The Legacy of Spanish Colonialism

Architect Richard Thornton is a member of an alliance of Creek, Choctaw and Seminole scholars, who over the past seven years have been intensely studying the heritage of the Muskogean peoples. Much of their activities have involved re-examination of the archives of the early Spanish, English and French exploration of the Southeastern United States. We have asked Richard to provide AccessGenealogy with some of his work.  As we add to these articles we will also be providing a question and answer section for the reader to ask questions of Richard.

During the 1500s and early 1600s Spain built up a worldwide empire that was entirely too large to be populated by its own people. The problem was exacerbated by the Crown's obsession with maintaining an ethnically and religiously pure motherland. Heretics (i.e. Protestants) were always burned at the stake. In 1492 all Jews and Moslems were given the choice between leaving the country without their belongings or converting to Catholicism. Those, who at least publicly converted to Catholicism often ended up being burned at the stake anyway, if someone desired their property. The Moroscos (converted Moslems) were maintained as the lowest caste.. Some eventually rebelled, which made the Crown worry about all of the Morosco's loyalties. In a matter of a few weeks, 370,000 Moroscos were forcibly deported to northern Africa, leaving large swaths of Aragon and Valencia virtually uninhabited. The predominantly Protestant Kingdom of Navarre in northern Spain came under Spanish control in the late 1500s. Its population was drastically reduced by the threat of the Inquisition.

The end result of a shortage of Spanish Catholic immigrants was that the Spanish were a small minority in virtually every province on the mainland of the Americas. In order to keep the Native American and mestizo majorities submissive, extremely repressive societies evolved. All political and economic power was held by the pure Caucasians. The church enforced a version of Christianity in which commoners were only considered worthy of heaven, if they were totally submissive to the church and the nobility. Literacy among commoners was discouraged. All governmental positions were appointed.

Wealth and power was also concentrated into a few cities in central Mexico. It was here that the grand cathedrals and Spanish Baroque townhouses were built. The architecture of these wealthy cities rivaled Spain and Italy in sophistication. Phillp the Second's Laws of the Indies in 1573 mandated all towns to be planned along the same Renaissance principles. The architectural and planning guidelines were heavily influenced by the writings of the Roman architect, Vitruvius, and the Italian Renaissance architect, Alberti. The central Mexican towns had formal zocalos (plazas) and refined architecture around these zocalos. Elsewhere in Mexico, such as in the "boonies" of Tejas and Nuevo Mexico even government buildings tended to be rather primitive. Most, whether public or private, were constructed out of undressed timbers and adobe.

Despite Texas's remoteness and scarcity of Natives, during the 1700s Spain invested heavily into a 25 mission system and two large forts. Some of the mission churches were large stone structures. Many missions, such as San Antonio de Valara (the Alamo) were fortified against attacks by Apache's and Commanche's. The reason for these efforts was to establish Spanish claim to Texas and prevent the encroachment of French colonists from Louisiana. The results were not very spectacular. Few Indians wanted to be peons for the friars and either fewer Mexicans were interested in settling Tejas. By the early 1800s, most missions had been secularized and the mission Indians had gone elsewhere.

Impact of the American and French Revolutions

Although European nobility assumed that the new American nation would not last long without a nobility, the ideals of Thomas Jefferson stirred hope among the tiny middle class of Mexico. The transfer of Louisiana from France to Spain in 1763 put Spanish subjects in near proximity to English-speaking people with their growing democratic traditions. After America's independence, an increasing flow of traders in New Orleans allowed democratic ideals to seep into Mexico. However, Mexico's aristocracy thought they still lived in the 1500s, and considered the Spanish to be culturally and militarily superior to all peoples of the world. They would continue this attitude until rudely shocked in 1848.

When the French Revolution spread into Spain, two decades of chaos interrupted Spain's control over its colonies. The Spanish-born elite of Mexico filled in the gap, and become accustomed to greater autonomy. After New Orleans became an American city in 1803, the flow of ideas from the United States into Mexico's upper middle class mestizo intelligentsia accelerated.

