USA Colorado - The History : USA  

USA Colorado - The History - Travel guide

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USA Colorado - The History

The History

the Basket Makers, Native Americans, settled in Colorado’s arid mesa country before the beginning of the Christian era. They were later replaced by the Cliff Dwellers, who built pueblos in canyon walls, as preserved in Mesa Verde National Park in far southwestern Colorado. When Colorado’s first settlers arrived, they found Comanche, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kowa on the Great Plains, with Utes inhabiting the mountains. The plains tribes united to fight the settlers, but were defeated in the Indian Wars (1861-69) and the Buffalo War (1873-74). Today, most Native Americans live on the Southern Ute reservation and in the Denver area.

The first European to enter what is now Colorado may have been the Spanish conquistador Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in the 16th century. Spain claimed the area in 1706, although no Spanish settlements were established there. France also claimed part of the area as part of the Louisiana Territory. Spain was secretly ceded the Louisiana Territory, which included much of Colorado, at the end of the French and Indian Wars in 1763. France regained the whole area in 1800 by the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso.

The United States bought the area north of the Arkansas River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Central Colorado was acquired in 1845 with Texas’ admission as a state. Western Colorado was obtained from Mexico (which had won its independence from Spain) by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican War in 1848.

Parts of Colorado were included in the Kansas Territory. Miners formed the illegal Territory of Jefferson, which lasted until Colorado became a legal territory on February 28, 1861. On August 1, 1876 Colorado become the 38th state to unite under America.