Conflicts and Weapons That Tamed a Continent

by Lloyd Sabin

North America, divided into Mexico, the United States, and Canada, is a vast continent with a tremendous variety of climates, geographies, and animal life. Modern technology, like the automobile and the internet, seems to have shrunk the world and many of its natural wonders into easily accessible, controllable parts, and it is easy to become complacent and take the natural beauty of North America for granted. Doing so, however, would be a grave mistake. Avalanches, hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, mudslides, blizzards, floods…just a quick perusal of leading stories in local and national news reveals natural threats still have not been tamed; these and a host of other reasons are why nature should never be assumed to be under man’s control. Couple these natural threats with a wide variety of man made threats like crime, terror, and war and it becomes much clearer exactly how much is indeed outside of man’s control. 

Of course, North America was not always divided simply between Canada to the far north, the United States stretching neatly from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans, and Mexico occupying the South. From the first moments that European explorers came ashore at various points along both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and at varied times between 1000 AD and 1800 AD, these small bands of men had to struggle to survive, as did the native American tribes they encountered. Climates ranged from rugged forest and mountain areas, to lush tropical jungles, to desolate mesa and desert areas, all with their own beauties and dangers.

The explorers and the settlers that came after them to North America built up a tremendous amount of practical knowledge in those 800 years. By 1800, empire builders from Great Britain, France, Spain, Russia, and even the newly forged United States all had a stake in the future of the continent. What was left of the North American Indian tribes by 1800 had also adopted many technologies and techniques from the Europeans. Some tribes, like the Iroquois, Seminole, Sauk, Fox, Comanche, and Apache, were especially skilled at using Western weapons and tactics against the very men who introduced them to these tribes. If they had not, they would have been wiped out long before the 19th century began.

American Conquest: Divided Nation is grounded in this era in North American history, roughly between 1800 and 1865. During this period European powers still meddle in the continent’s affairs; strong Indian tribes vie for control over their shrinking domains; newly created nations like Mexico, Texas, and the United States fight over the debris of the dying Spanish Empire; and the United States’ Civil War threatens to engulf the entire continent. This is the era of Manifest Destiny, the Black Hawk and Seminole Wars, the Texas Republic, the Alamo, and dozens of bloody engagements during the American Civil War. The participants in these historic events relied on a wide variety of weapons to not only survive but to emerge victorious. The technologies and weapons described below not only changed history, but also helped people survive in a North America torn by natural extremes and man made conflict. Without specific weapons, this era of North American history could have had very different results, and the world we inhabit today could be starkly different from what we know now. 

The War for Texan Independence began in 1835 when Anastacio Bustamante became president of Mexico, declared the Mexican constitution (dating from 1824) void, and cracked down on liberal local governments throughout the country. In the 1830s, Mexico included parts of what is now modern Texas, which was then part of the Mexican state of Coahuila. The Texas rebels (many of which were Americans) backed Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and his promise of less corruption and a more open, representative and just government for Texans. 

Remember the Alamo!	The flag of the Texas Republic.

The War for Texan Independence was preceded by about 20 years of complex diplomacy between the United States, which wanted to purchase Texas from a newly independent Mexico, and a steadily weakening Spain, which repeatedly tried to retake various areas in what had been a central lynchpin in its New World empire. Modern American readers may also find it surprising that another major problem between the US and Mexico in the 1820s and 1830s was illegal immigration, from the US to Mexico. When war did finally break out it resulted from years of simmering hostility. In this uncertain and hostile environment, weapons were not difficult to find. 

Most settlers in Texas, whether they came from Mexico in the south or the United States in the north, were always armed. Being armed was a simple fact of frontier life. Comanche raiders, the settlers’ main threat, carried a range of non-gunpowder weapons, including exotic bows and arrows, warclubs, and even lances. To counter these weapons, Texans fielded muzzle-loading single-shot rifles and pistols, and many combatants carried these same into combat against similarly armed contemporary armies. By the 1840s, after Texas became independent from Mexico but was not yet annexed by the US. During this period the .36 caliber Colt Paterson revolvers and revolving rifles became very popular weapons in the Republic of Texas Navy and the Texas Rangers. Military units in Texas were able to decimate the Comanche with these weapons, and although the Colt could be fragile and difficult to repair in combat, its nature as a revolver increased its firepower considerably over single-shot flintlocks as well as bows and arrows. These revolvers proved themselves to be of immeasurable aid to Texas’ survival in its very early years. 

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