Opening New Frontiers in Colonial Spanish American History: New Perspectives on Indigenous-Spanish Interactions on the Margins of Empire

Over the past decade, the frontiers of Latin America have received an important scholarly boost, thanks to the publication of a number of new studies – seven of which are discussed below – which have shifted attention away from the sedentary societies that the Spanish encountered in Mesoamerica and the Andean region to examine the protracted and difficult process whereby Spaniards incorporated, or attempted to incorporate, the mainly non-sedentary or semi-sedentary peoples who inhabited the margins of empire. Common to all these studies is a concern to explore the agency of indigenous peoples, and as this article will show, they shed new light on, and contribute greatly to our understanding of, Indian responses to the challenges posed by Spanish colonization and missionization in regions long neglected in the historical literature.