América : the epic story of Spanish North America, 1493-1898 / Robert Goodwin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Goodwin, Robert, 1969- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Spanish colonies.

Colonies.

Spain--Colonies--North America.

Spain.

Southwest, New--History--To 1848.

Southwest, New.

New Southwest.

History.

Southern States--History.

Southern States.

North America.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xxii, 519 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Bloomsbury Publishing Inc., 2019.

Summary:

"An epic history of the Spanish empire in North America from 1493 to 1898 by Robert Goodwin, author of Spain: The Centre of the World. At the conclusion of the American Revolution, half the modern United States was part of the vast Spanish Empire. The year after Columbus's great voyage of discovery, in 1492, he claimed Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands for Spain. For the next three hundred years, thousands of proud Spanish conquistadors and their largely forgotten Mexican allies went in search of glory and riches from Florida to California. Many died, few triumphed. Some were cruel, some were curious, some were kind. Missionaries and priests yearned to harvest Indian souls for God through baptism and Christian teaching. Theirs was a frontier world which Spain struggled to control in the face of Indian resistance and competition from France, Britain, and finally the United States. In the 1800s, Spain lost it all. Goodwin tells this history through the lives of the people who made it happen and the literature and art with which they celebrated their successes and mourned their failures. He weaves an epic tapestry from these intimate biographies of explorers and conquerors, like Columbus and Coronado, but also lesser known characters, like the powerful Gálvez family who gave invaluable and largely forgotten support to the American Patriots during the Revolutionary War; the great Pueblo leader Popay; and Esteban, the first documented African American. Like characters in a great play or a novel, Goodwin's protagonists walk the stage of history with heroism and brio and much tragedy"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

"War of blood and fire" : Puerto Rico

Realms of gold : Mexico

Fountain of eternal youth : La Florida

Amazon women & Californian dreams : Baja California

"Naked and barefoot" : the continent crossed

The seven cities of Cíbola : New Mexico

An Inca's tale, La Florida : the deep south

"Hang all the Lutherans" : the Atlantic Coast

Poetry & conquest : New Mexico

God & government : New Mexico

Po'pay's Pueblo revolt : New Mexico

Manhunt beyond the Rio Grande : Texas

Padre Kino, the Jesuit southwest : Arizona

Love & the Comanche Dawn : Texas

Los Anza & the Apaches : el Gran Norte

Los Gálvez & el Gran Norte : California & Sonora

Junípero Serra, paradise gained : California

Hard road to paradise : Arizona & California

Half a continent is Spanish : Louisiana & Alaska

The governors : Louisiana & New Mexico

"Gálvez, Spanish hero of the American Revolution" : the deep south

Apogee & disaster : Canada & Spain

Mexican independence : New Spain & México

Nemesis, Andrew Jackson : Florida

The Alamo & San Jacinto : Texas

The Mexican-American War : México

Epilogue: Puerto Rico, 1898.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 418-450) and index.

ISBN:

9781632867223

1632867222

OCLC:

1060183046