Kings highway history.

Essay by Jordan_com15College, UndergraduateA-, December 2003

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The quotation, Life is either a daring adventure or nothing, was once said by Helen Keller a true hero. In order to appreciate Texas history you must understand that the Texan territory was an adventurous journey that few early frontiersmen and travelers survived. Like most other "new lands", the land that has become Texas was explored and settled first from the coastline on the Gulf of Mexico and then overland from both East and West by treasure-seekers, the clergy, the military, the political opportunists, and the land-hungry settlers. These early adventurers left evidence of their travels either being trails, homes, and other items.

The Kings Highway, which now also closely resembles Highway 21, once ran from Mexico City, Mexico through San Antonio, Texas to Natchitoches, Louisiana and on to San Augustine, Florida.

It is impossible to establish the date of the beginning of the road. The Kings Highway is perhaps the oldest regularly traveled trail in the United States it is also called Camino Real or Old San Antonio Road.

To the Spanish, El Camino Real was a road traveled for the sovereign to colonize, the christianized, and for the seeking of riches for the crown. Before European explorers, missionaries, soldiers, and traders the roads had been carved out by Native Americans. The roads connected watering places, military installations, missions, and trading outposts.

The development of the state and the development of "the Road" interacted with each other and were both influenced by economic, social, political, and religious. Many large towns grew from the exploring of the Kings Highway for example, San Antonio became a hub because the Franciscan Missions, the military, and the river. The Camino de Los Tejas, Old San Antonio Road ,or Old Spanish

Trail linked the military San Juan Bautista del Norte on the Rio...