Cold, Drought, and Disaster in the Spanish Conquest of New Mexico, 1540–1610

Following the rapid conquest of Aztec and Inca lands, the Spanish Empire faced generations of disasters and setbacks in its exploration and settlement of North America.  An important and often overlooked cause of these failures lies in America’s distinct and often extreme climate—and the unlucky timing of Spanish expeditions with some of the worst phases of the “Little Ice Age” in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  This paper will explore this problem from several angles, focusing on the entrada into New Mexico.  It will examine how the Spanish tried to make sense of New World climates, and why experiences with North American weather proved so discouraging.  Moreover, drawing on both climate data and the written record, it will demonstrate that early explorers and settlers to the South and Southwest frequently encountered extreme cold and droughts, some without parallel in modern times.  Finally, it will present an original narrative of Don Juan de Oñate’s conquest of New Mexico (1598-1610) incorporating climate data.  The paper will make the case that untimely cold and drought played a central role in conflict with Pueblo Indians, internal dissension among the Spanish, and the recall of Oñate and near collapse of the colony.  This narrative helps explain Spain’s unwillingness to push harder for colonization in North America.  In the context of this panel, it also points to comparisons and contrasts among different European and Native American experiences in coping with new environments and a changing climate.