When they ventured onto the mainland, they found an immense landscape that was already home to tens of thousands of American Indians. Conflict between the two groups was frequent, leading to misunderstandings, exploitation, and violence. While their explorations gave Europeans a better understanding of the Americas, the conquistadors who explored the land now known as Texas often failed to find the wealth and resources they were looking for leading the Spanish to focus colonization efforts further south for many years.
The process of taking on the characteristics of a culture by giving up one's own is called cultural assimilation. ... One of the most obvious examples of assimilation is the United States' history of absorbing immigrants from different countries.
