The Founding and Fracturing of the Mosquito Confederation

Zambos, Tawiras, and New Archival Evidence, 1711-1791

Bibliographic Data

ID2831973
AuthorsDaniel Mendiola (0000-0002-4175-6280, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume99
Issue4
Pages619-647
Publication date2019-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHispanic American Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2168 • E-ISSN: 1527-1900
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00182168-7787153
OpenAlexW2982443147
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited18

The purpose of this article is to assess the political, diplomatic, and ethnic dynamics of the Mosquito Kingdom, an Afro-indigenous alliance based along Central America's Caribbean coast, during the eighteenth century. Drawing from new archival sources-most notably those of the National Archives of Costa Rica-this essay first examines the political organization of the Mosquitos, demonstrating that early leaders consolidated their authority by unifying different factions into a powerful confederation with expansionist tendencies. This essay then presents new evidence against the hypothesis that ethnic rivalry was a major source of factional conflict within the kingdom and thereby calls for a reexamination of the causes of the confederation's descent into civil war in 1791

Alliance · Economic history · Ethnic group · Expansionism · Indigenous · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Rivalry · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Botany and Geology in Latin America and Caribbean · Cuban History and Society · Historical Studies in Central America · History · Law

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