El Camino Real de los Tejas

El Camino Real de los Tejas. . A Corridor for Commerce, Culture, and Change - Past and Present , You are standing at one small point on a legendary network of roads that arc across Texas - El Camino Real de los Tejas. The main overland route from Mexico, through Texas, and into Louisiana, this corridor shaped the history and culture of the region., Hundreds of years before Europeans arrived, Native Americans established a network of trade routes through the region - connecting people and traditions, carrying crops and goods. When the Spanish arrived in the late 1600s, they called the local Caddo Indians Tejas and renamed their trade routes El Camino Real de los Tejas, or The Royal Road of the Tejas. The Spanish extended and adapted the roads as they sent soldiers to solidify their claims of possession and missionaries to convert the Native Americans. A hundred years later, immigrants from the United States traveled this route bringing their own language and culture., Captions , From the West , Alonso De León led four Spanish military explorations, known as entradas, between 1686 and 1689 to search for La Salle's doomed French settlement, Fort St. Louis. His entradas likely used the existing Native American routes and opened the way to establishing the first mission in East Texas, San Francisco de los Tejas, in 1690. The missions provided a foundation for the Spanish presence in Texas and developed into towns and cities that flourish today, like Nacogdoches, Crockett, and San Antonio., Caught in the Middle , European settlers from both east and west converged in Texas and forced many of the local Native American groups, like the Caddo and Ais, away from their traditional homelands. Today the Caddo Nation Tribal Complex is located in Binger, Oklahoma., El Camino Real de los Tejas , The route, made up of many routes, stretched across 2,500 miles, and parts of it are still in use today as Texas State Highway 21 and other highways in south and east Texas., From East to West , Immigrants from the United States began arriving in Mexican-held Texas around 1823, settling on the coastal plain between the San Antonio and Brazos Rivers. Over the next few years, increasing southwest-bound traffic along El Camino Real de los Tejas brought more Americans looking for opportunities and inexpensive farmland. When Texas declared its independence from Mexico in 1836, more than 25,000 American immigrants called Texas their home. , Texas Mapped , French geographer Guillaume de I'Isle published this map of "La Louisiane" in 1718. It is the first detailed map of the Gulf Coast region and the Mississippi River, as well as the first printed map to include Texas., Illustration: Howell Golson