List of forms of government
44-524: The Captaincy General was a division of a viceroyalty in Spanish or Portuguese colonial administration. Captaincies general were established districts that were under threat from foreign invasion or attack from indigenous peoples. Their governors were the Captains general . Spanish captaincies general, on account of their independence and distance from the crown, became virtual viceroyalties, having
88-568: A Chamber of the Indies, similar to the Chamber of Castile. The first three counselors to form the Chamber of the Indies were Álvarez de Toledo, Aponte, and Molina de Medrano, whose titles were issued on January 19, 1601. Alonso Molina de Medrano took his oath as the first chamberlain of the Indies five days later. With the ascension of the Bourbon dynasty at the start of the eighteenth century,
132-652: A direct relationship with the king and the Council of the Indies , in Madrid. This Spanish history –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Viceroyalty A viceroyalty was an entity headed by a viceroy . It dates back to the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the sixteenth century. In the scope of the Portuguese Empire , the term " Viceroyalty of Brazil "
176-632: A migration and a foundation that did not imply the domination of one people over another, but rather the taking possession of a territory" (2004c: 114). This vision of populations that are extensions of the European matrix would have facilitated, in part, the evolution of an institutionality and legal body in which the American provinces were an integral part of the Spanish Crown. At the same time, this institutionality corresponded to an adhesion that
220-475: A separate Secretary of State for the Indies ( Secretarío del Estado del Despacho Universal de Indias ). In the late eighteenth century, the Council became powerful and prestigious again, with a great number of well qualified councillors with experience in the Indies. In 1808 Napoleon invaded Spain and placed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte on the throne. The Cortes of Cádiz , the body Spaniards considered
264-471: A series of administrative changes, known as the Bourbon reforms , were introduced. In 1714 Philip V created a Secretariat of the Navy and the Indies ( Secretaría de Marina e Indias ) with a single Minister of the Indies, which superseded the administrative functions of the Council, although the Council continued to function in a secondary role until the nineteenth century. Fifty years later Charles III set up
308-449: Is also occasionally used to designate the colonial State of Brazil , in the historic period while its governors had the title of "Viceroy". Some of the governors of Portuguese India were also called "Viceroy". The viceroyalty ( Spanish : virreinato ) was a local, political, social, and administrative institution, created by the Spanish monarchy in the sixteenth century, for ruling its overseas territories. The administration over
352-403: The Council of Castile ( Consejo de Castilla ), and formed a Junta de Indias of about eight counselors. Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor was already using the term "Council of the Indies" in 1519. The Council of the Indies was formally created on August 1, 1524. The king was informed weekly, and sometimes daily, of decisions reached by the Council, which came to exercise supreme authority over
396-477: The Spanish East Indies . The crown held absolute power over the Indies and the Council of the Indies was the administrative and advisory body for those overseas realms. It was established in 1524 by Charles V to administer "the Indies", Spain's name for its territories. Such an administrative entity, on the conciliar model of the Council of Castile , was created following the Spanish conquest of
440-625: The Spanish East Indies ; the other in charge of Peru , Chile , Tierra Firme (northern South America), and the New Kingdom of Granada . The name of the Council did not change with the addition of the indias orientales of the East Indies and other Pacific territories claimed by Spain to the original indias occidentales . Internecine fighting and political instability in Peru and the untiring efforts of Bartolomé de las Casas on behalf of
484-610: The Aztec empire in 1521, which demonstrated the importance of the Americas. Originally an itinerary council that followed Charles V, it was subsequently established as an autonomous body with legislative, executive and judicial functions by Philip II of Spain and placed in Madrid in 1561. The Council of the Indies was abolished in 1812 by the Cortes of Cádiz , briefly restored in 1814 by Ferdinand VII , and definitively abolished in 1834 by
