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The Depopulation of Nicaragua in the Sixteenth Century*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Linda Newson
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Extract

At the time of the Spanish conquest Nicaragua was inhabited by tribes and chiefdoms whose total population ran into hundreds of thousands: today only 4 per cent of the population is classified as Indian. With the exception of a short period in the eighteenth century, the Indian population has declined continuously since the sixteenth century, with the greatest losses being sustained during the first few decades of Spanish rule. Reconstructing the demographic history of Nicaragua is not an easy task since much of the documentary record has been lost as the result of natural disasters and political upheavals.

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Articles
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Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , November 1982 , pp. 253 - 286
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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References

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26 Denevan, W. M., ‘The Upland Pine Forests of Nicaragua: a Study in Cultural Plant Geography’, University of California Publications in Geography, 12 (4) (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1961), p. 283.Google Scholar

27 AGI, AG and CDI XXIV, pp. 397–420, Herrera, to Crown, , 24.12.1544.Google Scholar

28 AGI, AG 128 Libro de tasaciones for the jurisdiction of León 24th to 29th November 1548 and for the jurisdiction of Granada 1st to 8th December 1548.

29 AGI, AG 8 Fray Tomás de la Torre 22.5.1553. Sherman, , op. cit., p. 352 wrongly refers to them as ‘indios’.Google Scholar

30 AGI, Indiferente General (hereafter IG) 857. Juan de Estrada to Crown, no date. Sherman, , op. cit., p. 352, suggests that the letter may have been written in the 1550s.Google Scholar

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32 MacLeod, , op. cit., pp. 53, 139.Google Scholar

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38 AGI, AG 128, Libro de tasaciones, 1548.Google Scholar

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40 A multiplication factor of four may be conservative for 1548 since the number of adult males is likely to have increased after that date with the cessation of the Indian slave trade. A multiplication factor of 4.5 or 5 might be preferable. Barón Castro, R., La Población de El Salvador (Madrid, 1942), p. 200, believes that the population figures included in the 1548 tasaciones referred to all able-bodied adults, which he claims constituted 46 per cent of the total Indian population. This would appear to be an error of judgement, since single persons and women did not pay tribute until later in the sixteenth century.Google Scholar

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42 AGI, Justicia (hereafter JU) 323 Commission given 12.3.1562, AG 50 Royal officials to Crown 2.5.1563, 13.11.1566. Details of the visita conducted by Dr Barros are contained in JU 328 ff. 281–304, 1563.

43 Evidence for these tasaciones appears in the tribute payments recorded in AGI, CO 984 and in the 1581 accounts of the Indian population (AGI AG 966).

44 López de Velasco, J., Gcografía y Descripción Universal de las Indias (Madrid, 1894) pp. 318–26.Google Scholar Sherman wrongly assumes that Velasco's figures refer to the 1570s, so that the decline that he notes in fact occurred within half the time he suggests (Sherman, , op. cit., pp. 5–6, 353).Google Scholar

45 AGI, AG 966, Cuentas de los indios naturales 1578–80, 1581.

46 AGI, AG 128, Relación y forma‖para los que obieren de visitar contar tasar y repartir‖Lic. Palacios, no date.

47 AGI, AG, 966 Cuentas de los indios naturales, 1581.

48 Children in the villages of Nueva Segovia and Sebaco are classified as such by different ages. In Nueva Segovia most children are counted between the ages of five or six months to either seven or ten years, although in Jinotega they are counted between eight and ten years. In Sebaco children are generally counted under the age of ten or twelve, but in two villages boys are counted under sixteen and girls under ten.

