bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Concerning Dr. Zavala’s Chapter on Religion in Colonial America
Authors: Lavengood L. G.
Published: July 2006

Since the general framework of the Commission’s history of the Americas is unknown to me, it would be presumptuous to comment on the style and organization of any one chapter; therefore, a prudent silence shall be maintained on that aspect of Dr. Zavala’s work.

1. Has sufficient attention been paid to the possible effect of wilderness conditions upon the early development of institutional Christianity in'America? The chapter quite properly displays the Americas as a frontier in which European institutions met almost nothing in the way of a competing civilization to contest their plantation and expansion. On the other hand, it may have been that without such competition European institutions in some cases were modified to suit frontier circumstances more cheerfully and easily than if those institutions had been self-consciously propagated in the midst of a resilient alien culture.
The Influence of Religion on the History of the New World
Authors: Phelan John L.
Published: July 2006

I have given a careful and interested reading to the draft of the chapter on the influence of religion on the history of the New World for the PAIGH project. As it now stands, the draft ought to be discarded and redrafted in its entirety. This essay lacks a conceptual framework which would provide some unity of organization to the considerable amount of illustrative data that such a chapter must of necessity include. What first must be selected are those spheres in which religion has played a major role in the history of the Americas and then to compare and to contrast the various roles that these religious factors have played in the development of Spanish, Portuguese, French, English, and Dutch America. This type of organizational and conceptual framework will give a religious dimension to the central thesis of the whole project, i. e., that the Americas do have a common history, without distorting the often dissimilar impact that religious considerations have had on the historical development of the New World.
Points of Departure for the History of Missions in Hispanic America
Authors: Konetzke Richard
Published: July 2006

Three main questions arise in studying the history of missions in Hispanic America.

To what extent did the Christian religion transform the structure of life among the American Indians? (Their religious, political, social, and cultural life?)

To what extent did the Christian religion influence the treatment of Negroes and the acculturation of the African element to the European and American-Indian environment?

To what extent did the Christian religion determine the attitude of the Spanish conquistadors and settlers, and condition the life of the new colonial society that arose on the basis of the conquest and Spanish expansion in America?
Summary of Conference on Religion
Authors: Savelle Max , Malagon-Barceló Javier
Published: July 2006

Dr. Malagon and I have put our heads together and have tried to bring some system out of the discussions of this Conference. Our summary is based not only upon the papers that were presented here but also upon the critiques and comments that were sent in by mail. It is also based upon conversations and informal suggestions made outside of the room or away from the table; so if you find something here that you had not heard about, you must just attribute it to one of these extraneous sources.
The Evolution of a Mexican Foreign Trade Policy, 1821–1828
Authors: Baur John E.
Published: July 2006

In 1821, an independent Mexico, developing a national conscience and abundant enthusiasm, planned to declare its independence economically and socially as well as in political affairs. Unfortunately, many prominent Mexicans were unable to realize that their new nation could escape neither the Spanish past nor its Mexican present.

Mercantilism had been the prime characteristic of colonial commerce. During the colonial period, only two Mexican ports were provided for importation and exportation. These were Vera Cruz, for Atlantic trade, and Acapulco, for the Manila shipments. The whole export-import commerce of the New World was forced to pass through Spain's ports of Cádiz and Seville, and only in Spanish ships. Licensed vessels embarked at certain prescribed periods when they traveled with a convoy.
The United States and Ecuador, 1909–1913
Authors: Scholes Walter V. , Scholes Marie V.
Published: July 2006

While the negotiations between the United States and Ecuador in the period 1909 to 1913 came to no fruitful conclusion, they still remain a subject of interest because in microcosm they illustrate so well how the Department of State operated in the Taft administration. The negotiations embraced all the standard considerations: strategy, vested American interests, projected loans, power politics, and “ up-lift.” The Department's interest in Ecuador quickened in this period because Ecuador owned the Galápagos Islands, an archipelago which lay six hundred miles off the coast of Ecuador and about one thousand miles southwest of the Isthmus of Panama, where the canal was under construction.
A Sigüenza y Góngora Contribution to the History of Florida
Authors: Burrus Ernest J.
Published: July 2006

The Mexican savant, Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora (1645-1700), was mathematician, astronomer, linguist, cartographer, historian, and New Spain's most successful collector of manuscripts containing Mexican antiquities. His generosity in helping other scholars knew no bounds, as Vetancurt, Gemelli Carreri and even European and Oriental savants attested. Don Carlos not only devoted himself to the acquisition of an encyclopedic knowledge, to the collecting of valuable documents and to the helping of fellow scholars, but he also found time to publish numerous books, for the most part of a historical nature. Unlike his contemporary Kino or Bolton of our own days, Sigüenza y Góngora ordinarily did not pursue his historical investigation over desert and ocean trail. He preferred the quiet of his study to the excitement of distant exploration.
Neutrality-Diplomacy of the United States and Mexico, 1910–1911
Authors: Berbusse Edward J.
Published: July 2006