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#1732764689076528-632: The British possessions in the Caribbean or, what is considered even more misguided, with colonial domination imposed by England on India at the end of the 18th century. For Lempérière, the process of decisive fragmentation of that Hispanic community after 1810 will be a consequence of an unexpected situation – the crisis of legitimacy that emanates from the vacatio regis and the Napoleonic invasion of 1808. Even more, he will say following François Guerra,
572-575: The Council had responsibility for all aspects of the Indies, under Philip II the financial aspects of the empire were shifted to the Council of Finance in 1556-57, a source of conflict between the two councils, especially since Spanish America came to be the source of the empire's wealth. When the Holy Office of the Inquisition was established as an institution in Mexico and Lima in the 1570s,
616-564: The Council of the Indies was removed from control. The head of the Supreme Council of the Inquisition, Juan de Ovando y Godoy became president of the Council of the Indies 1571-75. He was appalled by the ignorance of the Indies by those serving on the Council. He sought the creation of a general description of the territories, which was never completed, but the Relaciones geográficas were the result of that project. The height of
660-490: The Council's power was in the sixteenth century. Its power declined and the quality of the councillors decreased. In the final years of the Habsburg dynasty , some appointments were sold or were accorded to people obviously unqualified, such as a nine-year-old boy, whose father had rendered services to the crown. A Royal Decree dated August 25, 1600, endorsed by the secretary Pedro Franqueza, favorite of Lerma , established
704-553: The Crown of Castile proceeded in a similar way as in Spain for manage diversity; and this is how he recognizes two great kingdoms: that of New Spain (today Mexico) and that of New Castilla (today Peru). And his first reaction is to govern them in the same plural form as in Spain, that is, integrating local customs and authorities within a larger political perspective represented by the Crown of Castile (...) aims to create two “republics” under
748-418: The Indies ( es:Recopilación de las Leyes de Indias ) and re-codified in 1791. The Council of the Indies was usually headed by an ecclesiastic, but the councilors were generally non-clerics trained in law. In later years, nobles and royal favorites were in the ranks of councilors, as well as men who had experience in the high courts ( Audiencias ) of the Indies. A key example of such an experienced councilor
792-653: The Indies at the local level and over the Casa de Contratación ("House of Trade") founded in 1503 at Seville as a customs storehouse for the Indies. Civil suits of sufficient importance could be appealed from an audiencia in the New World to the Council, functioning as a court of last resort . There were two secretaries of the Council, one in charge of the Viceroyalty of New Spain , encompassing Mexico, Nueva Galicia , Guatemala, Hispaniola , and their dependencies in
836-562: The Indies, where it is said that the Americas are incorporated and united to the Crown of Castile, in accordance with the intentions of Pope Alexander VI. It must be noted in those words incorporated and united, to understand that the provinces of America have not been and are not slaves or vassals of the provinces of Spain; they have been and are like provinces of Castile, with the same privileges and honors." However, there would still be historiographical debates in this regard, among those (the nationalist or colonialist school ) who say that this
880-641: The Monarch, who was the Viceroy. This was not an oppressive political form that placed the people governed by the Viceroy in inferior conditions. Nor is it an invention specially designed to subdue the American Indians. Viceroyalties exist in Europe and the Spanish Crown itself has governed some of the different Hispanic kingdoms in this way; Thus, Valencia and Naples were viceroyalties of Aragon and, after
924-615: The Spanish monarchy..., His Majesty has been pleased to declare... that the kingdoms, provinces and Islands that form the aforementioned domains must have immediate national representation in their royal person and constitute part of the Central Board... through their corresponding deputies. For this royal resolution to take effect, they must appoint the Viceroyalties of New Spain, Peru, New Reyno de Granada and Buenos Aires, and
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#1732764689076968-677: The annexation of Navarre to the Crown of Castile, it remained as a viceroyalty (...) It is not surprising then that this new dynasty, known as the Austrias, used a pluralistic imperial model also to annex the new lands of America. On the other hand, the Papal Bull itself, which granted the Catholic Monarchs the dominion of these new lands, established the Supreme and Universal Principality for the Crown of Castile, but did not deprive
