The Spanish, and later the Mexican, government encouraged settlement of the Territorio de Nuevo Mexico (context map) by the establishment of large land grants, many of which were turned into ranchos, devoted to the raising of cattle and sheep. The owners of these ranchos patterned themselves after the landed gentry in Spain. Their workers included Native Americans, some of whom had learned to speak Spanish and ride horses. Of the hundreds of grants, Spain made only a few. The remainder were granted by Mexico after 1821. The ranchos established land-use patterns that are recognizable in the New Mexico of today.
Land grants were made both to individuals and communities during the Spanish (1598–1821) and Mexican (1821–1846) periods of New Mexico's history. Nearly all of the Spanish records of land grants that were made in what is now New Mexico prior to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 were destroyed in the revolt. Thus, historians can often only be certain of land grants that were made after the Spanish Reconquest of New Mexico in 1693. "The two major types of land grants were private grants made to individuals, and communal grants made to groups of individuals for the purpose of establishing settlements. Communal land grants were also made to Pueblos for the lands they inhabited."[1]
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During Spanish rule (1769–1821), land grants were typically concessions from the Spanish crown, permitting settlement and granting grazing rights on specific tracts of land, while retaining title with the crown. Ranchos, that is, the settement by individuals of tracts of land outside Mission and Pueblo boundaries, began in the late 18th century. The land concessions were usually measured in leagues. A league of land would encompass a square that is one Spanish league on each side - approximately 4,428 acres (18 km2).
