culmination of a century of northward expansion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: New Mexico in Onate's Time (From Bancroft, _Arizona and New Mexico_, p. 137).]

SPANISH ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

Population and industries.--The heroic age of Spanish colonization had now pa.s.sed. The surprising results achieved in the New World during the first eighty years, not counting the work of exploration, are set forth in a description of the colonies in 1574 written by Lopez de Velasco, official geographer. At that time there were in North and South America about two hundred Spanish towns and cities, besides numerous mining camps, haciendas, and stock ranches. The Spanish population was 32,000 families, or perhaps from 160,000 to 200,000 persons. Of these about five-eighths lived in North America. In the two Americas there were 4000 encomenderos, the rest being mainly miners, merchants, ranchers, and soldiers, with their families. The population included 40,000 negro slaves, and a large element of mulattoes and mestizos. About 1,500,000 male Indians paid tribute, representing a population of 5,000,000. In many parts occupied by Spaniards there were no encomiendas, for the Indians had died out. Mining, commerce, cattle ranching, grain and sugar raising had been established on a considerable scale.

Cities and towns.--Before the end of the sixteenth century most of the present-day state capitals and other large cities in Spanish North America had been founded. Mexico City had a population of over 2000 Spanish families (perhaps 15,000 persons), Santo Domingo, Puebla, and Guatemala 500 families each, Trinidad (in Guatemala) and Panama 400 each, Oaxaca 350, Zacatecas 300, Toluca, Zultepec, Vera Cruz, Granada, Chiapas, and Nombre de Dios 200 each, Guadalajara and San Salvador 150 each, and many others lesser numbers.

Administrative divisions.--Spanish America was now divided into two viceroyalties, New Spain and Peru. New Spain included all of the American mainland north of Panama, the West Indies, part of the northern coast of South America, the Islas del Poniente, and the Philippines. It comprised the four audiencias of Espanola, Mexico, Guatemala, and Nueva Galicia, the Audiencia of Panama being a part of the viceroyalty of Peru. The four northern audiencia districts were subdivided into seventeen or eighteen gobiernos or provinces, corresponding closely to the modern states. The provinces were divided into _corregimientos_ embracing Indian _partidos_. North America embraced twelve dioceses and the two archdioceses of Santo Domingo and Mexico.

Churches and monasteries.--Many fine churches, some of them still standing, had been built in the larger towns. The Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians were well established in New Spain, and the Jesuits had just begun their work. The friars were subject to their chapters and the Jesuits to their general in Spain. The Franciscans already had four provinces in New Spain, the Dominicans and Augustinians only one each. Hundreds of monasteries had been established, especially wherever there were Indians in encomienda. The expense of erecting them was borne jointly by king, encomenderos, and Indians.

The Universities.--"Enthusiasm for education characterizes the earliest establishment of the Spanish colonies in America. Wherever the priests went, a school was soon established for the instruction of the natives or a college for its clericals who were already at work as well as for those who were soon to take holy orders. From the colleges sprang the universities which, in all the Spanish dominions, were founded at a very early date for the pursuit of the 'general studies' which were at that time taught in the great peninsular universities of Alcala and Salamanca. Half a century before Jamestown was founded by the English, the University of Mexico was conferring degrees upon graduates in law and theology. Before the seventeenth century closed, no less that seven universities had been erected in Spanish America, and their graduates were accepted on an equality with those of Spanish inst.i.tutions of like grade." (Priestley.)

READINGS

THE REIGN OF PHILIP II

Chapman, Charles E., _A History of Spain_, Chapter x.x.xIII; Gayarre, C.E.A., _Philip II of Spain_; Hume, M.A.S., _Philip II of Spain_; Hume, M.A.S., _Spain, Its Greatness and Decay_; Hume, M.A.S., _The Spanish People_; Lea, H.C., _A History of the Inquisition of Spain_; Merriman, R.B., _The Rise of the Spanish Empire_; Prescott, W.H., _History of the Reign of Philip the Second_; Cheyney, E.P., _European Background of American History_, Chapter X.

ADVANCE INTO NORTHERN MEXICO

Bancroft, H.H., _History of Mexico_, II, chs. 22, 24, 34; _North Mexican States and Texas_, I, ch. 5; Cavo, Andres, _Tres Siglos de Mexico_; Coroleu, Jose, _America, Historia de su Colonizacion_; Frejes, Fr. F., _Conquista de los Estados_; Gonzales, J.E., _Collecion de Noticias_; _Historia de Nuevo Leon_; Leon, A., _Historia de Nuevo Leon_; Mota Padilla, M., _Historia de Nueva Galicia_, ch. 23; Ortega, Fr. Joseph, _Apostolica Afanes_.

