Viceroyalty of New Spain

We explain what the viceroyalty of New Spain was and what territories it covered. Also, its history and its political and economic organization.

What was the viceroyalty of New Spain?

The viceroyalty of New Spain was a political and territorial entity established by the Spanish Empire in the Spanish colonization of America. It was the largest of the four viceroyalties created by the Crown and existed between the 16th and 19th centuries.

The viceroyalty founded its capital in Mexico City in 1535 after Spanish troops defeated the Aztec Empire and subdued the Mesoamerican cultures. With the creation of the viceroyalty, the process of Spanish colonization of America began. New Spain was established as the base of the Crown, from which the Spanish expanded their American domains.

The viceroyalty It was governed by a viceroy sent from Spain and was organized into different jurisdictions that allowed the Crown to maintain some control over what happened at the local level. To consolidate power, the Spanish subjugated the local populations and forced them to work under their direction.

During the following centuries, the Spanish developed an economy based on mineral extraction (gold and silver) and the labor exploitation of indigenous people and African slaves.

At the beginning of the 19th century, different groups of criollos (descendants of Spaniards born in America) rebelled against Spanish rule and started the wars of independence. In 1821, the Creoles achieved victory, dissolved the viceroyalty of New Spain and created the First Mexican Empire.

Territories of the viceroyalty of New Spain

The viceroyalty of New Spain was founded in the Valley of Mexico and, over three centuries, extended its territories in all directions.

• To the west and south: to the Pacific Ocean.
• To the east and south: to include the Yucatan Peninsula, Florida, the Caribbean Islands, Central America and northern South America.
• North: up to including the southern regions of the current territory of the United States.

At its greatest extent, the viceroyalty of New Spain encompassed the territories of present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Belize, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the southern states of the United States (California , Nevada, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Oregon, Washington, Florida, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana). It also included the coastal part of British Columbia in Canada and the Philippine, Carolina and Mariana Islands in Asia.

History of the viceroyalty of New Spain

The official foundation of the viceroyalty was on March 8, 1535. The new government took the name with which Hernán Cortés named the conquered lands: “the New Spain of the Ocean Sea.” Its first viceroy was Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco, sent from Europe.

The capital of the viceroyalty of New Spain was established in present-day Mexico City above the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlán. This became one of the main centers of Westernization of pre-Columbian American societies.

During the 16th century, the viceroyalty established itself as the richest and most important Spanish jurisdiction in all of America. He had created an economic system based on the extraction and export of precious minerals that enriched the Spanish Crown.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Creole Spaniards (born in America) were consolidating their position within the colonial ruling class compared to the peninsulars (born in Spain). In the 19th century, faced with the crisis of the Spanish Empire, An anticolonial movement began that led to the Mexican revolution for independence (1810-1821) and the fall of the viceroyalty of New Spain. At the end of the war, the ties of colonial rule with Spain were broken and the last viceroy, Juan José Ruiz de Apodaca y Eliza (1754-1835), was deposed. This way, the viceroyalty ceased to exist and, in its place, the First Mexican Empire was founded governed by the Mexican military man and politician Agustín Cosme de Iturbide y Arámburu.

Political organization of the viceroyalty of New Spain

The Spanish Crown designed a colonial bureaucratic system with the objective of protecting the political and economic interests of the kings maintain order in the colonies and prevent the creation of local power groups that could harm royal authority. This system was known as “Spanish colonial absolutism” and established that in the colonial territories all power derived from royal authority.

The viceroyalty It was divided into different jurisdictions and its main cities were administered by councils. These resolved the basic issues of their organization: supply and security.

The objective of the Crown was to maintain as much control as possible over its colonies. For this, the system was intervened directly by Spain, from where Spanish officials were sent to form local institutions.

Furthermore, on many occasions, the functions of the jurisdictions overlapped with each other. Some specialists maintain that this generated confusion and local discussions that, in the long run, benefited the authoritarian role of the Spanish Crown.

There were several types of administrative units: kingdoms, general captaincies, lordships and provinces.

Kingdoms

The kingdoms were in the hands of a president-governor. They were the following:

• Kingdom of Mexico. It had its capital in Mexico City. It covered the territories of the current states of Mexico, Guerrero, Puebla, Michoacán, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Querétaro and part of Jalisco.
• Kingdom of Nueva Vizcaya. Its capital was Durango and it covered the territory of the current Mexican states of Durango, Coahuila and Sinaloa.
• Kingdom of New Galicia. With its capital in Guadalajara, it included the current Mexican states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Aguascalientes, Zacatecas and Colima.
• New Kingdom of León. Its capital was Monterrey and it covered the territory of the current Mexican state of Nuevo León.
• Kingdom of Guatemala. It had its capital in Santiago de los Caballeros of Guatemala and covered the current territories of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and the Mexican state of Chiapas.

General captaincies

The general captaincies were governed by a captain general and a governor. They were the following:

• General Captaincy of Santo Domingo. With its capital in the city of Santo Domingo, it covered the current territories of Nicaragua, the islands of the Spanish Caribbean, Venezuela and the islands of Trinidad (since 1591) and Puerto Rico (since 1582).
• General Captaincy of Yucatán. It had its capital city in Mérida and included the territories of the current Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche and Quintana Roo, as well as Petén and Belize.
• Captain General of Puerto Rico. Its central city was San Juan. It was created in 1582 in the current territories of the island of Puerto Rico, Mona Island and other surrounding areas.
• General Captaincy of Cuba. With its capital in Havana, it gained its political authority in 1724 and integrated the territories of the current islands of Cuba and Jamaica, and the American provinces of Florida and Spanish Louisiana.
• Captaincy General of the Philippines. It had the capital in Manila and was the jurisdiction that covered the Asian territories: the current territory of the Philippine archipelago, the Guam Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia.

