The Viceroyalty of New Spain was established in 1535 by King Charles I of Spain as an administrative unit of the Spanish Empire. New Spain included the former lands of the Aztec Empire, which had been conquered by Hernan Cortez in 1519-21, as well as Spain's Caribbean conquests. Additional lands were added to New Spain over the next two and a half centuries as the Spanish Empire expanded to include the Marianas Islands, the Philippines, Central America, California, Tejas, and Florida.
It was in the province of Tejas that the former American rebels who left the Thirteen Colonies on the Wilderness Walk established the settlement of Jefferson in 1782. During the Trans-Oceanic War the Jeffersonians broke away from Spanish rule and established an independent state. New Spain came to an end in 1805 when the Republic of Mexico gained its independence from Spain.