Bonus Book! The Comanche Empire

The Comanche Empire by Pekka Hämäläinen

History (2008 - 361 pp.)

The Comanche Empire was published the year I started my final year of my Bachelor of Arts in history and English. I don't usually open these entries by discussing myself, so here's why: one of my capstone history courses was a full-year seminar consisting of a book each week in the fall, culminating in a literature review, before an article-length paper in the winter. The course title? Europe and the Overseas World. Reading The Comanche Empire, I felt like I was back in Joyce Lorimer's class. Oh, how the time goes...

Pekka Hämäläinen's argument begins with a trend that was finding its way into mainstream historiography during the first decade of the 21st century: "Moving beyond conventional top-down narratives that depict Indians as bit players in imperial struggles or tragic victims of colonial expansion, today's scholarship portrays them as full-fledged historical actors who played a formative role in the making of early America." (6) I fully agree with this statement, for good (the Comanches' culture is worth commemorating) and for bad (the Comanches were notorious slave traders). The book spans the hundred years from the Spanish colonial era, to the newly independent Mexico, up to the Mexican-American War and the US Civil War, making it simultaneously a bible and a difficult read. From the slave fairs in Taos from 1742-1752, to the Comanches' early military disasters, (42-47) the Comanches would emerge stronger than ever, eventually holding a loose hegemony over what is now Texas and New Mexico.

As the eighteenth century advanced, Comancheria became more integrated with European colonial societies. The Comanches traded with Spain, France (Louisiana) and British West Florida, at times possessing greater economic and military resources than entire provinces of New Spain. (72) A Spanish governor of Texas was in shock at the Comanches' ability to acquire British and French horses, guns, and other items:

Domingo Cabello y Robles, governor of Texas, reported in the 1780s that western Comanches sold guns, powder, balls, lances, cloth, pans, and large knives to their eastern neighbors on the Texas plains, who in turn supplied western Comanches with horses and mules, some of which were then traded to Wichitas, Pawnees, Cheyennes, Kiowas, Kansas, and Iowas. Moreover, in a reversal of the typical roles of colonial trade, western Comanches started to sell guns and other manufactures to Spanish New Mexico. (73)

The Comanches' early alliance with the Utes helped them vanquish the rival Apaches. The other nations mentioned above turned into crucial trading partners, forming the linchpins of an indigenous international relations system in some ways comparable to the long-distance game being played by the European powers. The "open field" in the American West, nominally Spanish and then Mexican but falling increasingly into Comanche hands, saw the ascent of the Comanche Empire in c. 1793. (140)

The Comanches were rarely victims, most often firmly in control of their destinies, much to the chagrin of the nascent Mexican state. Historical maps can deceive, because they do not always show effective control; Pekka points out that the nominally massive newly independent Mexico was so unable to stop Comanche raids that the Comanches wrecked the Mexican economy. When Mexico attempted to have Americans settle Texas and New Mexico, Stephen F. Austin complained to the Mexican government that peace with the Comanches was impossible because the norteamericano settlements were undefended and easily raided for heir horses. (194) By the time of the Mexican-American War, American soldiers frequently remarked that the Mexican lands they proceeded through were desolate. Many of those soldiers followed Comanche guides.

The Comanches' decline went hand in hand with the settling of the American West by more permanent, less nomadic settlers. Comanches followed bison, rode horses, and generally did not farm as much as their American counterparts. The tributary Spanish and Mexicans were replaced by farms: "But by the 1820s, the traditional raiding domains had become either exhausted or unavailable. Decades of on-and-off pillaging had wrecked the pastoral economy of Texas, whereas New Mexico, the site of intense raiding in the 1760s and 1770s, had attached itself to Comancheria through a tribute relationship." (223) 

The Comanche Empire was as multifaceted as any other. It was political (chieftains), geographic (nomadic, fuzzy borders), faunal (extremely horse-based since their first acquisition of horses from the Spanish), economic (trade relations with sedentary nations, e.g.: Apaches, and with various colonial powers), and social (importance of rituals). It was a lot of information to take in for someone who didn't have a background in the field. Luckily, I knew enough general American history to be able to become conversant quickly. I also had the skills I needed, from my undergraduate seminar courses, to be able to absorb unfamiliar material.

The Comanche Empire won Columbia University's prestigious Bancroft Prize in 2009. As an Ivy  League alumnus who lives part-time near Bancroft, Ontario, I couldn't help but smile.

Ease of Reading: 4

Educational Content: 10