SETTLEMENT OF FLORIDA

Hamilton, P.J., _The Colonization of the South_, chs. 1-2; Lowery, Woodbury, _Spanish Settlements_, I, ch. 8, II; Shea, J.G., _The Catholic Church in Colonial Days_, pp. 100-183.

SETTLEMENT OF NEW MEXICO

Bancroft, H.H., _Arizona and New Mexico_, 74-146; Bandelier, A.D.F., _Final Report of Investigations among the Indians of the Southwestern United States_ (Papers of the Archaeological Inst.i.tute of America, III-IV); Benavides, Memorial on New Mexico (Mrs. E.E. Ayer, trans.); Bolton, H.E., ed., _Spanish Exploration in the Southwest_, 135-278; Davis, W.H.H., _Spanish Conquest in New Mexico_, 234-407; Farrand, Livingston, _The Basis of American History_, 176-187; Lummis, C.F., _Spanish Pioneers in the Southwest_, 125-143; Prince, L.B., _Historical Sketches of New Mexico_, 149-166; Twitch.e.l.l, R.E., _Leading Facts of New Mexican History_, I, 7-45, 252-333; Vulagra, Gaspar de, _Historia de Nuevo Mexico_.

THE PHILIPPINES AND CALIFORNIA

Barrows, D.P., _A History of the Philippines_; Blair and Robertson, _Philippine Islands_, II, 23-330; Bolton, H.E., _Spanish Exploration in the Southwest_, 41-133; Carrasco y Guisasola, Francisco, _Doc.u.mentos Referentes al Reconocimiento de las Costas de las Californias_; Hittell, T.H., _History of California_, I, 79-111; Richman, L.B., _California under Spain and Mexico_, 12-24; Robertson, J.A., "Legazpi and Philippine Island Colonization," in American Historical a.s.sociation, _Rpt., 1907_, I, 145-165; Zarate, Salmeron, "Relation," in _Land of Suns.h.i.+ne_, XI, 336-346, XII, 39-48, 104-114, 180-187.

CHAPTER IV

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FRENCH COLONIES (1500-1700)

THE FRENCH BACKGROUND

Mediaeval France and the Italian wars.--The history of Mediaeval France is largely the story of the struggle of the French kings to overthrow the feudal n.o.bility and to perfect the governmental machinery of absolutism.

The process which began with the accession of Hugh Capet in 987 was practically completed by the end of the reign of Louis XI, in 1483.

During the reigns of Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I, the great ambition of the French monarchs was to get control of Italy, a policy which brought them into conflict with Spain. The wars were barren of results as far as conquests in Italy were concerned, but the dangers to which France was exposed united the French people into a great nation, which was destined to be the leading continental power.

The religious wars.--The Reformation spread into France, Calvinism being the form of Protestantism which there took root. Calvin's religious system had three distinguis.h.i.+ng features: (1) the church was to be independent of any temporal power, (2) laymen and ministers were to join in the government of the church, and (3) a strict moral discipline was to be enforced. This program was distinctly democratic, and was certain to come into conflict with the absolutism of the crown. France became divided into two great parties. The Huguenots, as the French Protestants were called, were found mainly among the rich burghers of the towns and the n.o.bles of the country districts, their chief power being in southwestern France. They were also strong in Dauphine and Normandy.

Their great leaders were Coligny and the Bourbon princes, the most distinguished of whom was Henry of Navarre. The Catholic party was headed by the Guises and Catherine de Medici. The kings during this period were mere puppets, who were used by the leaders to further their political ends.

War broke out in 1562 and continued with occasional intermissions until 1596. The most important events were the a.s.sa.s.sination of Francis of Guise in 1563, the ascendency of Coligny, during which he tried to unite the nation in a war against Spain, the ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew's in 1572, the organization of the Catholic League headed by Henry of Guise, his a.s.sa.s.sination in 1588, and the murder of Henry III the following year, which made the way clear for Henry of Navarre to ascend the throne. In 1593 he accepted Catholicism. The last resistance in France was overcome in 1596, but war with Philip II continued two years longer.

In 1598 Henry issued the Edict of Nantes, which secured toleration to the Huguenots.

Reforms of Henry IV.--During the religious wars, the n.o.bles had regained some of their former power, and the ravages of war had almost ruined the industries of the country. Henry set to work to repair these conditions.

The lesser n.o.bles were forced to submit and the privileges of the more powerful were purchased. The king's great minister, Sully, carried out many of the economic reforms. The land tax called the _taille_, which rested most heavily upon the peasants, was more equitably distributed, and the hunting privileges of the n.o.bles were decreased. New lines of agriculture were introduced, marshes were reclaimed, and restrictions on the marketing of grain were removed. The king encouraged manufactures, especially of the more expensive fabrics, gla.s.s, and metal work.

