The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-06-04
The Spanish Influence
 m Southern History

ent assertion of the Monroe Doctrine, so generally misunderstood, quite nat
 urally served to generate in our 'neighbors spirit of irritation and re- sentiment.
 During the past two decades how ever, our country has emerged from it's provincial isolation and has an. peared in the international arena as
 a world power. In this experience we
 nave been taught many important les sons, not the least of which is the fact
 that we can no longer be 'independ-
 ent' of, the other nations of the earth. particularly of those who are our next door neighbors
 The isolation of the United States rom the rest of the world. both in commerce and in politics. is a thing of
 the past, and the first duty of the American family is to begin it's new international career by cultivating re- latlons of amity with it's next-door
 neighbors. These incentives to the study of the Spanish language in our scnools have been so fully presented m current periodical literature tha,
 further emphasis would seem superflu- ous
 There is one important phase of the subject, however. that seems to have neen largely neglected. In our eager ness Tor the promotion of our trad }
 and commerce we seem to have over. looked a most fundamental fact In our early American history we find an entire page written by the Spanish na-
 tion. page that can be rightly inter- I'preted only in terms of the language, history and traditions of the Spanish people. The history of the south and southwest from Florida to California had it's beginnings in Spanish dscov- cry conquest and colonization and the atmosphere of ancient Spain still per sists in the civilization of large area of the United tSates, as suggested by
 many names of cities and geographical units from St. Augustine to Los Angeles.
 Judging from what is taught in our
 school histories and popular literature. we might easily conclude that civiliza- tlon on the continent of North Amer lea began with the landing of the Pill
 grims at Plymouth Rock in 1920. or at the earliest with the founding of Jamestown in 1907. It is true, we are told something of Spanish expeditions or discovery and of the military oc- cupation of parts of the south and southwest by the soldiers of Spain, but our school histories have never taken any great pains to impress upon us the fact that century before the May flower touched the shores of New Eng
 
 in the great southwest along the trail that had been blazed by the dauntless spanish conquistadores the clements of peace and modern civilization. St. Augustine's claim to be the old est city in the United States is dis puted by Sante Fe, N. NJ, and both were founded at least half century before Jamestown. Spain, in the Six teenth century, was not only a great conqueror, but also a great colonizer. These Spanish explorers and colonists, in the midst of untold trials and priva- tons, found time to write reports and treatises of remarkable fullness TOT transmission to the mother country. These descriptive reports form by themselves an enormous literature, ex- ceeding in volume, we are told the combined literature descriptive of our early English colonies. A recent in- vestigator informs us that there are today in the Royal Library at Seville 1 in Spain al least 5000, 900 unpublished 1 colonies in America. This vast treas ure house of history and romance still awaits the advent of enthusiastic stu | dents of the Spanish language to trans late for future generations of Amer ican citizens an unrecorded chapter in American history. To shed new luster upon the early history of the south
 and southwest by bringing to light | this unpublished story of chivalry and
 romance should constitute in itself a stirring incentive to the youth of the 1 southland.