49 AGCA, A3.16 494 3763, Tasación of the villages of San Pedro Sutiaba and Tusta 17.12.1587.

50 AGCA, AI.23 1511 f. 91 real cédula 15.12.1548.

51 AGI, AG 965 Archdeacon of León to Crown, no date.

52 Oviedo, , op. cit., IV lib. 42 cap. I p. 363Google Scholar recorded that León had over 200 vecinos and Granada about 100, whereas Velasco, , op. cit., pp. 317–27 noted that León had 150 vecinos, Granada 200 and Realejo 30. The latter figures are also to be found in CDI, XV pp. 409–572, no date.Google Scholar

53 Recopilación, , op. cit., II lib. 6 tit. 5 leyes 9–10 15.2.1575 and 4.7.1593. For accounts of th tribute paid by lavoríos, see AGI, CO 986, Treasury Accounts 1625.Google Scholar

54 The average rate of decline is calculated using Cook and Borah's coefficient of population movement (ω). See Cook, S. F. and Borah, W., Essays on Population History: Mexico and the Caribbean (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1971) I, pp. 89–91.Google Scholar

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57 The English first settled in Providencia in 1629 and within five years had established settlements on the neighbouring mainland at Cabo de Gracias a Dios and Bluefields, as well as in Belize. Newton, A. P., The Colonising Activities of the English Puritans (New Haven, 1914);Google ScholarFloyd, T. S., The Anglo-Spanish Struggle for Mosquitia (Albuquerque, 1967) pp. 18–25.Google Scholar

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61 Colección de Documentos Inéditos Relativos al Descubrimiento, Conquista y Organización de las Antiguas Posesiones Españolas de Ultramar (25 vols., Madrid, 1885–1932), X 192–203, real cédula 20.2.1534.Google Scholar

62 AGI, AG 4012 and CS, III pp. 4423, real cédula 26.5.1536, AG 401−2 and CS III, pp. 458−60 real cédula 9.9.1536.

63 AGI, AG 401−2 and CS, III, pp. 442−3 real cédula 26.5.1536; AGCA AI.24 2195 15749 f. 218V. real cédula 29.1.1538; AGI AG 402−2 and CS XIV pp. 339−40 real cédula 1.9.1548.

64 AGI, JU 1030 and CS, II pp. 219−77 Información de Francisco de Castañeda 1529, PAT 26–5 and CS II pp. 196–214 Castañeda, to Crown, 5.10.1529, AG 9 and CS III pp. 68–78Google ScholarCastañeda, to Crown, 30.5.1531;Google ScholarColección de Documentos para la Historia de Costa Rica (hereafter CDHCR), (10 vols., Paris, 1881–1907), VI pp. 199–211.Google ScholarRodríguez, to Crown, 9.7. 1545.Google Scholar

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66 AGI, AG 965 Archdeacon of León, no date.

67 AGI, AG 401−3 and CS VII 118−20 real cédula 31.5.1531.

68 CDHCR, VI pp. 199–211 Rodríguez, to Crown, 9.7.1545.Google Scholar

69 For the Indian slave trade with Panama see: CS I pp. 293–9 Treasurer of Honduras, no date (1527?); AGI PAT 26–5 and CS I pp. 448–57 Pedrarias, Dávila to Crown, 15.1.1529, JU 1030 and CS II pp. 16–25 Lic. Villalobos 8.4.1529, JU 1030 and CS II pp. 28–71 Lic.Google Scholar Villalobos 3.7.1529, PAT 26–5 and CS II pp. 196–215 Castañeda, to Crown, 5.10.1529, JU 1030 and CS II, pp. 219–77Google Scholar Información de Francisco de Castañeda 1529; Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid (hereafter RAHM) Colección Muñoz (hereafter CM) A/106 4841 Castañeda, to Crown, 1.5.1533.Google Scholar For the slave trade with Peru see: AGI, AG 52 Sánchez, to Crown, 2.8.1535, JU 293 and CS IV pp. 1–760 Juicio de residencia de Francisco de Castañleda 23.1.1536; CDI VII pp. 555–73.Google Scholar Cabildo of Granada 24.11.1544; AGI, AG 9, CS XIV pp. 344–50 and RAHM CM A/112 4849 ff. 55V.-7 Cerrato, to Crown, 28.9.1548, AG 401–3 and CS XV pp. 72–4 real cédula 1.6.1549.Google Scholar

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74 In 1529 Bartolome Ruiz was charged with having exported 80 to 90 Indians from ‘el puerto del rio de la posesión’ without licence. AGI, JU 1030–2 and CS II pp. 280–71. Lic. Villalobos 3.7.1529.

