The American History Podcast, Season 2, Episode 9, the Spanish Borderlands in the 18th and early 19th century.

Welcome to the American History Podcast.

Hosted by Sean Worswick.

Thank you. hosted by Sean Worswick. Welcome back. I'm happy you're able to join us for this episode, I think it's going to be an interesting affair, or at least I think it's interesting.

As always, before we get started, I'd just like to thank you for taking the time to listen to the show.

I know there's a ton of choices out there when it comes to podcasts in general and history specifically.

So I do appreciate the fact that you're listening to my show.

Also, as always, if you have questions, feel free to drop me an email,

Sean at the American History Podcast.com.

Sean is spelled S-H-A-W-N, by the way.

You can also follow me on Twitter at American Hiscast.

And please check out the website for the sources that I'm using to create the episodes for Season 2.

Okay, so today we're going to talk about the topic of the Spanish Empire, but we're using the lens of militarization. Now, this is a topic and a theme which is familiar to me as it's

how I decided to finally pursue the PhD in history. Back in 2012, I wrote a paper on this topic, and it was noticed by the historian who's now my dissertation advisor and he basically said I should consider applying for the PhD.

At the time, I was just working on my MA and I was convinced there was absolutely no way I could do a doctorate in history,

especially since I had a full-time job. Needless to say, I decided to go for it and hopefully I'll

be done with coursework this fall or next spring. So yes, this is a topic that I'm familiar with,

and I hope you enjoyed as much as I do. Before we actually

get into the meat of the episode, another one just wanted to set this out there. You should be

aware I'm not going to discuss the entirety of New Spain. I'm focusing on what is modern day New Mexico and Texas. Obviously,

looking at the totality of New Spain would take more than one episode and it would be too

time-consuming. However, I think that you'll find our look at this area of the Spanish Empire

...