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The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery.
- The Pyramid of Government
- Council of The Indies
- Viceroys
- Corregidores
- Audiencias
- Alcaldes Mayores & Town Councils
- Interrelations & Limitations
Spain colonised vast parts of the Americas starting from the landing by Christopher Columbus(1451-1506) in 1492. Working through the Caribbean islands and then moving on to the mainland in the first decades of the 16th century, by 1570, some 100,000 Europeans were governing over 10 million indigenous peoples who inhabited lands from what is today t...
The Council of the Indies (El Real y Supremo Consejo de las Indias) was based in Spain, and it was created by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1519-1556) in 1524 to oversee all colonial matters in the Americas and the Spanish East Indies. The name of this institution comes from the term then used to describe the Americas, the 'Spanish Indies'. The...
The viceroy directly represented the Spanish Crown in their particular colonial territory, a viceroyalty being the largest administrative area within the empire. There were eventually four viceroyalties: 1. The Viceroyalty of New Spain(today's Mexico, Central America, parts of the southern United States, the Caribbean Antilles, and the Philippines)...
The corregidor was a judicial and political officer who directly represented the Spanish Crown. He was, in effect, the governor of a specific area. The corregidor in New Spain served for five years if selected from Spain, but only three years if recruited locally. In Peru, he served for just one year. Thecorregidor appointed administrators (tenient...
All the major cities of the Spanish Empire had an audiencia, which was responsible for certain legal, political and commercial matters which concerned both European settlers and indigenous peoples. The audiencia had jurisdiction over a particular city and its surrounding area. It met in regular sessions (acuerdos) and passed legislation (autos acor...
Local town councils (cabildos) were led by a mayor (alcaldes mayores) who typically served for three years. Beneath the mayor were the councillors (regidores), between four and six in a small town and at least eight in larger towns. The councillors were initially appointed by the Crown but then elected by the local citizens (vecinos), that is prope...
All of the above institutions and individuals were so organised that they kept each other in check and resulted in no single person or body ever becoming so powerful that they might threaten the interests of the Spanish monarchy. Another specific policy to ensure this objective was to limit the terms of office of officials in any single location. T...
- Mark Cartwright
The Spanish Empire became the foremost global power, dominating the oceans as well as European battlefields. Spain enjoyed a cultural golden age in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when silver and gold from American mines increasingly financed a long series of European and North African wars. Until the eighteenth century, the Spanish ...
To ensure that its command was respected in the lands that conquistadors brought under Spanish sovereignty, the crown created a new system of government that placed a governor in charge of each new province, with administrative, legal, and, at times, military powers.
Overview. In the European race to colonial dominance, the Treaty of Tordesillas legitimized Spain’s holdings in the New World, indicating Spanish primacy over Portugal. The successes of Columbus ushered in an era of Spanish conquest that led numerous other European explorers to attempt similar colonization projects.
Key terms. In 1494, Spain and Portugal moved the line of demarcation several degrees west, establishing Portugal’s claim to Brazil. A labor system in which the Spanish crown authorized Spaniards, known as encomenderos, to enslave native people to farm and mine in the Americas.
Spanish colonial policies. Shortly before the death of Queen Isabella I in 1504, the Spanish sovereigns created the House of Trade (Casa de Contratación) to regulate commerce between Spain and the New World. Their purpose was to make the trade monopolistic and thus pour the maximum amount of bullion into the royal treasury.
