David J. Weber (1940–2010)

When people ask if I picked up any Spanish from my nine years in Los Angeles, I like to say, “Sure: ¡yo quiero Taco Bell!” This may not be technically true, but since the first Taco Bell opened in an L.A. suburb, it’s truthy enough for casual conversation.

Taco Bell is a good avatar for many histories of Spain’s imperial frontier in North America: an expression of American flair refracted through a Hispanic prism that may or may not reflect historical realities. One of this book's show more strengths is its running dialogue with competing historiographies, from the “Black Legend” of Spanish degeneracy and cruelty to the Boltonian school of whitewashed noble civilizers.

I enjoyed learning more about the northern fringes of colonial New Spain, which for three centuries sprawled in fits and starts from Florida to California. David J. Weber’s history is colorful and highly readable. If you’re not sure an Anglo-American academic could do the subject justice, it might help to know that both Spain and Mexico awarded him the highest civil honors available to foreigners.

This book helped me understand why Spain failed to establish its North American colonies on a more permanent footing. For one thing, these regions simply lacked the mineral wealth that made fortunes. Florida, New Mexico, Texas, and California had value as defensive buffers, but other provinces were too profitable for these northern outposts to attract serious settlement.

For another thing, the Spanish economy was a basket case. Aztec and Incan gold inflated Spanish manufacturers out of their own markets. Mercantilist policies sucked resources toward the monarchical center and forbade external trade, stagnating the frontiers. Dominant military priorities stifled and warped local economies. In short, the Spanish fringe was never set up for success against the commercial and military weight of expansive Anglo-American colonists.

I also appreciated Weber’s focus on Spanish influence on indigenous tribes and vice versa, though Hispanic culture predominately overwhelmed tribal societies. The mission system is an example of good intentions gone disastrously wrong as Franciscan determination to Christianize and civilize American tribes fostered epidemics and broke millenia-old lifeways.

The introduction of the horse is another great example. While the mobility provided by horses converted Southeastern hunter-gatherers into commercial fur hunters addicted to European trade goods, it transformed Plains tribes into highly effective and organized war machines. Colonial history is nothing if not a morality play about the law of unintended consequences.

If you have an interest in the history of these regions, this is a great starting point. I’ll also point out that one of Spain’s great defeats at the hands of indigenous warriors happened in Nebraska. Never again would the Spaniards seriously entertain designs on the Great Plains. I guess I can thank the Pawnee and Oto that I live in Lincoln instead of El Pueblo de Hernándo Cortéz de Santa María or whatever. show less

Before the American Southwest was the American Southwest it was the northern frontier of Mexico, representing a third of the territory of the country after its leaders declared their independence from Span in 1821. What the region was like in the quarter century between its possession by Spain and its conquest by the United States is the subject of David J. Weber's book. It's a comprehensive work that begins by examining how the news of Augustin de Iturbide's declaration of independence was show more received in the region and concludes with the outbreak of the war that would lead to the U.S.'s annexation of the territory.

While Weber's text surveys the span of human activity in the territory, two themes emerge over the course of his text. The first is the sense of isolation for the Hispanic residents of the region. Independence was a fait accompli for them, one in which they had no say. In many ways little changed with the news, as the region went from being the sparsely settled northern region of Spain's empire in the Americans to the sparsely settled northern lands of the United States of Mexico. Many of the key issues and developments that defined the area during the last decades of Spanish control continued, with the Mexicans dealing with economic change and relations the Indians just as they had before. While independence meant shifts in the dynamics involved, these were concerns that engaged locals no matter who was in charge,

What changed most with Mexican independence was its relations with the United States. This emerges as the second theme of the book: the growing drift of the region into the U.S. orbit. Independence from Spain meant an end to the mercantilist policies restricting trade with the United States, just as the presence of Americans on the frontier was growing. American merchants and trappers eagerly entered the region in search of economic opportunities, establishing a visible presence for the U.S. while economically orienting the region to the northeast. Close behind them were American settlers, whose presence in Texas in particular disrupted the dynamics of the region. Mexican authorities were conflicted about this presence, welcoming the economic benefits brought by trade and the stabilizing effects of non-Indian settlement while increasingly wary of what would follow from the growing American interest in the region. Their concerns would be validated with the outbreak of war in 1846, as the American presence served as the wedge for annexation two years later.