1012-681: The break with Spain inevitable." Council of the Indies The Council of the Indies ( Spanish : Consejo de las Indias ), officially the Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies (Spanish: Real y Supremo Consejo de las Indias , pronounced [reˈal i suˈpɾemo konˈsexo ðe las ˈindjas] ), was the most important administrative organ of the Spanish Empire for the Americas and those territories it governed, such as
1056-655: The fact that legal Pluralism was practiced in Derecho Indiano would be sufficient proof that the Crown did not seek to practice a Exploitative colonialism (where local institutions, which protect the socioeconomic rights of the Vassal people, are ignored, under the excuse of the Right of Conquest ), if not political integration into the Hispanic Monarchy in the same plural way that had already been done with
1100-563: The history of the Spanish empire, going so far as to question its apparent “objective” usefulness that modern historiography gave to the colonial concept to relate it to the causes of the Spanish-American Wars of Independence (that is, that there is an artificial consensus that American social formations, the Reinos de Indias and it's viceroyalties, have been institutionally formed for their economic exploitation and dependence on
1144-619: The independent General Captaincies of the island of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Chile, the Province of Venezuela and the Philippines, one individual each representing their respective district." Such statements would not have been questioned by American representatives in the Cortes of Cádiz , such as the Peruvian Vicente Morales Duárez . "America since the conquest and its indigenous people have enjoyed
1188-580: The initial reaction, unanimous and identical on both sides of the Atlantic, will be to swear loyalty to the King (Guerra, 1993 and 2005). At no time did the Americans, Creoles or other classes, in 1808 present themselves as colonized subjects confronted in a struggle for national liberation. And, in this way, for Guerra and Lempérière it cannot be said that there was a local social ferment that promoted and made
1232-738: The kings and natural lords of the Indies of their lordships." At the same time, the Spanish Empire itself and the Council of the Indies did not perceive the American Viceroyalties as possessions analogous to the Factories or administrative Colonies, in the style of other empires with a more Mercantilist behavior towards the Natives of their non-European possessions, but rather perceived the Viceroyalties as overseas Provinces , with rights equivalent in hierarchy to those of
1276-403: The legitimate government in Spain and its overseas territories in the absence of their Bourbon monarch, abolished the Council in 1812. It was restored in 1814 upon Ferdinand VII 's restoration, and the autocratic monarch appointed a great number of councillors with American experience. The Council was finally abolished in 1834, a year after Ferdinand VII's death and after most of Spain's empire in
1320-523: The metropolis, instead of being an integral part of the Empire like any extension of the Crown, just like its European dominions ). "Lempérière points out that from the first dates of the arrival of Europeans to America until – at least – the beginning of the 19th century, the term “colony” means – following the ancient Roman convention – a settlement that is established outside its political community. Colonize, writes Lempérière, means "above all to populate;
1364-579: The modern sense with connotations of economic exploitation . That would be reaffirmed in the late empire by official statements of the Supreme Central Junta (legal representative of occupied Spain in the middle of the Peninsular War ). "Considering that the vast and precious dominions that Spain possesses in the Indies are not properly colonies or factories like those of other nations, but rather an essential and integral part of
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1408-477: The natives and their ethnic lordships , which could not be deprived of their rights and was only possible its annexation to the Spanish Empire through alliance pacts (whose conditions of such pacts had to include the part of the indigenous sovereign, protector of the common Indian). "However, although there was only one Crown, the diversity of the kingdoms was maintained, with their own jurisdictions, with their national law. So, when taking possession of America,
1452-516: The natives' rights resulted in Charles's overhaul of the structure of the Council in 1542 with issuing of the " New Laws ", which put limits on the rights of Spanish holders of encomiendas , grants of indigenous labor. Under Charles II the Council undertook the project to formally codify the large volume of Council and Crown's decisions and legislation for the Indies in the 1680 publication, the Laws of
