New Mexico (Spanish:
Nuevo México) is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States of America. It has been
inhabited by Native American populations
and has been part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty
of New
Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S.
territory. Among U.S. states, New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanic
Americans at 43%, comprising both recent immigrants and descendants of
Spanish colonists.[3]:6 It
also has the third-highest percentage of Native Americans after Alaska and Oklahoma, and
the fifth-highest total number of Native Americans after California,
Oklahoma, Arizona, and Texas.[4] The tribes represented in the state consist of mostly Navajo
and Pueblo
peoples. As a result, the demographics and culture of the state are unique
for their strong Spanish, Mexican, and American Indian cultural influences.
The climate of the state is highly arid and its territory is mostly covered
by mountains and desert. At a population density of 15 per square mile, New
Mexico is the sixth most sparsely inhabited U.S. State.
The first known inhabitants
of New Mexico were members of the Clovis
culture of Paleo-Indians.[6]:19
Later inhabitants include Native Americans of the Mogollon
and the Anasazi cultures.[7]:52
By the time of European contact in the 1500s, the region was settled by the
villages of the Pueblo peoples and groups of Navajo,
Apache and Ute.[6]:6,48
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
assembled an enormous expedition at Compostela in 1540–1542 to explore and find
the mystical Seven Golden Cities of Cibola as
described by Fray Marcos de Niza.[7]:19–24
Juan de Oñate was appointed the first governor of
the new Province of New Mexico in 1598.[7]:36–37
In 1598 he founded the San Juan de los Caballeros colony, the first permanent
European settlement in the future state of New Mexico,[8] on the Rio Grande near Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo.[7]:37
Oñate extended El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro,
"Royal Road of the Interior," by 700 miles (1,100 km)
from Santa Bárbara, Chihuahua to his remote
colony.[9]:49
The settlement of Santa Fe was established at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains around
1608.[9]:182
The city, along with most of the settled areas of the state, was abandoned by
the Spanish for 12 years (1680–1692) as a result of the successful Pueblo
Revolt. After the death of the Pueblo leader Popé, Diego
de Vargas restored the area to Spanish rule.[7]:68–75
While developing Santa Fe as a trade center, the returning settlers founded Albuquerque
in 1706 from existing surrounding communities,[7]:84
naming it for the viceroy of New Spain, Francisco
Fernández de La Cueva Enríquez, 10th Duke of Alburquerque.[10]
As a part of New Spain,
the claims for the province of New Mexico passed to independent Mexico in 1821
following the Mexican War of Independence.[7]:109
The Republic of Texas claimed the mostly vacant
territory north and east of the Rio Grande
when it successfully seceded from Mexico in 1836.[11]
Following the Mexican-American War, from 1846-1848 and the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848,
Mexico ceded its mostly unsettled northern holdings, today known as the American Southwest and California,
to the United States of America.[7]:132
In the Compromise of 1850 Texas ceded its claims to
the area lying east of the Rio Grande in exchange for ten million dollars.[7]:135
The United States acquired the southwestern boot heel of the state and
southern Arizona
below the Gila
river in the mostly desert Gadsden
Purchase of 1853.[7]:136
Congress admitted New Mexico as the 47th
state in the Union on January 6, 1912.[7]:166 During
World
War II, the first atomic bombs were designed and manufactured at Los Alamos and the first was tested at Trinity
site in the desert on the White Sands Proving Grounds between Socorro and Alamogordo.[7]:179–180
New Mexico has benefited from
federal government spending. It is home to three Air Force bases, White Sands Missile Range, and the
federal research laboratories Los Alamos National Laboratory and
Sandia National Laboratories. The
state's population grew rapidly after World
War II, going from 531,818 in 1940 to 1,819,046 in 2000.[12][13] Employment growth areas in New Mexico include microelectronics,
call
centers, and Indian casinos.[14]
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