Weber makes plain the factors that led to the region's takeover by the United States, yet this is only one of his book's many strengths. For while Weber details the growing interest in the region by many Americans it also tells the story of the residents themselves and the lives they led. His chapters highlight the many challenges they faced, from their limited resources to the indifference with which they were often treated by Mexican institutions and the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. Such coverage illustrates the challenges of life on the frontier in the early 19th century while underscoring how annexation came about. In all it makes Weber's book essential reading for anyone interested in the region, as he fills in the valuable details of what proved a critical period of transition in its history. show less

I got the brief edition of this book by accident, and in a way I regret it, though in terms of available reading time it may be just as well. It gives a good overview of the entire period of Spanish rule in North America north of Mexico, from early explorers (I knew of Coronado and Cabrillo, but not, for instance, Estevao Gomes who found the site of Bangor, Maine) through the early attempts at colonies to the establishment of New Mexico and Florida as more or less solid foundations, despite show more the Pueblo Revolt (which, at least in this version, gets limited coverage) . He makes clear that the devastating English raids by Governor Moore and his Native allies around 1700 effectively reduced what had been a fairly stable network of mission/Native settlements in Florida to a handful of garrisons, which it remained thereafter. On the other hand, the adoption of a more intelligent policy that "bad peace is better than good war" by the Galvez and other late 18th century leaders restablized the Texas/New Mexico frontier after the impact of the Comanche and Apache adoption of horses and guns had given them serious tactical advantages. He also describes the mixed impact of the Spanish on the Natives of California. His version of the Adams/Onis Treaty says less about Andrew Jackson's military pressure on Florida than some accounts. He has a brief chapter on the rival hostile and romantic accounts of Spanish influence in later American culture, seeing the romantic image (adopted largely for tourist purposes) largely absorbing the hostile version. He treats the survival of genuine Spanish culture as virtually non-existent outside New Mexico, and says very little of the revival of Hispanic culture with the 20th century Mexican immigration, though he briefly mentions of Chicano Aztlan movement. show less

Sample text/Opening Paragraph:::

"When the Mountain Men began their invasion of the Rockies in the 1820's, the tiny village of Taos, in New Mexico, took its place alongside Fort Vancouver and St. Louis as one of their three favorite "jumping-off points" in the search for beaver pelts. Spanish exploration of the area that now comprises the Southwestern United States had antedated that of the Anglo-American by over 250 years, but it was not until the arrival of the latter group that large-scale show more fur trapping took place. In the mountains and high plateaus of Colorado and New Mexico and in the beaver-rich valleys and tributaries of the Arkansas, Rio Grande, Green, Colorado, Gila, Sacramento and San Joaquin, the Anglo extracted great wealth where the Spaniard had seen only an unpromising wilderness. Although the Spaniard carried on a lively trade in deerskins and buffalo hides in the Southwest, there is little evidence of a significant trade in fine furs during the period of 1540 to 1821. "

~ End ~

This is a interesting paper that outlines the history of the Spanish fur trade in New Mexico over a nearly 300 year period. Prof. Weber provides some interesting excerpts, stories, and insight into why fur trade never became the economic engine for the Spanish that it was for the French and English. It does not contain, as far as I can discern, any original research.

While the author demonstrates the existence of problems and what solutions were attempted over the years to resolve them, he does not build a strong connecting narrative that ties these diverse elements together. And I'd invite any interested reader to take a look at Herbert Bolton's earlier essay: "French intrusions into New Mexico, 1749-1752". Though Prof. Bolton's paper lacks Weber's newer scholarship, he does lay out a good cohesive story.

Finally, since this is a paper there isn't a bibliographical. However the footnotes provide wonderful ideas for further reading. [It took me a day to read this short paper because I kept having to stop and google various names, papers, and books.]

Pam T show less