Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

12-2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

First Advisor

Dr. Linda English

Second Advisor

Dr. Friederike Bruehoefener

Third Advisor

Dr. George T. Díaz

Abstract

This thesis considers economic and social aspects of French immigration to the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) of Texas during the mid-nineteenth century, with special emphasis on a small group of merchants who left France during the 1850s. It synthesizes the work of several scholars who have focused on French presence in the LRGV with others who have analyzed various economic facets of the LRGV during different periods between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. This study attempts to situate five families into the context of nineteenth-century European migration to the Americas, as well as into the Gulf maritime economy on the eve of the military conflicts in the U.S-Mexico borderlands of the 1860s. The research focuses on the economic conditions as well as the commercial, familial, and social networks that contributed to their financial success and enduring legacies.

Comments

Copyright 2019 Kristen Denise Kline. All Rights Reserved.

https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/gulf-trade-networks-family-ties-french-migration/docview/2382599615/se-2?accountid=7119

Included in

History Commons

Share

COinS