Armed Frontier: Warfare and Military Culture in the Texas-Northeastern Mexico Borderlands,1686-1845 (Diálogos Series)

Armed Frontier is a deeply researched and yet accessible history of border skirmishes from mid-colonial times to the first Texas secession. The history of warfare and armed organization during the colonial period and early nineteenth century in southern Texas and northeastern Mexico remains largely untold.Previous studies either cover the influence of warfare tangentially or ignore its importance.This study explores the topic through an examination of the inhabitants of four settlements: San Antonio and Laredo in Texas, as well as Lampazos and Bustamante in northeastern Mexico.All four of those settlements had Hispanic, Mesoamerican, and Native American elements that intermingled, adapted, and evolved over several centuries, creating a distinctive society in which armed service and military culture played a central role in social organization.This work uses multiple archival records, many previously unknown, from Mexico, Texas, and Spain.It places the local and micro historical aspects