Spain.
At one time or another more than one-half the present territory of the
United States has been subject to the sovereign of
Spain.
From
Mexico, the Spaniards claimed the country northward indefinitely.
Cortez discovered
California, and Spanish missionaries planted the cross far up the
Pacific coast.
In the interior, the
Spanish adventurers west of the
Rocky Mountains penetrated far to the northward—almost to the present southern boundary of the
British possessions—in search of the precious metals, and everywhere they planted the
Spanish tokens of sovereignty.
They held possession of the country along the northern shore of the
Gulf of Mexico (
Florida and
Texas) until a comparatively recent period.
Everywhere that Spanish missionaries and traders gained a foothold the cross and the royal arms were set up. In 1507 King Ferdinand established a court which he called
Casa de Contratacion, or Board of Trade, to which he committed the administration of American affairs.
The
French under the lead of
La Salle made the first
European settlement in
Texas.
In 1714 the Viceroy of
Mexico proceeded to colonize the country with Spaniards by planting missions in that territory.
One was established at
Natchitoches, within the present limits of
Louisiana, another west of the
Sabine, and others at different points.
The establishment of these missions was under the direction of
Capt. Don Domingo Ramo, and they were first in the hands of the Franciscans.
The mission stations were really Spanish military posts.
When war between
France and
Spain broke out in 1718, the
French broke up these posts, but they were soon re-established.
Down to 1720, the only Spanish inhabitants of
Texas were in the missions, but in that year the
Spanish government ordered the transportation of 400 families from the Canaries to
Texas, but only thirteen families arrived that year and settled at
San Antonio.
This new population stimulated the missions to greater efforts.
A Spanish governor of
Texas was appointed.
The population of
Texas increased but slowly.
As late as 1744 it did not exceed 1,500 souls.
That province remained in the possession of
Spain until the independence of
Mexico was achieved, and it was part of that republic until it won its own independence in 1836.
War was begun by
Great Britain against
Spain in 1739, and
Admiral Vernon was sent with a squadron to act against the
Spanish dominions in the
West Indies.
He sailed from
Jamaica with six ships, attacked Porto Bello (Nov. 21), and captured it. He blew up the castle and fortifications there and returned to
Jamaica.
The next year a great fleet was despatched to reinforce
Vernon, who held possession of Porto Bello and Chagres, on the
Atlantic side of the
Isthmus of Panama, depots for all merchandise destined for the
Pacific coast.
The fleet conveyed an army of 12,000 men, led by
General Cathcart, and the number of seamen amounted to 15,000.
The army was composed of British regulars, battalions from the
American colonies, and negroes from
Jamaica—the greatest armament ever seen in the
West Indies.
The second in command of the troops was
Sir Alexander Spottswood (q. v.), formerly governor of
Virginia.
The expedition met with disaster.
While the fleet, with the soldiers yet on hoard the transports, was blockading
Carthagena, the yellow fever broke out among them with great fury.
Cathcart and
Spottswood perished by the disease, and the command devolved on
General Wentworth, who could not agree with
Vernon.
After several unsuccessful attacks upon
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the city, the enterprise was abandoned, with immense loss, chiefly through sickness.
Additional troops were sent from
Massachusetts, and, with them,
Vernon sailed for
Cuba, but was unsuccessful.
A fleet under Anson, which had been sent to the
Pacific to repeat the exploits of
Drake on the
American coast, was equally unsuccessful.
England then found herself (1742) threatened with a war with
France.
The war, really begun through the resolution of British merchants to force a trade with
Spanish America, after spreading first to
Europe and then to
India, and adding nearly $150,000,000 to the
British national debt, was brought to a close by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in the autumn of 1748.
“The position and strength of the countries occupied by the
Americans,” said
Grimaldi, the
Spanish minister, in 1769, “excites a just alarm for the rich Spanish possessions on their borders.
They have already introduced their grain and rice into our colonies by a commerce of interlopers.
If this introduction should be legalized and extended to other objects of commerce, it would effectually increase the power and prosperity of a neighbor already too formidable.
Moreover, should this neighbor separate from its metropolis, it would assume the republican form of government—and a republic is a government dangerous, from the wisdom, the consistency, and the solidity of the measures which it would adopt for executing such projects of conquest as it would naturally form.”
This was the reply of the
Spanish minister to a suggestion of establishing free-trade in
America.
Grimaldi's fears were prophetic.
During the
Revolutionary War the Spanish Court was more hostile to the
American cause than any other in
Europe, for it was seen that encouragement to the revolt might hasten the independence of the
Spanish-American colonies.
Spain was not only hostile in principle, but was willing to be actively meddlesome in checking the good offices of
France towards the
United States.
Soon after the arrival in
Philadelphia, in 1778, of the first French minister, a Spanish emissary (
Juan de Miralles) appeared there, without any authority, but was received as a friend and diplomatic agent of
Spain by the unsuspecting Congress.
