The Southwestern United States (also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest) is a region of the United States defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. 
Narrowly defined, the "core" Southwest is centered on the Four Corner states, with parts of the other states making up the beginnings and endings of the Southwest. The five main southwestern states, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada, are also all considered part of the Mountain West as well as the Southwest. Using the broad definition (and not counting California cities), the total population of these states is roughly 19 million people; and the top five most populous cities in the Southwest (in order) are: Phoenix, El Paso, Denver, Las Vegas, and Albuquerque.
Most of it was a part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, in the Spanish Empire, during the Modern Era. What is now California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and portions of Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Kansas were part of Mexico before the Mexican-American War and the Gadsden Purchase of 1853. Portions of some of the areas in the "divided" states, and including western parts of Texas, beginning in San Antonio, were those in dispute after the Texas Revolution.
Geographer Uriah D. W. Meinig defines the core of the Southwest as the portion of New Mexico west of the Llano Estacado and the portion of Arizona east of the Mohave-Sonoran Desert and south of the "canyonlands" and also including the El Paso district of western Texas and the southernmost part of Colorado. He identifies four distinct subregions with this core. He calls the first subregion "Northern New Mexico", and describes it as focused on Albuquerque and Santa Fe. It extends from the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado to south of Socorro and including the Manzano Mountains, with an east-west breadth in the north stretching from the upper Canadian River to the upper San Juan River. The area around Albuquerque is sometimes called Central New Mexico.
"Central Arizona" is a vast metropolitan area spread across one contiguous sprawling oasis, essentially equivalent to the Phoenix metropolitan area. The city of Phoenix is the largest urban center, and located in the approximate center of the area that includes Tempe, Mesa, and many others.
Meinig calls the third subregion "El Paso, Tucson, and the Southern Borderlands". While El Paso and Tucson are distinctly different cities they share a similar and somewhat overlapping hinterland between them. Tucson occupies a large oasis at the western end of the El Paso-Tucson corridor. The region between the two cities is a major transportation trunk with settlements servicing both highway and railway needs.
There are also large mining operations, ranches, and agricultural oases. Both El Paso and Tucson have large military installations nearby; Fort Bliss and White Sands Missile Range north of El Paso in New Mexico, and, near Tucson, the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Albuquerque has Sandia National Laboratories and Kirtland Air Force Base. About 70 miles (110 km) to the southeast are the research facilities at Fort Huachuca. These military installations form a kind of hinterland around the El Paso-Tucson region, and are served by scientific and residential communities such as Sierra Vista, Las Cruces, and Alamogordo. El Paso's influence extends north into the Mesilla Valley, and southeast along the Rio Grande into the Trans-Pecos region of Texas.
The fourth subregion Meinig calls the "Northern Corridor and Navaholands". A major highway and railway trunk connects Albuquerque and Flagstaff. Just north of the transportation trunk are large blocks of American Indian land.
Phoenix, Tucson, and Las Vegas dominate the westernmost metropolitan areas in the southwestern region, while Albuquerque, Denver, Colorado Springs, and El Paso dominate the easternmost metropolitan areas of the Southwest, not including Northern, Central, and Eastern Texas or Oklahoma because they are not always considered part of the Southwest. Reno and Salt Lake City also dominate the northernmost metropolitan areas of the Southwest. Thus the basic spatial structure of the Southwest can be seen as focused on the largest metropolitan areas in each state such as Phoenix, Albuquerque, Denver, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and El Paso. Also, the Four Corners of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico is often considered the center, or heart, of the American Southwest.
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the southwestern United States was inhabited by a very large population of American Indian tribes. Some of the larger and more popular tribes of American Indians in the Southwest were the Ute, Navajo, Apache, Comanche, Paiute, Hopi, and Anasazi. The Ute formally ruled over most of modern day Utah and Colorado, as well as small parts of northern New Mexico. The Navajo had ruled over much of Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Utah at one point as well. Apache tribes had once ruled over many lands in the Southwest such as most of New Mexico, eastern Arizona, and parts of southwestern Texas.
The Jicarilla tribe of Apache also ruled well into southern and southeastern Colorado as well. The Comanche ruled many lands in the Southwest as well. Their historic range consisted of present day eastern New Mexico, southern and southeastern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, and most all of west and northwest Texas.
The Paiute people were another very large American Indian civilization. They controlled most all of present day Nevada, western Utah, and northern Arizona. Some of the oldest evidence of American Indians in the Southwest are the Hopi and the Anasazi people. The Hopi controlled most all of what is modern day Arizona at one point. On the other hand, the Anasazi (Ancient Pueblo peoples) controlled much of the Southwest as well. Their ancient territory consisted of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, southeastern Utah, and all of southern Colorado.
Some of the more known evidence of the ancient pueblo peoples can be found at Chaco National Park in New Mexico, and Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Southwestern United States
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