The juridical framework of the early Spanish expeditions to the New World mainland is better known than other aspects of these adventures. The social composition and attitudes toward leaders and comrades of these forces are little known. The present work is for the purpose of filling some of the gaps in our knowledge of the earliest expeditions.
The first problem tackled is one of definition. “La denominación del grupo de conquistadores no es cosa fácil. ‘Compaña’ se refiere al común de los conquistadores solo en sus relaciones internas, y es poco usada en el siglo XVI. . .. ‘Banda’, tan empleado en Europa en el siglo XVI como porción de gente armada puede ser utilizado más por su comodidad y expresividad. . .. El nombre exacto para las incursiones más ligeras y espontáneas, que parten de alguna ciudad o fortaleza . . . es el de ‘cabalgada’, que nos parece muy prefirible.” Other terms used frequently in the chronicles were entrada, jomada, and conquista.
In his study of minor sorties rather than major conquests the author concludes that the peninsular wars and conquest of the Canary Islands produced a frontier warrior type and the practice of almost continuous “cavalcades.” These the Spaniards and Portuguese brought to the New World. Among these warriors was a differentiation according to the degree of social and spiritual discipline. The Military Orders had declined, and by the 15th century had been converted into oligarchic institutions without corporate life and without responsibility. The New World conquests were left for the light, spontaneous bands which once harassed the Moslems. What was peculiar about them was not their eagerness for booty, which was universal, but the practice of capturing men to sell as slaves. “El incentivo del comercio de esclavos actúa en el mismo sentido, reforzando la intensidad de estas conquistas. La duración de esta frontera de guerra esclavistas es ampliamente variable, de unas décadas a períodos seculares.”
