Mabila
| Battle of Mabila | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Spanish colonization of the Americas | |||||
|
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| Belligerents | |||||
| Habsburg Spain | Mississippian culture | ||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||
| Hernando de Soto | Tuskaloosa | ||||
| Strength | |||||
| around 600 Spaniards | over 3000 | ||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||
| 200 | 2500-3000? | ||||
The town of Mabila (or Mavila, Mavilla, Mauvilla) was a small fortress town known to Chief Tuskaloosa in 1540, in a region of present-day central Alabama. The exact location has been debated for centuries, but southwest of present-day Selma, Alabama, is one possibility. Mabila was a Trojan-horse, fake village concealing over 2500 native warriors, planning to attack the expedition of Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in 1540.
When Hernando de Soto had first met Tuskaloosa at his home village, and asked him for supplies, Tuskaloosa advised them to travel to another of his towns, known as Mabila, where supplies would be waiting. A native messenger was sent ahead to Mabila, but when Tuskaloosa and the first group of Spaniards arrived, Tuskaloosa simply asked them to leave. When a fight broke out between one soldier and a native, many hidden warriors emerged from houses and began shooting arrows. The Spaniards fled, leaving their possessions inside the fortress. The full conflict that resulted is called the Battle of Mabila.
The walled compound of Mabila, one of many that the Spaniards encountered in their travels, was enclosed in a thick stuccoed wall, 16.5-ft (5-m) high, made from wide tree trunks tied with cross-beams and covered with mud/straw stucco, to appear as a solid wall. The fortress was defended by shooting arrows or throwing stones.
The town of Mabila was described by Garcilaso de la Vega as:
The greatest losses suffered by the Spaniards occurred during the battle at Mabila. De Soto had taken the powerful Chief Tuskaloosa, from his own town, to another town where the chief had promised to provide supplies.
On October 18, 1540, de Soto and the expedition arrived at Mabila, a heavily fortified village situated on a plain. It had a wooden palisade encircling it, with bastions every so often for archers to shoot their longbows. Upon arriving at Mabila, the Spaniards knew something was amiss. The population of the town was almost exclusively male- young warriors and men of status. There were several women, but no children. The Spaniards also noticed the palisade had been recently strengthened, and that all trees, bushes, and even weeds, had been cleared from outside the settlement for the length of a crossbow shot. Outside the palisade, in the field an older warrior had been seen haranguing younger warriors, and leading them in mock skirmishes and military exercises.
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Wikipedia