Cowboys Were Originally European and Mexican

In part because it is one of the more recent nations in the globe, American history may be broken down into manageable chunks for study and comprehension. The Frontier and the movement west are two such sections that garner a lot of interest. Historically significant in American culture are the "days of the cowboy." Surprisingly, the concept of the cowboy itself is not particularly American. It may be traced back to Europe, which, despite lacking a Wild West of its own, developed many of the cowboy clichés we now associate with America.

In North America, horses had been extinct for roughly 10,000 years. Explorers from Spain brought them back into existence. Horse breeding and raising cattle truly have a long and illustrious history in Spain. Both of those things developed along the same timeline as in classic cowboy tales. Cattle drives, rustling, and raising on the broad plains are all done by men riding horses. Even before any Europeans arrived in America, the situation was widespread in Spain.

Additionally, Hungary had the csiko horsemen and the Iberian and Andalusian cattlemen. However, it is possible that the Mexican vaqueros, who possessed the appearance and even the language of the original cowboys, were the ones who most heavily influenced American cowboys. These vaqueros traveled to California with Kino, a Jesuit priest who was possibly the first cattleman in the American West.