The Spanish Era

In 1519 Alonso Alvarez de Pineda led a sea expedition from the West Indies along the Texas coast and claimed the region for Spain. Among the Spaniards who crossed Texas later in the 16th century were Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and Fernando Vásquez de Coronado. However, no permanent development resulted from these explorations. In the late 17th century, the Spanish established missions near the Rio Grande in western Texas, at Ysleta (now part of El Paso) and Socorro.

Spain largely ignored eastern Texas until it was claimed for France in 1685 by the Sieur de La Salle, who landed at Matagorda Bay. After the area had been explored, some of the party went eastward by land. Those who remained were wiped out by disease and Indians. The Spanish, not knowing that the French colony had failed, sent an expedition in 1689 to destroy it and to establish missions in eastern Texas.

The first of these missions was built near the Neches River in what is now east-central Texas, and was named San Francisco de los Tejas. (The Spaniards thought “Tejas” was the name of the local Indians. Actually, the Hasinai, who were Caddoan Indians, referred to each other as Tayshas, which meant “allies” or “friends.”) A second mission was established nearby, but both were abandoned in a few years, when fears of French intrusion had subsided.

The appearance on the Rio Grande of a French trader in 1714 spurred new Spanish efforts to occupy eastern Texas. Four missions were founded in 1716; the present town of Nacogdoches occupies the site of one of them. In 1718 a mission and presidio (military post) were placed at a halfway point between the eastern and western settlements, at the site of present San Antonio. From then on an effort was made to colonize Texas. However, when the Mexicans gained their independence in 1821, there were probably not more than 7,000 non-Indian inhabitants in the area.