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191-479: The reforms resulted in significant restructuring of administrative structure and personnel. The reforms were intended to stimulate manufacturing and technology to modernise Spain. In Spanish America , the reforms were designed to make the administration more efficient and to promote its economic, commercial and fiscal development. When looking at the material effects of how the Bourbon Reforms aimed to change

382-596: A Christian institution. Conquest and evangelization were inseparable in Spanish America. The first order to make the trip to the Americas were the Franciscans, led by Pedro de Gante. Franciscans believed that living a spiritual life of poverty and holiness was the best way to be an example that inspired others to convert. The friars would walk into the towns barefoot as a display of their surrender to God in

573-493: A European power. The Bourbon Reforms transitioned Spain's economic policy to be increasingly mercantilist , an economic policy in which countries maximize their exports and minimize their imports to secure greater portion of wealth from a fixed amount in the world. This wealth was measured in the quantity that ended up in imperial treasuries. An important goal of the Bourbon Reforms was to increase legal, registered trade with Spanish America in order to collect more tax revenue for

764-558: A French institution, the intendant . The intendancies had the intended effect of further decentralizing the administration at the expense of viceroys, captains general and governors, since intendants were directly responsible to the Crown and were granted large powers in economic and political matters. The intendancy system proved to be efficient in most areas and led to an increase in revenue collection. Intendency seats were mainly based in large cities and successful mining centers. Almost all of

955-424: A Spanish viewpoint, the castas paintings would most-likely have provided a sort of sense to the madness that was mixed races. There were political implications of this portrait as well. The mestizo child appears to be literate with a satisfied grin facing his father alluding to the opportunity the child has due to his father being European. A central question from the time of first Contact with indigenous populations

1146-668: A central public square, and much of colonial life emanated from or was planned around that center. During the period of the Bourbon reforms, the Spanish crown wanted to switch from the Plaza Mayor model, in which the plaza was a central square that was a daily market and a space for public festivities, to the Plaza de Armas model, in which the plaza space would be cleared and devoted to martial activities. These reforms were characterized by

1337-596: A century. During the early colonial era and under the Habsburgs, the crown established a regional layer of colonial jurisdiction in the institution of Corregimiento , which was between the Audiencia and town councils . Corregimiento expanded "royal authority from the urban centers into the countryside and over the indigenous population." As with many colonial institutions, corregimiento had its roots in Castile when

1528-496: A chain of presidios , military forts or garrisons, that provided Spanish settlers protection from Indian attacks. In Mexico during the sixteenth-century Chichimeca War , presidios guarded the transit of silver from the mines of Zacatecas to Mexico City. As many as 60 salaried soldiers were garrisoned in presidios. Presidios had resident commanders, who set up commercial enterprises of imported merchandise, selling it to soldiers as well as Indian allies. The other frontier institution

1719-519: A closed commercial system limited to one port in Spain and only a few in the Indies was in practice not closed, with European merchant houses supplying Spanish merchants in the Spanish port of Seville with high quality textiles and other manufactured goods that Spain itself could not supply. Much of the silver of the Indies was diverted into those European merchant houses. Crown officials in the Indies enabled

1910-529: A crucial thought; was the Spanish crown foolish to encourage the creation of these militias? While on the surface this seemed to be a failure from the beginning, the reality was Spain did not have much of a choice but to trust the Creoles. The reality was the Spanish Empire was tied down in to many places, and naturally they ran out of resources. Following the disastorous loss of Havana and Manila in

2101-503: A direct connection drawn between monopoly policies and the outcomes of those policies. The overall evolution of monopoly policies suggests that the Bourbons were, in fact, quite aware of organizational problems that plague hierarchies, and that they had a solid understanding of the importance of transaction costs for the sustenance of bureaucracy. This is evidenced in the design of the factory system, which helped vertically integrate much of

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2292-528: A high level of importance, the crown established the Council of the Indies in 1524, following the conquest of the Aztec Empire , asserting permanent royal control over its possessions. Regions with dense indigenous populations and sources of mineral wealth attracting Spanish settlers became colonial centers, while those without such resources were peripheral to crown interest. Once regions incorporated into

2483-434: A key group for the administration of the Spanish Empire, since they served as intermediaries between crown officials and indigenous communities. Indigenous noblemen could serve on cabildos , ride horses, and carry firearms. The crown's recognition of indigenous elites as nobles meant that these men were incorporated into colonial system with privileges separating them from Indian commoners. Indian noblemen were thus crucial to

2674-451: A manner that was extremely modern. In tandem with this were data-gathering expeditions that were sponsored and sent out to develop a deeper understanding of the colonies. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered so that systems of taxation could be modified to maximize tax revenue for the crown. Moreover, the practice of tax-farming ended. Prior to the Bourbon reforms, the practice of tax-farming allowed people, specifically members of

2865-456: A market for their manufactured goods. The crown ordered these changes in hopes that it would have a positive effect on the economy of Spain. Furthermore, the Bourbon Reforms were intended to limit the power of Criollos and re-establish peninsular supremacy over the colonies. The reforms achieved mixed results administratively but succeeded in alienating the local elites of the Americas (who called themselves Criollos ) and eventually led to

3056-553: A mean to implant these ideas in Spain. In principle, afrancesados were upper-and-middle class supporters of the French occupation of Iberia ( Portugal and Spain ), preferring the reforms of the " enlightened despots " Napoleon I and his brother Joseph Bonaparte (installed by Napoleon as King of Spain) or, as a lesser evil, preferring to avoid the consequences of outright war with the greatest military power in Europe. In Spain,

3247-463: A mixture of construction projects, relocations, and unfinished or unsuccessful projects. Although they were only partially applied, some aspects of these reform projects actually spilled over from colonial to republican times, post- independence. In fact, in both Mexico and Peru, the independent regimes assumed features of the Bourbon reform program in terms of the use and understanding of the plaza. Under Charles III, colonial matters were concentrated in

3438-553: A policy that secular clerics had long sought for the central areas of empire, with their large indigenous populations. Although implementation was slow and incomplete, it was an assertion of royal power over the clergy and the quality of parish priests improved, since the Ordenanza mandated competitive examination to fill vacant positions. Religious orders along with the Jesuits embarked on further evangelization in frontier regions of

3629-652: A portion of the Caribbean, and the Philippines, and the viceroyalty of Peru (founded 1542) having jurisdiction over Spanish South America. Viceroys served as the vice-patron of the Catholic Church, including the Inquisition , established in the seats of the viceroyalties (Mexico City and Peru). Viceroys were responsible for good governance of their territories, economic development, and humane treatment of

3820-506: A predominantly middle class intellectual, merchant, or manufacturer who saw the French as agents of change in the rigid structure of Spanish society, and who reacted against the perceived corruption and incompetence of Charles IV and the House of Bourbon in general (including Joseph's competitor Ferdinand VII ). King Joseph found himself at war with the majority of his subjects. He relied on

4011-431: A public herald. They were in charge of distributing land to the neighbors, establishing local taxes, dealing with the public order, inspecting jails and hospitals, preserving the roads and public works such as irrigation ditches and bridges, supervising the public health, regulating the festive activities, monitoring market prices, or the protection of Indians. After the reign of Philip II, the municipal offices, including

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4202-462: A quarter of appointees being born in the Indies by 1687. During a financial crisis in the late seventeenth century, the crown began selling Audiencia appointments, and American-born Spaniards held 45% of Audiencia appointments. Although there were restrictions of appointees' ties to local elite society and participation in the local economy, they acquired dispensations from the cash-strapped crown. Audiencia judgments and other functions became more tied to

4393-586: A regiment being formed in the city and Metropolitan ones being rotated through the city with at least 2 at all times within the city occasionally rising to 3. The reform of the Colonial militia was along the pattern introduced by Alejandro O'Reilly whilst in Havana and added to by instructions from Madrid. Colonial Militias were to contain men between 16–45 years of age with the men being conscripted if volunteers were insufficient. The wealthy and educated were to be

4584-638: A regional and national level. The Spanish were caught in an ever tightening noose of imperial rivalry abroad with the British, the French, and the Portuguese. They were all fighting for domination in the Atlantic trade. Spain's problems with its neighbor were the biggest concern, and the Spanish Bourbons made constant short-term adjustments to colonial and increasingly, continental war-making. War

4775-426: A set of officiales reales (royal officials). The officials of the royal treasury included up to four positions: a tesorero (treasurer), who guarded money on hand and made payments; a contador (accountant or comptroller), who recorded income and payments, maintained records, and interpreted royal instructions; a factor , who guarded weapons and supplies belonging to the king, and disposed of tribute collected in

