Editing Colorado River (Texas) (section)

== History ==
The Colorado River, which means 'red'<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=Colorado|title=Colorado - Diccionario Inglés-Español|publisher=WordReference.com}}</ref> or 'reddish' river in Spanish,<ref name=ac>{{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Colorado (river of Texas)|display=Colorado, a river of Texas}}</ref> was frequently confused by Spanish explorers with the [[Brazos River]] to the north.<ref name=TXhandbook/> The European discoverer of these two neighboring rivers called the present Colorado River the {{lang|es|Brazos de Dios}}, and called the present Brazos the Colorado River. The two names would later be reversed.<ref name=ac/>

The upper Colorado River was controlled by [[Comanche]]s from the early 18th century to the late 19th century. In 1757, [[Spanish Texas]] attempted to establish an outlying [[Catholic mission]] ([[Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá]]) on the [[San Saba River]], near its confluence with the Colorado River. Nearly defenseless and viewed by the Comanche tribe as a territorial invasion, the mission was sacked in 1758 by about 2,000 Comanches and their allies. The Comanche were not effectively challenged on the upper Colorado River for nearly a century.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hämäläinen|first=Pekka|title=The Comanche Empire|year=2008|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|isbn=978-0-300-12654-9|pages=58–60|url=https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300151176/comanche-empire}}</ref>