The Comanche Empire

by Pekka Hämäläinen

• ISBN13: 9780300126549
• ISBN10: 0300126549
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2008-05-28
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

Winner of the 2009 Bancroft Prize, given by Columbia University In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, at the high tide of imperial struggles in North America, an indigenous empire rose to dominate the fiercely contested lands of the American Southwest, the southern Great Plains, and northern Mexico. This powerful empire, built by the Comanche Indians, eclipsed its various European rivals in military prowess, political prestige, economic power, commercial reach, and cultural influence. Yet, until now, the Comanche empire has gone unrecognized in historical accounts. This compelling and original book uncovers the lost story of the Comanches. It is a story that challenges the idea of indigenous peoples as victims of European expansion and offers a new model for the history of colonial expansion, colonial frontiers, and Native-European relations in North America and elsewhere. Pekka Hamalainen shows in vivid detail how the Comanches built their unique empire and resisted European colonization, and why they fell to defeat in 1875. With extensive knowledge and deep insight, the author brings into clear relief the Comanches' remarkable impact on the trajectory of history.

Author Biography

Pekka Hämäläinen is assistant professor of history, University of California, Santa Barbara. He lives in Santa Barbara.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction: Reversed Colonialism	p. 1
Conquest	p. 18
New Order	p. 68
The Embrace	p. 107
The Empire of the Plains	p. 141
Greater Comancheria	p. 181
Children of the Sun	p. 239
Hunger	p. 292
Collapse	p. 321
Conclusion: The Shape of Power	p. 342
List of Abbreviations	p. 363
Notes	p. 365
Bibliography	p. 445
Index	p. 475
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