4966-418: A single ministry, which took powers away from the Council of the Indies . Furthermore, the advances Americans ( Criollos ) had made in the local bureaucracy in the past century and a half, usually through the sale of offices, were checked by the direct appointment of (supposedly more qualified and disinterested) Spanish officials. Charles III and Charles IV also reversed the advances that Criollos had made in

5157-424: A sort of theater of conversion. With this began the practice of evangelization of the peoples of the new world as supported by the Spanish government. Religious orders in Spanish America had their own internal structures and were organizationally autonomous, but nonetheless were very important to the structure of colonial society. They had their own resources and hierarchies. Though some orders took vows of poverty, by

5348-434: A strategic defensive base for the Spanish ships full of gold and silver being sent to Spain from its New World dominions. The Portuguese mariner sailing for Castile, Ferdinand Magellan , died while in the Philippines commanding a Castilian expedition in 1522, which was the first to circumnavigate the globe . The Basque commander Juan Sebastián Elcano led the expedition to success. Spain sought to enforce their rights in

5539-552: A successful crop after state monopolies were expanded. Also, many of the colonies began to produce an abundance of resources, which became vital to many European powers and the British colonies in North America and the Caribbean despite the fact that most of this trade was considered contraband since it was not carried on Spanish ships. Most of the Bourbon kings tried to outlaw this trade through various programs like increasing

5730-482: A system of direct extraction for the Spanish Empire. This boosted a need for trade between Spain and the colonies as they exported raw goods and needed to receive back the processed and manufactured resources of Spain. The Bourbon reforms brought a different stratagem to military organization in Latin America. The reforms focused on a strong relationship with the cabildos , and compositions of councils chosen by

5921-847: A well-organised manner with an additional 15,000 less organised troops with hundreds more in the Provincias Internas, in Central America the Captain-General of Guatemala possessed an additional 21,136 militiamen. The Bourbons implemented a range of mining reforms to reverse the decline of mines in New Spain and in accordance with the Bourbon's goals to increase the wealth of Spain. The mines had been declining due to technological issues and high costs: as tunnels deepened, flooding became easier and it became more expensive and time-consuming to extract mineral ores. Therefore,

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6112-620: Is fluctuating between 4,000 and 12,000 persons at its peak. Ferdinand broke the terms of his agreement with Napoleon after his return from imprisonment at the Château de Valençay (May 4, 1814), and began a campaign of persecution, defining as afrancesados most of those who had not risen in combat against the French: colaboracionistas (servants of French interests), receivers of honours and distinctions handed by King Joseph, co-operating bureaucrats (those who had not resigned their positions during

6303-576: Is the first known and recorded Christian marriage anywhere in the continental United States. Afrancesado Afrancesado ( Spanish: [afɾanθeˈsaðo] , Portuguese: [ɐfɾɐ̃sɨˈzaðu] ; " Francophile " or "turned- French ", lit. "Frenchified" or "French-alike") refers to the Spanish and Portuguese partisan of Enlightenment ideas, Liberalism , or the French Revolution , that supported Napoleon's occupation as

6494-484: The sistema de castas in hierarchical order, but there was some fluidity in the system rather than absolute rigidity. Men of color began to apply to the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, but in 1688 Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza attempted to prevent their entrance by drafting new regulations barring blacks and mulattoes. In small Mexican parishes, dark complected priests served while their mixed-race heritage

6685-536: The Catholic Monarchs centralize power over municipalities. In the Indies, corregimiento initially functioned to bring control over Spanish settlers who exploited the indigenous populations held in encomienda , to protect the shrinking indigenous populations and prevent the formation of an aristocracy of conquerors and powerful settlers. The royal official in charge of a district was the Corregidor , who

6876-595: The Mantuano elites who were creoles that profited highly from the cacao trade. In addition to changes to production, the nature of trade under the Bourbons, especially after 1740, also shifted – away from the Habsburg fleet system for shipping, which had many inefficiencies and was vulnerable to attack, and towards a single-ship system, which was more competitive with foreign merchants and opened up more Spanish American ports to transatlantic trade. Tobacco proved to be

7067-707: The Moluccan islands , which led a conflict with the Portuguese, but the issue was resolved with the Treaty of Zaragoza (1525), settling the location of the antimeridian of Tordesillas, which would divide the world into two equal hemispheres . From then on, maritime expeditions led to the discovery of several archipelagos in the South Pacific as the Pitcairn Islands , the Marquesas , Tuvalu , Vanuatu ,

7258-572: The Quintuple Alliance intervention. On April 21, 1832, France ordered them to solve their highly problematic stateless condition by either settling in the country or leaving its territory. Joseph Bonaparte's great-great-grandson Frederick Joseph Benton (born in 1954) reviewed the afrancesado doctrine in 1999 but has done nothing to advance its cause. The term afrancesado in Portugal is connected with liberal politicians who organised

7449-625: The República de Indios , men were explicitly excluded from ordination to the Catholic priesthood and obligation for military service as well as the jurisdiction of the Inquisition. Indians under colonial rule who lived in pueblos de indios had crown protections due to their statuses as legal minors. Due to the lack of prior exposure to the Catholic faith, Queen Isabella had declared all indigenous peoples her subjects. This differed from people of

7640-620: The Revolution of Porto , begun on August 25, 1820. Demanding the rule of law as opposed to William Carr Beresford 's arbitrary regime, they called for the return of King John VI - who had preferred to remain in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil , where he had transferred the Portuguese court during the French invasion . French influence, already present during the War of the Oranges , had familiarised

7831-591: The Solomon Islands or New Guinea , to which Spain laid claim. Most important in Pacific exploration was the claim on the Philippines , which was populous and strategically located for the Spanish settlement of Manila and entrepôt for trade with China. On 27 April 1565, the first permanent Spanish settlement in the Philippines was founded by Miguel López de Legazpi and the service of Manila Galleons

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8022-722: The Tribunal de Minería in Lima were created, to handle and make more efficient mining production. In 1792, the Tribunal opened a new mining school, the Royal Mining Seminary, with limited success. There was much growth in mine production under the Bourbons, with silver output increasing by over 15 million Pesos in Mexico alone. Some historians attribute this growth to the Bourbon reforms, whereas others attribute it more to

8213-713: The Tzeltal Rebellion of 1712 and most spectacularly in Peru with the Tupac Amaru Rebellion (1780–81) saw indigenous noblemen leading uprisings against the Spanish state. In the República de Españoles , class and race hierarchies were codified in institutional structures. Spaniards emigrating to The Indies were to be Old Christians of pure Christian heritage , with the crown excluding New Christians , converts from Judaism and their descendants, because of their suspect religious status. The crown established

8404-480: The afrancesados to enforce a project that would gradually replace tradition and absolutism with a system Leandro Fernández de Moratín defined as based on razón, la justicia y el poder ( reason , justice, and power). Progressive but not entirely liberal, this political creation was soon rejected by both conservatives and liberals (many liberals joined the guerilla against the occupation). The afrancesados were also weary of French designs: more favourable to

8595-589: The fondo legal . They managed their own affairs internally through Indian town government under the supervision of royal officials, the corregidores and alcaldes mayores . Although indigenous men were barred from becoming priests, indigenous communities created religious confraternities under priestly supervision, which functioned as burial societies for their individual members, but also organized community celebrations for their patron saint. Blacks also had separate confraternities, which likewise contributed to community formation and cohesion, reinforcing identity within

8786-438: The independence of all overseas dominions of the Spanish crown. This is not to say that a clean and straight line can be drawn from the Bourbon reforms to the movements for independence, but rather that the period of unrest that came in the wake of the reforms helped encourage the conditions necessary for local riots, and eventually revolts. At the end of the 17th century, Spain was an ailing empire, facing declining revenues and

8977-467: The silver mining industry as part of the Crown's attempts to stimulate silver production, which had plummeted throughout Spanish America at the beginning of the 1700s. Spain relied heavily on the silver industry for tax revenue, particularly on the mines at Potosí in the Andes. In 1736, the Crown reduced the tax on silver from one-fifth to one-tenth in order to encourage silver production to be reported. Over

9168-756: The 1530s (later in the Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1717 and present day Colombia ), Lima in 1535 as the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru, Buenos Aires in 1536 (later in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776), and Santiago in 1541. Florida was colonized in 1565 by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés when he founded St. Augustine and then promptly destroyed Fort Caroline in French Florida and massacred its several hundred Huguenot inhabitants after they surrendered. Saint Augustine quickly became

