Spanisches Nordamerika

They certainly were around first, but there REALLY wasn’t much Spanish presence in what is now the US. The population numbers before the Mexican American war and after are staggering, in 1850 New Mexico had just over 60K and California had just over 90K.

As local New Mexicans will tell you, the area as far as Spain was concerned was really just a prison colony dumping ground. It was considered the hinterlands / wild west of New Spain.