“The British and Comanches are Coming! The Problem of English Traders and Indian Diplomacy in Spanish Texas for Support of the American Revolution”
This talk focuses upon the Spanish imperial project during the late 1770’s in the far northeastern frontier of New Spain (colonial Mexico) that included the province of Texas. With the appearance of English traders along the Gulf Coast of Texas, the Spanish attempted to exert control over Indigenous nations and trade through the establishment of Bucareli along the lower Trinity River under the leadership of Captain Antonio Gil Ybarbo, a criollo native from Los Adaes. Whereas his superiors feared contraband trade, indios bárbaros, and foreigners, Ybarbo and other frontiersmen sought comercio libre (free trade) along with the development of ranching and agricultural enterprises under Spain’s Bourbon Reforms that fueled dreams of empire and independence during the American Revolution.
Francis X. Galán holds a PhD in history from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. He is currently an Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University-San Antonio and a Research Fellow with the Center for History and Culture of Southeast Texas and the Upper Gulf Coast at Lamar University. He is the author of the book, Los Adaes: The First Capital of Spanish Texas, published in 2020 by Texas A&M University Press through the Summerfield G. Roberts Texas History Series, and won the 2022 book award from the Texas Old Missions and Forts Restoration Association as well as a 2023 book award from the San Antonio Conservation Society. On a personal note, Dr. Galán was born at the U.S. Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas, where his father was a Lieutenant Commander in the Medical Corps, and grew up in San Antonio, which he considers his hometown.