Battle of Mauvilla

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The Battle of Mauvilla or Battle of Mabila (other spellings: Mavila, Mobila) took place on October 18, 1540 between the Spanish conquerors around Hernando de Soto and the Tuscaluza chiefdom in what is now the US state of Alabama . The battle was the first and one of the most costly battles of the North American Indian Wars.

The chiefdom of Tuscaluza

Map of the De Soto expedition through the present-day US states of Georgia , South Carolina , North Carolina , Tennessee and Alabama according to Charles M. Hudson, 1997 - in light green : Tuscaluza chiefdom

The dominion of what is probably the most powerful chieftainship of the Mississippi culture after Cahokia stretched mostly along the Coosa River and Alabama River and consisted of several tributary district cities - including Mabila (Mobila / Mauvilla) , each of which was led by its own chief. They owed obedience to the chief in his then royal seat called Atahachi during war and times of peace. The Spaniards named the chieftainship after the ruling high chief Tuscaloosa (also: Tuskalusa, Tastaluca, Tuskaluza; "Black Warrior"; † 1540) simply Tuscaluza / Tuscaloosa .

Geographical location of the city

The exact location of the then city of Mabila is not known, but it is undisputed that it was located on the north side of the Alabama River, somewhere downstream of the Durant loop of the river. The Durant Loop is east of the city of Selma in Dallas County , Alabama . Sometimes Mobile County is also referred to as the current urban area of Mobile ; the names of the city, county and river are likely derived from the Mobile tribe . The tribe of the Mobile, or Mauvila, only moved south to the area of ​​today's Mobile around 1700, when they had received the right to do so from the French. Presumably, the city of Mauvilla was a city of the tribe of the same name when it settled further north on the Alabama River. Charles Hudson suspects that Mauvilla lies at the confluence of the Cahawba and the Alabama River, at the location of the ghost town of Cahawba , the first abandoned capital of Alabama.

prehistory

The battle developed during the De Soto expedition through the Black Belt and Cotton Belt of what is now the southern United States. The expedition was an unscrupulous raid and pillage by the Spaniards led by Hernando de Soto in search of gold, slaves and souls to be proselytized. Members of the upper class or chiefs were taken prisoner and, through martial threats, the supply of food and the position of slaves, porters and leaders were forced. Many cities were looted, some burned down. Twelve years earlier, in 1528, the conqueror ( conquistador ) Pánfilo de Narváez had plundered this area. In Piachi, De Soto was shown a dagger. It had belonged to Don Teodoro, a participant in the raid at the time. Of the few Indian women who survived the battle, it was reported that Chief Tascaluza had planned to destroy De Sosto's army when he learned of his presence. The surprise attack in Mabila was prepared well in advance.

Course and outcome of the battle

artist's impression of the battle, 2008

When Tuscaloosa learned that the Spaniards were approaching his territory under the protection of the captive chief of the Coosa, he planned to lure them into a trap and drive them out of his territory or destroy them. He received them first in his residence Atahachi and promised to provide them with guides and food, but they would find them in another of his cities - in Mabila. The Spaniards set out on their way - only to find out upon their arrival that Mabila had been converted into a fortress reinforced by palisades and that the area in front of the city had been cleared of bushes and trees to give the Indian archers a clear view . Behind the palisades women, children and a large armed force - according to the Spaniards - of around 2,000 to 2,500 warriors had holed up. In the ensuing battle - which lasted the whole day - 22 Spaniards were killed and 148 wounded, but the Indians suffered between 2000 and up to 2500 dead (including Tuscaloosa).

The historian Hudson attributes the victory of the Spaniards to two misjudgments by the Indians. For one thing, they relied too much on the protection of the palisade wall. But when this was breached by the Spaniards, the warriors stood too narrow inside to be able to fight effectively and lost their mobility. On the other hand, the Indians underestimated the advantages of armor and horses. The adequate weapon against the horses would have been the spear . The Indians had spikes, but lacked the knowledge or discipline to stand until the horses were within reach. In addition there was probably their fear and awe of the unknown horses, which were also called sacred dogs . So they fought from a distance with bows and arrows, and when a mounted soldier attacked them they turned and ran away. It was easy for the riders to catch up with and stab them.

Despite their minor losses, the Spaniards emerged from the battle humiliated and broken. In the eyes of the neighboring tribes they had lost their alleged invincibility and they left the territory of the Tuscaluza / Tuscaloosa to the west as quickly as possible. The surrounding tribes then began to attack the Spaniards more and more persistently with ambushes.

The descendants of the Tuscaluza chiefdom are the later Indian confederations of the Choctaw (Chahta) and the Muskogee (Maskoki / Creek) .

Historical significance of the battle

Mural by Diego Rivera in the National Palace in Mexico City, illustrating the repression by the Spaniards after the arrival of Hernan Cortez in Veracruz
One of the eight large-format history paintings in the Capitol in Washington, idealizing representation of the grandiose arrival of the Spaniards on the Mississippi after the battle of Mauvilla

If the Spaniards' numbers are correct, the Battle of Mauvilla of 1540, killing over two thousand, was probably the largest battle ever to take place on North American soil until then. It marked the beginning of the bloody conquest of the southeast of America, which ended with the Jamestown Massacre of 1622 and the Powhatan Wars until 1644. The tribal union of the Powhatans was destroyed, the Indians of the southeast were largely wiped out by war and epidemics.