9359-460: The 16th century) that the northern area of South America had certain challenges of distance from Peru. There had been earlier creations of captaincies general in Guatemala and Venezuela, marking an increase in their importance. The addition of the viceroyalties in order to compensate for challenges of distance between northern South America and Peru also came about as a result of the need to protect

9550-456: The 7 years war prompted the formation of a secret commission in Madrid to discuss and implement military reform. The Commission decided firstly, to strengthen fortifications, secondly to reinforce colonial regulars with metropolitan regulars and to raise new colonial units so that reinforcements would not need to be dispatched from Spain during emergency. Thirdly, the artillery was integrated under

9741-526: The African continent because these populations had theoretically been exposed to Catholicism and chose not to follow it. This religious differentiation is important because it gave indigenous communities legal protections from members of the Républica de Españoles. In fact, an often overlooked aspect of the colonial legal system was that members of the pueblos de indios could appeal to the crown and circumvent

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9932-531: The Americas , its justification for the conversion to Catholicism and more specifically about the relations between the European settlers and the natives of the New World . It consisted of a number of opposing views about the way natives were to be integrated into colonial life, their conversion to Christianity and their rights and obligations. According to the French historian Jean Dumont The Valladolid debate

10123-417: The Americas during the Spanish colonization of the Americas . The term "Spanish America" was specifically used during the territories' imperial era between 15th and 19th centuries. To the end of its imperial rule, Spain called its overseas possessions in the Americas and the Philippines "The Indies", an enduring remnant of Columbus's notion that he had reached Asia by sailing west. When these territories reach

10314-489: The Americas. Official records indicate that at least 75% of the silver was taken across the Atlantic to Spain and no more than 25% across the Pacific to China. Some modern researchers argue that due to rampant smuggling about 50% went to China. In the 16th century "perhaps 240,000 Europeans" entered American ports. Further Spanish settlements were progressively established in the New World: New Granada in

10505-549: The Americas. Cádiz could not supply for the large demand in the Americas. He also wanted to end the Spanish Crown's financial dependence on this monopoly. Free trade was largely supported, notably by important ministers like Gálvez, a Spanish Visitador general, who argued for more commercial deregulation and the end of the monopoly of Cádiz in his paper entitled "Discurso y reflexiones de un vasallo sobre la decadencia de nuestras Indias españoles". Another supporter of free trade

10696-668: The Austrian Habsburgs in addition to losing other territories such as the fortress of Sacramento , which brought the Portuguese in close proximity to Buenos Aires. In addition to its lost territory, Spain granted the asiento de negros , a monopoly contract on African slaves to Spanish America to Great Britain . Granting the asiento not only led to a significant loss of revenue for the Spanish Crown, it also provided channels through which British merchants could deal in contraband trade. With these losses, Spain relied primarily on its American colonies to maintain its position as

10887-546: The Bourbons encouraged the creation of militia under Creole control. The Creoles were also tasked with founding municipalities and collecting revenue in order to support their militias and build fortifications. Shortly, the militias soon became significantly larger and more powerful than the standing Spanish Army . In New Spain alone, there was 6000 Spanish soldiers to 23,000 militia. Some believe that militias were often created along race lines, with militias for whites, blacks and mixed race people. However, other studies indicate that

11078-486: The Bourbons fulfil their other reform goals, such as revitalizing old mines and creating new ones. They also used these maps to be able to levy more efficient taxes upon their colonies based on what they consumed and produced in abundance. In terms of agriculture, the Bourbons established state monopolies over crops and established state monopoly over purchases, too. They specifically focused on commercial export crops like sugar, indigo, cochineal, tobacco, and cacao. The State

11269-536: The British government. Philip V of Spain , the first king of the House of Bourbon, took measures intended to counter the decline of Spanish power called the Bourbon Reforms. Even before the war, the state of the empire was precarious. When Charles II died, the military was practically nonexistent, consisting of only one division; the treasury was bankrupt; and there was no state promotion of commerce or industry. Philip V and his ministers needed to act quickly to reconstruct

11460-546: The Caribbean became the focus of the crown in its roles as sovereigns of the empire and patron of the Catholic Church. Spanish conquerors holding grants of indigenous labor in encomienda ruthlessly exploited them Spanish. A number of friars in the early period came to the vigorous defense of the indigenous populations, who were new converts to Christianity. Prominent Dominican friars in Santo Domingo, especially Antonio de Montesinos and Bartolomé de las Casas denounced

11651-610: The Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) in Seville. Ships and cargoes were registered, and emigrants vetted to prevent migration of anyone not of old Christian heritage and facilitated the migration of families and women. In addition, the Casa de Contratación took charge of the fiscal organization, and of the organization and judicial control of the trade with the Indies. The politics of asserting royal authority opposite to Columbus caused

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11842-595: The Church and the Crown in Spanish America . Ecclesiastical institutions were allotted some freedom from the Crown. The fuero eclesiástico , or clerical immunity, granted clergy members immunity from the royal courts. According to this fuero , any civil crime or criminal offense would be heard in front of the ecclesiastical instead of the royal or local court. This privilege was then extended to all clerics, nuns, priests, monks, and friars. This fuero extended to

12033-534: The Council of the Indies and the king without the requirement of requesting authorization from the viceroy. This direct correspondence of the Audiencia with the Council of the Indies made it possible for the council to give the Audiencia direction on general aspects of government. Audiencias were a significant base of power and influence for American-born elites, starting in the late sixteenth century, with nearly

12224-492: The Creole elite, to purchase the right of tax collection from the crown. These people would then pay the crown ahead of time what the expected tax revenue would be, and then they collect taxes themselves afterwards. However, with the elimination of this practice and the transition to direct tax collection, tax rates were thus higher and were also now set at an unnegotiable and inflexible rate. Changes like this were part and parcel of

12415-417: The Crown essential in the local economy. José de Gálvez , the visitador generál in New Spain and later Minister of the Indies, implemented labor regulation through his "Regulation on Wage and Peonage" (1769). This decree specified wages for free labor workers and set conditions for contract fulfillment and circumstances such as debt repayment. Under the Bourbons, the further systematization of wages impacted

12606-442: The Crown's interest. With regards to the economy, collection of taxes was more efficient under the intendancy system. In 1778, Charles III established the "Decree of Free Trade," which allowed the Spanish American ports to trade directly with one another and most ports in Spain. Therefore, "commerce would no longer be restricted to four colonial ports ( Veracruz , Cartagena , Lima/ Callao , and Panama )." Tax reductions were given to

12797-460: The Crown, an aim that was frequently undercut both by the prevalence of contraband and the increasing presence of foreign merchants. One strategy to diminish this trade in contraband was the relocation in 1717 of the Casa de Contratación . This was the House of Trade which oversaw Spanish trade with its colonies, and was moved from Seville , where traders frequently dealt in contraband, to Cádiz . However, this effort did not prove highly effective, as

12988-403: The Indies and eventually rose to the top of that, effectively becoming the most influential figure in the legislation of colonial Americas. Establishment of new viceroyalties also revealed a new revelation on the part of the Spanish crown: that there were huge circuits of illicit trade in Spanish America, and that it was in the best interest of the crown to incorporate these circuits of trade into

13179-413: The Inquisition in Mexico and Peru in 1571, and later Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), to guard Catholics from the influence of crypto-Jews , Protestants, and foreigners. Church practices established and maintained racial hierarchies by recording baptism, marriage, and burial were kept separate registers for different racial groups. Churches were also physically divided by race. Race mixture ( mestizaje )

13370-400: The Maroons of colonial Ecuador will allow us to see in three acts, or phases, how clerical intervention and the discourse of Christian conversion shaped colonization over time: ultimately yielding a modus vivendi between rebel African slaves and Spanish colonial authorities." (Bryant, O'Toole, Vinson, 2012: 96–97). Spanish America Spanish America refers to the Spanish territories in

13561-414: The Revolution than of the Empire , they aimed to withdraw Spain from the Napoleonic Wars , and tried in vain to prevent Napoleon's separate administration of Spanish provinces ( Catalonia , Aragon , Navarre , and Biscay ) after 1809. The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata had a French viceroy at the time, Santiago de Liniers . However, his appointment took place before the Peninsular War, and France

