How to Use
the Map

Table of
Contents

Map 1: Northern provinces of New Spain.

Questions for Map 1

1. Locate the town of Santa Fe, the capital of Spanish New Mexico (called Nuevo Mexico on the map) after 1610. Chihuahua was the closest government center and source of supplies. Use the scale to estimate the distance between Santa Fe and Chihuahua. How do you think this distance would have affected a new settlement?

2. Find the Rio Grande, which runs from the Gulf of Mexico through El Paso north into Colorado. The first Spanish settlers came up the river from the south. Why do you think they followed the river?

* The map on this screen has a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), and therefore will print poorly. You can obtain a larger version of Map 1, but be aware that the file may take as much as 53 seconds to load with a 28.8K modem.