"At the conclusion of the American Revolution, half the modern United States was part of the vast Spanish Empire. The year after Columbus's great voyage of discovery, in 1492, he claimed Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands for Spain. For the next three hundred years, thousands of proud Spanish conquistadors and their largely forgotten Mexican allies went in search of glory and riches from Florida to California. Many died, few triumphed. Some were cruel, some were curious, some were kind. Missionaries and priests yearned to harvest Indian souls for God through baptism and Christian teaching. Theirs was a frontier world which Spain struggled to control in the face of Indian resistance and competition from France, Britain, and finally the United States. In the 1800s, Spain lost it all. Goodwin tells this history through the lives of the people who made it happen and the literature and art with which they celebrated their successes and mourned their failures. He weaves an epic tapestry from these intimate biographies of explorers and conquerors, like Columbus and Coronado, but also lesser known characters, like the powerful Gálvez family who gave invaluable and largely forgotten support to the American Patriots during the Revolutionary War; the great Pueblo leader Popay; and Esteban, the first documented African American. Like characters in a great play or a novel, Goodwin's protagonists walk the stage of history with heroism and brio and much tragedy"--. Provided by publisher.

"War of blood and fire" : Puerto Rico -- Realms of gold : Mexico -- Fountain of eternal youth : La Florida -- Amazon women & Californian dreams : Baja California -- "Naked and barefoot" : the continent crossed -- The seven cities of Cíbola : New Mexico -- An Inca's tale, the Florida : the deep south -- "Hang all the Lutherans" : the Atlantic Coast -- Poetry & conquest : New Mexico -- God & government : New Mexico -- Po'pay's Pueblo revolt : New Mexico -- Manhunt : Texas -- Padre Kino, the Jesuit southwest : Arizona -- Love & the Comanche Dawn : Texas -- Los Anza & the Apaches : el Gran Norte -- Los Gálvez : California & Sonora -- Junípero Serra, paradise gained : Alta California -- Hard road to paradise : Arizona & California -- Half a continent is Spanish : Louisiana & Alaska -- The governors : Louisiana & New Mexico -- "Bernardo de Gálvez, Spanish hero of the American Revolution" : the deep South -- Apogee & disaster : Canada & Spain -- Mexican independence : New Spain & México -- Nemesis, Andrew Jackson : Florida -- The Alamo & San Jacinto : Texas -- The Mexican-American War : México -- Epilogue: Puerto Rico, 1898.