Arizona’s History

Early Settlement

Indians have lived in Arizona for more than 12,000 years.  Over the centuries many Indians have built settlements and civilization such as Anasazi, Mogollon and the Hohokam. The Hohokam made the biggest irrigation system until the Europeans came. The Mogollon lived in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. Apache and Navajo Indians moved into the Arizona area shortly before the Spaniards arrived. The few Arizona settlers lived in fear of an Indian attack. It mostly occurred in southern Arizona.

Spanish Exploration

  During the 1530s stories reached the Spaniards in Mexico of the great wealth of the Seven Cities of Cibola. Spanish authorities sent a small group headed by Franciscan priest Marcos de Niza to find the cities. Niza, in 1539, became the first European known to enter Arizona region. He reported seeing one of the seven cities from a distance in 1540, a much larger expedition led by explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coranado traveled to Zuni pueblos and other pueblo settlements to look for gold and silver. But in the end they could find nor gold or silver.

Statehood

  Around 1890 many civilians of Arizona started to petition that Arizona should become a state. But congress refused. So then Arizona was permitted to write a constitution in 1910 but then President William Howard Taft revoked it. Then the people got a recall so that the citizens could vote and not the judges. And of February, 14, 1912 Arizona became the 48th state of the United States of America.  

Territorial Days

 Mexico won its independence in 1821. Then present day Arizona became part of a new country. After that in 1846 America took control of that region. This all happened under terms of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidatgon , which ended the war in 1848.

Mid 1900s

  During world  war 2 (1939-1945) the government built many air bases in Arizona because the large number of sunny days provided ideal flying weather. The demand for Arizona’s chief products, such as – cattle , copper and cotton- increased so that Phoenix the states capitol doubled in population. But warm weather can also be a bad thing. In the year of 1963 the United States of America let Arizona have two million eight hundred thousand acres-feet of water a year from the Colorado River.

Late 1900s

In 1974 construction began on the central Arizona project. It was a system of under ground tunnels and pipes that supplied water. The first college in an Indian reservation was mad in 1969. The college moved to Tsaile in 1973. In 1975 Raul H. Castro became the first Mexican American governor in the United States of America. In 1981 President Ronald Regan appointed Sandra O’connor to be the first woman supreme court member. In the late 1900’s casino gambling became a big thing in Arizona because the Indians could do anything with there reservations and it helped them make money. Arizona has had a colorful history through out its lifetime.