The civil conflict within Mexico, 1910 to 1911, brought an active intervention from the United States. It was an interference that both elicited a sharp diplomatic exchange, and tested the neutrality statutes of the United States for clarity and sincerity. Among the members of the Taft Cabinet, there was disagreement on the interpretation of these statutes. The state governments, at best, gave official approval to the confused federal policy. American citizens along the Mexican border boldly assisted the revolutionary government of Francisco Madero, while ignoring the neutrality statutes of the United States. The purpose of this paper is to present the various interpretations of neutrality that arose in the State Department’s “Instructions” to its officers, the official correspondence between Cabinet officers, and the formal replies to the protesting Mexican government.
A Review of Inter-American Economic Relations
Authors: Melady Thomas Patrick
Published: July 2006

The people of the United States are very much interested in Latin America because of the deep roots which bind this continent to the Western World. The Latin American continent is one of the largest Christian areas of the world. The events of the past several decades have significantly increased the importance of Latin America to the United States and the Western World. In the unfortunate event of another war, the South American continent may very well become the refuge of Western civilization.
A Bibliography of American Travellers’ Books about Cuba Published before 1900
Authors: Smith Harold F.
Published: July 2006

The Nearness of Cuba to the United States, lying as it does a scant ninety miles from the coast of Florida, has always provided a strong reason for American preoccupation with the “Pearl of the Antilles.” This geographic proximity has been a source of political consideration and concern for over a century. The historical roots of the western hemisphere, with Columbus’ landings in the Caribbean, the Spanish, English, and French colonization and imperialism, and our own interest, expressed most notably in the Monroe Doctrine, have kept Cuba central in our thoughts. Our continued interest during the twentieth century, following the removal of Spanish control from the island at the turn of the century, has intensified through the years, partly because its sugar has been important to our economy, and partly because the island has become politically unfriendly in the past decade.
The Shortage of Priests in Latin America: A Historical Evaluation of Werner Promper’s Priesternot in Lateinamerika
Authors: Tibesar Antonine
Published: July 2006

This book is a major study of one of the most serious problems of the Church in Latin America today, the shortage of priests, by the Secretary General of the Latin-American College of Louvain University. Ten years have been devoted to research, and this effort is reflected in the extensive bibliography, numerous statistical tables, and the wide range of facts contained in the text. In a word, this study is a notable effort to understand and explain the lack of priests in an area which is traditionally looked upon as Catholic.
Nineteenth-Century Philippines and the Friar-Problem
Authors: Pilapil Vicente R.
Published: July 2006

At the closing years of the nineteenth century the Philippine Islands became a territorial part of the United States. For this “imperialist” domination of another people, the latter government, being based on the principle of popular sovereignty, had to find a justification. It found reason in the contention that it was helping the Filipino people achieve their independence from the despotism of Spanish rule; after that, the United States Government felt obliged to provide a stable government in the islands in place of the former colonial government. For the benefit of the American people, most of whom had only then heard of the Philippines, scores of articles were written on this Far Eastern country. In line with the government's position—that of posing as the “ savior ” of an oppressed people—and influenced by the revolutionary propaganda which had characterized the period of struggle for independence, these writers tended to paint a more or less dark picture of the Philippine Archipelago as it stood in the last century of Spanish colonization. What really was the state of the Philippines in the nineteenth century has remained a question of great interest and undiminished historical importance. Another Philippine affair was met with equal interest in this country: the friar-problem.
The Early Career of Victoriano Huerta
Authors: Rausch George J.
Published: July 2006

Victoriano Huerta was one of the most prominent figures during the early years of the Mexican revolution. Despite his later prominence, little has been written about Huerta's early career. Huerta has usually been pictured as an ignorant and alcoholic semi-barbarian whose behavior as president reflected his lack of culture and education. Huerta's early military career reveals that although he was a heavy drinker, he was by no means uneducated. He was, in fact, one of the best educated Mexican officers of his day. In addition, Huerta was one of the best field generals that Mexico has produced. This article will trace Huerta’s career until the beginning of the revolution, at which point his career becomes common knowledge.
American Marines in Haiti, 1915-1922
Authors: Posner Walter H.
Published: July 2006

The landing of marines in Haiti on July 28, 1915, was the climax to more than a century of political, financial, and diplomatic problems on that unhappy island. The Haitians had not been prepared for the hard-fought independence proclaimed on January 1, 1804. In the intervening years, they had been theoretically governed under fourteen constitutions. Only two of their twenty-six chief executives had managed to serve a regular constitutional term of office and then retire alive. Indeed, the occuption forces landed when an enraged mob was cutting President J. V. Guillaume Sam into pieces.
A Social Welfare Organizer in Sixteenth-Century New Spain: Don Vasco de Quiroga, First Bishop of Michoacán
Authors: Lacas †M. M.
Published: July 2006

