16th Century Spanish Army

wee said:

Hello --

I'm trying to find some information on the Spanish, how they organized their armies during this period of exploration, and what various positions consisted of.

What I have so far (which has been inferred, so if it is wrong, please correct me):

General -- commander of exploration group, etc. -- reported to viceroy, governor, or directly to king depending on who sent them out.

• It appears this position was largely granted by luck, previous good adventure, or social status. Some had virtually no experience at all.

Captains -- directly under General

• were these typically Dons, given position by social status & wealth, or did one rise through ranks? Would a captain be required to have any experience at all?

Lieutenants -- under Captains?

Field-Master -- what was this? Responsibilities?
Army-Master -- same as field-master, or ??

If there is an expert on this among us at AW, I will try not to pester you too much but will probably have a few more questions. Or if someone can point me to a good source (I haven't found one yet). Sources on things like weaponry & dress are easy, but can't find one that describes army structure & responsibilities. Thank you!




wee

Click to expand...

For the early 16th century, Hugh Thomas' books Conquest and Rivers of Gold...are good on the administrative confusion surrounding the council of the Indies. For the later 16th cenury Geoffrey Parker (for example, The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road and The Grand Strategy of Philip II) is a good starting place. The thing about the Spanish army was, however ineptly they were administered, there was a lot of "folk wisdom" in its men. They knew for example (as did New Englanders in King Phillip's War) when to assemble only the best men, arm them with only swords and attack at night...a desperate measure and not one to try against people like the Aztecs who seem to have had good signalling procedures.

I'm not sure about ranks per se in the 16th century. The greatest Spanish soldier of the age was known as "the Grand Captain"...captain was the general term for a commander and it could mean "the man who raised this company" (company being literally an economic unit) or "the comander of all these companies" and remember that until quite recently, people joined armies in search of loot and wealth and plunder were the aims of everybody in an army.

Another thing to remember about the Spanish army is that it was very disciplined...but in the 16th century that also implied they were professional mutineers and mass mutiny was a tool that soldiers could use to get the wealth they had joined up to aquire.

coronado

ambled through the southwestern us in 1541. i was just reading up on his expedition last spring. i was amazed at how ineptly the new world government was set up in the spanish territory. i would think any book on the coronado expedition would be helpful. he was in charge of an army of conquest as well as an expedition of exploration and a relig. crusade with priests in tow. the motives were always debated and that slowed the expedition. every move was debated and each interest was involved in backbiting and counter politicking. it must have been frustrating in the extreme--s6

Hey, wee -

I don't have much on Spanish military organization in the New World, but the basic battlefield unit in Europe in the sixteenth century was the tercio, a combined-arms formation of pikes and arquebusiers and the brainchild of El Gran Capitan Gonzalo de Cordoba. You might try looking those up at your library to see what you can find.

From the little I've read, the organization of the conquistadores was much less formal than that of their counterparts in Europe. It seems they resembled medieval warbands more than the professional armies taking shape at the time in Europe. But that's about all I know.

As to the titles "Field Master" and "Army Master", they sound like high-falutin' names for "the guy who does all the detail work so my grand plan doesn't make me look like an idiot when I run out of bullets." Today we call those guys NCOs.

I've seen a couple of tactical analyses of La noche triste in 1520, the night Cortes and his (surviving) men fled Tenochtitlan. If you can't find anything on Coronado specifically, you might take a look at Cortes's organization to see if it gives you any ideas.

Hope this helps.
HN

Hi Wee - I've run into tercio before in reading about the New World conquests. And, you can always take a look at Prescott's Conquest of Mexico (which I think has an index) - your library might have one. Puma

coronado

this is the place where he slogged through kansas. the actual site of quivira is about 20- 30 miles from here. there is a monumant to juan padilla, the "first american martyr" on the highway a few miles from here in rice county. coronado crossed the arkansas --he named it the peter and paul-the indians called it the nepostle--at ford kansas, just outside of dodge city. you are right about the expedition being led by young, wealthy men. i think coronado was injured and never really recovered. the book was old-- i am thinking it was published by the author. it had an actual photo of the grass houses that the wichita used. i will kick around the library for that book and send you the particulars on it. it seems to cover everything you wanted---s6 ps

quivira by paul a. jones

is the title and author. the author was from lyons kansas, the location of the actual city coronado called quivira. the book was copyrighted in 1929. the publisher was in wichita kansas. jones specifically mentions several of coronado's men by name and goes into detail on their backgrounds. he was working from translations of the actual spanish documents. he also did some excavating in the old quivira site. he even has a photo of the mummified body of juan de padilla. anyway you could probably find the book by going on the kansas library system--blue skies of kansas. at the bottom of the page it lists books available in kansas library system. i would mail you this copy but our librarian is a scary lady. in fact some of the kids just got in trouble for putting her face on a halloween mask--s6

Shakey,

There's a Coronado and Quivira (1937) by Paul A. Jones available on Amazon. I wonder if it's the same book or a sequel?

quivira and coronado

it would have to be the same author and book, probably updated. mine was copyright 1929. lyons kansas is very small. a poulation of maybe 4,000. it is the closest modern town to the quivira that coronado visited. also hometown to actress shirley knight. her picture is up in the dairy queen. i guess she still visits from time to time. i loved her in 'stuart saves his family.' being from kansas she plays dysfunction well--s6

Being from Missouri, I'll refrain from the obligatory Kansas jokes *grin*

There are several resellers with that book. I may treat myself to another history book here in the near future. I haven't done anything with Conquistadors and monsters . . . yet.

truce--s6