Timelines

Home Timelines

We have divided New Mexico’s long history into five periods: Pre-Contact, Spanish Colonial, Mexican, US Territorial Period, and Statehood to the Present. Links from the timelines take you to more information about significant events in history such as a series of articles on the 1680 Pueblo Revolt.

Master Timeline

BCE 10000-CE 1550

Pre-Contact Period

Long before there was a New Mexico, Native peoples from a rich variety of cultures prospered in the harsh environment of the Southwest. Among the many groups that peopled the land were the Clovis, Folsom, and Ancestral Puebloan cultures. Explore these ancient peoples and the many important archaeological sites and artifacts they left.

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1540-1821

Spanish Colonial Period

Spanish colonists arrived in New Mexico in 1598 and remained until the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Then, after twelve years as a colony-in-exile in El Paso del Norte, Spanish colonists returned to New Mexico to say in 1693. Learn how for the next century and a quarter, Hispanos and Native Americans negotiated life in the region under the dominion of Spain and its institutions.

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1821-1848

Mexican Period

Explore just how Mexican New Mexico really was. The period from 1821 to 1846 is one of the least studied and understood eras in New Mexico history. It was a period of political turmoil locally that mirrored the transformation taking place in the rest of Mexico as a newly independent nation moved out of the shadow of centuries of Spanish colonization and onto the world stage.

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1848-1889

US Territorial Period

Ever wonder why it took New Mexico so long to become a state? Following a brief period of military occupation and rule from 1846 to 1850, New Mexico entered a period of rapid change as newcomers from the United States settled in a land belonging to Hispanic and Indian peopled. New Mexico met all the criteria for statehood by 1850, but the obstacles were placed in its way, and the territory began a long and difficult sixty-two-year journey to statehood.

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1912-2010

Statehood to Present

New Mexico finally achieved statehood in 1912, becoming the forty-seventh star on the US flag. In the years that followed, New Mexico became the birthplace of the atomic age and one of the most significant contributors in the development of rocketry and the space program. For many years after World War II, New Mexico grew at meteoric rates, forever changing the character of the state. Take a look at the history of modern New Mexico.

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