Spanish Colonies in North America

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Spanish Colonies in North America
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Spanish Florida

• Spanish explorers reached Florida as early as the
  1560s, fearing that France would take over their
  new lands, the Spanish built a fort called St.
  Augustine on the Atlantic Coast
• Spanish towns were the 1st permanent settlements
  in the New World
• As English controlled lands spread south, Spains
  control weakened, to help colonize Florida Spain
  agreed to free and protect any runaway slave that
  would help built Floridas military forts
• By the 1760s, Spains lands in Florida were not
  developing and fear of English invasion left only
  3 towns in the whole colony

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Settling the Spanish Borderlands

• Spains most important colonies were Mexico and
  South America
• The main purpose of Spanish Borderlands were to
  protect their missions, businesses and land from
  European invasions
• Roman Catholic Missions began to grow in
  California and Texas, priests used these
  buildings and resources to convert natives to
  Christianity
• At first, missions in Texas had little to no
  success, however one mission called the Alamo
  became the largest and most successful north of
  the Rio Grande River, this mission became the
  town of San Antonio Texas
• Californias missions took hold much faster and
  stronger than those in Texas, many became large
  cities along the pacific coast and centers for
  trading, most notably San Diego and Los Angeles
• Along with missions, Spain sent soldiers to
  protect their interests, the forts built to house
  these soldiers were called presidios