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33-571: The Medina River was named after Pedro de Medina , a Spanish cartographer, by Alonso de León , Spanish governor of Coahuila , New Spain in 1689. It once served as the official boundary between Texas and Coahuila with the San Antonio River being considered its tributary. At that time, the river was called the Medina all the way to the Gulf of Mexico , but now the part below the confluence

66-568: 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,

99-475: 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

132-471: 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a Secretariat of the Navy and the Indies ( Secretaría de Marina e Indias ) with a single Minister of the Indies, which superseded the administrative functions of the Council, although the Council continued to function in a secondary role until the nineteenth century.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

165-530: A text titled Libro de Cosmografía ("Book of Cosmography", 1538). He received official permission to compile navigation maps, to write books about pilotage , and to manufacture navigational devices necessary for voyages to the Indies . In February 1539, he was appointed in Seville as examiner of the navigators and ship's captains who would take part in the conquest of the Indies. His work was closely associated with

198-581: A work titled Libro de las grandezas y cosas memorables de España ("Book of the great deeds and memorable things of Spain"). This dealt with historical acts and important towns in Spain, with engravings and transcriptions of key documents. It was later (1595) revised and expanded by Diego Pérez de Mesa , professor of mathematics at the University of Alcalá . Other works included Libro de la verdad ("Book of truth", 1555), written in furtherance of disputes with

231-400: Is an abridged version of Arte de navegar , containing information on astrology and navigation and written for a nonspecialist audience. Medina's work adhered to the cosmological system of Ptolemy rather than that of Copernicus . Despite his knowledge and achievements Medina continued to deny the phenomenon of magnetic declination , of which he lacked personal experience, in opposition to

264-897: Is called the San Antonio River. From 1849, Castroville on the river was a water stop on the San Antonio-El Paso Road and a stagecoach station on the San Antonio-El Paso Mail and San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line . Much of the source water to the Medina River is produced by springs emerging due to the presence of the Balcones Fault . This locale of the Balcones Fault is associated with an important ecological dividing line for species occurrence. For example, species such as

297-554: The California Fan Palm , Washingtonia filifera , occur only west of the Medina River or Balcones Fault. The Medina River once received significant waste discharge from upstream catfish farming operations, which utilized more water than was sustainable to the basin's safe usage. Pedro de Medina Pedro de Medina (1493 – Seville , 1567) was a Spanish cartographer and author of navigational texts. His well-known Arte de navegar ("The Art of Navigation", 1545)

330-625: The Casa de Contratación , and his last work, ( Crónica de los excelentes señores duques Medina Sidonia ("Chronicle of the excellent ducal lords of Medina Sidonia", 1561). 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] ),

363-457: 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

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396-695: 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

429-624: The conciliar model of the Council of Castile , was created following the Spanish conquest of 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

462-512: The "House of Trade" ( Casa de Contratación ), the Spanish government agency overseeing the exploration and colonization of the New World, although he never succeeded in gaining employment in that agency. He soon became aware of defects in the training of navigators and in the instruments, books and maps they relied upon, and wrote a " Representation " to King Charles I on the subject. This was

495-575: 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,

528-564: 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

561-490: 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

594-418: 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

627-596: 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

660-605: The Indies was abolished in 1812 by the Cortes of Cádiz , briefly restored in 1814 by Ferdinand VII , and definitively abolished in 1834 by 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

693-433: The culmination of his rivalry with the cartographer Diego Gutiérrez and his family, who had the support of John Cabot . Medina's letter quickly led to a royal command of 22 February 1545, banning Gutiérrez from continuing to issue maps and instruments that Medina had described as very harmful to the students. In 1545 Medina published his most important work, Arte de navegar ("The Art of Navigation") in eight volumes. It

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726-403: 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

759-516: 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

792-643: The opinion of most other cosmographers of the time. Medina acted as royal adviser during the two assemblies convened by the Council of the Indies in 1554 and 1556 to determine the precise position of the Philippines and the Moluccas , and to define the demarcation between Spanish and Portuguese control in that part of the world. Mount Medina in Antarctica is named in his honour. Medina also wrote historical and philosophical books. In 1548 he published

825-403: 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

858-616: The protection afforded to him by the Dukes of Medina Sidonia he may instead have been born in Medina-Sidonia . In 1520 he became tutor to Juan Claros Pérez de Guzmán y Aragón, the Count of Niebla and heir to Juan Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán, 6th Duke of Medina Sidonia . After having amicably parted from the House of Medina Sidonia , he sought recognition as a cosmographer and brought out

891-501: 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

924-408: Was also important). The senior cosmographer Alonso de Chaves demonstrated that Medina's Arte was a compilation, made with the assistance of other writers. Diego Gutiérrez and other authors claimed that they had helped with parts of the book, and Medina himself acknowledged the assistance of Francisco Faleiro and Alonso de Santa Cruz on other occasions, but not with the writing of Arte . The book

957-499: Was dedicated to the future Philip II , in support of his quest to be appointed royal cosmographer. This work was an overview of existing knowledge on this subject, and was probably a revision and expansion of his "Book of Cosmography", which had already been examined by the Council of the Indies . Arte was the first treatise on navigation to be published in Spain (although a book by Martín Cortés de Albacar , published in Cádiz in 1551,

990-448: Was internationally disseminated and quickly translated into several European languages: it was translated into French fifteen times between 1554 and 1663, five times into Dutch (1580-1598), three times into Italian (1554-1609) and twice into English. This work contributed considerably to the development of navigation on the high seas. In 1549 Medina achieved appointment as honorary royal cosmographer. An abridged edition of Arte in Spanish

1023-402: Was published in 1552 under the title Regimiento de navegación ("The control of navigation"), omitting most of the theory of spherical geometry and including only what was essential for navigators. A later edition of Regimiento (1563) updated this popular handbook and added twenty "warnings" for the practical navigator. His unpublished Suma de Cosmographia ("Compendium of cosmography") of 1561

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1056-473: Was the first work published in Spain dealing exclusively with navigational techniques ( Martín Fernández de Enciso 's Suma de Geographia , 1519, which gave ample geographical information already contained solar declination tables with explanations and the corrections for finding the latitude by measuring the height of Polaris). Medina is believed to have been born in Seville , although based on his name and

1089-557: Was the most important administrative organ of the Spanish Empire for the Americas and those territories it governed, such as 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

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