No tourist who visits central Mexico will fail to pay a visit to the world-famous lake of Pátzcuaro. This beautiful and placid lake, with the several islands which dot its surface and the surrounding hills that frame it, formed, in olden times, the hub of the Michoacán Kingdom. Even today, it is the main habitat of the peaceloving Tarascan Indians who cluster around it and, partly at least, live on its abundant fish. An ancient author tells us that the word Michoacán means “fishing place,” and that the main occupation of the early Indians was the mild art of fishing, so opposed to the war-like activities of their neighbors to the east, the cruel Aztecs.
Toledo and the New World in the Sixteenth Century
Authors: Malagón-Barceló Javier
Published: July 2006

It is curious to observe how local historians generally lack historical perspective. The local historian or chronicler of a city is usually a man who in most cases has lived in the city itself, knows its little hidden corners, its narrow streets and small plazas, its characters, such as Don Francisco, Doña Agata, Jovita, etc., as Azorín would say, but, absorbed by the minutiae, the legacy of an era of leadership in government, he lives estranged from the outside world, as though the happenings in it did not affect his own city.
The Request of the Venezuelan Colonial Government for the Extradition of Bolivar
Authors: Burns Bradford
Published: July 2006

The recent discovery of an unknown document in the Archivo General de la Nación, Caracas, Venezuela, revealed a new detail concerning the life of Simón Bolívar. This document shows the effort exerted by the Spanish colonial government in Venezuela to extradite Bolívar from Haiti in 1816.

Bolívar was forced to seek refuge abroad following a cycle of military defeats. In early 1815, Bolívar found himself outside the walls of Cartagena in need of supplies from the revolutionary forces holding that city. General Manuel del Castillo, military commander of Cartagena and an enemy and rival of Bolívar, refused to furnish the supplies or to permit Bolívar's entrance into the city. While the two rivals glared at each other in costly stalemate, Spanish troops marched victoriously toward Cartagena, pinching Bolívar between them and the hostile Castillo forces. Under these circumstances, Bolívar concluded that it would be better to leave the scene of battle and, thus, to avoid dividing the patriot army in the presence of a strong Spanish force. Bolívar resigned his commission, and on May 9, 1815, he sailed for Jamaica aboard a British vessel.
General Miller and the Confederación Perú-Boliviana
Authors: Delaney Robert W.
Published: July 2006

GENERAL William Miller had played a leading role in the independence of Peru and Bolivia from Spain, working with the chief leaders of the independence movement, and had held civil posts of distinction as president of Puno and president of Potosí. Bad health, however, caused by the many wounds suffered in the wars, had made it advisable that he return to England for treatment. But, unlike so many other foreign legionnaires, Miller's role in the history of Peru did not end with independence.
British Honduras and the Pacification of Yucatan
Authors: Clegern Wayne M.
Published: July 2006

YUCATAN has been a relatively autonomous part of Mexico. The civilized northern tip of the peninsula, centering around the city of Mérida, has been a kind of socio-political island equidistant by water from Veracruz, New Orleans, Havana, and Belize, British Honduras. South and east of this civilized area extends Indian territory which has remained quite primitive, quite isolated from the north, and in rather close contact with British Honduras further to the south. In the colonial epoch Yucatan was brought under Spanish dominion with considerable difficulty; only the crudest forms of surveillance could be maintained over Indians of the peninsula. With independence the limitations of the central government's control remained distressingly apparent. Whenever the government in Mexico City fell on hard times, as it frequently did, Yucatan as a whole tended toward autonomy. At such times the provincial government at Mérida gained freedom from federal restraint but lost federal support, and in consequence usually lost control over the Indians of southern Yucatan.
The Mexicans Speak for Themselves
Authors: Gardiner C. Harvey
Published: July 2006

Anyone teaching a course focused on an alien culture has his hands full—be it economics, sociology, anthropology, political science, geography, language, literature or history. The instructor constantly must ask himself: am I getting it across? That question, of course, is a normal one for any teacher but somehow it seems to appear more frequently and most frighteningly before the individual charged with enlightening some fellow Americans on the subject of some select foreign group. I remember the last time I got into that pattern of thought. That was the time I actually did something about it.
Frenchmen and Francophiles in New Spain from 1760 to 1810
Authors: Houdaille Jacques
Published: July 2006

IT is often said that the French Revolution and the ideas of the philosophers of the eighteenth century were of great influence in Latin America and that they constituted the intellectual motivation of its movements toward independence.

This idea is presented in the majority of elementary history books. It is worthy of note that in the national hymn of the Republic of Honduras, one of the stanzas lauds the work of the Convention and mentions Danton.

