New Views of Borderlands History

by Robert H. Jackson (Editor)

These seven original essays offer the first ethnohistorical interpretation of Spanish-Indian interaction from Florida to California. The indigenous peoples in the borderlands were hunter-gatherers or agriculturalists whose lives differed substantially from the lives of Indians in large-scale hierarchical societies of central Mexico. As a result, Spain's entry and expansion varied throughout the borderlands. How did indigenous peoples fare under Spanish rule from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries? The contributors to this book discuss the social, demographic, and economic impacts of Spanish colonization on Indians. Relations among settlers, soldiers, priests, and indigenous peoples throughout the borderlands are examined, bringing immediacy and human interest to the interpretation. Contributors are Susan M. Deeds, Jesús F. de la Teja, Ross Frank, Robert H. Jackson, Peter Stern, and Patricia Wickman. Their essays offer a new and engaging synthesis that will reinvigorate teaching and research in borderlands history.

250 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1998

About the author

Robert H. Jackson is a specialist in colonial and modern Latin American history. He received his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley in 1988. His research interests include liberalism, the caste system, historical demography, and missions and evangelization. In 2013, Brill published his monograph Conflict and Conversion in Sixteenth Century Mexico: The Augustinian War on and beyond the Chichimeca Frontier. Jackson currently lives in Mexico City.