Water in the Hispanic Southwest: a social and legal history 1550- 1850.

Abstract

The scarcity of water in the arid environment of what is today the northern part of Mexico proved more important than land in the Spanish-Indian power struggle. It exerted a considerable bearing on the location of population centres, encouraged clashes between ethnic and social groups, determined the growth of agriculture and industry, and affected the form of governmental institutions. Having reconstructed from archival sources and dendrochronology the incidence and sequence of wet and dry years, the author describes the role of the law in adjudicating water disputes. Problems involving both the legal relationship of land to water, and the acquisition of water rights, are traced from Spanish colonial times through the Mexican era. -J.Sheail