The Mexican War of Independence

The opening stage of rebellion in New Spain in 1810, as Mexico was then called, was led by a priest in Guanajuato named Miguel Hidalgo. Hidalgo gambled, sired several children, and encouraged his low caste parishioners to illegally grow olives and wine grapes. Hidalgo's followers were primarily Indians and poor mestizo's. They achieved some initial successes, but eventually were indiscriminate in their brutality and disorganized. They lost the support of the mestizos; then were defeated. Hidalgo was tried and executed by the Inquisition.

A new round of rebellion in the form of guerilla warfare began around 1815 under the leadership of Vincente Guerrero. It also achieved some initial successes, but for the next five years devolved into a war of attrition, in which the rebels were steadily losing territory and support. Very little fighting occurred in Tejas until near the end of the war, when rebels attempted escape to the United States. In early 1821, the United States signed a treaty with Spain in which the United States withdrew its claim on part of the territory of Tejas, in return for Spain giving Florida to the United States.

Later in 1821, just as the rebellion seemed to be near collapse, a coup d'états occurred in Spain in which liberal forces overthrew King Ferdinand II. The elite of Mexico became concerned that a liberal, semi-democratic Spain would cause them to lose control of Mexico. Just as Colonel Agustin de Iturbide was about to crush Guerrero's army, he made a proposal to join sides with the guerillas under a document known as the Three Guarantees. New Spain would become an independent kingdom. Crioles and Mestizo's would have equal civil and economic rights. The powers and properties of the Roman Catholic Church would be maintained.

The alliance of pro-democratic and former royalist Mexicans quickly defeated Spanish troops. Independence was achieved on August 24, 1821. The victors initially planned to bring King Ferdinand or one of his relatives to Mexico to reign. However, in 1822 Iturbide declared himself to be Emperor of the Mexican Empire. He quickly killed or forced into exile many of the pro-democratic leaders after abolishing the Mexican Congress. Several went to the United States, where the continued to absorb non-Spanish concepts of government. Alta California, Nuevo Mexico and thinly populated Tejas resisted central controls. Some fighting occurred in Tejas between small bands of rebels and the imperialists.

Iturbide was overthrown in 1824. Mexico came under the dominance of liberal members of the York Rite Masons. They created a federal government with a constitution modeled after that of the United States, except that it declared Catholicism to be the national religion. The Mexican Empire became the Estados Unidos Mexicanos. All of the Central American states opted out of the Union to become independent. The states that joined the federation soon adopted their own constitutions, which varied in content. Yucatan declared itself to be an autonomous state and established freedom of religion. Liberals began to travel back and forth between Yucatan and Tejas, as these states sought more autonomy and political influence. The adjacent states of Cohuila and Tamaulipas also were strongly influenced by American democratic traditions that rode on the ships out of New Orleans.

Under the enlightened leadership of President Vincent Guerrero, Mexico prospered. There were only about 400 Caucasians residing in Tejas. In order to stimulate the development of this border state, the Mexican government offered free grants of land to foreign immigrants. Immigrants were required to sign an oath to the Constitution of 1824 and be practicing Roman Catholics. In 1835 this loyalty oath would become a critical political issue in Tejas. Before then, though, Empresarios such as Steve Austin, were paid by the federal government to attract foreign settlers to Tejas, and act as the representative of the federal government in administrating their lands.

In 1829 President Guerrero issued a proclamation that banned slavery throughout the nation. There had been a de facto end to slavery since 1821, but attempts of American immigrants to bring their slaves along with them, forced Guerrero to give the policy legal teeth. Slaves were legally free, but often continued to work for their masters for little or no wages.

By 1832, Tejas seemed well on its way to becoming a prosperous Mexican state primarily inhabited by Spanish-speaking, northern Europeans, plus substantial numbers of Creek, Alabama, Koasati and Cherokee Indians from the Southeast. In total contrast to the rest of Mexico, Tejas was occupied mostly by middle class farmers and ranchers. Throughout eastern Texas residential architectural styles such as the log cabin, Federal and Georgia Plantation Plain began appearing on the landscape. Very few American colonists lived in Spanish style houses. Commercial buildings also emulated those in the Southeastern United States. Essentially, Tejas had become a bilingual Dixie without legalized slavery.

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Notes About this Material

Source: Richard Thornton, an alliance of Muskogean scholars, professors and professionals. Copyright Richard Thornton, Blairsville, GA, 2010. Used here with permission. 

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