Notes on The Atlantic World: Spain in America
The Atlantic World
Civilizational project in the Indies: civility included clothing, food, hygiene, and above all, the creation of an urban, European-like life in the colonies.
Urbanism and social order: stone residences were preferred over wood houses; divisions of class and caste were reinforced by law through privileges and restrictions.
Trade regulation: every article of trade in colonial cities was controlled for price, weight, and quality.
Theorizing empire: Milanese Jesuit Giovanni Botero argued that God had granted Spain an unprecedented empire, advanced by Hispanization, Christianization, and civilization (urbanization, creation of cities).
Future gaze: Botero predicted Spain’s empire would be the “Empire of the Ocean” (per l'Imperio dell'Oceano).
4.2 Spain in America
One of the most impressive European empires of the early modern age: Spanish American empire emerged after Portugal’s Atlantic push.
Initial perception: Spain seemed to be a secondary power, but conquests of Mexico and Peru radically reshaped its status.
Geographic reach: from the Rio de la Plata in South America to the Colorado River in North America, encompassing hundreds of native societies and millions of subjects.
Core of the empire: the Mexica (Aztec) and Inka empires formed the double foundation, centered in Mexico City and Lima.
Pre-existing power structures: most administrative regions (e.g., Guatemala, Quito, Yucatán) were built atop native centers of power and population.
Adaptation to local contexts: Spaniards adjusted pre-existing empires to their customs and needs; José de Acosta highlighted the mixed utility of these two great empires for evangelization and governance with respect to the Indians.
Local collaboration: native rulers cooperated with Spaniards to protect communities and manage tribute and labor, often balancing exploitation with local power gains.
Quotes illustrating collaboration: Spaniards favored Indian rulers who cooperated, ensuring their positions, confirming titles, and approving land and vassal possession.
Governance reality: often, the conquests were led by adelantados and governors who controlled lands and peoples on the ground, sometimes ahead of or in tension with the crown’s distant authority.
Conquest, encomiendas, and early governance
Encomienda system: conquerors distributed encomiendas to loyal conquistadors, enabling them to collect tribute and labor from native villages in exchange for protection and evangelization.
Scale by 1540s: approximately encomenderos in New Spain and in Peru.
Proportion among Spaniards: about one in four Spaniards held an encomienda in New Spain and Peru in the 1540s, i.e., roughly of Spaniards.
Cortés’s encomiendas: Cortés received substantial encomiendas (e.g., Morelos and Oaxaca); he never formally granted anything to himself, but was granted significant tribute and lands.
Nature of tribute and labor: encomiendas collected tribute in coin, produce, or labor, using old Mesoamerican schedules for tribute goods (e.g., maize, turkeys, cacao, salt, mantas of cloth, gold grains, feathers).
Pre-Conquest social order carried forward: the encomienda towns retained the Mexica-like noble structures (mayordomos, tequitlatos) responsible for production, labor organization, and tribute gathering.
Local power dynamics: encomenderos depended on local elites; the crown sought to extend power while relying on local governance to manage populations.
Foundation of empire-building: encomiendas extended Spanish power across lands and ensured settlement and administration of native populations.
Early state formation: the crown aimed to replace conquistadores with a bureaucratic administration (audiencias and viceroyalties) while maintaining legitimacy through local cooperation.
The New Laws and the repartimiento system
New Laws of 1542: crown attempted to curtail or abolish the encomienda to prevent a new seigniorial (feudal) class; also restricted new concessions and ordered return of encomiendas upon holder’s death.
Dominican influence: missionaries opposed Indian slavery and argued against enslavement of Indians; Dominican bulls and advocacy contributed to reform pressure (e.g., 1537 papal bull condemning Indian slavery).
Crown compromise: the New Laws faced strong resistance; enforcement was inconsistent, especially in New Spain, leading to an armed insurrection.
Repartimiento (mita in Peru): after attempts to abolish encomiendas, the crown implemented a labor system requiring a portion of native male population to labor for a fixed period; a local magistrate (juez repartidor) allocated labor for private employers and public works.
Policy shift: the crown sought to convert or replace the encomienda with organized labor systems that were more strictly controlled by the state.
The administrative transformation: Audiencias, viceroys, and centralization
Replace conquistadors with bureaucrats: the 1530s–1540s saw the creation of audiencias (courts of appeal with executive and administrative authority) in major provinces.
Viceroyalties: two main viceroyalties were established, Mexico and Peru, with the viceroy acting as president of the resident audiencia, military commander (captain-general), and treasurer in practice.
Provincial governance: under the audiencias were governors responsible for remote districts (e.g., New Mexico, Paraguay); audiencias were divided into districts overseen by corregidores or alcaldes mayores.
Local governance: corregidores and alcaldes mayores supervised towns (pueblos) and presided over town councils (cabildos).
