[10] The city prospered as the region's leading commercial and transportation hub for both Europeans and Native Americans,[11] driven by lucrative trade and migration routes such as El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro and the Santa Fe Trail.

Santa Fe maintained its status as the political and cultural center of New Mexico throughout the Spanish, Mexican, and American periods, which have each impacted the city's development and character.

Among Santa Fe's many artistic institutions are the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, the Chuck Jones Gallery, and the art collective Meow Wolf.

The area of Santa Fe was originally occupied by indigenous Tanoan peoples, who lived in numerous Pueblo villages along the Rio Grande.

The next governor, Francisco Cuervo y Valdez, started to broker peace, including the founding of Albuquerque, to guarantee better representation and trade access for Pueblos in New Mexico's government.

The city's status as the capital of the Mexican territory of Santa Fe de Nuevo México was formalized in the 1824 Constitution after Mexico achieved independence from Spain.

In addition to remaining the administrative and political heart of Nuevo Mexico, Santa Fe maintained its status as the central trading and transportation hub west of the Mississippi.

Beginning in the 1820s, the Santa Fe Trail brought lucrative commercial links to what was then the American frontier in Missouri, attracting both indigenous and Euro-American traders.

[24] The opening of trade and migration with the U.S. also facilitated friendly relations between the new Mexican republic and its American counterpart, for which Santa Fe was the primary nexus.

Notwithstanding these incursions, as well as recurring conflicts between Euro-American settlers and native peoples, Santa Fe witnessed multiple migrations through the three trails that led to the city, which would give way to the railroad, Route 66, and the interstate.

Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearny led the main body of his Army of the West of some 1,700 soldiers into Santa Fe to claim it and the whole New Mexico Territory for the United States.

Colonel Alexander William Doniphan, under the command of Kearny, recovered ammunition from Santa Fe labeled "Spain 1776" showing both the lack of communications and quality of military support New Mexico received under Mexican rule.

Texas Governor Peter H. Bell sent a letter to President Zachary Taylor, who died before he could read it, demanding that the U.S. Army stop defending New Mexico.

[28] As part of the New Mexico Campaign of the Civil War, General Henry Sibley occupied the city, flying the Confederate flag over Santa Fe for a few days in March 1862.

On October 21, 1887, Anton Docher, "The Padre of Isleta", went to New Mexico where he was ordained as a priest in the St Francis Cathedral of Santa Fe by Bishop Jean-Baptiste Salpointe.

[32] The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad extended the narrow gauge Chili Line from the nearby city of Española to Santa Fe in 1886.

Beginning in June 1942, the Department of Justice arrested 826 Japanese-American men after the attack on Pearl Harbor; they held them near Santa Fe, in a former Civilian Conservation Corps site that had been acquired and expanded for the purpose.

[57] Some tourist activities take place in the historic downtown, especially on and around the Plaza, a one-block square adjacent to the Palace of the Governors, the original seat of New Mexico's territorial government since the time of Spanish colonization.

[citation needed] Santa Fe has been associated with science and technology since 1943 when it served as the gateway to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), a 45-minute drive from the city.

To achieve that goal, the city created the idea of imposing a unified building style – the Santa Fe Pueblo Revival look, which was based on work done restoring the Palace of the Governors.

The sources for this style came from the many defining features of local architecture: vigas (rough, exposed beams that extrude through supporting walls, and are thus visible outside as well as inside the building) and canales (rain spouts cut into short parapet walls around flat roofs), features borrowed from many old adobe homes and churches built many years before and found in the pueblos, along with the earth-toned look (reproduced in stucco) of the old adobe exteriors.

By an ordinance passed in 1957, new and rebuilt buildings, especially those in designated historic districts, must exhibit a Spanish Territorial or Pueblo style of architecture, with flat roofs and other features suggestive of the area's traditional adobe construction.

However, many contemporary houses in the city are built from lumber, concrete blocks, and other common building materials, but with stucco surfaces (sometimes referred to as "faux-dobe", pronounced as one word: "foe-dough-bee") reflecting the historic style.

Canyon Road, east of the Plaza, has the highest concentration of art galleries in the city, and is a destination for international collectors, tourists and locals.

[citation needed] SITE Santa Fe exhibits new developments in contemporary art, encouraging artistic exploration, and expanding traditional museum experiences.

Originally backed by author George R. R. Martin,[65] Meow Wolf opened an elaborate art installation space, called House of Eternal Return, in 2016.

Well-known writers like D. H. Lawrence, Cormac McCarthy, Michael Tobias, Kate Braverman, Douglas Adams, Tony Hillerman, Roger Zelazny, Alice Corbin Henderson, Mary Austin, Witter Bynner, Dan Flores, Paul Horgan, Rudolfo Anaya, George R. R. Martin, Mitch Cullin, David Morrell, Evan S. Connell, Richard Bradford, John Masters, Jack Schaefer, Hampton Sides, Ariel Gore and Michael McGarrity are or were residents of Santa Fe.

Founded in 1937, Performance Santa Fe brings celebrated and legendary musicians as well as some of the world's greatest dancers and actors to the city year-round.

[78] Adelina Otero-Warren, a leading suffragist in New Mexico, became one of the state's first female government officials when she served as superintendent of Santa Fe public schools from 1917 to 1929.

New Mexico Park and Ride, a division of the New Mexico Department of Transportation, and the North Central Regional Transit District operate primarily weekday commuter coach/bus service to Santa Fe from Torrance, Rio Arriba, Taos, San Miguel and Los Alamos Counties in addition to shuttle services within Santa Fe connecting major government activity centers.