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Article: Spanish Borderlands
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
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SPANISH BORDERLANDS
SPANISH BORDERLANDS
refer to the Spanish colonial frontier in what later became the United States. By the late eighteenth century, Spanish claims extended west along the southern rim of North America from Florida to California, and north along the coast to Alaska. The Spanish borderlands vanished as a regional entity in 1821, when Mexico became independent, but its cultural and material legacies endure almost two hundred years later in the borderlands between Mexico and the United States.
Spanish Exploration and Settlement
In the sixteenth century, this vast region was home to a variety of native peoples, ranging from mobile bands in Texas, California, and Arizona ...