The War for Mexico’s West: Indians and Spaniards in New Galicia, 1524 – 1550

Abstract

This is a lucidly argued book about a dark period in Mexican history. In the years after the fall of the Aztec Empire, disease ravaged the native population. To make matters worse, the crown granted sweeping governmental powers to soldiers of fortune. These men had little interest in the rule of law and a very great interest in getting rich. The chaos that ensued has been almost as disorienting for historians as it was for those who lived through it. Altman does a masterly job of combing through the tangled documentary record of this period, exploring New Spain’s emergence from chaos, and showing how a functioning colony was established.The early chapters draw on the voluminous records of three residencias, or royal investigations of the colony’s early rulers, to narrate the conquest and settlement of Nueva Galicia. These chapters focus on two related stories. The first is that of Spanish conquistadors trying to impose colonial order by violent means, only to find that violence brought about greater disorder than before. Nuño de Guzmán plays a leading role in this tale; Altman finds little to contradict Bartolomé de las Casas’s view that he was a wicked man. Guzmán was brutal to his indigenous enemies and — a much more serious strategic error — cruel to his Tlaxcalan allies as well. By the time the Mixtón rebellion erupted in 1540, Guzmán had been removed from office. But his legacy of violence lived after him, depriving settlers of much needed local allies.The second story Altman tells is that of ordinary people struggling to form communities in the midst of chaos. Altman’s expertise in the formation of colonial towns in central Mexico affords her exceptional insight on this topic. Much of what she argues is surprising. A semifunctional colonial society emerged in the 1520s and 1530s. The encomienda system worked. Indians paid tribute. Products were exchanged in networks of long-distance trade. Settlers founded towns and formed households with native women. They cultivated the land, learned local languages, and had mestizo children, all despite the storm of violence raging around them. Though Altman does a superb job of documenting these complicated years, it is still hard for the reader to imagine what it was like to live in such a world, where both cultural mixing and endemic violence were the norm.Altman’s chapters on the Mixtón uprising confirm much of what is already known about it. The rebellion was provoked by the cruelty of the Spanish, was well planned, and involved many native communities fighting for a common cause. The novelty of Altman’s account lies in her authoritative establishment of the basic facts and in the rich detail she has mined in the archives. Altman shows, among her many discoveries, that Zacateco Indians from the north played a role in uniting Cazcan communities against the Spanish. The Zacatecos also spread an anti-Christian ideology among the rebels. Altman goes on to show that Viceroy Antonio Mendoza was the key figure in the suppression of the revolt, and that his skillful acquisition of native allies was decisive in securing victory. If there is one disappointment in these chapters, it is that Altman does not explore the Andalusian roots of Mendoza’s behavior. The Mendoza family was deeply involved in the governance of the formerly Muslim Kingdom of Granada, and one wonders how the viceroy’s experience of imperial alliance-making there influenced his treatment of native peoples in Mexico.However one answers that question, Altman shows that the Mixtón War changed the colony in profound ways. The Spanish learned that there were limits to the utility of violence and that basic institutions of law and government were needed for the colony to function. More importantly, the colonizers learned that they needed allies among the native peoples in order to survive. The native societies of western Mexico were transformed by the war. Driven into the hills, cities, and mining towns, many rebel Indians survived, but their distinctive cultures were all but wiped out. As Altman tells it, the history of Spanish failure and adjustment in Nueva Galicia, and of native rebellion and fragmentation, was complicated, important, and bitterly sad. The War for Mexico’s West sheds a brilliant light on these dark years. Advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars of Mexican and borderlands history will profit from reading it.