1. New Spain Chapter 3, Lesson 5
Age of Exploration
New Spain
Chapter 3, Lesson 5

2. Vocabulary colony – an area of land ruled by another country
mission – religious community where priests taught Christianity
convert – to change religion or beliefs
hacienda – a large farm or ranch, often with its own village and church
revolt – a violent uprising against a ruler

3. New Spain Grows
By 1535, the Spanish government controlled the former Aztec empire in Mexico. They made it a colony called New Spain.
New Spain grew larger as more settlers, priests, and soldiers arrived.
From the 1500s to the 1700s, the Spanish settled in Florida, New Mexico, Texas, and California. They gave Spanish names to settlements throughout the Southwest and Florida.
St. Augustine in Florida is the oldest city in the United States built by Europeans.

4. New Spain Grows

5. Life in New Spain
Because New Spain had good soil, many settlers built haciendas.
The Spanish hacienda owners forced American Indians to farm the land. Often they were cheated out of their pay and many died from overwork in Spanish fields and mines.
The Spanish also brought many enslaved Africans and forced them to work on the sugar plantations in Spain’s Caribbean colonies.

6. Life in New Spain
Spain’s rulers sent priests with the explorers to spread Christianity. Spanish explorers and priests traveled all over the American Southwest and started new settlements called missions.
Priests at Spanish missions wanted to convert American Indians to Roman Catholicism.
Some American Indians moved into missions and adopted the Spanish way of life.

7. Leadership in New Spain
Junípero Serra was a priest and explorer who helped find 9 missions along the coast of California. He believed he was serving his God by converting thousands of Indians to the Christian faith.

8. Leadership in New Spain
Bartolomé de las Casas was a priest that believed that colonists and Indians should live as equals. He devoted his life to improving the lives of Indian workers. In 1542, he wrote a book about the brutal treatment of Indians.

9. Leadership in New Spain
Popé was a religious leader of the Pueblo Indians. In 1680, he led a revolt against the Spanish in New Mexico. He and his followers burned churches and attacked haciendas and missions. They successfully drove out the Spanish until 1692 when they returned and conquered them again.

10. Why It Matters…
The growth of New Spain spread Spanish language and customs throughout the southern United States.