Treaty Of Guadalupe Hidalgo Definition And List Of Community Land Grants In New Mexico

From the end of the seventeenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, Spain (and later Mexico) made land grants to individuals, towns, and groups to promote development in the frontier lands that now constitute the American Southwest. In New Mexico, these land grants fulfilled several purposes: to encourage settlement, reward patrons of the Spanish government, and create a buffer zone to separate hostile Native American tribes from the more populated regions of New Spain. Spain also extended land grants to several indigenous pueblo cultures, which had occupied the areas granted long before Spanish settlers arrived in the Southwest. Under Spanish and Mexican law, common land was set aside as part of the original grant for the use of the entire community. Literature on land grants in New Mexico and popular terminology generally distinguish between two kinds of land grants: community land grants and individual land grants. Our research identified a total of 295 grants made by Spain and Mexico during this period. Appendix I contains a list of these grants.