The Spanish Frontier in North America (The Lamar Series in Western History) [Paperback]

David J. Weber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 27, 1994 | ISBN-10: 0300059175 | ISBN-13: 978-0300059175

In 1513, when Ponce de Leon stepped ashore on a beach of what is now Florida, Spain gained its first foothold in North America. For the next 300 years, Spaniards ranged through the continent building forts, missions and farms, ranches and towns to reconstruct the Iberian world. This illustrated book presents an overview of the Spanish colonial period in North America. It provides an account not only of the Spaniards' impact on the lives, institutions and environments of the native peoples but also of the effect of native North Americans on the societies and cultures of Spanish settlers. With quotations and illustrations, David Weber describes the establishement, expansion and retraction of the Spanish frontier and recounts the forging of a Hispanic empire that ranged from Florida to California. Weber refutes the common assumption that while the English and French came to the New World to settle or engage in honest trade, the Spanish simply came to plunder. The Spanish missionaries, soldiers and traders who lived in America were influenced by diverse motives and Weber shows that their behaviour must be viewed in the context of their own time and within their own frame of reference. Throughout, Weber deals with many other issues, including the difference between English, French and Spanish treatment of Indians, the social and economic integration of Indian women into Hispanic society and the reasons why the Spanish communities in North America failed to develop at the rate that the English settlements did.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Weber presents a balanced and thorough history of Spanish exploration and settlement from Ponce de Leon's landing in 1513 to the end of Spain's North American empire in 1821. Most of the book is devoted to Spain's political and military activities in North America. One chapter traces the social history of Spaniards in the New World while the last chapter explores history's verdict of Spain's treatment of colonists and Indians. Illustrations, including photographs and line drawings, add little to the text, but the numerous maps are useful. There are extensive footnotes and a comprehensive bibliography. Recommended for academic libraries or public libraries with large American history collections. Index not seen.
- Grant A. Fredericksen, Illinois Prairie Dist . P.L., Metamora
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 602 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (July 27, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300059175
• ISBN-13: 978-0300059175
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #533,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, the real "conquistadores" arrived., June 12, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Spanish Frontier in North America (The Lamar Series in Western History) (Hardcover)

Finally a book that takes upon itself to find the truth about the real drive of the Spanish colonization of North America. After decades of mostly subscribing to the Black Legend (the claim that spaniards where just cruel exploiters in search of gold and little else) and partially romanticizing the Spanish presence in this land, a book that puts thing in perspective. The author pays attention to the evolution, not only of the spanish conquest itself but of the interpretations this conquest has had over time. The underlying thesis of the book, namely that the influence of Spain on the natives was reciprocal, not a single sided event is very appealling and well documented. The book is organized in chapters that deal with the spiritual, pollitical and commercial aspects of the settlement. It is by no means a mere account of dates and names; on the contrary, it gives the reader a good feel of the fabric of history: the decline of the spanish impulse that started with the "Reconquista" and the wars against the moors, the uprising commercial ideology that would hand this empire to a younger nation, the obsolescence and impracticality of the religious spanish agenda and conquest methods, the misconceptions about natives and the ambivalent relationship with them, sometimes as fellow citizens when converted, most times difficult and mortal. In general, I enjoyed the book a lot. I recommend it to any serious historian of the Spanish Empire indigested with partial accounts and uncritical acceptance of the myths of our times.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The other North American frontier, or should we say frontiers?, January 20, 2006

By 

S. J. Snyder "De gustibus non disputandum" (Various, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Spanish Frontier in North America (The Lamar Series in Western History) (Hardcover)

Frontiers, in the plural, might be better. While many of us may call to mind Santa Fe, or the Alamo, the Spaniards were settled in, or exploring or defending, many places in North America. Only tenuously connected to each other, these frontier areas included Florida, the Gulf Coast, Texas, New Mexico, California and Arizona.

While New Mexico was reachable from Chihuahua, the Llano Estacado separated it from Texas. The Sierra Madre, water supplies in Mexico and such, separated New Mexico from the late-settled California and the even more tenuous hold on Arizona, not to mention that it was easier to get to California by sailing from Mexico out into the Central Pacific then taking trade winds back ... even from the Philippines. Apaches and Yaquis separated Arizona from California.

Meanwhile, the Gulf Coast and Florida weren't settled or explored from Mexico and so the first pages of their Spanish history were different.

As with all the European powers, dealing with the various Indian tribes was a large part of colonization. Weber takes a careful look at this, shows how the interaction went both ways and how the Spanish at least come off better in many ways than the English. That is also to say they come off better than the English's Anglo-American descendants as well.

Weber shows how Spain was less exterministic and more flexible in dealing with Indians than Anglos were, while doing so on a shoestring.

None of the Spanish frontiers in today's United States had anywhere near the degree of colonization that the British colonies had; for that matter, the Spanish would have settled for the number of Frenchmen who went to Quebec and elsewhere in Canada. Meanwhile, outside of New Mexico and Florida, by the time the Spanish got into various parts of North America, the empire's administration, military prowess and economy were all on the decline.

Yet, Spain persevered.

Read how, and what it does, could and should mean for our country today, in this very informative book. Ironically, I bought it at Coronado National Memorial -- one of Spain's first crossings into today's United States.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book in a neglected area, April 19, 2010

By 

Richard (Lafayette, LA, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Spanish Frontier in North America (The Lamar Series in Western History) (Paperback)

Being from a part of the US that is fairly unique in celebrating its French and Catholic rather than Anglo-American heritage i thought this was a great, in depth look at the Catholic European colonization of North America before manifest destiny, an area that is not well covered nationally. Although there are many legacies of the four decade long Spanish period in Louisiana like New Iberia, Spanish Lake, and family names (e.g. Romero, Ortega, etc.) much of the architecture and infrastructure that is often called French is in actuality Spanish. Because of two major fires New Orleans architecture is mostly Spanish Colonial style, and it became a really major city during the Spanish era. The Spanish language survived in the Canariano community, the Isleños, to the present day but like Acadian French its usage is limited to a few isolated areas. In all the Spanish accomplished a lot in North America despite very little immigration from the peninsula (New Spain and South America were much more attractive destinations), and a stifling mercantilist system that only began to be modified in the late 18th century. Spain was seemingly on the verge of a major rebirth in political power and culture until the accession of the weak Carlos IV and his wife's favorite Godoy who terribly bungled the response to revolutionary and Imperial France. The chaos in Spain opened the door for Anglo expansion and the rest is history, but it is intriguing to think of what might have been.