Transcript United States and Spanish/Mexican frontier experiences:

United States and Spanish/Mexican frontier
experiences:
The respective societies and their distinct
approaches to settlement of frontier zones
Frontier Contrasts
 David
Weber discusses the contrasting frontier
conditions and experiences of the United States
and Spanish/Mexican societies.
 This summary includes this experience from the
seventeenth through early nineteenth centuries,
 And includes five important distinctions that
indicate the ways in which the respective societies
conducted and perceived of frontier settlements.
Attitude and Treatment of the
Indigenous People:
United States: indigenous as obstacles, to be segregated,
isolated from white society. Utilized segregationist
policies: reservations, genocide, 19th century Indian
Removal Acts.
 Spanish/Mexican policies: viewed the indigenous as
valuable assets as labor and for conversion,
 Integrative approach, inclusion through Spanish policies
such as: Ordinances of 1573, Luis de Velasco, mestizaje
 Creates the “heterogeneous society” through vast racial
miscegenation.

The Role of Established Religion
United States: church plays minor or insignificant role in
the initial phases of settlement, operated unofficially
 Spanish/Mexican society: prominent involvement as a copartner in expansion and settlement due to its
responsibilities to integrate and convert indigenous
people.
 Examples: Luis de Velasco, Portola expedition, Kino,
Serra, Reglamento Provisional.

Method of Settlement
 United
States: generally chaotic, individual, and
without institutional order or support.
Spanish/Mexican: organized, planned, regulated,
institutional patterns.
 Examples: Pino, Velasco, Ordinances of 1573,
Echeveste Regulations, Arizpe/Ortiz.

Motive for Settlement
 United
States: lure of free land, cheap lands,
population pressures.
Spanish/Mexican: strategic, buffer zone, religious
and defensive motives,
 Examples: Pedro Bautista Pino, Texas, California

Environmental Conditions
 United

States: Lands of abundance,
Spanish/Mexican: lands of scarcity, deserts,
encomienda, communal lands, Baeza,
Marquis/Ortiz.