Why did Spanish colonies fail in North America?

Fixated on religious conversion and military control, Spain inhibited economic development in its American colonies. Following the dictates of an economic philosophy known as mercantilism, aimed at protecting its own manufacturers, Spain restricted trade, prohibited manufacturing, stifled local industry and handicrafts, impeded the growth of towns, and prevented civilians from selling to soldiers. The government required all trade to be conducted through Veracruz and levied high excise taxes that greatly increased the cost of transportation. It exercised a monopoly over tobacco and gunpowder and prohibited the capture of wild horses. Still, Spain left a lasting imprint on the Southwest.

Such institutions as the rodeo and the cowboy (the vaquero) had their roots in Spanish culture. Place names, too, bear witness to the region's Spanish heritage. Los Angeles, San Antonio, Santa Fe, and Tucson were all founded by the Spanish. To this day, the Spanish pattern of organizing towns around a central plaza bordered by churches and official buildings is found throughout the region. Spanish architectural styles--adobe walls, tile roofs, wooden beams, and intricate mosaics--continue to characterize the Southwest.

By introducing European livestock and vegetation, Spanish colonists transformed the Southwest's economy, environment, and physical appearance. The Spanish introduced horses, cows, sheep, and goats, as well tomatoes, chilies, Kentucky bluegrass, and a variety of weeds. As livestock devoured the region's tall native grasses, a new and distinctly southwestern environment arose, one of cactus, sagebrush, and mesquite. The Spanish also introduced temperate and tropical diseases, which reduced the Indian population by fifty to ninety percent.

It is equally important that in attitudes toward class and race Spanish possessions differed from the English colonies. Most colonists were of mixed racial backgrounds and racial mixture continued throughout the Spanish colonial period. In general, mestizos (people of mixed Indian and Spanish ancestry) and Indians were concentrated in the lower levels of the social structure.

Even in the colonial period, the New Spain's northern frontier served as a beacon of opportunity for poorer Mexicans. The earliest Hispanic settlers forged pathways that would draw Mexican immigrants in the future.

In 2013, archaeologists discovered the remains of an ancient fort built in North America by Spanish explorers — four decades before the arrival of other European settlers. Why did the Spaniards build Fort San Juan, and what happened to them? Technology is helping to answer those questions.

In 1567, Spanish explorer Juan Pardo and his men built a fort in the Appalachian Mountains — 40 years before the English established Jamestown in Virginia. As part of Spain’s ambitious exploration of the Southeastern United States, it established colonies in St. Augustine, FL, and Santa Elena, SC. Pardo built a series of forts that stretched from the coast of South Carolina to Eastern Tennessee.

He and his men were searching for gold. If they found it, Spain planned to establish more colonies in the region. But 18 months after Fort San Juan was built, a tribe of Native Americans known as the Mississippians attacked it, killing all the Spanish soldiers except one.

Archaeologists believe the Mississippians killed the Spaniards because the explorers were mistreating the Native Americans in a variety of ways.

Modern archaeologists discovered the long-buried fort using a technology called magnetometry, which uses x-rays to create images from subterranean scans. Magnetometers can detect artifacts made of iron, steel, brick, and different kinds of rock.

In fact, the archaeologists were studying a nearby Native American ceremonial mound when they came across the ancient fort’s foundation, moat, and entryway. Since the excavations started, scientists have found artifacts such as iron nails, pottery, and an iron clothing hook.

The doomed Spanish explorers never found their gold, but the region is so rich in the precious metal that later settlers found nuggets lying on the ground.

If Pardo had discovered that gold, Spain might have further colonized the area, and the southeastern part of the U.S. might have become part of Latin America. Instead, the Spaniards stayed away, and in 1607 the English built their settlement at Jamestown, beginning the region’s permanent history of colonization.

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If you were to recount the earliest European presence in North America as a history of the "proto-United States," you might start with Columbus in 1492, jump to Jamestown in 1607, and treat the intervening 115 years as a few decades. It is true there was little European presence in the midregion in the 1500s, due primarily to the disappointing forays into Parte Incognita that revealed no golden cities or Edenic sanctuaries, not even a water passage through the continent to Asia.

In addition, many of the first attempts at settlement north of the Caribbean failed. Roanoke, Ajacan, Fort Caroline, Sable Island, Charlesfort, Pensacola, San Miguel de Gualdape, Charlesbourg-Royal, France-Roy—all were short-lived settlements in the 1500s. A hurricane destroyed the first Pensacola settlement. Frigid winters and scurvy claimed several settlements; starving settlers abandoned others. Indians laid siege to settlements or attacked them outright. Rebellion by brutalized soldiers or starved African slaves ended two colonies. Settlers were left to their own resources when the founders left for provisions (or for good). In most cases a few surviving settlers made it back to Europe, but in one famous case—the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke in what is now North Carolina—the settlers disappeared with little trace, their fate still undetermined. Most share the dooming factors of poor planning and unrealistic appraisals of the North American environment. Simply put, settling this continent was not going to be easy.

Especially with the added obstacle of rival Europeans. By the late 1580s the Spanish and French found themselves closer to each other's claims on the southeast Atlantic coast, and word had it that the English would soon join the competition. Attack-by-rival became another cause of failed colonies. The Spanish massacred the French Huguenots near Florida in 1565 and sent spies to Jamestown in 1613 to determine if eradicating the fledgling colony was its best move. The English destroyed the French trading post of Port Royal on Nova Scotia in 1612 and defeated the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam in 1664. The imperial rivalries that would coalesce in the 1700s were taking shape.

These selections focus on three failed settlements on the southeast Atlantic coast, one Spanish, one French, and one English. The end comes from European attack, Indian attack, and "unknown." Inadequate foresight is a subtext of all three.

Why did Spain not settle North America?

For Spain, the land north of the Caribbean was a low priority. There was not enough incentives or pressures for people to emigrate from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean, so Spanish occupation of the southeastern coast of the North American continent was minimal.

What caused the Spanish Empire to decline?

Many different factors, including the decentralized political nature of Spain, inefficient taxation, a succession of weak kings, power struggles in the Spanish court and a tendency to focus on the American colonies instead of Spain's domestic economy, all contributed to the decline of the Habsburg rule of Spain.