However, some years ago a French historian, Marius André, published a rather short essay, La fin de l’Empire Espagnol des Indes, in which he attempted to demonstrate that the independence of Spanish America was achieved by a group of conservatives who were frightened by the rebellion of Riego in Spain and who had no desire at any time to take the French Revolution as a model.
British Honduras: From Public Meeting to Crown Colony
Authors: Curry Herbert F.
Published: July 2006

IN 1578 the Spanish Ambassador in London protested against English outrages “beyond the line.” Queen Elizabeth replied

that the Spaniards by their hard dealing with the English, whom they had prohibited commerce, contrary to the laws of nations, had drawn these mischiefs upon themselves; moreover, that she understood not why her, or any prince’s subjects should be debarred from the trade of the Indies, which she could not persuade herself the Spaniards had any just title to by the donation of the Bishop of Rome (in whom she acknowledged no prerogative, much less any authority in these cases); not yet by any other claim, than as they had touched here and there upon the coasts; built cottages and given name to a river or a cape; which things could not entitle them to a propriety; so that this donation of what is another man’s (which is of no validity in law), and this imaginary propriety, cannot hinder other princes from trading in those countries, and (without breach of the law of nations) from transporting colonies into those parts thereof where the Spaniards do not inhabit;…
Land Tenure among the Aborigines of Latin America
Authors: Schulman Sam
Published: July 2006

IN Latin America of the present day there still survive, to a greater or lesser extent, some vestiges of the non-material cultural traits of its Indian forbears. In the so-called “Indianistic” nations (those which still contain a high percentage of their total populations which has been identified as Indian) such as Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, modern-day reflections of pre-Columbian culture, including concepts of land tenure, are of extreme importance. In other Latin American nations, where there are sizeable Indian (“ethnic” or “cultural”) populations, and where these Indians still maintain their own segregated communities, such as Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, and Chile, aboriginal patterns of tenure, somewhat modified by the centuries, are still evident.
Mexico Opens the Door to American Capital, 1877–1880
Authors: Pletcher David M.
Published: July 2006

Historians treating the American-Mexican diplomatic crisis during the Hayes administration have tended to regard it as a political and military affair, involving such points of controversy as the American recognition of Porfirio Díaz, the Mexican inability to keep order on the frontier, invasions of Mexico by American troops to punish marauding Indians, and, behind and above all, Mexican fears of American territorial ambitions. No one will deny that these dramatic circumstances deserve attention, but some writers have largely ignored the economic side of the question. Under cover of the rifle fire along the border and the excited buzzing in the government offices American business promoters, long anxious to take part in the development of Mexican resources, finally obtained the terms which would make this development possible. In September, 1880, after three years of controversy and war scares had almost extinguished American hopes, the Mexican government granted generous concessions for the building of the Mexican Central and the Mexican National Railroads and, in so doing, opened the way for an inrush of American capital.
Puerto Rico in the 1830’s; The Journal of Edward Bliss Emerson
Authors: Gatell Frank Otto
Published: July 2006

Edward Bliss Emerson, a younger brother of Ralph Waldo Emerson, was born in 1805. Educated at Andover Academy and Harvard, he showed great promise as a scholar. Ill health plagued the young man, however, and he was forced to give up his work as a teacher. A trip to southern Europe failed to cure his tuberculosis. Next he tried to study law in Boston, but this brought on the total ruin of his health and a short spell of mental derangement.

By 1831 it was apparent that a prolongation of Emerson's life required a warmer climate than that of his beloved New England. He went first to the Danish island of St. Croix. A few months later he was in Puerto Rico, and there he remained—with the exception of one brief trip home—until his death in 1834.
Theory of History: Twelve Mexicans
Authors: Rippy Merrill
Published: July 2006

The study of history is a major preoccupation for any society and every country devotes a good part of its intellectual energy in one form or another to the consideration and examination of the past. Those who make a profession of that business, the historians, are always significant weather vanes, pointing out the direction the wind blows in their own culture and indicating at times its velocity as well.
The Franciscan Missionary Plan for the Conversion to Christianity of the Natives of the Austral Lands as Proposed in the Memorials of Fray Juan de Silva, O. F. M.
Authors: Kelly Celsus
Published: July 2006

During the forty years from 1567 to 1607 there were three Spanish expeditions from Peru to the South Seas. The first, under Alvaro de Mendaña in 1567, was for the discovery of some rich islands, called Solomon, believed to lie in the equinoctial region between New Guinea and Peru. In the following year he reached a group of islands. Mendaña did not then give them a collective name, but subsequently they became known as the Solomon Islands. With the expedition were four Franciscan friars acting as chaplains and missionaries. The second, a colonizing expedition, was in 1595, again under the Adelantado Mendaña. And here we introduce the celebrated figure and the one to achieve immortal fame in the proto-history of Australia, Pedro Fernández de Quirós. He accompanied the adelantado as captain of his capitana and chief pilot of his fleet of four ships. Because of errors in reckoning latitude and longitude Quirós brought the fleet with close on four hundred settlers to Santa Cruz Island instead of the Solomons, discovering on the way the Marquesas group. At Santa Cruz the settlement knew only tragedy. There was mutiny and disease. Pestilence thinned their ranks by death, and—above all—the adelantado himself died there on October 18, 1595. The settlement, then only a month old, was a month later abandoned. Quirós, by a remarkable feat of navigation, brought the remnants of the expedition to Manila.
Some Aspects of Spanish American Culture
Authors: Johnson Harvey L.
Published: July 2006