In terms of the whole of North America, the battle marks the beginning of a long series of battles up to the Wounded Knee massacre in 1890 - hence the beginning of the Indian wars in North America.

The European assessment of these events has always fluctuated between the widely separated poles of “unscrupulous crime and genocide” and “the beginning of a glorious discovery and successful development of the American continent”. As early as the 16th century, there were detailed and passionate accusations of injustices and cruelties from eyewitnesses to the conquests and the first historians of the New World: Las Casas , Cabeza de Vaca , Girolamo Benzoni , Theodor de Bry and others. The subsequent special criticism of the supposedly particularly cruel and bloodthirsty Spanish Catholic conquests, the term Leyenda negra , "Black Legend", also became a propagandistic tool in the conflict against Spanish dominance in the following centuries. In our time, Howard Zinn , Tzvetan Todorov and many others hold a similarly critical and judgmental view of the devastating wars against the Indian peoples. - At the pole of glorious conquests and triumphant victories, representative of many are Francisco López de Gómara from the 16th century and Adam Smith from the 18th century. In the book Prosperity of Nations of 1776, the latter writes: "The discovery of America and that of a way to East India around the Cape of Good Hope are the two greatest and most important events that recorded the history of mankind." - The two can be seen in pictures For example, depict reviews like this: above a mural in the Palacio Nacional (Mexico) by Diego Rivera The Arrival of Hernan Cortez in Veracruz with the theme of the cruel repression by the Spaniards, including a monumental painting in the rotunda of the United States Capitol by William Henry Powell , Die Discovery of the Mississippi , with the theme of the triumphant arrival of Hernando de Soto reinforced by the submissive Indians.

Battle of Little Bighorn 1876, painted by chief and battle participant Kicking Bear in 1898, one of the few Indian victories over the White Man

An originally Indian view of the events is partly contrary to these two assessments. In both ratings, the Europeans are at the top of the social hierarchy, the Indians at the bottom, once as oppressed, once as admirers of the White Man. In Native American reality, however, the attitude changes with experience. So the white man is initially admired and admired and sometimes even thought to be immortal like a god. In the further course, however, there is disillusionment. The Spaniards are seen as barbarians who destroy the holy places and behave as liars and deceivers. The Inca king Manco Inka accuses the Spaniards: they "did bad things to us by snatching our property, our wives, our sons, our daughters, our fields, our food and many other things that we had in our country, and in a violent and fraudulent way, against our will. ”With Christoph Lichtenberg one can therefore rightly say:“ The American who first discovered Columbus made a bad discovery ”- this Indian perception of the hated whites can be seen in one picture for example as a triumph against General Custer . Custer lies dead on the ground as a red figure, a victory of the Indians of formative importance.

literature

  • Vernon James Knight (Ed.): The Search for Mabila: The Decisive Battle Between Hernando De Soto and Chief Tascalusa. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa 2009, ISBN 978-0-8173-1659-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Charles Hudson, Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun, Hernando de Soto and the South's Ancient Chiefdoms, Gorgia, 1997, p. 245, p. 234, p. 245f.
  2. ↑ Michael Thomason, Historic Mobile: An Illustrated History of the Mobile Bay Region, 2010
  3. ^ Charles Hudson, Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun, Hernando de Soto and the South's Ancient Chiefdoms, Gorgia, 1997, p. 249
  4. ^ Charles Hudson, Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun, Hernando de Soto and the South's Ancient Chiefdoms, Gorgia, 1997, p. 244
  5. ↑ Bartolomé de las Casas wrote some eyewitness accounts, in particular the Abridged Report of the Devastation of the West Indian Countries , 1552, numerous other editions until today
  6. ↑ Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, Shipwrecks: Report of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca about what happened in the West Indies with the fleet of Governor Panfilo de Narvaez , 1542, eyewitness report of the Florida campaign and development from conquistador to fellow man on his multi-year migration to Mexico , many editions to date
  7. ↑ Girolamo Benzoni, History of the New World , 1565
  8. ↑ Theodor de Bry, ed., Arrival of Columbus in the New World , 1594, West Indischen Reisen , 1590ff., Richly illustrated travel reports in the New World, many other editions
  9. ↑ Andreas Klaffke, Es sey the old world found in the new: America in the German poetry of the early modern period , 2000; P. 40ff.
  10. ↑ Howard Zinn, A History of the American People , 1980, German 2007
  11. ↑ Tzvetan Todorov, Conquest of America: The Problem of the Other , 1985
  12. ^ Francisco López de Gómara, Historia general de las Indias , 1553
  13. ↑ Adam Smith, Study on the Nature and Causes of People's Prosperity , Vol. 3, Berlin 1906, p. 161
  14. ↑ Titu Kusi Yupanki , The Shaking of the World. An Inca king reports on the fight against the Spaniards , Olten 1985, 115f., Cited above. based on Mariano Delgado , The Europeans from an Indian perspective, building blocks for a typology of the foreign , In: SZRKG 105 (2011) pp. 35–55, here as PDF , p. 41
  15. ^ Georg Christoph Lichtenberg writings and letters: Bd. Sudelbücher, Frage, Fabeln, Verse , Insel Verlag, 1983, p. 359

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