The History of the Americans

The "glorious revolution" of 1688-89 would change the terms of the English monarchy, and reverberate through American history.

Heading as we are into the 1680s on the timeline of the History of the Americans, it will be useful for all of us to know a few basic things about English politics in the 1680s, including especially the “exclusion crisis” of 1679-1681 and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Both had a big impact on our own history.

Along the way we learn more about John Locke, how the acquittal of William Penn transformed the law in England and ultimately the United States, the actual conspiracy between the English King Charles II and Louis XIV of France, the origin of the words “Tory” and “Whig” at the moment that the English invented political parties, the role of infant mortality in the politics of a monarchy, and the awful, but hilarious, “Popish Plot” conspiracy theory that shaped English politics in 1679-81.

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Primary references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website)

Jonathan Healey, The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England 1603-1689

The Popish Plot (Wikipedia entry, which goes much deeper than the podcast)

Optional prerequisite episode: #146 Oliver’s Army: What You Need to Know About the English Civil Wars

Going down a rabbit hole while learning about the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, I started reading about something I have wondered about – how and when did the Indians of the American West acquire horses and learn to use them rather than eat them? The answer is not what you think, or at least not what I thought before I did this work.

The story begins with the discovery of silver in Mexico, which I did not see coming.

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Primary references for this episode

William Taylor, et. al., “Early dispersal of domestic horses into the Great Plains and northern Rockies,” Science, 30 March 2023.

Jack D. Forbes, “The Appearance of the Mounted Indian in Northern Mexico and the Southwest, to 1680,” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Summer, 1959.

It is August, 1680 in New Mexico. The rebelling Pueblo Indians have sprung their ambush and quickly killed 400 Spaniards. About 2500 survivors have concentrated in two groups, at the government buildings in Santa Fe, and 70 miles to the south at Isleta Pueblo. Each has reason to believe that everybody else has died, and they are alone. The Indians beseige Santa Fe, but Governor Antonio de Otermín leads a successful defense. Still, they are isolated and out of food, and determine to retreat to the recently established mission at El Paso. The southern group, under Lieutenant Garcia at Isleta, make the same decision. This is the history of that harrowing retreat, another amazing story of survival in the European settlement of today’s United States.

It is also the only time in American history that rebelling indigenous peoples entirely expelled an established European settlement from their territory. The Spaniards would, of course, eventually reconquer New Mexico, but not until 1692.

The settlement of the New Mexican refugees at El Paso would make it – for the moment – the third most populous settlement of Europeans in North America, and the functional beginning of the eventual New Spanish territory, Mexican state, Republic, and American State of Texas.

Maps of the Pueblo Revolt

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Primary references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website)

John L. Kessell, Pueblos, Spaniards, and the Kingdom of New Mexico

Charles Wilson Hackett, “The Revolt of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico in 1680,” The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, October 1911.

Charles Wilson Hackett, “The Retreat of the Spaniards from New Mexico in 1680, and the Beginnings of El Paso, I,” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, October 1912.

Charles Wilson Hackett, “The Retreat of the Spaniards from New Mexico in 1680, and the Beginnings of El Paso, II,” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, January 1913.

In August 1680, an alliance of Puebloan peoples, led by a mysterious religious man named Po’pay (also spelled Popé), launched a surprise attack that forced the Spanish entirely out of New Mexico 82 years after they had first settled it. Po’pay’s rebellion would combine elements that will remind longstanding listeners of King Philip’s War in New England and Opechancanough’s surprise attack in Virginia in March 1622. Unlike the Wampanoags and the Pamunkeys, however, Po’pay would achieve his war aims.

Along the way we examine the causes of the revolt, the preparations for the ambush, and the terrible first days setting up the siege of Santa Fe, which will be taken up next time.

Maps of the Pueblo Revolt

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#98 A Kingdom of God on the Rio Grande

Primary references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website)

John L. Kessell, Pueblos, Spaniards, and the Kingdom of New Mexico

Charles Wilson Hackett, “The Revolt of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico in 1680,” The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, October 1911.

Herbert E. Bolton, The Spanish Borderlands: A Chronicle of Old Florida and the Southwest

Andrew L. Knaut, The Pueblo Revolt of 1680

David Roberts, The Pueblo Revolt: The Secret Rebellion that Drove the Spaniards