Essay on Why Did Texas Almost Fail as a Spanish

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Why Did Texas Almost Fail as a Spanish Colony?

Why do the ventures of man fail? The ventures of men fail primarily due to a lack of planning. In the case of Spanish colonies in Texas this holds true. The Spanish first set eyes on the Texas coast in 1519 and in 1821 they lowered their flag for the final time in Texas. The Spanish had about 300 years to try and colonize Texas and the attempt to colonize and settle Texas was not very successful. The initial boats that came to Texas were shipwrecked and only four people survived of the approximately 270 men that made the trip. One of these four survivors was Cabeza De Vaca. These were the first Spaniards to live on Texas soil. Cabeza had a goal to settle Texas and befriend …show more content…
The water is just not deep enough to bring ships close to shore (Doc A). The lack of deep water ports slowed development in Texas by the Spanish. In summary, this difficult geography lead to very little population growth in the Spanish colonies. From 1777 to 1821 the population in Texas for non-Indians remained at about 3,000 people (Doc B). Clearly, the area was not growing in population and geography was a major reason.
The weakness of the Spanish missions was another cause for the near failure of the Spanish colonies in Texas. In a nutshell, the Franciscan Friars had high hopes to convert the local Indians to Catholicism and make them Spanish citizens. In actuality, the Indians had little interest in becoming Catholics or Spaniards. In total, the Spanish established 29 missions in Texas (Doc A). However, only 12 of these missions were in active operation at the same time (class discussion). The population of Indians at the missions established in San Antonio actually decreased between 1756 and 1790. In 1756 the missions in San Antonio had 1,300 Indian residents and in 1790 the number of Indians residing there dwindled to 495 (Doc B). The King of Spain sent an inspector, Nicholas de Lafora, in the year 1766 to check up on the missions and settlement activities. He sent a bad report back to the King. His inspections of
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