Editing New Spain (section)

===Territorial extent of the overseas Spanish Empire===
{{Main|Spanish Empire}}
[[File:Gastaldi Nueva Hispania Tabula Nova 1548 UTA.jpg|thumb|[[Giacomo Gastaldi]]'s 1548 map of New Spain, ''Nueva Hispania Tabula Nova'']]

At its greatest extent, the Spanish crown claimed on the mainland of the Americas much of North America south of Canada, that is: all of modern Mexico and Central America except [[Panama]]; most of the United States west of the Mississippi River, plus [[Spanish Florida|the Floridas]]. The [[Spanish West Indies]], settled prior to the conquest of the Aztec Empire, also came under New Spain's jurisdiction: Cuba, [[Hispaniola]], Puerto Rico, Jamaica, the [[Cayman Islands]], [[Trinidad]], [[Martinique|Martinica]] and the [[Bay Islands (department)|Bay Islands]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www1.lanic.utexas.edu/project/tavera/espana/historia/munoz.html |website=LANIC |title=Colección Juan Bautista Muñoz. Archivo de la Real Academia de la Historia – España |language=Spanish |access-date=20 March 2008 |archive-date=6 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190906055844/http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/tavera/espana/historia/munoz.html |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|de la Mota Padilla|1870}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|de Solís|1771}}</ref> New Spain also claimed jurisdiction over the overseas territories of the [[Spanish East Indies]] in Asia and Oceania: the Philippine Islands, the [[Mariana Islands]], the [[Caroline Islands]], parts of [[Spanish Formosa|Taiwan]], and parts of the [[Moluccas]]. Although asserting sovereignty over this vast realm, it did not effectively control large swaths. Other European powers, including England, France, and the Netherlands established colonies in territories Spain claimed.

[[File:Spanish North America.png|thumb|Spanish historical presence, claimed territories, and expeditions in North America]]

Much of what was called in the United States the "Spanish borderlands", is territory that attracted few Spanish settlers, with less dense indigenous populations and apparently lacking in mineral wealth. Huge deposits of gold in California were discovered immediately after it was incorporated into the U.S. following the [[Mexican–American War]] (1846–1848). The northern region of New Spain in the colonial era was considered marginal to Spanish interests compared to the most densely populated and lucrative areas of central Mexico. To shore up its claims in North America in the eighteenth century as other powers encroached on its claims, the crown sent [[Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest|expeditions to the Pacific Northwest]], which explored and claimed the coast of British Columbia and Alaska.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/412085/Viceroyalty-of-New-Spain |title=Viceroyalty of New Spain (historical territory, Mexico) |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=8 July 2013}}</ref>

Religious missions and fortified presidios were established to shore up Spanish control on the ground. On the mainland, the administrative units included [[Las Californias]], that is, the Baja California peninsula, still part of Mexico and divided into [[Baja California]] and [[Baja California Sur]]; [[Alta California]] (modern [[Arizona]], [[California]], [[Nevada]], [[Utah]], western [[Colorado]], and southern [[Wyoming]]); (from the 1760s) [[Louisiana (New Spain)|Louisiana]] (including the western Mississippi River basin and the Missouri River basin); [[Nueva Extremadura]] (the modern states of [[Coahuila]] and [[Texas]]); and [[Santa Fe de Nuevo México]] (parts of [[Texas]] and [[New Mexico]]).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/412085/Viceroyalty-of-New-Spain |title=Viceroyalty of New Spain (historical territory, Mexico) |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=8 July 2013}}</ref>