OSHER 110 - The Spanish Borderlands: Spanish Colonial Expansion and Settlement in the United States

This course will examine the effects of Spanish explorers and settlers in Florida, Texas, New Mexico, California and parts of Georgia, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. It will focus on ways in which colonial Spain extended its empire's culture, language, religion, and architecture into the borderland areas of what is now the continental United States. The period covered in this course will start with Ponce de Leon's exploration into Florida in 1513 (nearly 100 years before the first English settlers landed at Jamestown, Virginia) to the conclusion of Mexico's war for independence in 1821.