Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe (Spanish, "Holy Faith") (full form: La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís, English: Royal City of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi) is the capital of New Mexico, a state of the United States of America. It has a population of around 62,203 (2000). It is the county seat of Santa Fe County.

History

A settlement on the site that would become Santa Fe was first established by Juan Martinez de Montoya in 1607.http://www.common-place.org/vol-03/no-04/santa-fe/ The town was formally founded and made a capital in 1610, making it the oldest capital city and the second oldest surviving city founded by the European colonists in what land was later to become part of the United States, behind St. Augustine, Florida (1565). (Jamestown, Virginia was also settled in 1607.) Santa Fe was the capital of Nuevo México, a province of New Spain explored by Coronado and established in 1598. The city was founded by Don Pedro de Peralta, New Mexico's third governor. Peralta gave the city its full name, "La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís", or "The Royal City of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi".

Related Topics:
Juan Martinez de Montoya - 1607 - 1610 - United States - St. Augustine, Florida - 1565 - Jamestown, Virginia - Nuevo México - New Spain - Coronado - 1598 - Don Pedro de Peralta - Saint Francis of Assisi

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Except for the years 1680-1692, when the native Pueblo people drove the Spaniards out of the area known as New Mexico later to be "reconquered" by Don Diego de Vargas, Santa Fe remained Spain's provincial seat until 1810, with the outbreak of the Mexican War of Independence, and, in 1824, the city's status as the capital of the Mexican territory of Santa Fe de Nuevo México was formalized in the 1824 Constitution. In 1848 New Mexico was seized by the United States from Mexico, and in 1912 New Mexico became that country's 47th state, with Santa Fe as its capital.

Related Topics:
Pueblo people - Mexican War of Independence - Santa Fe de Nuevo México - 1824 Constitution

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