Search results
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.
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.
- What is Repartimiento, and what's the difference between it and Encomienda?Ecomienda granted the first Spanish settlers tracts of land and the right to extract labor from the Native inhabitants. The Repartimiento system re...
- In the key terms it mentions Bartolome de la casas. Who is he and can anyone give me additional info...He was a Spanish colonist. Unlike other European people at this time, he vocally opposed the oppression of the natives and indigenous people by Eur...
- The Desier to convert others to Christianity is a part of the gospel mandate delivered to all who wo...Some of the Spanish were following that gospel mandate. Some of the Spanish didn't care, and just left it to the missionaries among them. Some of t...
- What are the reasons why it was abolished?The main reason that the ecomienda system was replaced was due to the chronicles given by Spanish friar, *Bartolomé de Las Casas*, who wrote about...
- why was it abolished for what reason.The Spanish Empire didn't get abolished so much as it died from injustice and incompetence.
One special feature of the system of government was the overlapping jurisdictions of institutions, a system designed to prevent the concentration of power in a single office and to ensure that officials such as the viceroy and the audiencia judges acted as a check on the authority of the other.
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.
Definition. The Spanish Empire generally means Spain's overseas provinces in the Americas, Africa, the Pacific and Europe. Territories such as the Low Countries or Spanish Netherlands were included as they were part of the possessions of the King of Spain, governed by Spanish officials and defended by Spanish troops.