Lordships

The lordships were lands or properties granted by the Crown to nobles, soldiers or individuals, as a reward for their services or as an incentive for the colonization of certain regions. In some cases, these were titles of nobility. There were several lordships throughout the history of the viceroyalty, but among the most important were:

• The Cuernavaca manor. It was awarded to Hernán Cortés as part of his reward for his services during the conquest of Mexico.
• The marquisate of the Valley of Oaxaca. It was a property of the descendants of Hernán Cortés, which included part of the Mexican territories of Oaxaca, Morelos, Veracruz, Michoacán and Mexico.
• The Duchy of Atrisco. It was a region within the current Mexican state of Puebla, which was granted to Viceroy José Sarmiento de Valladares Arinés in 1708.

Provinces

Within the viceroyalty, there were also provinces. They were smaller administrative units than kingdoms and were governed by a mayor. Among them, the following stood out:

• New Navarre. It was founded under the jurisdiction of the Royal Court of Guadalajara and existed between 1565 and 1821. Its territory encompassed the current Mexican states of Sonora, Sinaloa and part of Nayarit, and the United States state of Arizona.
• Santa Fe, New Mexico. It existed between the 16th and 19th centuries, and encompassed the American territories of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Colorado and Oklahoma, although its borders varied greatly over time.
• The Californias. It was a jurisdiction founded in 1697. It covered the territories of the Mexican states of Northern and Southern California.

Economy of the viceroyalty of New Spain

The economy of the viceroyalty of New Spain was framed in the Spanish colonial economic system. Its organization was extractivist (it was focused on the extraction of natural resources) and focused on the exploitation of precious minerals (especially silver) for export to Spain. On the other hand, for the internal consumption of the viceroyalty, agricultural production was promoted.

To prevent other European kingdoms from introducing merchandise into their colonies, the Crown established a trade monopoly. That is, the American colonies could only carry out commercial exchanges with Spain and under the terms established by royal authority.

Mineral resources were the main axis on which the colonial economy was organized which was based on the ideas of mercantilism (the wealth of a kingdom was measured in the accumulation of precious metals). The extraction of precious minerals was carried out with indigenous labor. The most important deposits of the viceroyalty were those of Zacatecas and Guanajuato.

On the other hand, the violence of conquest, diseases and the destruction of the ways of life of Native American societies generated enormous mortality among the indigenous population and a marked demographic decline.

Given the lack of indigenous labor, the Spanish Crown decided to introduce the African slave trade. The majority of slaves were destined to work on the plantations, on the haciendas and as domestic service in the homes of the Spanish.

Most important events in the history of the viceroyalty

From the long history of the viceroyalty of New Spain, some important events can be highlighted:

• 1521. Hernán Cortés defeated the Aztec Empire and the colonization process of the Mesoamerican territories began.
• 1535. The viceroyalty of New Spain and Mexico City was founded on the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlán.
• 1565. The Spanish conquerors of Asia colonized the Philippine Islands and their territory was included in the American viceroyalty of New Spain.
• 1609. The colonial government defeated the first community of free slaves that had been founded in San Lorenzo de los Negros, led by Gaspar Yanga.
• 1611. A new trade route called “Manila-Acapulco-Manila” was created that linked New Spain with the Philippine Islands and allowed commercial connection with China. This route was fundamental for the colonial economy of subsequent centuries.
• 1693. The first local newspaper printed on paper called The Flying Mercury. It was directed by the Jesuit historian and writer Carlos Sigüenza y Góngora.
• 1761. An uprising began in the Yucatan Peninsula led by Jacinto Canek (an indigenous leader) against the Spanish government. The uprising was defeated and the rebels were killed.
• 1786. The Spanish King Charles III carried out a series of reforms in the organization of the American colonies known as the Bourbon Reforms. In the viceroyalty of New Spain, new jurisdictions were created with the aim of regaining control of the Crown.
• 1799. A group of Creoles from Mexico City attempted to overthrow the colonial government dominated by peninsular Spaniards (i.e., not born in America). The uprising became known as the “machete conspiracy” and was quickly subdued.
• 1810-1821. Revolutionary Creole groups began Mexico's war of independence against the Spanish government.
• 1821. The viceroyalty of New Spain was dissolved and the First Mexican Empire was founded.

References

• Ackermann, ME, Schroeder, MJ, et al. (2008). New Spain, colonial administration of; New Spain, Viceroyalty of (Mexico). Encyclopedia of World History. The First Global Age: 1450 to 1750. Vol III. Facts on File.
• Francis, J.M. (2010). New Spain, Viceroyalty of (Mexico). Encyclopedia of Latin America. Amerindians Through the Age of Globalization. Prehistory to Present. Facts on File.
• Rizzi, A and Raiter, B. (2008). The Spanish colonization of America: the economic system. A story to think about. Modern and Contemporary. Kapelusz Norma.