Latin Americans are radically individualistic and sometimes it seems to a foreign observer that there are almost as many differing opinions as there are people. An admittedly extreme case will serve to confirm the aforesaid comment. In 1946 one of the warring factions of the Liberal Party of Colombia received, in response to its circular setting forth the rules for the campaign, the following telegram:

Liberal Directorate, Bogotá. Have received circular. Respectfully advise am only liberal in this town. And I am divided. Regards. Pedro Pirateque

With individualism so rampant, it becomes immediately obvious that in a field as broad as the culture of twenty Latin-American republics, generalizations are difficult to make and some evaluations are only relevant when applied to specific areas or regions.
The Names of the California Missions
Authors: Bowman J. N.
Published: July 2006

The names of most of the 21 California missions as they appear in the founding reports and on the title pages of the parochial books of baptisms, deaths, and marriages are not the same as the names by which they are known at present; names have been shortened for convenience, and changes have been made as the result of changed conditions, especially in the spelling and accentuation. At the time that the names were written and during the sixty-five years of the existence of the missions, there was no uniformity in spelling or punctuation. This problem of uniformity did not arise until after the publication of A. Bello’s Gramática in 1847.
Apostolic Colleges of the Propagation of the Faith-Old And New World Background
Authors: McCarty Kieran
Published: July 2006

In the history of Spain's spiritual conquest of the New World, a definite cycle of enthusiasm may be observed. In the seventeenth century, for example, there was a noticeable falling off of Spanish missionary effort in the direction of the tribes yet to be converted. It is interesting to speculate on the causes of this phenomenon. An obvious cause, and certainly a contributing one, lies in the very nature of man. Human endeavor in the temporal order tends now to wax, now to wane in enthusiasm, and since the mission effort in question was human as well as divine, this cycle would tend to appear here as well. Around midcentury this problem of lessening enthusiasm became acute.
Indian Congregations in the New Kingdom of Granada: Land Tenure Aspects, 1595–1850
Authors: Fals-Borda Orlando
Published: July 2006

IN their essays on the congregation of Indians in New Spain, Lesley Byrd Simpson and Howard F. Cline advanced information on the general characteristics and legal bases of this royal policy. Essentially, the kings of Spain wanted to gather the Indians into towns for purposes of religious training and in order to facilitate fiscal and political administration. According to Simpson and Cline, the application of these laws in New Spain toward the latter part of the sixteenth century was largely ineffective and, apparently, the congregation program affected only a small portion of the native population. One of the main reasons for this partial failure was the fact that the Indians already had villages, and it was very difficult for them to move to newly established locations. The documentation of these socio-political processes is avowedly incomplete; investigators have not gone beyond 1606 and have not examined the intrinsic land tenure implications. Except for a case history presented by Cline in 1955, other social aspects of this policy have hardly been studied.
Public Work and Social Welfare in Colonial Spanish American Towns
Authors: Pike Fredrick B.
Published: July 2006

In the average Spanish American colonial town, there was demonstrated a greater solicitude for public works and social welfare than was typical in the English settlements of North America. On the local level, two institutions were mainly responsible for Spanish welfare projects in the New World, the Church and the cabildo, or town council. In spite of the much commented upon lack of harmony between the Church and higher institutions of civil administration, a surprising rapport existed between Church and cabildo in providing for the welfare of town inhabitants.
The Franciscan Province of the Holy Cross of Española, 1505–1559
Authors: Tibesar Antonine S.
Published: July 2006

The Franciscan Province of the Holy Cross was the first major administrative unit organized by the Franciscans, or by any religious, in the Americas. Begun at the relatively early date of 1505, this province faced the task of aiding in the establishment of the Church in a new world inhabited by only several thousand Europeans and hundreds of thousands of other people so completely unknown that the Europeans could not even call them by their proper name.
America in Some Travelers, Historians, and Political Economists of the Spanish Eighteenth Century
Authors: Tudisco Anthony
Published: July 2006

