Indios Bárbaros

Indios Bárbaros was a term used by Spanish colonists in New Spain during the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries to describe Indigenous peoples who resisted conversion and colonisation in what is now known as Mexico.[1] Literally translating to “barbarian Indians,” the term was used both broadly to refer to any Indigenous person the Spanish deemed “uncivilized” and specifically towards so-called “Indian rebels” in battle with Spaniards on the northern frontiers of New Spain.[2]

Historical Origins

The civ/sav dichotomy[3] was not a new concept when members of the Spanish Empire began labelling the Indigenous peoples they encountered as uncivilized. Certain romanticized narratives of foreigners in Eurasia and Africa can be traced back to eighth-century Greek explorers, like Homer and Xenophon, who labelled the people they encountered as notably distinct and less civilized.[1]

Enlightenment, a system of thought that emerged during the 17th and 18th century in Europe, relied on Greco-Roman ideals of humanity such as moral virtue and rationality. This philosophy suggested that humanity had progressed from a state of savagery to a state of civilization. Those who did not adhere to the European understanding of humanity could be deemed uncivilized. The people labelled Indios Bárbaros by the Spanish Empire were deemed less evolved than some of the European Empires.[4]

Spanish Colonial Ideals

There were multiple factors that the Spaniards believed defined Indios Bárbaros. For one, Indios Bárbaros were not Christian, whether by refusal or unknowingness.[1] Additionally, the "loose social and political organization"[5] of Indigenous societies was deemed uncivilized in comparison the Spanish Empire and was therefore a contributing factor towards the term Indios Bárbaros.

European epistemology was also very faith-centered and existed at a time when it was agreed that rational creatures—Christians—had the right to self-government and private property. This meant that non-Christians could be deprived of their rights and their land in expansionist Spanish plans.[6]

Several other similar terms such as Indios sometidos, Indios reducidos or Indios domesticos became used during this time, all used to describe Indigenous populations on a scale from civilized to "savage."[7]

Raids in Nuevo Léon

During the nineteenth century, there was a surge of Indigenous peoples resisting colonization who began attacking Spanish settlements on the northern frontiers of Mexico.[5] These attacks were often devastating and involved kidnapping, killing, and robbery. In Nuevo León, between 1848 and 1870, there were over 800 raids, with a combined total of over 1,000 captives and 4,000,000 pesos worth of commodities taken.[2] These attacks were quite damaging towards the Spanish empire, which had previously been under scrutiny for its failure to "whiten its Indigenous population"[8] and all participating Indigenous peoples were labelled Indios Bárbaros.

References
  1. "Routledge Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous-Colonial Interacti". www.taylorfrancis.com. doi:10.4324/9780429274251. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  2. Adams, David B. (1991). "Embattled Borderland: Northern Nuevo León and the Indios Bárbaros, 1686-1870". The Southwestern Historical Quarterly. 95 (2): 206–207.
  3. LaRocque, Emma (2010). When the other is me: Native resistance discourse, 1850-1990. University of Manitoba Press. OCLC 1369587386.
  4. Weber, David J. (2005). Bárbaros : Spaniards and Their Savages in the Age of Enlightenment. Yale University Press. p. 31.
  5. Salmón, Roberto Mario (1991). Indian Revolts in Northern New Spain: A Synthesis of Resistance, 1680-1786. University Press of America. p. 121.
  6. Alvares, Claudia (2008). New World Slavery: Redefining the Human. Vol. 26. Arizona State University. pp. 131–153.
  7. Montgomery, Lindsay; et al. (Lee M. Panich and Sara L. Gonzalez) (2021). Routledge Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous-Colonial Interaction in the Americas. p. 276.
  8. Hernández, José Angel (2010). "From Conquest to Colonization: Indios and Colonization Policies after Mexican Independence". Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos. 26 (2): 293.


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