In the early years of the twentieth century, Herbert Eugene Bolton opened up a new area of study in American history: the Spanish Borderlands. His research took him to the archives of Mexico, where he found a wealth of unpublished, even unknown, material that shed new light on the early history of North America, particularly the American Southwest. The seventeen essays in this book, edited by John Francis Bannon, illustrate the importance of his contributions to American historiography and provide a solid foundation for students of Borderlands history. Herbert Eugene Bolton pioneered Spanish...

Spain's frontier movement in North America planted Hispanic civilization in much of the future United States beginning with Ponce de Leon's arrival in Florida in 1513. After describing the travels of the conquistador explorers, it continues through three centuries of mission, presidio, and town development in Florida, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. As the Anglo-American frontier pushed westward, the Spanish frontier was increasingly a defensive one, and here the clashes between the two are fully explained, as are international rivalries involving the English, French,...