The northern FRONTIER of New Spain (Mexico), the area of the current U. S. Southwest, was a backwater of the Spanish Empire during the 1761 to 1812 period. Although Spain devoted limited resources to the region, it had two main goals for the frontier: to restrict the influence of other European powers and to subdue hostile Native Americans.
No European power posed a direct threat to Spain’s tenuous hold on this part of its empire, but Spain continuously looked at its rivals with a wary eye. To forestall Russian advances and possible English interest, Spain colonized California beginning in 1769. The acquisition of Louisiana in the treaty that ended the French and Indian War (1754-63) provided a territorial cushion for Spain’s settlements in New Mexico and Texas. The English, however, now had outposts on the Mississippi River, and soon English traders began penetrating the Great Plains, competing with the Spanish. The defeat of Great Britain in the Revolutionary War (1775-83) minimized this threat. It also brought an aggressive and, as it turned out, expansive United States into the picture. By the time Spain retroceded Louisiana to Napoleon Bonaparte, who in turn sold the Louisiana Purchase to the United States in 1803, the Spanish had their hands full in Europe and in the rest of their empire. The vague boundary between Louisiana and the Spanish possessions in northern New Spain was clarified in 1819 by the Adams-Onis Treaty. Two years later, Spain withdrew entirely from North America and Mexico gained its independence.
The Indian problem was dealt with by two separate orders that reoriented Spanish policy. The Regulations of 1772 shifted Spanish-Indian relations from diplomacy to force. The Spanish government proposed the creation of a line of presidios—forts—from the Gulf of California to the Gulf of Mexico approximately 100 miles apart. These 15 outposts, roughly along the 30th parallel, or near the current U. S.-Mexico border, were to be manned by well-paid and heavily armed mounted soldiers. All settlements, except for a few around Santa Fe in New Mexico and San Antonio in Texas, were to be abandoned north of the line. Although this plan was more difficult to carry out than originally envisioned, it helped to provide frontier security. The second set of orders, the Instructions of 1786, created an aggressive Indian policy that sought to exterminate all Native Americans who opposed the Spanish, while making other Indians more dependent on the Spanish for TRADE.
This policy was calculating and brutal. Captured Apache, including women and children, were shipped to Cuba to serve as slaves. Previously, captives had been sent to Mexico, where some would escape and return to the frontier. A pact was arranged with the Comanche. Before this time, the Spanish had been reluctant to trade firearms with the Indians. Now they did so willingly, with the idea that the Indians would become dependent on the Spanish for gunpowder and repairs. By the 1790s a relative peace settled over the border region, leading to increased Hispanic settlement and some prosperity. After 1810 the Mexican independence movement disrupted this peace. Texas experienced the greatest disorder, as competing government and republican forces seized control of the province, and as pirates such as Jean Laffite infested the coast.
Throughout this period, Franciscans friars never abandoned their efforts to bring Christianity to the Indians. Despite decreased government support, the Franciscans maintained missions in New Mexico and Texas and established several missions in California. Although Christian Indians often suffered a high mortality, especially among seminomadic peoples who were compelled to settle near the missions, these institutions were important as central sites from which Hispanic culture spread throughout the region.
Further reading: Gary Clayton Anderson, The Indian Southwesit, 1580-1830: Ethnogenesis and Reinvention (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999); David J. Weber, The Spanish Frontier in North America (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992).
New York City, fire of (September 21, 1776) Beginning in the early morning hours of September 21, 1776, a fire that started near Whitehall Slip on the East River swept through New York City destroying approximately 500 buildings. The British army had occupied New York only days before on September 15. The British quickly charged that the retreating revolutionaries had sent agents to begin the conflagration. Indeed, during the fire British soldiers and sailors seized some individuals who they believed were starting fires and killed them on the spot. British authorities arrested as many as 200 suspected arsonists but never prosecuted them.
Revolutionary leaders denied that they had anything to do with the fire and asserted that it was an accident— some even suggested that the British were responsible for the flames. Circumstantial evidence suggests otherwise. Not only were there individuals found with fire-starting material but also much of the city’s firefighting equipment appeared to be sabotaged. Before his retreat from New York, George Washington had asked the Second
Continental Congress if he could burn the city to prevent it serving as winter quarters to the British. Congress refused its permission. Although there is no direct evidence to indicate that Washington contradicted the order, his comment after the fire that “Providence—or some good honest Fellow, has done more for us than we disposed to do for ourselves, as near One fourth of the City is supposed to be consumed” indicates that he was pleased with its outcome.
The fire did not prevent the British army from using New York City as its main base of operations for the rest of the war. Much of the area consumed by flames was not rebuilt until after the British evacuated the city. In the meantime, the destroyed section of the city became the locale of hodge-podge structures and tents and came to be referred to as “canvass town.”
Further reading: Benjamin L. Carp, “The Night the Yankees Burned Broadway: The New York City Fire of 1776,” Early American Studies 4 (Fall 2006): 471-511.
Niles, Hezekiah (1777-1839) printer Hezekiah Niles was born to Quaker parents in Pennsylvania. Apprenticed at a young age to a printer named Benjamin Johnson, Niles quickly earned a reputation as one of the most efficient typesetters in the United States. Niles first published in Philadelphia in 1794, when he wrote several essays for local newspapers favoring TARIEE protection. He started a short-lived literary magazine in the early 1800s and soon moved to Baltimore, where he bought and became editor of the Baltimore Evening Post. He sold the Post five years later and almost immediately published the prospectus for his most memorable publication, Niles’ Weekly Register.
The first issue of the Niles’ Weekly Register was published on September 11, 1811. The paper was later renamed Niles’ National Register, but it was often simply referred to as Niles’ Register. The newspaper was read in every state and several foreign countries and attained more than 10,000 subscriptions within its first seven years of publication. Thomas Jeeeerson, James Madison, and Andrew Jackson were faithful readers, and Congress received 10 copies of the newspaper each week for its members. The Register’s popularity sprang from its differences from other publications. During a time when linguistic eloquence and editorial bias abounded, the Register printed facts and statistics of national interest, endorsed no particular political candidates, published no advertisements, and refused all anonymous material.
Despite the newspaper’s objectivity, Niles remained politically outspoken. He supported the Democratic-Republican Party until about 1817, when he described himself as belonging to no party. Differing with Jackson’s policies, Niles became a Whig in 1829. He also openly declared for the ABOLITION of SLAVERY and was an officer of Delaware’s abolitionist society.
The Register lived on for 10 years after Niles’s death in Wilmington, Delaware.
See also JOURNALISM.
—Meghan A. Earl
Ninety-Six, Battle of (November 19-21, 1775)
In the early stages of the REVOLUTIONARY War (1775-83) in South Carolina, Whigs and Loyalists jockeyed for control of the region near the town of Ninety-Six. This community already had some fortifications before the outbreak of war since it was strategically located on a road that led to the backcountry and NATIVE American settlements. About 600 supporters of the Revolution occupied the town in November 1775. On November 19, 1,800 Loyalists gathered to oppose them. Over two days Loyalists and Whigs exchanged shots, incurred some casualties, and then patched together a truce. However, no sooner had the two forces disengaged, then the revolutionaries, with reinforcements from elsewhere in South Carolina, began to sweep through the area, purging it of any Loyalist units that could be found.
World History
