Essay On Arizona History

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Stephen Loyd POS-301 09/22/2013 Mark Tawney Arizona: State of History Arizona is a state with a long and rich history filled with all the intricate diversity that only a state in the south west can offer. From cavemen to conquistadors and rebel soldiers to state hood and citizenship, few places on earth offer such an interesting story of incorporation as the state of Arizona. There have been at least five separate periods in the years leading up to the establishment of the last contiguous state in the union. These five include the Preterritorial Period, the Spanish Period, the Mexican Period, the U.S. Controlled Period, and the Territorial Period. The Preterritorial Period in Arizona starts before there was is written history. The varying terrain, large population of wild game, abundance of natural resources, and access to water via lakes and rivers made Arizona an ideal location for primitive man to habitate. In places such as the Deer Valley Rock Art Center in Central Arizona,”has the largest concentration of Native…show more content…
A Spanish explorer named Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca shipwrecked on the coast of what is now Texas in what is now the Gulf Of Mexico. Cabeza de Vaca was possibly the first European to ever set foot in Arizona. His reports about the area intrigued the Spanish. Especially the native stories about “the Seven Cities of Cibola”, or the Seven Cities of Gold.(2) Even though there were no cities built of gold, the Spanish continued to explore Arizona. They established outposts and missionaries built missions to help the Native Americans. However the more Spanish that showed up, the less friendly the Natives became. The Indians tried to drive out the Spanish on several occasions, only to be thwarted at every turn. By the late 1700s, the Spanish had built the fort of Tuscon, which was “surrounded by thick adobe walls to protect soldiers and their families from the Apache Indians who roamed the

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