Storms Brewed in Other Men’s Worlds: The Confrontation of Indians, Spanish, and French in the Southwest, 1540–1795

The interior Southwest United States--which Elizabeth John defines as including "that vast arena stretching westward from the pine-forested great bend of the Red River to the red desert mesas of the Colorado Plateau"--was a hotly contested territory for generations. First came the Spanish, who conquered it while never completely subduing the indigenous culture. Then came the French, who fought with Spain over control of what is now Louisiana and eastern Texas. Still later came the English and, finally, the Americans, who were able to capitalize on the exhaustion of the great colonial powers. John, a highly regarded historian of the region, takes a panoptic view of these complicated events and delivers a fine, gracefully written overview.