13752-458: The Spanish Crown attempted to revitalize the mines and create new ones through a series of reforms. These included giving the mine owners control over labor costs through lower salaries, lowering the prices of gunpowder and organizing its supply more efficiently, as well as a steadier and cheaper supply of mercury which was used for refining silver ores. The reforms also gave tax exemptions to mine production. In 1787, mining ordinances of New Spain and

13943-554: The Spanish mainland over its Spanish American colonies. For example, during the 1750s, the royal monopoly on Cuban tobacco generated a profit of more than 500 million pesos. One of the testing grounds for this reformation of trade was in Venezuela. Starting in the 1730s, the monopoly on Venezuelan trade was held by the Royal Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas . Frustrations with this company's monopoly were felt among

14134-422: The Spanish throne, the new Bourbon dynasty was forced to make several territorial concessions to outside powers. This included, in compromise with the Austrian Habsburgs, most of the Spanish Empire's European territories, and with Great Britain , Menorca and the continental stronghold of Gibraltar . It also included granting the asiento de negros , a monopoly contract on African slaves to Spanish America to

14325-634: The aborigens. After the end of the period of conquests, it was necessary to manage extensive and different territories with a strong bureaucracy. In the face of the impossibility of the Castilian institutions to take care of the New World affairs, other new institutions were created. As the basic political entity it was the governorate, or province. The governors exercised judicial ordinary functions of first instance, and prerogatives of government legislating by ordinances. To these political functions of

14516-803: The anti-French Cortes of Cádiz  – which served as a parliamentary Regency after Ferdinand was deposed – to maintain as much possible of Joseph's Bayonne laws of 1808 into Ferdinand's 1812 Constitution . Nonetheless, the Cortes voted to confiscate all assets of Joseph's court and of the afrancesados . After the Duke of Wellington 's 1813 campaign and the Battle of Vitoria , all of Joseph's court and his collaborators (nobles, soldiers, jurists, writers, journalists, and Roman Catholic clergy alike) took refuge to France with Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan 's forces. The total estimate of this exile

14707-512: The appointments to the King for civil government as well as ecclesiastical appointments, and pronouncing judicial sentences; as maximum authority in the overseas territories, the Council of the Indies took over both the institutions in the Indies as the defense of the interests of the Crown, the Catholic Church, and of indigenous peoples. With the 1508 papal grant to the crown of the Patronato real,

14898-470: The boundaries for dioceses and parishes. The creation of the ecclesiastical hierarchy with priests who not members of religious orders, those known as the diocesan or secular clergy , marked a turning point in the crown's control over the religious sphere. In 1574, Philip II promulgated the Order of Patronage (Ordenaza del Patronato) ordering the religious orders to turn over their parishes to the secular clergy,

15089-486: The coast of colonial Ecuador learned how Christianization became a tool for Afro-Amerindian rebels in Spain's empire and in the African diasporic world. "While an Afro-Christian diasporic identity may have been in its formative stage during the sixteenth century, transfers of knowledge between the old world and the new were readily apparent in European interactions with Maroons on the Esmeraldas coast. This case study of

15280-408: The colonial system, such as membership of cabildos, so that they were in the hands of local, American-born ( crillo ) elites. During the Bourbon era, even when the crown systematically appointed peninsular-born Spaniards to royal posts rather than American-born, the cabildos remained in the hands of local elites. As the empire expanded into areas of less dense indigenous populations, the crown created

15471-582: The colonists informally and gradually, at first, initiated the Atlantic slave trade . One of the most accomplished conquistadors was Hernán Cortés , who, leading a relatively small Spanish force but with local translators and the crucial support of thousands of native allies, achieved the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in the campaigns of 1519–1521. This territory later became the Viceroyalty of New Spain , present day Mexico. Of equal importance

15662-504: The communities' rights in court. In Mexico, this was facilitated by the 1599 establishment of the General Indian Court ( Juzgado General de Indios ), which heard legal disputes in which indigenous communities and individuals were engaged. With legal mechanisms for dispute-resolution, there were relatively few outbreaks of violence and rebellion against crown rule. Eighteenth-century rebellions in long-peaceful areas of Mexico,

15853-510: The consulados controlled internal economic circuits, when the Creoles lost control of these roles in government they also lost much of their control of trade and economic systems, further destabilizing their established power in the colonies. Another part of the Bourbon reforms targeted the set-up of the municipio itself. Specifically, the main plaza was a central figure in Hispanic colonial urbanism. In Spanish America, cities were planned around

16044-493: The cornerstone principles of the Bourbon reforms. The Free Trade decree opened all ports in the colonies to trade with Spanish controlled ports, the colonies, or Spain. This act, in tandem with the crucial decision preceding it to open the islands of the Spanish Caribbean to all nine peninsular Spanish ports in 1765, helped establish the notion that the special privilege of trade that only a few ports had enjoyed earlier

16235-441: The councilors, were auctioned to alleviate the need for money of the Crown, even the offices could also be sold, which became hereditary, so that the government of the cities went on to hands of urban oligarchies. In order to control the municipal life, the Crown ordered the appointment of corregidores and alcaldes mayores to exert greater political control and judicial functions in minor districts. Their functions were governing

16426-519: The countryside. Although Indians were classified as part of the República de Indios , their offspring of unions with Españoles and Africans were castas . White-Indian mixtures were more socially acceptable in the Hispanic sphere, with the possibility over generations of mixed-race offspring being classified as Español. Any offspring with African ancestry could never remove the "stain" of their racial heritage, since Africans were seen as "natural slaves". Eighteenth-century paintings depicted elites' ideas of

16617-413: The course of the 18th century, the market for silver led the port city of Buenos Aires to prominence, and between 1776 and 1783, 80% of the exports leaving the port at Buenos Aires were shipments of silver. Charles III also initiated the difficult process of changing the complex administrative system practiced under the former ruling family, the House of Habsburg . Corregidores were to be replaced with

16808-444: The creation of a whole commercial system in which they could coerce native populations to participate while reaping profits themselves in cooperation with merchants. The Spanish conquest was facilitated by the spread of diseases such as smallpox , common in Europe but never present in the New World, which reduced the indigenous populations in the Americas . This sometimes caused a labor shortage for plantations and public works and so

16999-443: The crown also melded existing indigenous rule into a Spanish pattern, with the establishment of cabildos and the participation of indigenous elites as officials holding Spanish titles. There were a variable number of councilors ( regidores ), depending on the size of the town, also two municipal judges ( alcaldes menores ), who were judges of first instance, and also other officials as police chief, inspector of supplies, court clerk, and

17190-419: The crown as a key administrative institution with royal authority and loyalty to the crown as opposed to conquerors and first settlers. Although constituted as the highest judicial authority in their territorial jurisdiction, they also had executive and legislative authority, and served as the executive on an interim basis. Judges ( oidores ) held "formidable power. Their role in judicial affairs and in overseeing

17381-412: The crown, rather than the pope, exercised absolute power over the Catholic Church in the Americas and the Philippines, a privilege the crown zealously guarded against erosion or incursion. Crown approval through the Council of the Indies was needed for the establishment of bishoprics, building of churches, appointment of all clerics. In 1721, at the beginning of the Bourbon monarchy, the crown transferred

17572-518: The customs receipts, with little avail. An examination of Bourbon intervention in the Peruvian tobacco industry from the mid-18th century to the beginning of the 19th century helps reveal a little more about the nature of the Bourbon administration and its relationship to monopoly policies. Although it is widely accepted that Bourbon officials were effective in the extraction of rents, these conclusions are largely based analysis of fiscal results without

17763-453: The death, unauthorized absence, retirement or removal of a governor, the treasury officials would jointly govern the province until a new governor appointed by the king could take up his duties. Treasury officials were supposed to be paid out of the income from the province, and were normally prohibited from engaging in income-producing activities. The protection of the indigenous populations from enslavement and exploitation by Spanish settlers

17954-483: The dynamics in the indigenous communities and their relationship to the Spanish. After the fall of the Aztec and Inca empires, the rulers of the empires were replaced by the Spanish monarchy, while retaining much of the hierarchical indigenous structures. The crown recognized noble status of elite Indians, giving them exemption from the head-tax and the right to use the nobles title don and doña . Indigenous noblemen were

18145-403: The early Caribbean period, particularly Frey Nicolás de Ovando , who was sent to investigate the administration of Francisco de Bobadilla , the governor appointed to succeed Christopher Columbus. Later ecclesiastics served as interim viceroys, general inspectors (visitadores), and other high posts. The crown established control over trade and emigration to the Indies with the 1503 establishment