Commerce was stimulated by securing safe transportation along the post roads, by a system of ca.n.a.ls connecting the Seine and the Loire, and by commercial treaties with foreign states. Attempts were also made to stimulate commerce and colonization by the formation of mercantile companies, and from this period date the first successful French colonies in America.

Richelieu.--Henry IV was a.s.sa.s.sinated in 1610, and his son, who ascended the throne as Louis XIII, was a child of nine years. During the regency of his mother, Mary de Medici, the n.o.bles again became turbulent, the Huguenots revolted, and the policy of hostility toward Spain was reversed. The regent was under the influence of favorites who looted the treasury. Under such conditions a strong leader was greatly needed; the man of the hour was Richelieu. In 1624 he was placed in control of public affairs, and for the next twenty years practically ruled France.

His policy aimed to make France the first power in Europe. To accomplish this he worked at home to strengthen the power of the crown. Abroad he aimed to weaken the power of the Hapsburgs, to extend the boundaries of France, and to build up a colonial empire.

The chief steps by which his policy was carried out were as follows: La Roch.e.l.le, the great Huguenot stronghold, was captured and the power of the Protestants was curbed effectually; the intrigues of Mary de Medici were thwarted; an alliance was made with Sweden, and to weaken the Hapsburgs the power of France was used to a.s.sist the Protestants in Germany in the Thirty Years' War; a navy was built and important ports were fortified; to extend commerce and colonies, colonial enterprises were entrusted to exclusive corporations. During the administration of Richelieu the French hold upon eastern Canada was strengthened, settlements were made in Guiana and the West Indies, and an attempt was made to occupy Madagascar.

The Council of State.--The work of strengthening the crown at the expense of the n.o.bility was continued. The power of the n.o.bles was maintained by their fortified castles and by their position as governors of provinces. An edict was issued for the destruction of all but the frontier fortifications. Most of the work of administration was centered in the _conseil d'etat_, or council of state, which was the highest judicial tribunal. It also issued edicts, made peace or war, determined the amount and method of taxation, and acted as a high court of justice.

In appearance this body was supreme, but in reality the power centered in the king and the chief minister, the other ministers being merely advisers. Local administration was taken from the n.o.bles and was placed almost wholly in the hands of _intendants_, who were officers of justice, police, and finance.

Mazarin.--Richelieu died in November, 1642, and Louis XIII a few months later. Louis XIV was a child of five years and his mother, Anne of Austria, became regent. Mazarin, who was probably secretly married to her, was to rule France during the troubled minority of the king. It was a period of civil and foreign war, in which the minister found no time to devote to the development of colonies. The importance of the period lies in the fact that the great n.o.bles were effectually quelled, that the absolutism of the crown was completely established, and that France proved herself superior to the power of Spain and the Hapsburgs. When Louis XIV took the reins of power in 1661 he was the most absolute and most powerful monarch in Europe.

Colbert.--Colonial development during the reign of Louis XIV was due mainly to Colbert, who was given charge of the finances, of the navy, and of the colonies. The finances had become deranged under Mazarin, and Colbert attacked the abuses. To stimulate commerce and manufactures, he established a protective system, furnished governmental aid to companies, and granted monopolies. The royal navy and mercantile marine were greatly increased. To develop foreign trade, corporations were granted monopolies of the commerce of the West Indies, the East Indies, Senegal, and Madagascar. Colonies were fostered by paternalistic regulations. The system of Colbert, as time proved, was founded on mistaken principles, for monopoly and overregulation stifled the growth of trade and of the colonies. Although a vast area was brought under control, the colonies never attracted a large population, or were allowed a free growth of inst.i.tutions.

EARLY EXPLORATIONS AND COLONIZING EFFORTS

First French voyages.--The first Frenchmen who visited America appear to have been Norman and Breton fishermen, who engaged in fis.h.i.+ng off the Newfoundland coast perhaps as early as 1500. Sailors from Dieppe also visited the coasts of North and South America. Vague accounts have come down to us of attempts to explore the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1506 and 1508, and of an unsuccessful colony on Sable Island in 1518. The first expedition under the government sanction was that of the Florentine, Verrazano, sent out by Francis I in 1524. The details of the voyage are somewhat obscure. He probably explored the coast from Cape Fear to Newfoundland.

Cartier and Roberval.--The wars between Francis I and Charles V prevented the French king from giving further attention to exploration until 1534, when Cartier was sent out with two s.h.i.+ps from St. Malo. He sighted land on the Labrador coast, pa.s.sed through the straits of Belle Isle, and explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence, locating the Bay of Chaleurs, Cape Gaspe, and Anticosti Island, thence returning to France.