 The first large scale recruitment of fee-colored militias was in response to the attack on Veracruz port in 1683 by Dutch pirateer Lorenzo de Graff, with free-colored soldiers being called in from Mexico City, Puebla, Orizaba and other large colonial cities.Militias increasingly began to take shape and develop over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, but it's critical to understand that their development was not a linear progressive one.The experiences of militias in urban areas was vastly different than those in rural communities, and the role, influence, and duties of militias in the early 17th century were not the same as those of a century later.