AZ: The History of Arizona podcast

Filibuster is a political term today, but in the 1850s it meant a group of men who were either visionary entrepreneurs or no good land pirates - depending on whether you were an American or Mexican.

After more than 80 years of struggle and turmoil, it’s time for Tucson to say farewell to Mexico.

In which we thank the U.S.’s increasingly divisive regional politics and our old friend, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, for securing Tucson, Tubac and Tumacácori as part of Arizona.

The international boundary survey commission discovered in 1850 that neither the United States nor Mexico really had a clue about where El Paso was.

The Americans suddenly had a lot of new territory on their hands. But they would soon find out the same thing as the Mexicans and the Spanish before them - there was a whole lot of rugged terrain and hostile natives out there.

It's Round 2 of the struggle to control the vital Colorado River crossing. In one corner we have the reigning champions, the Quechens. Their challenger? The scrappy newcomers, the Americans. Also, Tucson will finally make peace with its perennial foe, the Apaches ... for like five minutes.

The discovery of gold in California converts Tucson from obscure frontier town to important cross-country stop. Too bad the Americans couldn’t really appreciate it.

Mexico once again puts its trust in Santa Anna, but in the end will find that half the country now belongs to their aggressive north neighbor. The only kicker is no one really knew much about what they had just given away.

War with Mexico has been declared, and with the conflict will come the first real advance of Americans into Arizona, including the longest infantry march in U.S. military history.

In which we bring everyone up to the brink of the Mexican-American War.

Revolting Papagos and Yaquis, continual back-and-forth over the Sonoran governorship, and fighting the Apaches without any supplies … yep, the last few years of Mexican Arizona would not be a fun ride.

Tensions were tightening all around the Pimería Alta in the late 1830s. And political turmoil on both the local and nation level did nothing to help Arizona, where soldiers were selling weapons to buy food.

In the early 1830s, Tucson and Tubac learned that when no one has any supplies, it makes it incredibly hard to protect yourself.

The Beatles were right, life does go on … that is until your supplies dwindle, Apaches begin raiding more extensively and your land is invaded by beaver-hunting Americans.

Political instability, economic woes, collapsing societal structures, Apache raids, an aggressive neighbor … post-independence Mexico has it all. And that can’t be good for Arizona.

In which we learn that one great lesson of history: You cannot trust Napoleon

With Spain’s peace by purchase policy now firmly in place, things started changing in future Arizona. The last decades of Spanish rule were marked by the passing of the old guard and the arrival of some measure of prosperity for Tucson and Tubac.

In 1793, a group of Apaches were at the gates of Tucson. Their arrival represented the new normal for the Pimería Alta, which managed to achieve something it had never known before - peace.

In the 1770s, the Spanish crown instituted a massive reorganization of how it oversaw the frontier in North America. Meanwhile, Garcés finally realized his dream of making it to the Hopis, only for it not to go as planned.

In which Juan Bautista de Anza and hundreds of colonists went for a walk to San Francisco on a winter’s day. Plus, it turns out it wasn’t all safe and warm in LA.

By the mid-1730s the first permanent residents in Arizona had begun to settle along the Santa Cruz River. Too bad what followed was more than 20 years of revolts, raids and one radical change for the Spanish empire.

After the Spanish Habsburg dynasty gave way to the Spanish Bourbons, a young Basque man would immigrate to the New World, where he would quickly show he had the chops to rise to the top. It’s time to welcome Juan Bautista de Anza the Elder back to the podcast.

The missions were a key part of Spanish rule along the North American frontier. And no one represents the missions in southern Arizona like math-student-turned-priest Eusebio Kino.

Spanish North America was a costly, unproductive project. So you can perhaps forgive King Felipe II for telling a new wave of explorers to keep their hands out of his treasury.

No, this isn't the start of a joke. For Coronado and his expedition, the search for glory and gold in Arizona and New Mexico turned out to be no laughing matter.

At some point, humans entered North America. And the ones that made Arizona their home produced marvels that still capture the imagination today.

From the outside, Arizona - with its venomous snakes, scorpions and lizards; barbed cactus and spiked trees; and imposing geography - looked primed to kill anyone foolish enough to come close. But that impression doesn't do justice to the complex evolutionary forces that have shaped the state's flora and fauna.

Arizona’s history wouldn’t be quite the same without the magnificent stage it plays out on. That’s why we need to answer the question of why the state has so many great-looking holes in the ground.

Arizona is a name that evokes images in everyone's minds, but where did that name come from? We explore the possible Spanish, Native American, Basque and even Aztec roots for the word and how it's all wrapped up in a 1736 discovery of silver in Mexico. As an added bonus, we also learn what "Connecticut" means.