From Settler to Citizen: New Mexican Economic Development and the Creation of Vecino Society, 1750–1820. By Ross Frank. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. Pp. xxiv, 329. $45.00.

Extract

The first Spanish expedition into New Mexico took place in 1598 under Juan de Oñate. Less than a century later, Spanish settlers were expelled from Santa Fe during the Pueblo revolt of 1680 and the Crown was unable to reestablish control until 1692. New Mexico thereafter remained little more than an insecure settlement on the northern edge of Spain's American empire. Like that of the other frontier marches, New Mexico's status changed dramatically after 1750, when Spain, impelled by growing foreign pressure, sought to strengthen the defensive margins of its possessions. New Mexico, Cuba, and the Argentine colony, for example, all received renewed attention in Madrid. Their subsequent development was dramatically altered by the metropolitan response to the Seven Years War (1756–1763), measures known collectively as the Bourbon reforms.