The most defining images of the old West comes in the form of the cowboy. Being born, growing up in the ranch lands and living in great cattle and horse country, like Willie Nelson states "My heroes have always been cowboys". We heard the tales from our families and in school about the great cowboys of old and how the cowboys started the America's. Yes, there is a 's' at the end of that.

We will start off with Christopher Columbus. After his first voyage to the New World he prepared cattle and horses for his second trip. He wanted a way to be away from the aristocrats, the throne and make good money without help from the main lands. Huge ranches were started off. Granted most were started as a way to keep a good income flowing while the search for the cities of gold awaited them. Esquivil's colony on Jamaica, Ponce de Leon's on Puerto Rico and in Cuba Velasquez all started ranches and raised the Arabic horses and cattle. Salazar and Cortez came to the America's specifically to start ranches. With the lush and open lands for the cattle to graze and the wonderful Arabic horses the New World was ripe for ranching. In fact, the New World was so great that cattle became so populated that many roamed wild and unclaimed. This was a great way to keep self sufficient and away from the troubles of waiting for supplies. Poor navigation, old ships, and storms were a problem and at times would never arrive. Look at Jamestown to see the problems of dependence from the motherland.

Now with every great money making deal not everyone will get rich, and trouble will arise. At first it was simply crew that stayed on in the colonies and natives would get the unclaimed cattle and slaughter for sale. This was never really a problem until some started to sell at lower rates than the main houses. Many proprietors would buy because of no taxes and regulations, they could take more at a lessor price. Then sell at the regular rates. This also led to the problem of ship jumpers, slaves, natives, and fugitives hiding in the mountains. These people came together and lived in self sustaining colonies that were very hard to get too. The natives took these people in and they would start taking the cattle for food and for sales. The Spanish really went out to get these people either back in chains, or to be put to death. In this turn the fugitives, natives, and slaves grew into tighter communities and literally fought for their lives.

There is no better example of this than in the Caribbean Islands. These small groups grew together and were a plight on the Spanish. They were well organized and quite deadly to the incompetent Spanish army that blundered it's way through the bush looking for these people. These groups of people captured the roaming cattle and took them to their smokehouses to cure the meat. This skill was taught by the natives who called their smokehouses boucans. After the meat was cured the boucaniers took small boats out to the large shipping vessels of the English and French. Their names were butchered by the two languages and soon they became the "Buccaneers".

Of course things went from bad to worst. The Spanish would attack the areas of residence and the boats carrying the meat. At times they attacked the freighters carrying the meat which would start a minor war between the countries. The buccaneers soon started raiding villages and towns. They also began to take their small ships and board the war vessels and ships of the Spanish. These buccaneers would also be paid by English, French, and Dutch to attack the Spanish and other countries ships. The "Pirates of Caribbean" would turn the Spanish Main into a war zone for decades and contribute to the start of the wild, wild west. This was the first of the America's great cattle wars.