Franco-Spanish Relations

Soon after the end of the War of Spanish Successions, the king of France died in 1715. Louis XIV left a five-year-old dauphin. The regent, Philippe II, Duc d’Orléans, sought peace with his neighbors to protect the throne. When Philip V, king of Spain, made aggressive moves to recover his lost territories on the Italian peninsula, war broke out between France and Spain in 1718.

The French sent Claude-Charles du Tisne west along tributaries of the Missouri to locate the Wichita and Apache in 1719. He traveled through a poisoned atmosphere. Each group he met suspected he might be a slave trader. Once convinced he was friendly, they were unwilling to help him go farther west lest he arm their enemies with guns. He got as far west as the Wichita who refused to let him pass.

Coincidentally, the Comanche joined the Utes attacking the northern pueblos and Spanish settlements. They penetrated as far south as Embudo during the dry summer of 1719. When the governor, Antonio Valverde, called his military leaders, most wanted to attack. Only a few living in the north like Sebastían Martín and Ignacio de Roybal y Torrado advised caution.

Valverde lead a force of 60 soldiers from the presidio, 45 settlers, 465 warriors from the pueblos and 165 Apache out onto the plains. When they got to El Cuartelejo, they found men with gunshot wounds. The plains Apache told them the Panana and Jumano had been armed by the French. The governor returned to Santa Fé with greatly exaggerate reports of threats on the eastern frontier.

Meantime, war had ended in Europe with the Treaty of the Hague, signed in February of 1720. Before he had word of the changed situation, Valverde sent Pedro de Villasur to locate the Pawnees in June with 42 men from the presidio, 3 settlers, and 60 auxiliaries. One August morning as they were breaking camp, they were ambushed. Eleven of the pueblo troops were killed with 31 of the soldiers. They represented nearly a third of the garrison forces. The viceroy saw it as a truce violation by Spain.

France and Spain signed a friendship treaty in 1721. When Britain joined the alliance, it was given trade concessions in the Spanish colonies. Peace lasted until Louis XV came of age in 1723 and the Duc d’Orléans died. Distrust returned. Spain banned all trade with the French in Louisiana.

In 1724, Philip V abdicated in favor of his son. Historians have debated since if it was another ploy to unseat Louis XV or if he feared he was becoming mentally unstable.

Another French trader, Bourgmont, traveled west with Osage and Missouris into Kansas to develop relations with the Padouca. When the viceroy sent his own man to investigate the situation, he was told the Comanche were powerful, but the fight should be left to the Apache. Relations between France and Spain were too unsettled to sanction war.

Philip’s son died in August, and Philip returned to the throne. France broke the marriage contracts that had accompanied the treaty of 1721. Spain realigned itself with the Hapsburgs. Competition between France and Spain reopened in Texas.

Notes: Sieur de Bourgmont was Étienne de Veniard. Pananas were Pawnee. Bourgmont thought the Padouca were Comanche. Grinnell decided they were the Apache who later became the Kiowa Apache. Villasur’s survivors thought their attackers were Pawnee.

Carson, Phil. Across the Northern Frontier, 1998.

Grinnell, George B. "Who Were the Padouca?", American Anthropologist 22:248-260:1920.

John, Elizabeth A. H. Storms Brewed in Other Men’s Worlds, 1996 edition.

Thomas, Alfred B. After Coronado, 1935.