Hispanic Influence in United States History

• The Spanish were the first Europeans to land in what was to become the continental United States when Jose Ponce de Leon landed in Florida in 1513. Since that time, the Spanish continued to be the foremost European explorers in North America, seeing half of what would be the lower 48 states before the English settled in Roanoke in 1585.
• In 1835, Texas, a Mexican state, revolted from Mexico and was then annexed into the United States in 1845. In response, Mexico initiated the Mexican-American war, which ended with the cessation of the Mexican states of Alta California and Nuevo Mexico to the United States. 
• Tales of Spanish atrocities in Cuba sparked the beginning of the Spanish-American war in 1898. The war was fought mainly for Cuban independence, but resulted not only in Cuban freedom, but also in the United States's colonial acquisition of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.
• In the mid-twentieth century, there were many migrant workers in the Western and Southwestern United States who were treated poorly by their employers. Cesear Chavez, a Mexican-American field-worker, organized the National Farm Workers Association. This union successfully improved conditions for millions of migrant workers in the United States.