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A while back I did a thread on Spain finding the gold in Georgia. I've thought about "easy" to find gold in North America that might help Spain's position in the region, so what about Spain finding the gold in Colorado that spurred the Pike's Peak Gold Rush?

This isn't too remote of a chance--I think it's not much more difficult than Spain finding gold in California. Comancheros and other traders regularly traversed the area. Spain sent expeditions well into nowadays Colorado, such as the one that defeated the Comanche leader Cuerno Verde. And the gold in Colorado was known many years before the gold rush occurred through the stories of travelers in the area.

What might the implications be for Spain finding Colorado gold? New Mexico and Texas were, to some degree, meant as buffer colonies for the mining zones of the Mexican north like in Zacatecas. Since colonists will flood to Colorado (to a certain extent, but they will be there), might Colorado need a "buffer zone" and thus spur Spanish colonisation further north in Wyoming or to the east on the Plains (less likely)? The Rockies to the West make an effective buffer, IMO.

It's worth noting that the main native peoples associated with this region, the Cheyenne and Arapaho, didn't arrive until the mid-18th century. Spain might find an effective ally in the Shoshone if they can buffer them against the Blackfoot Confederacy which had dealt them many defeats in the 18th century. This might make the native situation less dire than in New Mexico or Texas. Though the Navajo, Comanche, etc. would still be an issue there, I think the need to protect the route to Colorado would cause a renewed Spanish focus on New Mexico and thus contain the situation there to some degree or another, particularly with a mixture of military victory (like against prestigious leaders like the aforementioned Cuerno Verde) and diplomacy with agreements with the native peoples.

So, effectively, stronger Spain, stronger Spanish Mexico, stronger Mexican North--how huge of implications might this have elsewhere, especially in the United States or elsewhere in the Spanish New World? Renewed expeditions for gold? Spain trying to have lightning strike twice?
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