On January 6, 1912, New Mexico is admitted into the United States as the 47th state.
Spanish explorers passed through the area that would become New Mexico in the early 16th century, encountering the well-preserved remains of a 13th-century Pueblo civilization. Exaggerated rumors about the hidden riches of these Pueblo cities encouraged the first full-scale Spanish expedition into New Mexico, led by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in 1540. There they encountered the region’s Indigenous peoples, including the agrarian Pueblo tribes, who they subjected to virtual slavery, cultural genocide and extreme cruelty. To a lesser extent, they also encountered semi-nomadic tribes, such as the Navajo and Apache. All the Indigenous peoples were fiercely resistant to Spanish attack on their sovereignty, spiritual practices and ways of life.
In 1609, Pedro de Peralta was made governor of the “Kingdom and Provinces of New Mexico,” and a year later he founded its capital at Santa Fe. In the late 17th century, Indigenous groups around the region who were being subjugated and enslaved by the Spanish coordinated the Pueblo Revolt, which succeeded in driving the invaders out of New Mexico for a dozen years. But within a few decades the Spanish returned. During the 18th century, the colonists expanded their ranching efforts and made attempts at farming and mining in the region.
When Mexico achieved its independence from Spain in 1821, New Mexico became a province of Mexico, and trade was opened with the United States. In the next year, American settlers began arriving in New Mexico via the Santa Fe Trail. In 1846, the Mexican-American War erupted, and U.S. General Stephen W. Kearny captured and occupied Santa Fe without significant Mexican opposition. Two years later, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded New Mexico to the United States, and in 1853 the territory was expanded to its present size through the Gadsden Purchase.
The Apache and the Navaho resisted the colonial efforts of the U.S. as they had those of Spain and Mexico, and after three decades of bloodshed, Indian resistance finally ended with the surrender of Geronimo, chief of the Chiricahua Apaches, in 1886. After the suppression of New Mexico’s natives, the population of New Mexico expanded considerably, and many came to participate in the ranching boom brought on by the opening of the Santa Fe Railroad in 1879. In 1912, New Mexico was granted statehood.
