[Hector Mendoza]

Hello all,

I hope you are all doing well during these harsh times. I hope no one will take offense with what I'm going to state here. If you have better sources than I do please point them out. In a nutshell: It seems to me a bunch of different types of weapons such as hunting hangers, cutlasses, cut and thrust swords from different time periods have been bundled together into the classification "Mexican Espada Ancha" for whatever reason. Which in my opinion is not correct.

Example of a so called Espada Ancha:


Example of a North European hunting sword:


I haven't found a single Mexican or Spanish source that describes them as such other than modern websites that are clearly following American online sources. Maybe after the independence from Spain there would be a case for these to exist but before then I'd imagine Spain would be perfectly capable of supplying New Spain regiments with proper weaponry such as the 1728 reglamentary cavalry sword.



It is sad to me that the colonial time period is seemingly not widely studied in Mexico because of stupid nationalistic views. And it seems in Spain it isn't that widely studied either because of what appears to be black legend inspired self-hatred and shame.

Let me know what you think!

[Elnathan Barnett]

This is a bit of thread necromancy to be sure. Hector, if you are still around and interested in the question, you might want to have a look at Brinkerhoff and Chamberlain's Spanish Military weapons in Colonial America, 1700-1821. My copy is in storage, but IIRC it contains a section on Espada Ancha, which they distinguish from other kinds of swords. You might also have a look at Brinkerhoff and Faulk's Lancers for the KIng, which I have not read. If nothing else a look at their bibliographies might be interesting.