ABSTRACT
In both history and popular culture, warfare is understood as the archetypal male activity, and frontiers are depicted as the definitive male space. Indeed, the physical act of battle has generally been the preserve of men. Conquest, however, requires more than simple victory in battle. The Spanish empire’s goals in the Americas were at least as much religious and cultural as military. Conversion of Indians to Christianity and establishment of Spanish communities required both men and women. As such, specific tasks were assigned to Spanish women. This chapter asserts that Spanish strategy defined separate roles for the men and women of the colonial frontier based on idealized concepts of gender and honour that were defined in relation to violence and morality. Borderlands historians have traditionally underestimated the importance of violence in defining honour on the frontier. In doing so they fail to register how the violence of ongoing conquest rebounded on the conquerors within their own homes and communities. They neglect presidial society altogether, overlooking the extent to which the colonial experience shaped modern military culture.
