Social interaction between civil, military, and mission communities in Spanish colonial Texas during the height of the Bourbon reforms, 1763-1772

Abstract

In the occupation and colonization ofthe province of Texas, situated in the vast nortbeast corner of Nueva Espana, roughly bounded by the Red River, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Rio Nueces, late in the l7th century the govemment deployed Franciscanmissionaries and presidial soldiers into te wilderness to convert mdigenous cultures. Viewed as a more humane and less expensive doctrine of royal policy, the process of conversion involved a tandem arrangement between representatives of the state and the church.l In te 1 St century, government officials introduced the municipality into te dynamics ofthe colonial experience in Texas.2 Across the northern arc of te Viceroyalty of New Spain in the mid1 8th century, no other community included more frontiermissions grouped in closeproximity than San Antonio de Bexar. Established in 1718, when Spanish officials installed the rnstic foundations of Mission San Antonio de Valero and Presidio San Antonio de Bexar in te central region of Texas, the settlement tottered as afledgling outpost for about two years. In 1720, the Marques de Aguayo, newly