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Missions Thrive in California
1.Spanish extended their northern buffer zone to the west by colonizing the California coast. They were afraid of losing the region to Russian traders probing south from Alaska.
2.The distance to market discouraged the export of California's livestock and grains. Limited economy depended on royal money sent to supple and pay the soldiers.
3.Sought to convert Indians to Christianity. More than 18,000 ended up converting and they constructed buildings, herded cattle, and cultivated grain. -
Spain Settles New Mexico
1.The nomads of the Great Planes, known to the Spanish as Apaches, were becoming more powerful.
2.Raids on Spanish settlements became more frequent and destructive, for the Apaches were now armed, mounted, and desperate.
3.Although most Apache groups remained defiant, some accepted peace on Spain's terms. As the colony became safer, its population grew and its economy developed. -
Americans Trade with Mexico
1.Trade and migration promoted economic growth in the border provinces. Still, as the spanish had feared, American traders and settlers would come to threaten the security of Mexico's border.
2.Merchants from Missouri saw Mexican independence as an opportunity to open trade across the Great Plans with Santa Fe.
3.Like New Mexico, California became economically dependent on commerce with the Americas. -
Mountain Men Cross the Rockies
1.Traders ventured into the Rockies seeking valuable furs from the abundant beaver of the mountain streams. Most worked for two large fur companies, which provided their supplies.
2.Some mountain men pressed westward to the Great Salt Lake in the arid Great Basin of Utah.
3.Jedediah Smith's trade and migration route became the California Trail, linking the United States with the Pacific Coast. -
Oregon Trail
1.Marcis and Narcissa Whitman followed theroute that turned northwest at South Pass to reach Oregon Country to find an Indian mission at Walla Walla.
2.The Whitman compound served as a magnet and way station for farm families bound farther west to the fertile Willamette Valley.
3.In 1847, the Whitmans were killed by Native Americans who blamed them for a deadly measles epidemic but by then, the tide of migration to Oregon was unstoppable.
