Wild west biography

The Wild West was all sheriffs, gunslingers and saloons, right?

While there’s some truth to the movie stereotypes, the real Old West differed in many ways from what you might think, featuring camels, cannibalism and more celebrities than it would be practical to count.

Read on to discover 10 facts about the Wild West that shed new light on frontier life.

1.

The Wild West was once part of Spain

From the 16th to the 19th centuries, the areas encompassing Florida and the states of the US southwest – including California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Texas – belonged to the viceroyalty of New Spain and were governed from Mexico City.

Florida was the first to cede to the US, in The other areas followed in after the Mexican-American War.

Under the peace treaty, Mexico (which inherited responsibility for the regions after gaining independence in ) recognised the US annexation of Texas, and agreed to sell most of its territory north of the Rio Grande to the US for $15 mill