| Spanish
colonists first settled in northern New Mexico
in 1598. Don Juan de Oñate became the first
Governor and Captain-General of New Mexico and
established his capital in 1598 at San Juan Pueblo,
25 miles north of Santa Fe. When Oñate
retired, Don Pedro de Peralta was appointed Governor
and Captain-General in 1609. One year later, he
moved the capital to present-day Santa Fe. New
Mexico was part of the empire of New Spain and
Santa Fe was the commercial hub at the end of
thewhich linked Mexico City with its northern
province.
During
the next 70 years, Spanish soldiers and officials,
as well as Franciscan missionaries , sought to
subjugate and convert the Pueblo Indians of the
region. The indigenous population at the time
was close to 100,000 people, who spoke nine languages
and lived in an estimated 70 pueblos, many of
which exist today.
In
1680, Pueblo Indians revolted against some 2,500
Spanish colonists, killing 400 of them and driving
the rest back into Mexico. The conquering Pueblos
sacked Santa Fe and burned most of the buildings,
except the Palace of the Governors. Pueblo Indians
occupied Santa Fe until 1692-93, when don Diego
de Vargas reestablished Spanish control.
When
Mexico gained its independence from Spain, Santa
Fe became the capital of the province of New Mexico.
Trade was no longer restricted as it was under
Spanish rule and trappers and traders moved into
the region. In 1821 William Becknell opened the
1,000 mile-long Santa Fe Trail.
On
August 18, 1846, in the early period of the Mexican
American War, an American army general, Stephen
Watts Kearny, took Santa Fe and raised the American
flag over the Plaza. Two years later, 1848, Mexico
signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceding
New Mexico and California to the United States.
In
1851, Vicar Apostolic, and later Archbishop of
Santa Fe, Jean B. Lamy, arrived in Santa Fe. Eighteen
years later, he began construction on the Saint
Francis Cathedral, one of 45 churches he built
in New Mexico. Built in the French Romanesque
style, the building is alien to the Spanish heritage
of Santa Fe, but is still one of its greatest
landmarks. Constructed on the site of an adobe
church destroyed in the Pueblo Revolt, the Cathedral
was built of locally quarried stone. Portions
of the old adobe parish church (La Parroquia),
remain in the form of the Chapel of Our Lady of
the Rosary, which houses a wooden stature of the
Virgin know as La Conquistadora, Our Lady of the
Conquest. La Conquistadora was first brought to
Santa Fe in 1625 and was returned to the city
by the armies of don Diego de Vargas during the
reconquest of 1692-93.
For
27 days in March and April of 1862, the Confederate
flag of Brigadier General Henry H. Sibley flew
over Santa Fe until he was defeated by Union troops.
With the arrival of the telegraph in 1868 and
the coming of the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa
Fe Railroad in 1880, Santa Fe and New Mexico underwent
an economic revolution. Corruption in government,
however, accompanied the growth, and President
Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Lew Wallace as a
territorial governor to "clean up New Mexico."
Wallace did such a good job that Billy the Kid
threatened to come up to Santa Fe and kill him.
New
Mexico gained statehood in 1912 and Santa Fe has
been the capital city since statehood.
Ten
years before Plymouth Colony was founded by the
Mayflower Pilgrims, Santa Fe, New Mexico was established
as the seat of power of the Spanish Empire north
of the Rio Grande. Santa Fe is the oldest capital
city in the United States and the oldest European
community in the U.S. west of the Mississippi.
The Palace of the Governors, on the north side
of the Plaza, is the oldest public building in
the United States.
Santa
Fe has been a seat of government under the flags
of Spain, Mexico, the Confederacy, and the United
States of America.
Courtesy of City of Santa Fe |
