Spanish Bourbons and Wild Indians

These essays chronicle the Spanish Empire's "enlightened" policies toward the Indians of the Americas in the late eighteenth century. In "Spaniards and Their Savages in the Age of Enlightenment," Weber begins by noting that Indians independently controlled most of the area that Spain claimed to own toward the end of the colonial era. Spaniards, acutely aware that they lived in the Age of Reason and not the Age of Conquest, came to accommodations with some of these "savages" or "wild Indians," whom they could neither defeat nor convert.

In the second essay, "How did Spaniards Convert Indians? Missions in the Age of Reason," Weber focuses on the Spanish missionary enterprise. Weber demonstrates that Spain's idea of an ideal mission changed between the Habsburg and Bourbon eras and, more importantly, local circumstances and local people, including Indians, determined how a mission would measure up to the Crown's ideal.

About the Author:
David J. Weber is the Robert and Nancy Dedman Chair in History and directs the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University. In 2003, his Majesty the King of Spain conferred on him an encomienda in the Order of Isabel la Católica, the Spanish equivalent of a knighthood.