"I was nothing but a lender of what I was ordered to supply..." Francisco Amangual, trustee of the presidio and las compañías volantes in the Spanish borderlands, 1701–1812

Abstract

Francisco Amangual represented an agent for the Spanish colonial empire throughout his career as a presidio paymaster and in his ultimate role as the captain of a specialized unit of the borderlands military, the so-called compañías volantes, or flying squadrons. This study reorients colonial borderlands scholarship by making clear the significance of the empire's lesser known intermediaries charged with documenting the seemingly mundane activities of life in the garrison. Further, assigning a cogent place to the presence of the volantes allows for a more thoroughgoing understanding of their history by disentangling their place from among the various presidial units in the Spanish colonial frontier.