Description
Feral Empire: Horse and Human in the Early Modern Iberian World challenges traditional narratives of colonial conquest by centering the agency and impact of feral horses in shaping early modern Iberian expansion. Kathryn Renton demonstrates how horses, introduced by Spanish conquistadors, escaped captivity and proliferated across new landscapes, fundamentally altering indigenous societies, ecosystems, and European colonial strategies.
Rather than viewing horses merely as tools of conquest, Renton explores how feral horse populations developed their own ecological and social dynamics, influencing trade networks, military tactics, and cultural practices. The book examines how indigenous peoples adapted to and leveraged these animal populations, sometimes resisting colonial control through horsemanship and cavalry tactics.
By integrating animal history, environmental history, and imperial studies, this groundbreaking work offers fresh insights into the interconnected histories of Europe, Iberia, and the Americas during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
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