We can better measure the contributions of the Spanish travelers and historians who penetrated the jungles of the Chaco, crossed the pampas of the Plata region, scaled the Andes and followed the course of the Amazon, the Orinoco and the Paraná if we pause to consider that the vast American continent, even today, presents great, physical barriers to research. Most of the works here studied are the direct result of firsthand observation. An appreciable number, however, do not fall into this category. All of them, nevertheless, offer a rich variety of themes for they abound in descriptions of the land and climate of the United States, the region of the Californias, Mexico, Venezuela, the Guianas, the Gran Chaco, the lands of the Orinoco, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, the countries of the Río de la Plata and the region of the Strait of Magellan. Interest in the flora and fauna of America, so prevalent during this century, is reflected in the numerous chapters devoted to detailed descriptions of plant and animal life. The study of the natural history of America, which had absorbed the interest of so many Spanish writers in preceding centuries, enjoyed a remarkable development under royal patronage during the eighteenth century. The scientific missions sent to America by the Spanish Crown, resulted in the monumental works of Hipólito Ruiz and José Pavón,Florae peruvianae et chilensis prodromus(1794) of which only three of twelve manuscript volumes have been published; Martín Sessé,Flora mexicana, unpublished, and the unpublishedFlora de Santa Fe de Bogotáof José Celestino Mutis whom Baron Humboldt called the illustrious patriarch of American botanists.
Buenos Aires as Seen by British Travelers, 1810–1860
Authors: Trifilo S. Samuel
Published: July 2006

Until the unsuccessful British invasion of Argentina in 1806-1807, Buenos Aires had been, for the non-Spanish peoples of the world, a mysterious, strange, unknown city, thousands of miles across the ocean. Except for a shipwrecked sailor or two, few Englishmen had had the opportunity of seeing that old colonial city prior to that time. Due to Spain's monopolistic trade policies with respect to her American possessions, trade with the New World, and even the right to reside there, except for a relatively brief period under Charles V, had been reserved for the subjects of the Spanish Crown.
The High Altar of Huejotzingo
Authors: Berlin Heinrich
Published: July 2006

Traveling on the Pan-American Highway from Mexico City to Puebla, the tourist may feel invited to stop at the small and somnolent town of Huejotzingo. After having succeeded in shaking off the vendors of gaudy sarapes and having tasted the local cider, he may walk around the typical plaza and then he will not fail to be attracted by the old fortress-like church belonging to the sixteenthcentury monastery. In the atrium a pleasant shade of old giant trees shields the visitor, refreshingly, from the tropical heat. As he wanders around, a bunch of youngsters, just dismissed by a friar clad in brown cloth, will watch him from a safe distance. First he will pause before the posas (secondary chapels) at the four corners of the atrium. As he approaches the church a rather sober façade awaits him. The interior of the nave, too, is meager; only a few colonial retablos try to hide the otherwise naked walls. But the gilded high altar with its paintings and carved sculptures still stands in its old place covering the entire rear wall of the apse and commands the admiration of everybody who enters the church.
Argentine Neutrality, Mediation, and Asylum During the Spanish Civil War
Authors: Juárez Joe Robert
Published: July 2006

Civil War broke out in Spain in 1936. Following eight years of dictatorship by General Primo de Rivera, who had acted with the approval of King Alfonso XIII, elections were held in June, 1931, for a constituent assembly. The election returns brought in a republican-socialist majority, which forbade the king’s return, confiscated his property, and proclaimed Spain a republic. The republic had enemies on both the right and the left. The large landholders, the army, and the Church had vested interests which the republic proceeded to attack. On the left, the anarchists and socialists became more /radical, competing for the loyalty of the Spanish workers. The republic’s problems were compounded by the traditional separatist movements of Catalans, Basques, and Gallegans. Power shifted from the left in 1931 to the right in 1933, and, finally, in February, 1936, to a “popular front “government. The Popular Front, however, proved to be a coalition for election purposes only. Largo Caballero, the leader of the left wing of the socialists, declined to serve in the moderate Azaña cabinet. In July, 1936, army, monarchist, clerical, and Carlist groups joined with the Falange to bring about a counter-revolutionary coup under the leadership of General Francisco Franco. The Civil War had started. It was to last for three brutality-filled years.
Spanish–Russian Rivalry in the Pacific, 1769–1820
Authors: Taylor George P.
Published: July 2006

In accordance with the terms of the 1867 convention which effected the transfer of Russian America to the United States, the archives of the Russian American Company at Novoarkhangelsk (Sitka) were transmitted to Washington, D. C. Inventoried and bound in 67 volumes and labeled Archives of the Russian American Company, they are now in the National Archives. Although microfilmed for the University of California at Berkeley, these archives have not been translated or published, and apparently, scant use has been made of them, although Bancroft had extracts made of many documents and used some of the material in his histories of Alaska, California, and of the Northwest Coast.
A. Acts of the III Mexican Council
Authors: Burrus Ernest J.
Published: July 2006

En la ciudad de Mexico, sabado veynte y seis dias del mes de henero de mill e quinientos y ochenta y cinco años, el sancto concilio provincial mexicano, canonicamente congregado, presidiendo en el el Ill.mo don Pedro Moya de Contreras, Arçobispo desta dicha ciudad, y assistiendo en el, en nombre de su Magestad, como Visitador, Governador y Capitan general que es desta Nueba España y Presidente del Audiencia Real, que en ella reside, y los reverendissimos obispos sufraganeos convocados, conviene a saber: don fray Gomez de Cordova, Obispo de Guatemala; don fray Joan Medina, Obispo de Mechoacán; don Diego Romano, Obispo de Tlaxcala; don fray Gregorio de Montalvo, Obispo de Yucatán; don fray Domingo de Alçola, Obispo de la Nueba Galizia; y don fray Bartholomé de Ledesma, Obispo de Guaxaca.
Latin American Archivology, 1953–1954
Authors: Hill Roscoe R.
Published: July 2006

This survey of Latin American archivology is for the year 1954, together with some information regarding 1953, which was not included in “Latin American Archivology, 1951–1953” (see below).

