Weapons of Mississippi

2. GUNS, STEEL, AND FORTS: WEAPONS OF THE EUROPEANS IN MISSISSIPPI

12 GUNS, STEEL, AND FORTS WEAPONS OF THE EUROPEANS IN MISSISSIPPI In the fifteenth century, powerful new monarchies built on centralized authority emerged in Europe. The heads of these states were able to control financial and military resources to a degree that undermined the authority of competing nobles, and the kings built powerful armies that dominated the armored knights who were loyal to the noblemen. In the process, armies developed a broad range of bowmen, pikemen, musketeers, and artillerymen, all armed with the weapons of the new military technology . This European state building and military progress resulted in the projection of power across the seas. On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus made landfall at an island in the Bahamas, and the Spanish soon established a base of operations on the island of Hispaniola. By then, all complex Eurasian societies were skilled in using metal to make tools and weapons. At the same time, the weapons of native Mississippians were still principally of wood, stone, and bone, with the exception of a few largely ornamental pieces made of copper. The result was that when Columbus and other European explorers and conquistadores reached the New World, they possessed a tremendous weaponry advantage that they would use to control the new lands they had found. 2 GUNS, STEEL, AND FORTS 13 When the Caribbean failed to produce the huge deposits of gold that the Spanish sought, they shifted their attention to the American mainland . During the early sixteenth century, the Spanish presence in the New World was advanced by conquistadores such as Hernando de Soto, who led an expedition through what is now Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama before reaching present-day Mississippi. Whenever he encountered Indians, he treated them harshly, often holding their chief captive to ensure good behavior and demanding porters to carry the Spaniards’ heavy loads.1 De Soto was able to impose his will on the Indians because of his weapons advantage. Just as de Soto was about to enter Mississippi, he fought his most deadly battle with the Indians at Mabila, a contest that pitted superior Spanish weapons technology and military hardware against Indian bravery and skill with the bow and arrow.Indeed,the battle was a harbinger for the role technology would play in weapons in Mississippi. According to one observer, “It was modern warfare—iron, steel, armor, and gunpowder— against stone arrows, clubs, and spears, and as would happen often in years This print of de Soto discovering the Mississippi shows the marked contrast between the wellarmed , well-equipped Spanish conquistadores and the native Indians. Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. GUNS, STEEL, AND FORTS 14 to come, modern technology carried the day.”2 Not just outsiders but their weapons as well had come to Mississippi and changed the landscape. De Soto continued to explore Mississippi and beyond until his death in 1542. The survivors of his expedition withdrew to Vera Cruz, Mexico, the next year, and with their departure, Mississippi was left undisturbed by Europeans for nearly 150 years. Still, the trauma of the violence and previously unknown weaponry introduced by de Soto was seared into the Indian consciousness.3 After the rather inglorious Spanish exit, the next European power to begin establishing settlements in the lower Mississippi River Valley was France. Explorers like Louis Joliet, Jacques Marquette, René-Robert Cavelier (Sieur de La Salle), Henri de Tonty, and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne (Sieur de Bienville) helped forge a French presence in the vast region they called Louisiana, but though La Salle claimed the region in 1682, he failed to solidify the act by establishing a settlement. It was not until the late 1690s that the French government took serious steps to fortify the region and begin transforming it into a functioning colony. The introduction of forts and their weapons was a critical component in the steady march of European domination in Mississippi. In 1699, Bienville’s older brother Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville, landed at present-day Ocean Springs, or Vieux Biloxy (Old Biloxi), and built Fort Maurepas. The French proceeded to fortify other key locations in the region, including Fort Rosalie at present-day Natchez, which Bienville completed in 1716. Unlike the somewhat desultory wanderings of de Soto, Forts Maurepas and Rosalie serve as examples of how Europeans used weapons to secure a fixed presence in Mississippi by leveraging technology, organization, and centralization...