The Coming of The French
• Rene Robert Cavalier Sieur de la Salle
explored from 1682-1687
– The 1682 voyage down the Mississippi River
– Second expedition and Fort St. Louis
(1684)
• Missed the river by 400 miles and ended up in
New Spain
• Lost and Dead
The Spanish Response
• Govenor Alonso de Leon
– Sent expedition to secure Texas (Tejas) in
1690
– San Francisco de los Tejas became the
first east Texas mission
Competing Plans to Secure Texas
Religion
• Cheap
• Not aggressive
• Appear to natives as
nice people
•
•
•
•
Military
Expensive
Takes more time
Train military
Appear aggressive to
native people
Mexican officials chose Religion because it is
cheaper
--Does not Work!
The French Refuse to Give Up!
• The French sent…
– Louis Juchereau de St. Denis to trade with the
Caddo Indians (to build rapport with them)
• Went well and the Indians trusted the French a lot
more than the Spanish
• St. Denis travels south of the Texas border
– Arrested by Spanish officials and thrown in jail
– St. Denis becomes a French Spaniard because he became a
traitor
Spanish Expansion in Earnest
--Guadalupe de los Nachogdoches (mission)
400 miles from the nearest city
--Presidio de los Adaes (Military Fort)
--San Antonio de Valero (mission)
--San Antonio de Bexar (mission)
Los Adaes and The Chicken
War (1719)
• The French hear about the
wonderful fort the Spanish
have called Los Adaes
• The French sent 7 soldiers to
attack Los Adaes
• The Spanish hear about the
upcoming attack and leave the
fort
Chicken War cont’d.
• The French are surprised to see that
there is only one guard there and he was
guarding a chicken coop
• Out of anger, the French destroy the
chicken coop and the one Spanish guard
gets away
• This shows the Spanish that the French
are going to be hostile towards them
Comic Book Image of The Chicken War
Steps to Stop the French Threat
• Populate San Antonio by sending more
troops
• Build a Fort on La Salle’s failed
expedition
New Leader
• Marquis de Aguayo
– New President Governor of New Spain
– Called New Spain and Texas lands Coahuila y
Tejas
– Founded San Antonio San Jose Mission in 1722
– Made Los Adaes a Spanish Capitol of Texas
– Founded the Presidio La Bahia (fort) in 1722
The Seven Years War
(1756-1763)
• Treaty of Paris (1763)
– England gets Florida
– Spain gets Louisiana
The Coming of the Anglos
Texas within an Independent
Mexico
Incursions by Americans into Tejas
A. Spain’s response to new aggressive
neighbors
– America was a threat to Spain
1)Work with Indians west of the Appalachian
Mountains
2)Control the Mississippi River
Pinckney's Treaty (1795)
1. Gave rights to access the
Mississippi River to the Americans
2. Recognized the 31st parallel as the
southern part of the U.S.
*This treaty was BAD NEWS for the
Spanish!
Filibusters
• People looking to expand territories and
expand slavery
– Philip Nolan (1797)
• American
• Was forced out of Spanish Territory by the
Spanish
• Nolan returns in 1800 with a small militia
– Caught and killed in 1801 by Spanish authorities
Napoleon and the Louisiana
Purchase
Other Incursions
• Zebulon Pike’s expedition in 1809 (forerunner
to Lewis and Clark)
-----1st American to enter Spanish trade routes
• Andrew Jackson’s invasion of Florida (1818)
• Adams-Onis Treaty (1819)
– U.S. gets Florida from Spain
– Undefined boundary between Texas and Lousiana
Spanish Texas in the 1800s
• Tejas population around 5,000
settlers (not including Indians)
• Major population centers: El Paso,
San Antonio, Laredo, and the Seno
Mexicano