The outstanding feature of this period is the attention which is being given throughout Latin America to the improvement of the housing of the archives, which has been a great problem for many years. During 1954 Ecuador and the Dominican Republic dedicated and occupied new buildings especially constructed for their archives, which embody all features necessary for adequate services. In Guatemala construction of a new building was continued. Projects and plans for appropriate buildings were considered in Haiti and Mexico. Extensive remodeling and improvements were effected in Brazil and Paraguay. These activities have served to place the archives in a much better position to carry on the tasks appropriate to these important cultural centers.

Consideration was also given to equipping the new buildings as well as some of the old ones with photographic laboratories, including microfilm and photostat, and with equipment for lamination and binding. Some concrete results were accomplished in these matters, but mostly it was projects under consideration, awaiting funds for the execution.
Irving’s Columbus: The Problem of Romantic Biography
Authors: Hedges William L.
Published: July 2006

WASHINGTON IRVING put together The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus too hurriedly for it to be as accurate and original as historians would like it to be. He was even inclined on occasion, perhaps to compensate for the impossibility of doing exhaustive research, to “let his imagination go completely,” reconstructing colorful scenes not only from what existing records clearly indicated had happened, but from what a knowledge of the era of discovery led him to believe might have happened. And he heightened diction, tone, and characterization to the point of inviting criticism. Nevertheless nineteenth-century historians did not laugh Columbus off. And Stanley Williams’s verdict that instances where Irving consciously invents facts or distorts what in his time was considered to be the evidence are “relatively rare” seems sound. In spite of its faults, the book proved, apparently, to be usable until more detailed studies of the subject appeared.
The Origins of the McLane–Ocampo Treaty of 1859
Authors: Berbusse Edward J.
Published: July 2006

The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 acquired for the United States one-half of Mexican territory, while the Gadsden Purchase of 1853 secured a more level route for railroads destined to connect the south and the far west. Impatient investors, however, sought immediate union with the west, and the shortest route at hand was across the isthmus of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico. The Department of State advanced these interests, and only on failure turned their efforts to an overland route across Northern Mexico. This latter route would have connected Matamoros on the Rio Grande and Atlantic with Matzatlan on the Pacific. To this goal, Delphy Carlin, an American long-experienced in trade with Mexico, urged Secretary of State Lewis Cass. He was convinced that a line skirting the mountains and connecting these ports would be an ideal boundary; that “all north of that red line is a nuisance to Mexico.”
The Sugar–Cane Cycle of Jose Lins do Rego
Authors: Kenyon Gordon
Published: July 2006

In commenting upon the importance of works of fiction the historian finds himself in strange waters, but with familiar tools at his command. Except as signs of the times, few novels would merit such a serious approach, but the exceptions can be most rewarding. The importance of fiction, both for good and for bad, has long been recognized. It does not have to be great literature to be significant: it has to be popular. Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the fictional output of the “Muckrakers” have had profound influences on the thought and history of the United States. The popularity of Captain Marryat’s sea novels changed the regulations of the British Navy. Kipling almost “set” the accepted concept of relations between the East and West in his manifold descriptions of the “White Man’s Burden” —again because of his popularity as a writer. These are but a few of the examples that can be culled from an examination of the fiction to be found in the English language, and there are many others equally significant. Fiction can establish patterns of thought on past and present problems that should make biographers, essayists, and historians jealous, as established patterns of thought can go far toward making or changing history.
The Founding Fathers as Seen by the Marqués de Casa-Irujo
Authors: Sealove Sandra
Published: July 2006

Each nation views its own statesmen with a particular bias. This prejudiced opinion is generally more pronounced when the statesmen involved are “ founding father ” types. Other eyes, though not perhaps objective, saw prominent figures in United States history in a different light, and an alien culture elicited unique comments by one particularly literate and vocal observer.
Mexican Views on Rural Education, 1900-1910
Authors: Presley James
Published: July 2006

Among the numerous failures of the Porfirio Díaz government was the lack of education in rural Mexico. Statistics reveal only a fraction of the problem. In 1910 there were 11,750,996 illiterates in the population of 15,103,542, or a total of 3,352,546 who could read or write. Illiteracy may have been even more rampant than these figures indicate. Most of Mexico was rural, and most of the effective educational efforts were in urban areas.

