Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Comanches Vs. Apaches

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Tonkawas did the same but didn’t have to pack a lunch

I don't believe for a moment that individuals from any one tribe were superior physical specimens to other examples of other tribes. It was not individual attributes that made the Comanche the dominant force they were. There were several factors:

1. the strength of their social bonds and unity as a people

2. their acquisition of horses and development of an equestrian culture

3. their serendipitous arrival in and occupation of a very strategic geographic location, or IOW being in the right place at the right time

4. a system of leadership that produced sound decisions on trade, relations with other nations, and other important issues

The Comanche nation could not possibly all congregate in one area because of the number of horses they possessed, so they had to disperse in groups known as rancherias. The rancherias had to remain mobile because the horse herds would overgraze if not moved frequently. This caused dispersal over a wide area and that put the Comanche in contact with other tribes on all sides, sometimes resulting in alliances, and sometimes resulting in conflict. Alliances were largely based on commercial interests---trade. As it worked out, the Comanche were in contact with the New Mexico settlements on the western flank and other tribes on the east who were in contact with settlements in the Mississippi River valley. The Comanche found themselves in the middle, living in prime horse country with a huge demand for horses to the east and a huge demand for manufactured goods to the west. New Mexico was New Spain's (and later Mexico's) red-headed step child, essentially and the policies of Mexico were to build, preserve, protect, and enrich the environs surrounding Mexico City itself leaving the northern New Mexico settlements to fend for themselves. The New Mexicans found themselves reliant on the Comanche to the extent that their allegiance to Mexico was questionable at best, and that would eventually lead to New Mexico's ambivalence to American conquest during the Mexican War.

As momentous as the acquisition of the southwest at the end of the Mexican War was, it can be seen that the simple fact that the Comanche (a people who it is thought originated as a Shoshone band who migrated into Ute territory and coexisted with them for a time) acquired horses, mastered horsemanship, and occupied the territory they did was key in determining the ultimate outcome.

This is why I love history, and stories like this played out all over the world, continually from the beginning of mankind.

I think I have more reading to do.