By centering Apalachee instead of Spanish perspectives, this paper reveals that the violence in 1647 was less a reaction to the Spaniards than a boiling-over of political tensions within Apalachee society. Historically, the Apalachees strove for political unity, but Apalachee communities had to balance unity with their own, more local concerns. These communities increasingly saw their diplomatic interests diverge in the years leading up to 1647. Some looked eastward to their new alliances with their neighbors in the Florida peninsula, including the Timucuas, Yustagas, and Spaniards. Others approached these new relationships with greater caution. Such communities were often more interested in cultivating diplomatic relationships elsewhere, including with the Chiscas, who lived just beyond their northern borders. Although Apalachee communities on both sides acted out of local interests, they still articulated their own, distinct visions for Apalachee's larger future. A perspective on the so-called Apalachee Revolt that centers the Apalachees, then, demonstrates that Apalachee society was marred by political conflict, but the Spanish remained largely peripheral, suggesting the limits of Spanish authority in the first half of the seventeenth century.