18336-443: The early Spanish period, especially when the economy was still based on extracting tribute and labor from commoner Indians who had rendered goods and service to their overlords in the prehispanic period. Caciques mobilized their populations for encomenderos and, later, repartimiento recipients chosen by the crown. The noblemen became the officers of the cabildo in indigenous communities, regulating internal affairs, as well as defending

18527-527: The early colonial period, the crown authorized friars of Catholic religious orders ( Franciscans , Dominicans , and Augustinians ) to function as priests during the conversion of indigenous populations. During the early Age of Discovery , the diocesan clergy in Spain was poorly educated and considered of a low moral standing, and the Catholic Monarchs were reluctant to allow them to spearhead evangelization. Each order set up networks of parishes in

18718-615: The early colonial period. Spanish universities expanded to train lawyer-bureaucrats ( letrados ) for administrative positions in Spain and its overseas empire. The end of the Habsburg dynasty in 1700 saw major administrative reforms in the eighteenth century under the Bourbon monarchy, starting with the first Spanish Bourbon monarch, Philip V (r. 1700–1746) and reaching its apogee under Charles III (r. 1759–1788). The reorganization of administration has been called "a revolution in government." Reforms sought to centralize government control through reorganization of administration, reinvigorate

18909-543: The economies of Spain and the Spanish empire through changes in mercantile and fiscal policies, defend Spanish colonies and territorial claims through the establishment of a standing military, undermine the power of the Catholic church, and rein in the power of the American-born elites. The crown relied on ecclesiastics as important councilors and royal officials in the governance of their overseas territories. Archbishop Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca , Isabella's confessor,

19100-493: The empire and their importance assessed, overseas possessions came under stronger or weaker crown control. The crown learned its lesson with the rule of Christopher Columbus and his heirs in the Caribbean, and they never subsequently gave authorization of sweeping powers to explorers and conquerors. The Catholic Monarchs ' conquest of Granada in 1492 and their expulsion of the Jews "were militant expressions of religious statehood at

19291-490: The empire. The new Bourbon kings kept close ties with France and used many Frenchmen as advisors. French innovations in politics and social manners never fully replaced Spanish laws and traditions but became an important model in both areas. As a result, there was an influx of French goods, ideas, and books, which helped spread the ideas of the Enlightenment throughout the Spanish world. Imperial rivalry and competition

19482-463: The empire. The Jesuits resisted crown control, refusing to pay the tithe on their estates that supported the ecclesiastical hierarchy and came into conflict with bishops. The most prominent example is in Puebla, Mexico, when Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza was driven from his bishopric by the Jesuits. The bishop challenged the Jesuits' continuing to hold Indian parishes and function as priests without

19673-478: The end of the 17th century, and remained under Spanish control until 1898. In the 18th century, Spain was concerned with increasing Russian and British influence in the Pacific Northwest of North America and sent several expeditions to explore and further shore up Spanish claims to the region. The empire in the Indies was a newly established dependency of the kingdom of Castile alone, so crown power

19864-455: The existing infrastructure. This way, the crown was able to collect tax revenues from those circuits of trade that had previously eluded it. Although some analyze the Bourbon reforms by arguing that the purpose of the reform was to eliminate contraband trade and other illicit circuits of trade, a closer analysis of the material evidence available indicates that many of these circuits did not disappear, but were simply incorporated. Additionally, in

20055-580: The export of its goods, which was the first time in Spanish colonial history that legal trade occurred with a foreign nation. Prior to this, trade between Spanish-American colonies and other European countries had all occurred on illicit trade circuits. The new commercial relationship stimulated the colonial economy, especially that of Chile . The early reforms were aimed at improving the economic and political structure of Spain. They sought to modernize agriculture, construction of ships, and infrastructure to monitor and incite economic integration and development on

20246-445: The fact that The Queen Isabel was the first monarch that laid the first stone for the protection of the indigenous peoples in her testament in which the Catholic monarch prohibited the enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Then the first such in 1542; the legal thought behind them was the basis of modern International law . Taking advantage of their extreme remoteness from royal power, some colonists were disagree with

20437-402: The governance of the huge indigenous population. Through their continued loyalty to the crown, they maintained their positions of power within their communities but also served as agents of colonial governance. The Spanish Empire's use of local elites to rule large populations that are ethnically distinct from the rulers has long been practiced by earlier empires. Indian caciques were crucial in

20628-418: The governor, it could be joined the military ones, according to military requirements, with the rank of Captain general . The office of captain general involved to be the supreme military chief of the whole territory and he was responsible for recruiting and providing troops, the fortification of the territory, the supply and the shipbuilding. Provinces in the Spanish Empire had a royal treasury controlled by

20819-559: The high courts ( audiencias ). Under the Habsburgs, the Crown had sold audiencia positions to Criollos. The Bourbon kings ended this policy. By 1807, "only twelve out of ninety-nine [ audiencia ] judges were creoles." The War of Succession's main objective was to determine which European powers would dominate over the Atlantic trade. In 1713, the war ended with the Treaty of Utrecht which had significant impact on Spain's economic holdings. Spain lost some of its primary European possessions to

21010-480: The highland mining districts exploded in revolt. Therefore, it was not the Bourbon reforms that failed, but rather the role of the conflicts at home that resulted in failure. The failure of reform measures became evident when Spain, under Charles III , lost the Seven Years' War with Great Britain (1756–1763). Charles III's counselors sought more detailed reports of Spain's overseas territories/and now understood

21201-467: The implementation of royal legislation made their decisions important for the communities they served." Since their appointments were for life or the pleasure of the monarch, they had a continuity of power and authority that viceroys and captains-general lacked because of their shorter-term appointments. They were the "center of the administrative system [and] gave the government of the Indies a strong basis of permanence and continuity." Their main function

21392-457: The indigenous and following the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and the Spanish conquest of Peru , more stringent laws to control conquerors' and settlers' exercise of power, especially their maltreatment of the indigenous populations, were promulgated, known as the New Laws (1542). The crown aimed to prevent the formation of an aristocracy in the Indies not under crown control. Despite

21583-459: The indigenous populations. In the eighteenth-century reforms, the Viceroyalty of Peru was reorganized, splitting off portions to form the Viceroyalty of New Granada (Colombia) (1739) and the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata (Argentina) (1776), leaving Peru with jurisdiction over Peru, Charcas, and Chile. Viceroys were of high social standing, almost without exception born in Spain, and served fixed terms. The Audiencias were initially constituted by

21774-405: The indigenous. However, to clarify, ‘forcible sale’ is a phrase that ought to be read with caution. The evidence indicates that there were indigenous peoples who would participate in the purchase of goods from these merchants willingly, and that mules used in mule trains helped to facilitate their own internal economy. The Catholic Church played a major role in the Bourbon Reforms, specifically in

21965-403: The king, as owner of the Indies, agreed capitulación (an itemized contract) with the specifics of the conditions of the expedition in a particular territory. The individual leaders of expeditions ( adelantados ) assumed the expenses of the venture and in return received as reward the grant from the government of the conquered territories; and in addition, they received instructions about treating

22156-632: The land owned by the individuals and institutions which meant the Spanish Crown could not exercise justice physically nor collect taxes. Missionizing in maroon societies in Spanish America became essential for the nature of politics of African resistance in the Iberian Atlantic world. The Maroons were Africans who escaped slavery in America and then mixed with the indigenous people . In the sixteenth century, missionizing native peoples

22347-455: The laws when they saw their power being reduced, forcing a partial suppression of these New Laws . The Valladolid debate (1550–1551) was the first moral debate in European history to discuss the rights and treatment of a colonized people by colonizers. Held in the Colegio de San Gregorio , in the Spanish city of Valladolid , it was a moral and theological debate about the colonization of

22538-403: The legal system in the Républica de Españoles. The statuses of the indigenous populations as legal minors barred them from becoming priests, but the républica de indios operated with a fair amount of autonomy. Missionaries also acted as guardians against encomendero exploitation. Indian communities had protections of traditional lands by the creation of community lands that could not be alienated,

22729-478: The locality and less to the crown and impartial justice. During the Bourbon Reforms in the mid-eighteenth century, the crown systematically sought to centralize power in its own hands and diminish that of its overseas possessions, appointing peninsular-born Spaniards to Audiencias. American-born elite men complained bitterly about the change, since they lost access to power that they had enjoyed for nearly

22920-480: The loss of military power, ruled by a weak king, Charles II , who left no successor. Even before his death in 1700, the European powers were already positioning themselves to see which royal house would succeed in placing someone on the Spanish throne and thereby gain its vast empire. Louis XIV of France asked for and received the Pope's consent for his grandson, Philip, Duke of Anjou , a great-nephew of Charles, to take

