Captain josé linares in salto de los arrecifes frontier: a stubborn and violent public official handling frontier relations (1766-1770)

Abstract

In the frontier space which sought to protect the city of Buenos Aires from sovereign indigenous groups of la pampa in the 18th century, crown officials were in command of precarious defensive fortresses and developed a policy focused mainly in the exchange of goods, information and captives, alternating between peace treatments and punitive expeditions. The commanders of those fortresses had different personalities and peculiar ideas regarding the day to day treatment towards the “enemigo infiel” -unfaithful enemy- and the tactics employed to control and discipline them, which rely mainly on a tolerant Borbonic policy and certain degree of authority delegation in frontier affairs. The case of José de Linares, commander of Salto, shows how these matters were solved on a daily basis and the conflicts involving Indians, neighbors, troops and superiors he went through while he was able to increase his economic power and social prestige.