1496-538: The political traditions of indigenous customary law would remain alive as a state within the several states that made up the Composite Monarchy, or the desire of the Spanish conquistadors to make pacts with the Natural Lords of the new lands (indigenous nobility and chiefs) to legitimize the conquest in natural law and integrate them into the seigneurial system , respecting the sovereignty of
1540-702: The privileges of Castile. Listen to the words with which a chapter of the titled laws of the year 1542 ends, where the Emperor Charles thus speaks: -we want and command that the Indians be treated as vassals ours from Castile, since they are. With respect to this justice, he had previously made a declaration in Barcelona in September 1529 that gave merit to Law 1. Title 1, of book 3 of the Compilation of
1584-403: The problems related to the colonization process arising from what was seen as tyrannical behavior of Governor Christopher Columbus and his misgovernment of Natives and Iberian settlers. Rodríguez de Fonseca effectively became minister for the Indies and laid the foundations for the creation of a colonial bureaucracy. He presided over a committee or council, which contained a number of members of
1628-410: The regency , acting on behalf of the four-year-old Isabella II . Isabella I had granted extensive authority to Christopher Columbus , but then withdrew that authority, and established direct royal control, putting matters of the Indies in the hands of her chaplain, Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca in 1493. The Catholic Monarchs (Isabella and Ferdinand ) designated Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca to study
1672-658: The rest of its territories in Europe, based on the characteristic Fueros of the traditional and composite Monarchy that maintained the regional laws of each nation integrated into the Spanish Monarchy (and that was even practiced within peninsular Spain after the Reconquista , such as the Fueros of Aragón or the Fueros of Navarra ). This would be evidenced by the creation of the República de Indios in which
1716-614: The rest of the provinces of the Crown of Castile (according to the Laws of the Indies ), of which they were an integral part. Even the word colony would not have been used in any legal document of the Spanish Monarchy with respect to the Indies until the 17th century, and after the arrival of the Bourbons it would be used in reference to its classic etymological sense of human settlements established in new territories, and not in
1760-488: The same Crown: the “republic of Spaniards” and the “republic of Indians”, each with their own authorities and rules, although both subject to the mandates of the Crown. As it was evident that the Spanish King could not personally govern such distant towns and territories, he established that such kingdoms are Viceroyalties, that is, political spaces with their own identity that are in charge of a personal representative of
1804-521: The vast territories of the Spanish Empire was carried out by viceroys , who became governors of an area, which was considered not as a colony but as a province of the empire, with the same rights as any other province in Peninsular Spain . According to the lawyer Fernando de Trazegnies , the status of the Viceroyalties was like that of a Kingdom among the Kingdoms of the Indies, and that
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1848-501: Was Juan de Solórzano Pereira , author of Política Indiana , who served in Peru prior to being named to the Council of the Indies and led the project on the Laws of the Indies. Other noteworthy Presidents of the Council were es:Francisco Tello de Sandoval ; es:Juan de Ovando y Godoy ; Pedro Moya de Contreras , former archbishop of Mexico; and Luis de Velasco, marqués de Salinas , former viceroy of both Mexico and Peru. Although initially
1892-487: Was not imposed nor the result of the military strength of the Crown, but of the common involvement in the monarchical, Catholic, corporatist and pactist ideology, in short, a sincere belonging for a long time elaborated and that had the participation of broad social sectors, from the Creoles to castes and indigenous people (...) Therefore, it is more appropriate to compare New Granada with Aragon or even Naples than with Haiti,
1936-476: Was only De jure positions on paper, and not a De facto reality in social dynamics (the revisionist school ). Authors such as Annick Lempérière consider that the “colonial” concept in Hispanic reality would have been an anachronistic concept that serves mostly an ideological use by historians (wanting to develop an idyllic vision of Spanish-American Independence) rather than to make a scientific description of
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