23111-416: The lower economic classes directly and created the organization within society that the Spanish needed for greater economic success and control. Buenos Aires provided the perfect opportunity to integrate the products of the New World into peninsular Spain. The port city was essential to the process of extraction due to its proximity to the mining empire that was Potosí . Silver would be easily dispatched to

23302-516: The main responsibility for governing the overseas empire from the Council of the Indies to the Ministry of the Navy and the Indies, which were subsequently divided into two separate ministries in 1754. The impossibility of the physical presence of the monarch and the necessity of strong royal governance in the Indies resulted in the appointment of viceroys ("vice-kings"), the direct representation of

23493-494: The majority of Venezuela's population and culminated in a revolt against the company in 1749, led by Juan Francisco de León. The revolt created a temporary alliance between elite creoles, Canarians , pardos, natives, and free blacks. While these efforts were quickly extinguished by Spanish forces, the Bourbons did put limits on the power of the Guipuzcoana company following the revolt. However, these limits primarily benefited

23684-605: The maltreatment and pressed the crown to act to protect the indigenous populations. The crown enacted Laws of Burgos (1513) and the Requerimiento to curb the power of the Spanish conquerors and give indigenous populations the opportunity to peacefully embrace Spanish authority and Christianity. Neither was effective in its purpose. Las Casas was officially appointed Protector of the Indians and spent his life arguing forcefully on their behalf. The New Laws of 1542, limiting

23875-419: The market and also helped reduce costs associated with controlling illegal markets. The closing of tobacco factories and similarly perceived ‘failures’ at the end of the 18th century should be read with an understanding of the limitations of the political economy of colonialism and in light of policy changes in Madrid that happened in the context of a tumultuous Europe. Monopoly policies were relaxed in areas where

24066-436: The men in militias were from all races, most of them being mixed-race. These militias aided the supplement of a standing Spanish army, which, at the time, was occupied with conflicts on the home front. Eventually, the militias formed the base for independent armies, and turned on the Spanish. Outnumbered and already indulged in conflict abroad, Spain was put in a difficult situation that they created themselves. However, this begs

24257-537: The metropolitan Royal Artillery Corps, fourthly, the existing colonial militias were completely reformed and expanded dramatically. The Cueros or the garrisons of the Presidios in the Provincias Internas were expanded from 734 men in 1729 to 2,187 men in 1777 and then again to 3,087 in 1787. The line of forts and the intervening patrols were not to provide a concrete line of protection or to eradicate

24448-560: The moment of the beginning of the American colonization." The crown's power in the religious sphere was absolute in its overseas possessions through the papacy's grant of the Patronato real , and "Catholicism was indissolubly linked with royal authority." Church-State relations were established in the conquest era and remained stable until the end of the Habsburg era in 1700, when the Bourbon monarchs implemented major reforms and changed

24639-425: The monarch, in both civil and ecclesiastical spheres. Viceroyalties were the largest territory unit of administration in the civil and religious spheres and the boundaries of civil and ecclesiastical governance coincided by design, to ensure crown control over both bureaucracies. Until the eighteenth century, there were just two viceroyalties, with the Viceroyalty of New Spain (founded 1535) administering North America,

24830-600: The most conflict arose in response to such policies. Merchants in Cadiz benefited enormously as a result of these changes. Much wealth accumulated in the hands of the already wealthy peninsular Spaniards. Creole merchants, on the other hand, saw much of their profit decrease with the demolition of monopolies. However, these criollo merchants did not necessarily lose out. Many of them simply shifted their investments to mining, especially in New Spain. Within New Spain, economic reforms aimed to not just increase revenue, but also to make

25021-441: The move on behalf of the Crown to try to regain control of administrative power in the American colonies. Administrative powers had, in the mind of the Crown, previously been too porous for Creoles via mechanisms such as the sale of office and tax-farming. However, as Bourbon reforms were put into effect, many colonial officials were condemned for corrupt practices, such as taking bribes and neglecting tax collection without considering

25212-414: The need to take them fully into account. The new wave of reforms included larger exploitation of resources in the colonies, increased taxes, the opening of new ports allowed to trade only with Spain, and the establishment of several state monopolies . In Spanish America, José del Campillo y Cosío 's Nuevo Sistema de gobierno económico para la América (New System of Economic Government for America) (1743)

25403-404: The new Viceroyalty of New Granada (1717), carved out from the Viceroyalty of Peru to improve the administration of the overseas possessions. The new viceroyalty was created initially in 1717, suppressed just six years later, and then permanently established in 1739, still earlier than the reforms of the late 18th century. It was an administrative change that reflected the recognition (as early as

25594-557: The new intendants were Peninsulares , people who were born in Spain, exacerbating the conflict between Peninsulares and Criollos , who wished to retain some control of local administration. The installation of the intendancy system contributed to the further marginalization of the creole elite. It changed the question of who would occupy the positions of Crown officials and shifted the center of influence from landed Creole elites to peninsular Spaniards. Creoles were largely pushed out in favor of peninsular administrators. The intendancy system

25785-639: The occupation), or even those who were sought by the French as collaborators but had denied offers. The immense number of liberally-minded émigrés alarmed the authorities of the Bourbon Restoration in France, and they began steps to convince the Spanish government to pardon them. This came during the Liberal Triennium , as an amnesty decreed by liberal Premier Evaristo Pérez de Castro ; those that did return had to flee soon after

25976-402: The officers of the militia with regular army officers seconded to train the militia which was ordered to muster frequently for training. They were also liable to serve actively in peacetime if the situation required it. This system of organisation in Havana was expanded to New Orleans, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, St Louis, St Genevieve, Pensacola. By 1784 the militia of New Spain had grown to 18,000 in

26167-424: The pagan indigenous populations, as well as African slaves not previously Christian, and incorporating them into Christendom. Catholicism remains the dominant religion in Spanish America. The crown also imposed restrictions on emigration to the Americas, excluding Jews and crypto-Jews , Protestants, and foreigners, using the Casa de Contratación to vet potential emigres and issue licenses to travel. The portrait to

26358-418: The part of Spain that, unlike other Atlantic empires, seemed to make a real effort to integrate its American colonies as essential parts of not just Spain's colonial empire, but also as provinces of the monarchy and not simply faraway lands. Just as in many of the other changes made by the crown, the consulados also functioned to shift power away from the creole elite and into the hands of peninsular Spaniards. As

26549-616: The peninsula. Buenos Aires was not solely a beneficial port for the Spanish as it was often the center of illicit contraband along the Atlantic. Buenos Aires housed Jesuits seeking travel to Cordoba or Paraguay and the port could also be described as a "back-door" to the Andes. Regardless of Buenos Aires having a positive correlation with the Bourbon reforms due its heavy reliance on the flow of silver and Spain's commerce, its reign eventually fell victim to Spain's peninsular conflicts, particularly France. Cartographical pushes resulted in massive output with extremely specific indications on maps in

26740-418: The power of encomenderos, were a result. Beginning in 1522 in the newly conquered Mexico, government units in the Spanish Empire had a royal treasury controlled by a set of officiales reales (royal officials). There were also sub-treasuries at important ports and mining districts. The officials of the royal treasury at each level of government typically included two to four positions: a tesorero (treasurer),

26931-545: The production and importation of Spanish American goods to Spain. One such strategy that proved highly profitable was the establishment of royal monopolies and trading companies as early as 1717 that controlled the production of export crops such as tobacco and sugar in Cuba and cacao in Venezuela. By charging higher prices for Spanish imports and paying lower prices for exports from Spanish America, these companies used their monopolies to generate rents that disproportionately benefited

27122-443: The province, and collected the king's share of any war booty. The veedor , or overseer, position quickly disappeared in most jurisdictions, subsumed into the position of factor . Depending on the conditions in a jurisdiction, the position of factor/veedor was often eliminated, as well. The treasury officials were appointed by the king, and were largely independent of the authority of the viceroy, audiencia president or governor. On

27313-471: The province; and a veedor (overseer), who was responsible for contacts with native inhabitants of the province, and collected the king's share of any war booty. The treasury officials were appointed by the king, and were largely independent of the authority of the governor. Treasury officials were generally paid out of the income from the province and were normally prohibited from engaging in personal income-producing activities. The indigenous populations in

