USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -At first, Spain did little to encourage settlement in these far-flung areas. But when rival European nations also began to show an interest in the land, small bands of soldiers were sent to these regions to protect the claims. The soldiers lived in walled forts called presidios(preh-SEE-dee-ohs).

Detailed explanation-2: -Spain’s territories north of Mexico were called the borderlands, and their main function was to protect Mexico from other European powers. The vast area of the borderlands has many different kinds of landforms and climates, from humid lowlands to highlands, mountains, and deserts.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Borderlands is a term popularized by historian Herbert Eugene Bolton (1870–1953) for those parts of the United States once occupied by Spain. It refers to an area mostly south of an imaginary sagging line from the Chesapeake Bay west to San Francisco Bay and sometimes includes the northern states of Mexico.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Mission-Presidio System Royal officials wanted to protect New Spain’s northern frontiers. Because few Spaniards lived in these borderlands, the Spanish sent missionar-ies there to establish missions, or religious communities. Alongside the missionaries, the Spanish sent soldiers and civilian settlers.