The question arises as to whether the leading influential groups in Mexico gave serious attention to the problem. The purpose of this article is to examine the views of five important groups or persons during that period just preceding the revolution, to determine the extent of importance assigned rural education in Mexico. The viewpoints are those of the Díaz administration, the Labor group under Ricardo Flores Magón, the Catholic Church, Francisco I. Madero, and General Bernardo Reyes.
A Document Concerning the Franciscan Custody of Rio Verde, 1648: Historical Introduction
Authors: Kiemen Mathias C.
Published: July 2006

The franciscan custody, or Minor Province, of Rio Verde in Mexico occupied a comparatively small section of that large country. It lay between the present cities of San Luis Potosí and Tampico. We can say that its boomerang-shaped territory made up part of the southeastern part of the modern state of San Luis Potosí and extended northward to the southwestern section of the modern state of Tamaulipas, and possibly into the southernmost tip of the state of Nuevo León. Missionary endeavor soon encompassed this section of New Spain to the north of Mexico City. With a sort of holy emulation the Franciscan provinces vied with one another in staking claims—spiritual claims—to large sections of the “land of the Chichimecs” or marauding pagan Indians to the north of Aztec domination. The new section of which we will speak in this paper is called “Rio Verde” from a tributary river of the same name, which flows into the Río Panuco and thence to the Atlantic. It was called “verde” either because of its dark color, due to depth, or because of the green verdure along its banks.

Since it was the Franciscan Province of San Pedro y San Pablo of Michoacán that began the work of evangelizing Rio Verde and continued it throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it is necessary to review in a few brief sentences the early history of this Franciscan province.
Un Dictamen Franciscano-Agustiniano Sobre el Servicio Personal y Libertad de Los Indios del Rio De la Plata (LIMA, 1598)
Authors: Canedo Lino G.
Published: July 2006

La evolución histórica de las teorías sobre libertad y servidumbre del indio americano, que sustentaron los teólogos y juristas españoles del siglo XVI y a las que se trató de ajustar las normas prácticas de la conquista, puede darse hoy por conocida en sus líneas fundamentales. Antes de finalizar el siglo XVI, había sido generalmente aceptado en el terreno doctrinal el derecho del indio a una vida libre, en consonancia con su dignidad humana. Se reconocía, en consecuencia, la radical ilicitud de imponer a los indios cualquier clase de servicio personal que llevase consigo alguna forma de esclavitud. Pero el problema era en la practica muy complejo y ello dio origen a varios y diversos proyectos de solución, encaminados a compaginar la exigencia cristiana de la libertad con las necesidades de tipo social y económico que presentaba la realidad americana de la época. Conocemos un buen número de estos dictámenes o pareceres, emitidos durante el siglo XVI por representantes, ya de las diversas corrientes doctrinales, ya de los intereses económicos creados. A ellos podemos añadir hoy el formulado en 1598 por franciscanos y agustinos de Lima sobre la condición social del indio en las regiones de Tucumán, Paraguay y Rio de la Plata.
Ideals and Realities in the Wilson Administration’s Relations with Honduras
Authors: Baker George W.
Published: July 2006

Unlike the Latin American policies of his predecessors, that of Woodrow Wilson was an unusual compound of ideals and realities. Wilson himself provided the first ingredient by repudiating the “Big Stick ”diplomacy of Theodore Roosevelt and the “Dollar Diplomacy ”of William Howard Taft and promising instead hemispheric friendship based upon mutual respect. Wilson proposed that the United States encourage its neighbors to become strong constitutional and democratic states and then join with it to form a confraternity for peace which the world could see and imitate. As a means to this goal, Wilson formulated a Pan American Pact to provide mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity. Although this pact was to founder upon the rock of Chilean national self-interest, its promise of a hemispheric partnership was an important step towards true Pan-Americanism.
The 1879 Conquest of the Argentine “Desert” and its Religious Aspects
Authors: Bustos-Videla César
Published: July 2006

The conquest of the Argentine pampas, with its well-known effects on Argentine expansion and on the political career of General Julio A. Roca, had a religious accompaniment which gave it some of the aspects of a crusade. Missionary priests went along with the military expedition and followed it up in order to convert and settle the Indians whose wanderings were forcibly suppressed by the operation of the army.

Efforts to Christianize the area had extended over two centuries, with only limited success.
Municipal Organization of the Rancherias of Pearls
Authors: Compañy Francisco Domínguez
Published: July 2006

The metropolis made full and very exacting regulations for everything that referred to the obtaining and control of precious metals and stones. Even in the first days of Spanish colonial expansion in America, the regulations contained in capitulations and instructions were innumerable. Later on, laws, royal cedulas, ordinances, and other juridical norms ordained in a detailed manner the requisites to which all had to submit who proposed to exploit the deposits of precious metals or the pearl fisheries. They regulated the manner in which they were to be established, the work of the Indians in them, and, above all, the control of production and the participation of the crown in the benefit obtained.