Changing Tides Twilight and Dawn in the Spanish Sea, 1763–1803 by Robert S. Weddle

Robert S. Weddle's books have garnered the Presidio La Bahía Award, the Kate Broocks Bates Award, the Friends of the Dallas Public Library Award, the Gilbert Chinard Prize, and certificates from the American Association for State and Local History and the San Antonio Conservation Society.

In this grand finale to his historical trilogy, award-winning author Robert S. Weddle resumes the dramatic voyage of discovery and exploration that began in the Gulf of Mexico (the "Spanish Sea") and along its coast in 1500. Combining thorough research with elegant narrative, Changing Tides offers political intrigue, hurricanes and shipwrecks, and the rich historiography that marks the period between 1763 and 1803.

The book opens with a series of territorial transfers that drove France from the North American continent and launched a flurry of exploration by Spain and England, each eager to survey its new territory and align its defenses. Spanish reconnaissance of the Texas barrier islands and lagoons in response to a rumored English threat and three voyages to survey and map the Gulf Coast west of the Mississippi River demonstrate international rivalry as a spur to exploration. The story concludes with Spain's retrocession of Louisiana to France and the immediate sale of the territory to the United States, a milestone toward the young nation's Manifest Destiny.

ROBERT S. WEDDLE is an independent scholar and rancher near Bonham, Texas. The first two volumes in his trilogy were Spanish Sea and The French Thorn. He also co-edited La Salle, the Mississippi, and the Gulf: Three Primary Documents.

Number Fifty-eight: The Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students, Texas A&M University

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Changing Tides
ISBN 0-89096-661-3
$49.50s

LC 95-11476. 6x9. 384 pp. 18 b&w photos. 24 maps. Bib. Index.
American History. Geography.

Publication Date: August 1995.

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