The Mining Community In Northern New Spain

This book surveys and evaluates Indian revolts in northern New Spain during the years 1680-1786 in terms of specific Indian revolts, Spanish Indian policy over time, and relations between Spaniards, mestizo frontiersmen, and Indians. In this study, northern New Spain refers to what is now the Mexican North and the southwestern United States.

Reports, orders, journals, and letters of military officials trace frontier history through the Chicimeca War and Peace (1576-1606), early rebellions in the Sierra Madre (1601-1618), mid-century challenges and realignment (1640-1660), and northern rebellions and new presidios (1681-1695).

Little has been written about the colonists sent by Spanish authorities to settle the northern frontier of New Spain, to stake Spain’s claim and serve as a buffer against encroaching French explorers. "Los Paisanos," they were called - simple country people who lived by their own labor, isolated, threatened by hostile Indians, and restricted by law from seeking opportunity elsewhere. They built their homes, worked their fields, and became permanent residents - the forebears of United States citizens - as they developed their own society and culture, much of which survives today.

This updated edition offers an accessible and richly illustrated study of Mexico's political, social, economic and cultural history.