27504-481: The relationship between crown and altar. The crown's administration of its overseas empire was implemented by royal officials in both the civil and religious spheres, often with overlapping jurisdictions. The crown could administer the empire in the Indies by using native elites as intermediaries with the large indigenous populations. Administrative costs of empire were kept low, with a small number of Spanish officials generally paid low salaries. Crown policy to maintain

27695-476: The relationship between the Spanish American colonies and the Crown, it can be said that the reforms functionally aimed to transform juridically semi-autonomous groups into proper colonies. Specifically, the reforms sought to increase commercial agriculture and mining and increase trade. The system was intended to be much more hierarchal, forcing the colonies to become more dependent on Spain and serve as

27886-524: The relationships the Maroons created with Catholic clerics and created tensions. Spanish cultural hegemony functioned to imprint submission to religious practices. Maroons, as well as other Africans, rapidly learned that Catholicism was necessary for political legitimation. However, bringing Christianity to light did not interrupt the development of localized practices that observed religious traditions of Africans and indigenous Americans. Maroon communities on

28077-428: The required royal licenses. His fall from power is viewed as an example of the weakening of the crown in the mid-seventeenth century since it failed to protect their duly appointed bishop. The crown expelled the Jesuits from Spain and The Indies in 1767 during the Bourbon Reforms . Spanish settlers sought to live in towns and cities, with governance being accomplished through the town council or Cabildo . The cabildo

28268-415: The respective municipalities, administering of justice and being appellate judges in the alcaldes menores ' judgments, but only the corregidor could preside over the cabildo . However, both charges were also put up for sale freely since the late 16th century. </ref> Most Spanish settlers came to the Indies as permanent residents, established families and businesses, and sought advancement in

28459-417: The right was most likely used as a souvenir. For those who traveled to the New World and back it was common to bring back souvenirs as there were a great interest in what the New World meant. The land would be significantly different but there was a special emphasis put on the emerging mixed races. Not only was there whites mixing with blacks but there were natives mixing with both whites and blacks as well. From

28650-457: The rising investments of entrepreneurs into mining during this period. For example, regarding Zacatecas , a mining region with huge turnover in mining production, historian Enrique Tandeter argues that "There the rise of the first quarter of the century can be attributed to individual entrepreneurs." Entrepreneurial investments allowed for improvements in mining technology and lower costs. The city of Potosí saw increases in silver production. Mita

28841-404: The senior official who guarded money on hand and made payments; a contador (accountant or comptroller ), who recorded income and payments, maintained records, and interpreted royal instructions; a factor , who guarded weapons and supplies belonging to the king, and disposed of tribute collected in the province; and a veedor (overseer), who was responsible for contacts with native inhabitants of

29032-494: The status of individuals and groups in the empire in both the civil and religious spheres, with Spaniards (peninsular- and American-born) monopolizing positions of economic privilege and political power. Royal law and Catholicism codified and maintained hierarchies of class and race, while all were subjects of the crown and mandated to be Catholic. The crown took active steps to establish and maintain Catholicism by evangelizing

29223-470: The structure of the administration, which sought to strengthen the power of the Spanish state, decrease the power of local elites in favor of office holders from the Iberian peninsula, and increase revenues for the crown. The bulk of the changes in Spanish America came in the second half of the 18th century following the visita general (general inspection) of New Spain (1765–1771) by José de Gálvez , who

29414-459: The suppression of his privileges in The Indies and the creation of territorial governance under royal authority. These governorates, also called as provinces, were the basic of the territorial government of the Indies, and arose as the territories were conquered and colonized. To carry out the expedition ( entrada ), which entailed exploration, conquest, and initial settlement of the territory,

29605-406: The term afrancesado surfaced during the reign of Charles III , and had a neutral meaning, being used to designate those who followed French fashions and customs. Subsequently, it became popular as a pejorative reference to those members of the Spanish nobility and bureaucracy who swore allegiance to Joseph Bonaparte, installed as King of Spain by his brother, Napoleon. The term extended to cover

29796-530: The threat to Mexico but it was to create general safety as there were troops further south in this regard the Cueros performed well and they managed to keep a relative atmosphere of safety in Northern Mexico. In 1768 a Regiment of infantry was regulated so as to possess 1 grenadier company (76 men) and 9 fusilier companies (720 men with 80 per company)a total of 796 men. Havana was fortified heavily with

29987-658: The throne. On his deathbed, Charles willed the crown to the French-born successor, but an international conflict ensued, known as the War of the Spanish Succession , which lasted from 1702 to 1713 and pitted Austria , England , and other European countries against the French House of Bourbon . Under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht , which ended the War of Spanish Succession and placed Philip V securely on

30178-463: The time the second wave of friars came to the Americas and as their numbers grew, the orders began amassing wealth and thus became key economic players. The church, as this wealthy power, had huge estates and built large constructions such as gilded monasteries and cathedrals. Priests themselves also became wealthy landowners. Orders like the Franciscans also established schools for the indigenous elites as well as hired indigenous laborers, thereby shifting

30369-470: The trade of contraband simply moved with the Casa de la Contratación to Cádiz. Then in 1778, the Free Trade Decree (Reglamento para el comercio libre) was passed. The crown believed that free and protected trade between Spain and the Americas was the best way to restore all sectors of the Spanish dominion to their former glory. Traditionally, many identify this act and this principle to be one of

30560-447: The various regions (provinces), sited in existing Indian settlements, where Christian churches were built and where evangelization of the indigenous was based. However, after the 1550s, the crown increasingly favored the diocesan clergy over the religious orders since the diocesan clergy was under the direct authority of the crown, while religious orders were with their own internal regulations and leadership. The crown had authority to draw

30751-479: The viceroyalties. The Catholic Church was the official state religion among the vice royalties of Spanish America, and the new colonies brought forth an opportunity to spread Catholicism . The Catholic Church arrived in America with the Conquistadors Many missionaries came to the Americas for a fresh, new environment for Christianity to thrive. As in Spain itself, there was a clear alliance between

30942-464: The vital trade routes that existed between these regions. In 1776, a second jurisdiction, the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata was also carved out of the Viceroyalty of Peru in 1776 as part of José de Gálvez's comprehensive administrative reform. In the same year, an autonomous captaincy general was also established in Venezuela . Even after his time in the colonies, José de Gálvez joined the Council of

31133-435: The wake of the implementation of comercio libre  [ es ] (free internal trade) by Jose de Gálvez, merchants in Spanish America petitioned the crown for new consulados . These consulados would resolve commercial disputes and develop the infrastructure of the colony. Moreover, the consulados would be in charge of trying to implement innovative economic projects. The consulados demonstrated an effort on

31324-419: The wealthy creoles. Due to a fear amongst the Bourbons of a potential penetration of their empire by other European empires, they engaged in the construction of fortresses and garrisons and created and heavily promoted militias composed of people of a variety of backgrounds and races to supplement their army. The military was a place where creoles still enjoyed a political space within the bourbon reforms. In fact,

31515-511: Was Leopoldo de Gregorio, 1st Marquess of Esquilache 's commercial policy commission, which on February 14, 1765, submitted a report advocating imperial free trade to replace the Cádiz monopoly. Another goal was to more efficiently extract raw materials from Spanish America and create a captive Spanish American market for Spanish goods. The Bourbons, with the help of administrator José Patiño , implemented several new strategies aimed at streamlining

31706-450: Was a fact of colonial society, with the three racial groups, European whites ( españoles ), Africans ( negros ), and Indians ( indios ) producing mixed-race offspring, or castas . There was a pyramid of racial status with the apex being the small number of European white ( españoles ), a slightly larger number of mixed-race castas, who, like the whites were mainly urban dwelling, and the largest populations were Indians living in communities in

31897-465: Was a key text that shaped the reforms. He compared the colonial systems of Britain and France to that of Spain, as the first two nations reaped far greater benefits from their colonies than Spain. He advocated reforming Spain's economic relations with its overseas territories to a system more like the mercantilism of France's Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–1683). The Bourbon reforms have been termed "a revolution in government" for their sweeping changes to

32088-428: Was a major turning point in world history "In that moment in Spain appeared the dawn of the human rights" . In 1524 the Council of the Indies was established, following the system of Councils that advised the monarch and made decisions on his behalf about specific matters of government. Based in Castile, with the assignment of the governance of the Indies, it was thus responsible for drafting legislation, proposing

32279-492: Was also a large factor of the Bourbon reforms, and since France was the more dominant power, the Spanish tried to compete with their intellectual power. In a sense, all things French came into fashion during the subsequent century and gave rise to a new type of person, the afrancesado , who welcomed the new influence. In addition, during the War of the Spanish Succession , the ports of Spanish America were blockaded by British and Dutch fleets. Spain turned to France for help with

