For a good chunk of time, the colony of New Mexico was the farthest northern enclave of New Spain, the largest and most dominant power on the North American continent. Though explorations across North America had occurred throughout the sixteenth century, large swaths of territory in what was to become northern Mexico, California, Arizona, and Texas, were largely ignored by the Spanish government. The reasoning for this was simple, namely all the Spanish really cared about was silver, and since they had no idea if these areas had silver, and there was lots of silver in central Mexico, there was really no reason to give two shits about the barren lands to the north full of natives who really didn’t want them around. The fact that keeping control of New Mexico was a pretty big pain in the ass as well certainly didn’t help either.
Now this didn’t mean that the region was ignored by everyone for most of the seventeenth century, it just meant that it was ignored by the Spanish government. The same can’t be said of the Jesuits. Now the Jesuits were an order of Catholic missionaries who throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were a significant power in New Spain. Seeing it as their holy mission to convert as many people to the Catholic faith as possible, Jesuit missionaries travelled far and wide beyond what was at the time considered the frontier, exploring territory otherwise left unmapped and establishing missions where they attempted to introduce the natives to the Catholic faith, European crops and cattle, and Spanish culture. At times these missions were successful, basically creating Spanish enclaves beyond the power of the Spanish government. However, other times they ended in the missionaries being killed or forced to flee, usually because the missionaries became a little too forceful in their attempts to convert the locals, or because they got greedy and began using the locals basically as slaves. The missionary game was a real mixed bag of whether or not someone was a real fuck. The missionaries also tended to bring Old World diseases with them, which wasn’t all that great for the natives either, you know, if you’ve been paying attention.
Anyways, Jesuits first began to move into what is today northwestern Mexico in the 1640s, but they met with no success until the 1660s, and even then had pretty limited success due to the natives just not giving two shits about adopting a new god. However, say what you want about the Jesuits, but they were most certainly persistent. A new influx of Jesuit missionaries in the 1680s not only explored the region in more detail then ever before, finally disproving the widely held belief that Baja and California was an island, but also establishing a number of missions throughout northwestern Mexico and southern Arizona. This proved rather advantageous given a number of silver mines were discovered in these same areas in the early eighteenth century, and though there were a number of native revolts during this period, overall it was much easier for the Spanish to assert control then if the Jesuit hadn’t laid the groundwork.
Meanwhile, in what is today northeastern Mexico and Texas, the spread of Jesuit missionaries was following a similar pattern, though one enhanced by direct investment from the government of New Spain. In the 1685, France built a small colony on the coast of Texas, and the Spanish spent the next decade sending military expeditions north in an attempt to destroy it, finally discovering the natives had wiped it out years before in 1691. Concerned over continued French interest in Texas, they then built several missions, which were soon after abandoned because the local Caddoan peoples really didn’t want them there. Unfortunately, the missionaries left behind small pox when they left, and a majority of the Caddoan didn’t have much of an opinion on anything soon after. Further concern over possible French expansion led to the re-establishment of a large number of Spanish missions and forts in eastern and southern Texas beginning in 1716. This time around the Caddoan were much more open to the idea of converting. With their numbers greatly reduced and increasing attacks by the Comanche and Apache, converting to a new religion seemed like a pretty low price to pay for protection.
In 1720, the Spanish attempted to assert themselves north of Texas via an armed military expedition. French traders were increasingly appearing on the Central Plains, establishing relationships with the local tribes, good enough relationships that they managed to convince the Pawnee to wipe out the Spanish expedition. The French followed up by presenting trade goods to the Comanche if they agreed to attack the Spanish, which the Comanche were more than happy to take because they were going to do so anyways. For the next sixty years, the violence of the Comanche raids checked any further northeastern Spanish expansion. Though not supplied by the French, the Apache played a similar role in limiting northwestern Spanish expansion, at least until other countries began showing up in the Pacific Ocean.
Now for the better part of two centuries, the Spanish had dominated the Pacific Ocean. In fact, other then some English privateers in the late sixteenth century and a three trading expeditions by the Japanese in western style ships in 1610, 1614, and 1617, nobody but them had been crossing the Pacific between the Old World and the New World. In fact, though Spanish ships, following the trade winds, often arrived on the coasts of the Pacific Northwest and California during these two centuries, they really didn’t give two shits about them. They were traders damn it, not explorers. However, that all began to change in the 1740s when the Russians began to explore the northern Pacific, with British and French explorers beginning to explore the southern Pacific in the 1760s. Rather alarmed by this, New Spain began funding the exploration of the Pacific Coast and the establishment of missions in California. The first of these, San Diego, was founded in 1769, with 20 more founded before the end of the century, the northernmost being San Francisco in 1776.
