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For more than a century before making a definite attempt to occupy the eastern Texas region, the Spaniards gradually explored it, proceeding by degrees to the interior. Myth and Fable played an important role in encouraging the Spaniards to explore farther as they sought the Silver Mountain, the pearls of the Jumano country and the Great Kingdom of the Texas. ('Chroniclers of the Borderlands', Carolyn Spears)
Although the Spanish began making claims on the coastal areas of Texas and mapping that region in 1519, they did not begin their exploration of Texas until 1528. It is not until the period of 1716-1821 when the Spanish experienced an uninterrupted occupation of Texas. The Spaniards were the first Europeans to explore the area we call Texas. They are also responsible for bringing the mission system to the New World. "The Spanish mission was a frontier institution that sought to incorporate indigenous people into the Spanish colonial empire, its Catholic religion, and certain aspects of its Hispanic culture through the formal establishment or recognition of sedentary Indian communities entrusted to the tutelage of missionaries under the protection and control of the Spanish state. ('Spanish Missions', Handbook of Texas Online)" Because of successes the Spanish had with the mission system in other parts of the New World, they hoped that it would be successful in the land we now call Texas. The Spanish had a difficult time governing Texas because of the small number of settlements and conflicts with other European nations and Native Americans. Diseases the Spanish explorers and missionaries brought to Texas went a long way in destroying the Native American populations in the area.
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