Page 49 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Southwest USA & National Parks

THE HIST OR Y OF THE SOUTHWEST  47

recently formed United States. The US and region had its own territorial capital for
New Mexico now shared a border, but the administering law, they were not able to
Anglos proved the stronger power. elect national represen tatives to Congress.
The fight for Mexico’s independence from
Spain began on September 16, 1810, but it The Impact of the American Civil War
was not until 1821 that independence was When the Civil War broke out in 1861,
finally declared. The Republic of Mexico was many Southwesterners had Confederate
founded in 1824. Newly independent sympathies, siding with the southern states
Mexicans were glad to do business with against the north, or Union. They tried to
their Anglo-American neighbors, who declare Arizona a Confederate territory but
brought much-needed trade after the in 1862, Union forces repelled Confederates
Spanish block on goods going west. at Glorieta Pass, near Santa Fe. In 1863, the
federal government recognized Arizona as a
Anglo-American Settlement separate territory, and drew the state line that
Conflicts over land rights marked the exists between it and New Mexico today.
period following the 1803 Louisiana After the Civil War, reports of land and
Purchase. While the Hispanic and Native mineral wealth in the West filtered back
inhabitants of the region were happy to east, and Anglo settlement of the West
trade with the Anglos, they were angered rapidly increased. Rich lodes of gold, silver,
by the new settlers who built ranches and and copper were discovered in Arizona,
even towns on lands to which they had no and mining camps such as Tombstone,
legal right. By the 1840s the United States Jerome, and Bisbee in Arizona (see p96),
had embarked on a vigorous expansion and Silver City in New Mexico became
westward, with settlers accompanied by boomtowns. In Colorado, Silverton, Ouray,
United States’ soldiers. In 1845 the US and Telluride (see pp182–3) also grew up
acquired Texas, and, when Mexico resisted around the mining industry in the late
further moves, the president sent an army 19th century.
to take control of New Mexico, starting the
Mexican War. The Treaty of Guadalupe-
Hidalgo ended the conflict in 1848,
and gave the US the Mexican Cesion
(comprising California, Utah,
including Nevada and parts of
Wyoming and Colorado, and New
Mexico, which included northern
Arizona) for $18.25 million. In 1854
the United States bought southern
Arizona through the Gadsden
Purchase for $10 million. While each Engraving depicting an Apache attack on Anglo settlers (c.1886)

1778 1803 The Louisiana 1810–21 Mexican War 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo 1854 The US
Construction of Purchase extends US of Independence cedes Mexican territory to US acquires southern
Mission San boundaries to the Arizona with the
Xavier del Bac New Mexican border 1824 Republic of 1846–48 The Gadsden Purchase
underway Mexico founded Mexican War
1780 1800 1820 1840
1821 Mexico declares 1855 Mormon settlers 1857 The
1792 Pedro Vial independence from try to found first Utah War,
establishes a route Spain. William Becknell Trader’s settlement at Moab in Mormon
to Santa Fe from leads traders from the east wagon southern Utah, but settlers fight
St. Louis, Missouri along the Santa Fe Trail repelled by Ute Indians US troops

042-047_EW_SW_USA.indd 47 28/11/17 12:35 PM