Indian auxiliaries were those
indigenous peoples of the Americas who allied with
Spain and fought alongside the
conquistadors during the
Spanish colonization of the Americas. These auxiliaries acted as guides, translators and porters, and in these roles were also referred to as yanakuna, particularly during the
Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. The term was also used for formations composed of indigenous warriors which were used by the Spanish for reconnaissance and combat duties. Indian auxiliaries continued to be used by the Spanish to maintain control over their colonies in the Americas; frequently stationed on the
frontier, they were often used to suppress anti-colonial revolts such as
Arauco War.
History
The formations of auxiliary Indians arose commonly from alliances established by the
Spaniards, exploiting ethnic and tribal antagonisms that they found during their occupation of the territory they were attempting to conquer.
Hernán Cortés was one of the first captains who was known to strengthen his columns with these natives. Commonly after the conquest these auxiliary Indians were divided among the
settlers of the territories already conquered. They often constituted the most numerous group of the conquerors' followers:
During
Hernán Cortés' campaign against the Aztecs from 1519 to 1521, he supplemented his meagre force of Spanish soldiers (numbering some 1,300) with hundreds of thousands of native auxiliaries, from various states such as
Tlaxcala. During the final siege of the Aztec capital city of
Tenochtitlan, Cortés, according to the account of one of his soldiers,
Bernal Díaz del Castillo, had some 200,000 Tlaxcallan and other native auxiliaries, while the Aztec warriors drawn from the numerous cities surrounding
Lake Xochimilco in the
Valley of Mexico numbered more than 300,000.
The expedition of
Pedro de Alvarado to
Guatemala was composed of 480 Spaniards and thousands of auxiliary Indians from
Tlaxcala,
Cholula and other cities in central Mexico.[1] In Guatemala the Spanish routinely fielded indigenous allies; at first these were
Nahua brought from the recently conquered Mexico, later they also included
Maya. It is estimated that for every Spaniard on the field of battle, there were at least 10 native auxiliaries. Sometimes there were as many as 30 indigenous warriors for every Spaniard, and it was the participation of these Mesoamerican allies that was particularly decisive.[2] Some newly conquered Maya groups remained loyal to the Spanish once they had submitted to the conquest, such as the
Tz'utujil and the
K'iche' of
Quetzaltenango, and provided them with warriors to assist further conquest.[3]
In 1524, fresh from his victory over the Tz'utujil, Pedro de Alvarado led his army against the non-Maya
Xinca of the Guatemalan Pacific lowlands.[4] At this point Alvarado's force consisted of 250 Spanish infantry accompanied by 6,000 indigenous allies, mostly
Kaqchikel and Cholutec.[5]
The
Mam fortress of
Zaculeu was attacked by
Gonzalo de Alvarado y Contreras, brother of Pedro de Alvarado,[6] in 1525, with 40 Spanish cavalry and 80 Spanish infantry,[7] and some 2,000 Mexican and K'iche' allies.[8] When the Spanish besieged the
Ixil city of
Nebaj in 1530, their indigenous allies managed to scale the walls, penetrate the stronghold and set it on fire. Many defending Ixil warriors withdrew to fight the fire, which allowed the Spanish to storm the entrance and break the defences.[9]
After the initial conquest, most of these allies were considered less necessary and, sometimes, a liability. At times they were needed for defense of the extended
Spanish Empire. They were incorporated into the military forces of the Empire, forming their own units, organised along European models under their own names, such as Compañías de Indios Nobles ("Companies of Noble Indians"). The necessity of defence came from either European threats like the Caribbean buccaneers and pirates or American threats such as the
Chichimeca,
Apache or
Comanche tribes or the protracted
Arauco war. These units fought in the independence wars.[13][page needed]
Comellas García-Lera, José Luis (2009). Páginas de la historia. Rialp.
ISBN9788432137969.
Gall, Francis (July–December 1967). "Los Gonzalo de Alvarado, Conquistadores de Guatemala". Anales de la Sociedad de Geografía e Historia (in Spanish). XL. Guatemala City, Guatemala:
Sociedad de Geografía e Historia de Guatemala.
OCLC72773975.
Letona Zuleta, José Vinicio; Carlos Camacho Nassar; Juan Antonio Fernández Gamarro (January 2003). "Las tierras comunales xincas de Guatemala". In Carlos Camacho Nassar (ed.). Tierra, identidad y conflicto en Guatemala (in Spanish). Guatemala: Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO); Misión de Verificación de las Naciones Unidas en Guatemala (
MINUGUA); Dependencia Presidencial de Asistencia Legal y Resolución de Conflictos sobre la Tierra (CONTIERRA).
ISBN978-99922-66-84-7.
OCLC54679387.
Martínez Laínez, Fernando; Carlos Canales (2009). Banderas Lejanas: La exploración, conquista, y defensa por España del territorio de los actuales Estados Unidos [Distant Flags: The exploration, conquest, and defence of the modern territory of the United States by Spain] (in Spanish). Madrid, Spain.
ISBN9788441421196.
OCLC428447626.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
Thomas, Hugh (2015). World Without End: Spain, Philip II, and the First Global Empire. Random House.
ISBN9780812998122.
Further reading
Matthew, Laura E.; Michel R. Oudijk, eds. (2007). Indian Conquistadors: Indigenous Allies in the Conquest of Mesoamerica. Norman: University of Oklahoma.
ISBN978-0806138541.