He was only a spy.
France had pressed
Spain to join her in helping the
Americans, but the latter had steadily refused, and when a despatch announcing the treaty reached
Madrid the government was amazed, and saw spectres of colonial losses in the near future.
Florida Blanca, the
Spanish minister, suspected the good faith of the
French; and when in April (1778) the
French ambassador at
Madrid asked him at what time
Spain would take part in the war against
Great Britain, he burst out into a tirade against the
French policy.
“The American deputies,” he said, “are treated like the
Roman consuls, to whom the kings of the
East came to ask support.”
Blanca soon began the meditation of intrigues with
Great Britain to crush or reduce the growing power of the
United States.
Early in 1779 the Spanish Court offered to be a mediator between
France and
Great Britain.
Pending this affair the
French minister (
Gerard) had urged the Continental Congress to fix what terms of peace they would accept and to appoint ministers authorized to negotiate.
The Spanish offer was at first evaded and then rejected by
Great Britain, when the Spanish Court published a manifesto, which was equivalent to a declaration of war against
England, and so, indirectly, gave aid to the
United States.
France, financially weak, now wished for peace, and therefore the minister suggested to Congress measures for securing it.
In 1795
Thomas Pinckney was sent on a special mission to
Spain, where he negotiated a treaty which settled a longpending dispute concerning the
Spanish boundary and the navigation of the
Mississippi River.
This treaty was signed at
Madrid by
Thomas Pinckney and
El Principe de la Paz on Oct. 20, 1795.
It fixed the
Florida boundary at lat. 31° N., between the
Mississippi and the
Apalachicola, and east of the
Apalachicola a line from the junction of the
Flint to the head of the
St. Mary, and thence by that river to the sea. The navigation of the
Mississippi was to be free to both parties throughout its entire extent.
The
Americans were to enjoy a right of deposit at New Orleans for three years, at the end of which period either this
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privilege was to be continued, or an equivalent establishment was to be assigned them at some other convenient point on the
lower Mississippi.
Neither party was to make alliances with the
Indian tribes living within the territories of the other, nor was either party to allow its Indians to carry hostilities into the territories of the other.
It made stipulations concerning commerce and neutral rights, and a board of commissioners was provided for to liquidate losses on the part of the
Americans in consequence of illegal captures by Spanish cruisers, such losses to be paid by the
Spanish crown.
The rising of the people of the
Spanish-American provinces to secure their political independence of
Spain began soon after the royal family of
Portugal abandoned
Europe and took refuge in
Brazil in 1807.
The rising began in
Buenos Ayres,
Venezuela, and
Chile.
In 1810
Mexico revolted, but did not secure its independence until 1821.
The other states followed at various intervals,
Bolivia, in 1824, being the last.
The people of the
United States naturally sympathized with these movements.
When the diplomatic appropriation bill came up in Congress, March 24, 1818,
Henry Clay moved to insert an appropriation for a minister to the new South American republic of
La Plata.
Early in the session of 1819 he proposed the acknowledgment of the South American republics, but it was considered premature.
He brought the question before Congress again early in 1821, when the House of Representatives adopted resolutions to that effect.
In his annual message (Dec. 3, 1821),
President Monroe called the attention of Congress to these republics, suggesting that they were really independent of
Spain and deserved acknowledgment.
In accordance with these suggestions, a resolution was offered in the House of Representatives in January, 1822, for recognizing the independence of
Mexico and five provinces of
South America formerly under the dominion of
Spain.
The vote in the
House in favor was nearly unanimous, and $100,000 were appropriated to defray the expenses of envoys to those republics, who were soon afterwards appointed by the
President.
Before these States had assumed a permanent shape, their independence was formally acknowledged by the
United States, openly and boldly, in the face of the world.
This measure was proposed by
President Monroe in a special message, March 8, 1822.
See
Monroe, James.
On March 8, 1895, the United States mail-ship
Allianca, on her homeward voyage from
Colon to New York, when 6 miles from the coast of
Cuba, was repeatedly fired upon by a Spanish gunboat with solid shot.
The Windward Passage, where this took place, is the usual highway for vessels plying between ports of the
United States and the
Caribbean Sea.
Captain Crossman, of the
Allianca, paid no attention to the gunboat and escaped the Spanish vessel.
Secretary of State Gresham at once cabled
Minister Taylor at
Madrid that this government must demand a prompt apology from
Spain.
The general position taken by the
United States was in accordance with the following resolution passed by the Senate in June, 1858: “Any molestation by force or show of force on the part of a foreign power of an American vessel on the high seas in time of peace is in derogation of the sovereignty of the
United States.”
The Spanish minister at
Washington complicated the matter somewhat by his intemperate utterances to newspaper men, declaring that
Captain Crossman must have dreamed that he saw a gunboat.
For a time the affair promised serious complications, but on proofs of the occurrences being furnished,
Spain apologized.
