Student Question
What was the Spanish response to La Salle's activities in Texas?
Quick answer:
The Spanish response to La Salle's activities in Texas was one of concern and action. Upon learning of the French settlement, Spain feared it could threaten their outposts and silver mines. They dispatched expeditions to find the settlement, which they discovered abandoned in 1689 after a Karankawa attack. The Spanish destroyed the remains, buried the cannons, and intensified their own exploration and settlement efforts to counter potential French threats.
When the Spanish authorities received information about La Salle’s from a French deserter and from Native Americans, they were very concerned that the creation of a French settlement on the coast of Texas might become a launching point for attacks on Spanish outposts and silver mines.
Spain sent several expeditions to try to locate the French settlement. When they finally succeeded in April, 1689, they found the fort was empty and destroyed. By this time, La Salle himself had died. Native Americans of the Karankawa nation had attacked the fort a few months previously and killed the remaining adult settlers; they spared only four children. The Spanish destroyed all traces of the French settlement and buried the French cannons. They continued to feel threatened by the possibility of more French explorations, and so increased the tempo of their own explorations and settlement in Texas.
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