32470-460: Was appointed by the viceroy, usually for a five-year term. Corregidores collected the tribute from indigenous communities and regulated forced indigenous labor. Alcaldías mayores were larger districts with a royal appointee, the Alcalde mayor . As the indigenous populations declined, the need for corregimiento decreased and then suppressed, with the alcaldía mayor remaining an institution until it

32661-411: Was composed of the prominent residents ( vecinos ) of the municipality, so that governance was restricted to a male elite, with majority of the population exercising power. Cities were governed on the same pattern as in Spain and in the Indies the city was the framework of Spanish life. The cities were Spanish and the countryside indigenous. In areas of previous indigenous empires with settled populations,

32852-540: Was established in the Laws of Burgos , 1512–1513. The laws were the first codified set of laws governing the behavior of Spanish settlers in the Americas, particularly with regards to treatment of native Indians in the institution of the encomienda . They forbade the maltreatment of natives, and endorsed the Indian Reductions with attempts of conversion to Catholicism. Upon their failure to effectively protect

33043-411: Was hoped. Indeed, the New World colonies only began to yield a substantial part of the Crown's revenues with the establishment of mines such as that of Potosí (Bolivia) and Zacatecas (Mexico) both started in 1546. By the late 16th century, silver from the Americas accounted for one-fifth of Spain's total budget. Eventually the world's stock of precious metal was doubled or even tripled by silver from

33234-563: Was inaugurated. The Manila Galleons shipped goods from all over Asia across the Pacific to Acapulco on the coast of Mexico. From there, the goods were transshipped across Mexico to the Spanish treasure fleets , for shipment to Spain. The Spanish trading port of Manila facilitated this trade in 1572. Although Spain claimed islands in the Pacific, it did not encounter or claim the Hawaiian Islands. The control of Guam , Mariana Islands , Caroline Islands , and Palau came later, from

33425-484: Was inevitable as the hegemonic powers were pinned against each other in a quest for expansion. This hindered the nationalization of industries and so disrupted the class system. For example, mercury , a Spanish import, was an essential resource for extracting silver in the mining process, but the French naval blockade dramatically limited imports in Spanish America. As a result, silver plunged downward and mining slumped, which caused revenue to decrease. Ultimately, in 1805,

33616-530: Was judicial, as a court of justice of second instance —court of appeal— in penal and civil matters, but also the Audiencias were courts the first instance in the city where it had its headquarters, and also in the cases involving the Royal Treasury. Besides court of justice, the Audiencias had functions of government as counterweight the authority of the viceroys, since they could communicate with both

33807-406: Was later named Minister of the Indies. Upon his inspection, he found the viceroyalty in a shambles and then reorganized the tax collection system, rewarded loyal Spanish merchants, jailed corrupt tax collectors, and steered the local economy towards mining. The reforms attempted in New Spain were implemented elsewhere in Spanish America subsequently. There had been one earlier reform in the creation of

33998-534: Was left unacknowledged. In 1776, the crown attempted to prevent marriages between racially unequal partners by issuing the Royal Pragmatic on Marriage , taking approval of marriages away from the couple and placing it in their parents' hands. The marriage between Luisa de Abrego, a free black domestic servant from Seville and Miguel Rodríguez, a white Segovian conquistador in 1565 in St. Augustine (Spanish Florida),

34189-592: Was not impeded by any existing cortes (i.e. parliament), administrative or ecclesiastical institution, or seigneurial group. The crown sought to establish and maintain control over its overseas possessions through a complex, hierarchical bureaucracy, which in many ways was decentralized. The crown asserted is authority and sovereignty of the territory and vassals it claimed, collected taxes, maintained public order, meted out justice, and established policies for governance of large indigenous populations. Many institutions established in Castile found expression in The Indies from

34380-457: Was not involved at all in it: it was instead a consequence of the British invasions of the Río de la Plata , a conflict between Britain and the Spanish colonies. Napoleon and Joseph sent the Marquis of Sassenay to the zone, seeking support from Liniers to the new monarchy, but Liniers rejected it and confirmed his loyalty to the captive Ferdinand VII. Later, they also attempted to negotiate with

34571-506: Was on religious conversion, missionaries served as "diplomatic agents, peace emissaries to hostile tribes ... and they were also expected to hold the line against nomadic nonmissionary Indians as well as other European powers." On the frontier of empire, Indians were seen as sin razón , ("without reason"); non-Indian populations were described as gente de razón ("people of reason"), who could be mixed-race castas or black and had greater social mobility in frontier regions. Codes regulated

34762-875: Was part of the new attitude on the part of the Bourbons to push the economic development of the mother country. The intendants were meant to be promoters of export-oriented economic activity. They were meant to focus on extractive activities, and not manufacturing ones. The Bourbons launched large projects of information gathering to investigate and record the natural endowments in their American colonies to enable more efficient exploitation of their colonies’ resources. These projects included censuses and large cartographical efforts. Various types of detailed maps were created to display terrain, mineral deposits, bridges and canals, forts, and other important features like mines. Mine-based maps and plans showed plans of mining towns and technical drawings of equipment like winches and ovens which were used in mine production. These maps were used to help

34953-465: Was replaced in the eighteenth-century Bourbon Reforms by royal officials, Intendants . The salary of officials during the Habsburg era were paltry, but the corregidor or alcalde mayor in densely populated areas of indigenous settlement with a valuable product could use his office for personal enrichment. As with many other royal posts, these positions were sold, starting in 1677. The Bourbon-era intendants were appointed and relatively well paid. During

35144-420: Was seen as a moral conquest. It was used as a tool of pacification among Africans who escaped slavery and made their home in Spanish America. In Ecuador, Santo Domingo, Mexico, and Panama, imprinting and "pacifying" maroon societies was very dependent on the spread of Spanish Catholicism. Pacification is an attempt to create or maintain peace through agreements and diplomacy. Christianization often conflicted with

35335-422: Was still in place, but through purchasing the rights of mita from miners who had been given mita quotas and incorporating themselves into the infrastructure of forcible sale of goods to the indigenous, merchants were still able to participate in mining. These merchants were income-pursuing more than they were profit-pursuing when purchasing the rights of mita, while also seeking profit in the forcible sale of goods to

35526-511: Was tasked with reining in Columbus's independence. He strongly influenced the formulation of colonial policy under the Catholic Monarchs, and was instrumental in establishing the Casa de Contratación (1503), which enabled crown control over trade and immigration. Ovando fitted out Magellan's voyage of circumnavigation, and became the first President of the Council of the Indies in 1524. Ecclesiastics also functioned as administrators overseas in

35717-783: Was the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire by Francisco Pizarro , which would become the Viceroyalty of Peru . The Spanish conquest of the Maya began in 1524, but the Maya kingdoms resisted integration into the Spanish Empire with such tenacity that their defeat took almost two centuries. After the conquest of Mexico, rumors of golden cities ( Quivira and Cíbola in North America and El Dorado in South America) motivated several other expeditions. Many of those returned without having found their goal, or finding it much less valuable than

35908-430: Was the one in charge of taking primary products and transforming them into consumable final products. Through this entire process, the crown was focused on capturing tax revenue. Additionally, Spanish merchants were pushed upwards as a result of these changes. This shift to a focus on export crops and commercial agriculture further altered and limited the autonomy and functionality of the colonies, as they became resources in

36099-410: Was the religious mission to convert the indigenous populations. Missions were established with royal authority through the Patronato real . The Jesuits were effective missionaries in frontier areas until their expulsion from Spain and its empire in 1767. The Franciscans took over some former Jesuit missions and continued the expansion of areas incorporated into the empire. Although their primary focus

36290-458: Was their relationship to the crown and to Christianity. Once those issues were resolved theologically, in practice the crown sought to protect its new vassals. It did so by dividing peoples of the Americas into the República de Indios , the native populations, and the República de Españoles . The República de Españoles was the entire Hispanic sector, composed of Spaniards, but also Africans (enslaved and free), as well as mixed-race castas . Within

36481-411: Was to be no more. It is important to understand that the ‘free’ trade that was established by the Free Trade Decree was only free in a limited sense. There were geographic limitations both in Spain and in the Americas, most notably being the exclusion of Venezuela and New Spain. A key reason for freeing trade was that King Charles III wanted to remove the monopoly of Cádiz, a Spanish port, over trade with

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