The Pueblo revolt of 1680

History demonstrates that colonial subjugation, no matter how brutal its methods, inevitably breeds resistance, according to Christine Darosa.

Socialist Worker, August 17, 2011


An artists’ portrayal of the Pueblo Revolt

IN AUGUST of 1680, the indigenous Pueblo nations of the Southwest accomplished something almost unique in the history of the European conquest of North America: they expelled their colonizers completely from their land and returned to self-rule.

In 1540, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado led the northward expansion of New Spain into what is now the American Southwest, followed by Don Juan de Oñate, who established the first Spanish colony in the region in 1598. With the colony came both Spanish soldiers to subjugate the indigenous populations to the Crown and Franciscan friars to convert them to Catholicism.

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