Introduction to History of New Mexico
Three of the most ancient peoples of the Americas are named for sites in New Mexico where relics of them were first found. These are the Folsom, Clovis, and Sandia peoples of 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Pueblos (villages) such as Acoma are among the oldest continuously occupied sites in the Americas, dating to hundreds of years before Columbus. After the Pueblo Indians other groups arrived in the area—the Navajos, the Apaches, the Utes, and, in the 18th century, the Comanches.
Important dates in New Mexico1540-1542 Francisco Vásquez de Coronado explored New Mexico.1598 Juan de Onate founded the first permanent Spanish colony, at San Juan.1609 or 1610 Governor Pedro de Peralta established Santa Fe.1680 The Pueblo Indians revolted and drove the Spaniards out of northern New Mexico.1692 Diego de Vargas reconquered New Mexico for Spain.1706 Francisco Cuervo y Valdes founded Albuquerque.1821 Mexico won its independence from Spain, and New Mexico became a province of Mexico. William Becknell opened the Santa Fe Trail.1846 General Stephen W. Kearny took control of New Mexico during the Mexican War.1848 Mexico ceded New Mexico to the United States.1850 Congress created the Territory of New Mexico.1853 New Mexico acquired part of the Gila Valley.1862-1864 Colonel Kit Carson defeated the Mescalero Apache and Navajo Indians.1876 Cattlemen began the Lincoln County War.1886 The surrender of Geronimo ended the Apache Wars.1912 New Mexico became the 47th state on January 6.1916 Mexican bandits raided Columbus.1922 Geologists discovered oil in the southeastern and northwestern regions of New Mexico.1945 The first atomic bomb was exploded at Trinity Site near Alamogordo.1950 Paddy Martinez, a Navajo Indian, found uranium in the northwest region.1970's Completion of the San Juan-Chama project brought water to north-central New Mexico.1998 New Mexico celebrated the 400th anniversary of the founding of the colony at San Juan.Spanish Period
Either Cabeza de Vaca in 1534, who had heard rumors of cities of gold, or Friar Marcos de Niza, who investigated these stories in 1539, was the first Spanish explorer to set foot in what is now New Mexico. It was Marcos de Niza who claimed the land for Spain. An expedition led by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, 1540–42, sought these cities, but found only Pueblo villages. Settlement was started in 1598 by Don Juan de Oñate, the first governor. Oñate conquered Acoma and explored extensively. Don Pedro de Peralta, Oñate's successor, founded Santa Fe in 1610. It is the oldest of the state capitals.
Quarrels between governors and Franciscan missionaries over Indian policy hampered development. In 1680 a Pueblo medicine man named Popé led his people in a revolt, killing 400 settlers and driving the rest back to El Paso. It was not until 1692–96 that Don Diego de Vargas reconquered New Mexico.
Spanish raids for slaves provoked the Apaches to continuous hostility. By 1706 Comanches began raids into New Mexico. A French invasion from Louisiana was rumored in 1720. Pedro de Villasur led an expedition to meet it and was ambushed by Pawnees, only a dozen men escaping. In 1779 Governor Juan Bautista de Anza defeated the Comanches. Campaigns against the Apaches, 1775–90, succeeded in bringing temporary peace.
Transfer of Louisiana to the United States in 1803 was seen as a new threat to Spanish rule. Zebulon M. Pike and his exploring party of 1806–07 were taken prisoners, escorted back to Louisiana Territory, and released. Spanish authorities were less successful in stopping the mountain men (fur trappers), who made Taos their headquarters.
Mexican Period
Mexico became independent in 1821 and New Mexico became a Mexican province. (It was designated a territory in 1824 and a department in 1836.) In 1821, also, William Becknell came to Santa Fe from Franklin, Missouri, over the Santa Fe Trail, starting an overland trade that soon became immensely profitable.
Pueblo Indians revolted in 1837, took Santa Fe, and installed José Gonzales of Taos as governor. He was defeated and killed by Mexican troops in 1838, and the Mexican government's authority was reestablished. In 1841 the new Republic of Texas, which had revolted against Mexico, sent an expedition of soldiers and traders to New Mexico. Its purpose was to take over the trading center of Santa Fe and establish the authority of Texas in New Mexico, the eastern portion of which Texas claimed as part of its territory. The Texans were subdued by New Mexico militia and failed to attain their goal.
In 1846 war between Mexico and the United States began, and an army under Brigadier General Stephen Watts Kearny took Santa Fe. He marched on to California, leaving William Bent as governor and occupation forces under Colonel Sterling Price. Pueblo Indians revolted and killed Governor Bent at Taos. Price's troops and a militia company of mountain men soon suppressed the uprising. Other Indians continued raiding, and United States troops were soon fighting Navahos and Jicarilla and Mescalero Apaches.
U.S. Territory
New Mexico became a territory in 1850. The Gadsden Purchase of 1853 added an area south of the Gila River. In 1863 Arizona was cut off as a separate territory.
During the Civil War Confederate forces invaded New Mexico under Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley in 1862. Victorious at Valverde, he took Albuquerque and advanced toward Santa Fe, but was driven out by Union forces after his supply train was destroyed in the Battle of Glorieta. Colonel Kit Carson defeated the Mescalero Apaches in 1863 and the Navahos in 1864. The Navahos were given their present reservation in 1868. Trouble with Apaches continued into the 1880's, particularly under their able chief Victorio.
Expansion of the range cattle industry after the Civil War reached New Mexico in 1866 when Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving drove a herd of Texas cattle to Fort Sumner over what came to be called the Goodnight-Loving Trail. The era of the cattle barons was accompanied by much lawlessness, culminating in the Lincoln County War, 1878–81, a bloody range war in southern New Mexico between two rival factions of ranchers and merchants. (Billy the Kid played a prominent role in the feud.)
The coming of the railroads in the 1880's helped both the cattle and mining industries and also brought many “Anglo" (non-Indian, non-Hispanic) farmers to New Mexico.
Statehood
New Mexico sought statehood as early as 1849, but political and other factors delayed acceptance. A constitution was adopted and a state government set up in 1911, and on January 6, 1912, New Mexico was admitted to the Union as the 47th state.
Pancho Villa raided Columbus in 1916, and a punitive expedition under Brigadier General John J. Pershing pursued his band into Mexico.
With the construction of Los Alamos National Laboratory during World War II, New Mexico became a center for nuclear-weapon research and development. The world's first atomic bomb was exploded on July 16, 1945, on the White Sands Proving Grounds near Alamogordo. Industrial expansion, which began shortly after the war, continued in the 1950's as uranium and oil deposits were discovered.
In the 1960's, an alliance of Mexican-Americans agitated for restoration of land under old Spanish land grants. Their claims were not upheld. In 1970, however, the federal government returned to the Taos Indians 48,000 acres (19,000 hectares) of land taken from them early in the century and incorporated into Carson National Forest.
In the 1970's New Mexico became an important supplier of coal, natural gas, oil, and uranium to the rest of the country. The nationwide recession of the early 1980's caused serious economic problems in the state; particularly affected were farming, ranching, and mining. Flooding in 1983–84 produced severe property damage. With increased demand for natural gas and crude oil in the mid-1980's, economic recovery began.
As of the late 20th century, a large component of New Mexico's economy is space and nuclear research, comprised of both military and nonmilitary projects. Although government military spending has recently decreased, tourism, manufacturing, and construction industries have been growing.