Number scales: by the early seventeenth century, New Spain had around such jurisdictions; Peru had around corregidores/alcaldes mayores.
Crown control: a Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies in Spain directed, coordinated, and communicated with colonial officials; it served as the central executive arm of the king in the Americas.
Interpersonal governance: although formally hierarchical, real governance relied on consensus, checks, and balances, and officials could bypass superiors to appeal to the Council of the Indies.
Consequence: the system tended toward cautious conservatism and occasional paralysis due to the need to avoid protest and rebellion.
The Church and the Patronato Real
Church as a state partner: the Catholic Church in the Americas was integrated into imperial authority as extensively as the royal government.
Patronato Real: papal edicts granted the crown control over church possessions, rights of appointment, veto power over papal dispatches, and authority to build cathedrals—effectively uniting church and state in the American realm.
Evangelization strategy: Carlos V favored regular orders (Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and later Jesuits) over secular clergy for evangelization and administration.
Regular orders and their role: the Franciscans ( mendicants ) arrived in 1524; thousands of friars spread across the Americas, learning native languages, studying cultures, building churches, founding schools, and catechizing.
Numbers and impact: roughly Franciscans in Mexico and in Peru; they worked to convert and educate, though evangelization was often superficial and limited in depth.
Tension with encomenderos: the religious orders protected Indians from some of the worst demands of tribute and labor, creating friction with colonial settlers.
Transformation over time: while early regular orders held influence, over time they were often distrusted by the crown and secular authorities, leading to shifts in church governance.
Demography and the impact on native populations
Demographic collapse: repeated Eurasian and African infectious diseases (smallpox, typhus, measles, diphtheria, influenza, typhoid, plague, pneumonia, etc.) devastated native populations.
Valley of Mexico population trend (example):
1519:
1570:
1650:
1724:
1800:
Overall decline in the first century: large-scale deaths reduced native populations dramatically; still, natives remained numerically superior to Spaniards in many regions.
Regional variation: in the Andes, demographic collapse occurred as well, with higher or lower declines depending on altitude and climate.
Table reference: Table 4.1 shows the native population of the Valley of Mexico from 1519 to 1800 (data drawn from Charles Gibson and corroborated by Alan Knight).
Consequences for governance: population collapse facilitated evangelization, labor extraction, and political control by European authorities, while also creating social and racial realignments in urban and rural areas.
Ethnic policy, segregation, and native governance after conquest
Ethnic republics and segregation: the Crown attempted to segregate Spaniards and Indians by creating two ethnic spaces (republics) and restricting Spaniards from living in Indian communities (república de indios).
Race and labor pressures: economic pressures and miscegenation threatened these policies and led to hybrid and multi-ethnic communities.
Native cultural survival: despite conquest, a distinctly independent native culture persisted within colonial structures; large native towns elected their own officials and protected communal interests.
Native governance in the countryside: surviving native elites and commoners formed hierarchies that interacted with Spanish governance, sometimes preserving local councils and elites (often with tequitlatos and mayordomos).
The larger outcome: conquest largely decapitated native religious and political leadership, but native social structures persisted and adapted within the colonial framework.
Key terms and concepts to remember
Encomienda: grant to conquerors allowing tribute collection and labor extraction from indigenous communities in exchange for protection and Christianization.
Repartimiento (Mita): labor draft system replacing or supplementing encomiendas; compelled Indigenous labor for a fixed period.
Audiencias: courts of appeal with executive and administrative authority; part of the crown’s bureaucratic apparatus in the Americas.
Viceroyalty: major political division under a viceroy, who acted as head of colonial administration; two main viceroyalties in the early modern period: Mexico and Peru.
Cabildo: town council; alcaldes mayores and corregidores: local magistrates administering towns and districts.
Patronato Real: royal patronage giving the crown control over church appointments, tithes, and church-building in the Americas.
Regular orders vs secular clergy: Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and Jesuits used for evangelization and local governance; secular clergy comprised archbishops, bishops, and parish priests.
República de Indios: policy framework intended to separate Spaniards and Indians in residential and social life.
Connections to broader themes and implications
State-building vs. colonization: the transition from conquest to bureaucratic governance demonstrates the shift from military conquest to centralized imperial administration.
Church–state fusion: religious evangelization was inseparable from political control due to the patronato real, shaping policy and daily life in the colonies.
Labor and rights: the encomienda system, its reform, and the mita system reveal the ongoing tension between extracting labor and regulating exploitation; the New Laws reflect reform pressures from religious and humanitarian sources as well as practical governance concerns.
Demography and empire: rapid population decline aided European power consolidation but also created long-term social and economic constraints and led to complex racial hierarchies and colonization patterns.
Ethical and philosophical dimensions: the colonial project raised questions about governance, legitimacy, the rights of native populations, and the moral implications of forced labor and enslavement, shaping later debates about empire and reform.