1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910806905203321

Autore

Weber David J

Titolo

Barbaros : Spaniards and their savages in the Age of Enlightenment / / David J. Weber

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, : Yale University Press, c2005

ISBN

1-281-72960-4

9786611729608

0-300-12767-7

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (488 p.)

Collana

The Lamar Series in Western History

Disciplina

323.1197/0171246/09033

Soggetti

Indians - Colonization

Indians - Missions

Indians - Government relations

Spain Colonies America Administration

New Spain Colonization

America Discovery and exploration

America History To 1810

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 371-440) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- Savants, savages, and new sensibilities -- Savages and Spaniards: natives transformed  -- The science of creating men -- A good war or a bad peace? -- Trading, gifting, and treating -- Crossing borders -- Epilogue: Insurgents and savages, from inclusion to exclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

Two centuries after Cortés and Pizarro seized the Aztec and Inca empires, Spain's conquest of America remained unfinished. Indians retained control over most of the lands in Spain's American empire. Mounted on horseback, savvy about European ways, and often possessing firearms, independent Indians continued to find new ways to resist subjugation by Spanish soldiers and conversion by Spanish missionaries.In this panoramic study, David J. Weber explains how late eighteenthcentury Spanish administrators tried to fashion a more enlightened policy toward the people they called bárbaros, or "savages." Even Spain's most powerful monarchs failed, however, to



enforce a consistent, well-reasoned policy toward Indians. At one extreme, powerful independent Indians forced Spaniards to seek peace, acknowledge autonomous tribal governments, and recognize the existence of tribal lands, fulfilling the Crown's oft-stated wish to use "gentle" means in dealing with Indians. At the other extreme the Crown abandoned its principles, authorizing bloody wars on Indians when Spanish officers believed they could defeat them. Power, says Weber, more than the power of ideas, determined how Spaniards treated "savages" in the Age of Enlightenment.