Arizona Statehood

ARIZONA STATEHOOD

Around the fourteenth century, tribes living in the Colorado plateau began building cities on the sides of cliffs to protect themselves, especially from the Dine, a nomadic tribe from the north (AZ Big Media, 2011). These tribes are today known as the Apaches and Navajo. The first non-native in Arizona was Estevanico; an African slave shipwrecked off the Florida coast in 1529 and reached Arizona eight years later. Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan Friar planned to make an expedition north and asked for Cabeza de Vaca's help. Wanting to return to Spain, de Vaca turned him down and Marcos turned to Estevanico for help, letting him go ahead of him. An invading army of Spaniards, looking for the mythical gold cities, was led by Francisco Vasquez the following year (AZ Big Media, 2011). However, Coronado made it only as far as Kansas before turning back, his only major discovery being the Grand Canyon.

For the next 250 years, from 1540-1810, the Spaniards ruled Arizona, considering it a desert land that was worthless and left its natives alone (The Robinson Library, 2012). It was referred to as New Spain's Pimeria Alta colony. However, silver and gold were soon discovered and they begun expanding their influence by moving in. Arizona's name comes from Spaniard owned silver mines. Father Kino, an Italian priest, came along with the Spaniards and was the most famous European at this time. Father Kino was instrumental in bringing new farming methods and education. As a fierce opponent of slavery, he was hugely popular among the natives of Arizona (The Robinson Library, 2012). During his mission to bring the Southern Arizona tribes to Christianity, he established twenty four towns and missions including Tucson.

Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1810 and Arizona formed part of its territory. Some American mountain men did venture into Arizona, including Kit Carson who was the first American to travel the length of Arizona and back, but it was left alone for a while since its tribes were considered savages. America moved against Mexico in 1846 to seize land stretching from Texas down to the Pacific Ocean (e-RD, 2011). However, they had no way to get to California, which they had already established interest in before the beginning of the war. The Mormons, on the other hand, had been evicted form Illinois and wanted to establish a colony in Utah. They, therefore, struck a deal with the US government as suppliers of labor to build a road from New Mexico to San Diego. They managed this but by using a longer route than was necessary, although this meant that they escaped the Apaches, who were known to be vicious and would have attacked them (e-RD, 2011).

After winning the Mexican war, the question turned to the drawing of the Southern border. The Northern States, which were the most dominant, wanted the line as north as possible since New Mexico and Southern Arizona was a slave friendly territory as it lay south of the line at Mason-Dixon (Facts About..., 2012). The border was thus drawn along the Gila River. Ambassador James Gadsden then travelled to Mexico with the view of making a purchase for some of Mexican territory. Mexico actually needed this money and offered the North of Mexico and Baja California. However, Congress authorized a bare minimum to regain the Mormon built road as they were afraid of adding more