1 - The Spanish Empire Before the Bourbon Reforms

Summary

The Geo-Administrative Division of the Colonial Territories in the Americas

The sixteenth century consolidated the geographical expansion of European powers over territories populated by indigenous people by means of a strategy that guaranteed the dual objective of subjugation as well as the economic exploitation of the colonies. From this common baseline, colonialism adopted different forms depending on several factors including the dominant socio-political ideas of each European power, as well as the physical environment encountered and the particularities of the local indigenous population, including their responses to foreign strategies. Colonialism was thus not uniform all over the territories, not even within those under the same colonial power.

In the case of Spain, the geographical colonial system consisted of administrative units, each with its own office that was dependant on an immediately higher office in a hierarchical order that culminated with the Spanish king. Administrative offices often lacked clearly defined functions, which generated disputes that only peninsular authorities could solve, albeit after a long bureaucratic process of communication. This long chain of letters and reports from the colonies to the Crown was deliberate and aimed to guarantee that ultimate decisions were taken by the state. The blurring of incumbencies also ensured that officials themselves watched their peers, immediately informing superiors when someone was encroaching another officer's incumbencies. The effect was a bottom-up surveillance system to prevent excesses of power and thus supervise the vast dominions with scant resources. Furthermore, as colonial officials were located far from the state's close control, European rulers often opposed the appointment of the nobility to high offices in the colonies, fearing that they could challenge the ruler's authority. During the earlier time of the colonies, Spain and Portugal, in particular, aimed to prevent the establishment of powerful nobilities overseas.

Modern European empires had separate colonial authorities in the metropolis to supervise the administration of the colonies. Initially, in Spain, the Royal Council of Castile dealt with matters related to the Indies, but the increase of business (and bureaucracy) forced the creation of a separate council exclusive for the colonies. This was known as the Real y Supremo Consejo de las Indias, created by Charles V on 1 August 1524 and although it ranked below that of Castile within the Spanish imperial system, it had undisputed powers in overseas territories.