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91 AGI, AG 9, RAHM CM A/106 4841 and CS III pp. 272–8 Castañeda, to Crown, 1.5.1533. For conditions in the mines see also AGI, JU 393 and CS, IV pp. 1–760 ‘Juicio de residencia de Francisco de Castañeda’. 23.1.1536.Google Scholar

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95 AGI, AG 401–3 and CS, VII pp. 118–20 real cédula 31.5.1541, JU 297 and CS IX pp. 1−558 Juicio de residencia‖Rodrigo de Contreras 28.6.1544, AG 9 and CDI XXIV pp. 397–420 Herrera, to Crown, 24.12.1544; AGCA AI.23 1511 f. 137 and CS XVII pp. 2–3 real cédtila 11.3.1550.Google Scholar

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97 AGI, AG 55 Arias, Riquel to Crown, 4.3.1550.Google Scholar

98 AGI, AG 13, ‘Relación de la siembra y calidad del xiquilite‖’ no date; Rubio Sánchez, M., ‘El Añil o Xiquilite’, Anales de la Sociedad de Geografia e Hisctoria (1952) 26, pp. 318, 320;Google ScholarSmith, R. S., ‘Indigo Production and Trade in Colonial Guatemala’, Hispanic American Historical Review, 39 (1959), pp. 185–6;CrossRefGoogle ScholarMacLeod, , op. cit., pp. 185–6.Google Scholar

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100 AGI, AG 162 and CS XIV pp. 299–305 Bishop of Nicaragua, to Crown, 1547; RAHM CM A/III 4846 ff. 230v.-IV.Google Scholar Bishop of Nicaragua, to Crown, 1547.Google Scholar

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114 AGI, AG 55 Moreno, to Crown, 8.1.1578.Google Scholar

115 The preference of pneumonic plague for cooler climatic conditions has already been described. This point is emphasized in a letter from the President of the Audiencia, Alonso Criado de Castilla, in 1608 in which he described an outbreak of pneumonic plague in Guatemala recording that it did not affect Spaniards, but was worst amongst Indians who were hispanicized and who lived in the coldest areas (CDHCN pp. 92–122 President of the Audiencia to the Crown 30.11.1608). Similarly typhus is generally associated with poverty where inadequate housing, clothing and sanitation encourage the spread of the disease by lice and rats. In hot and moist coastal regions where little clothing is worn and washing can occur frequently, the disease is less likely to spread. In contrast where water is scarce, so that bathing and the washing of clothes can occur less frequently, unhygenic conditions are often created which encourage the spread of the disease (Ashburn, , op. cit., pp. 81, 95–6).Google Scholar

116 Thiel, , op. cit., p. 89.Google Scholar

117 Ashburn, , op. cit., pp. 130–4;Google ScholarDuffy, J., Epidemics in Colonial America (Baton Rouge, 1953) p. 140;Google ScholarMacNeill, , op. cit., p. 213.Google Scholar

118 Denevan, , op. cit., p. 5.Google Scholar

119 Sauer, C. O.The Early Spanish Main (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1966) p. 279.Google Scholar

120 Dunn, F. L., ‘On the Antiquity of Malaria irs the Western Hemisphere’, Human Biology, 37 (1965), pp. 385–93;Google ScholarWood, C. S., ‘New Evidence for a Late Introduction of Malaria into the New World’, Current Anthropology, 16 (19), pp. 93–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

121 RAHM, CM A/105 4840 ff. 137v.-40 Castañeda, to Crown, 30.3.1529.Google Scholar

122 AGI, PAT 180–22 and CS I pp. 374–431 Información recibida en León‖ 13.7.5128, PAT 26–5 and CS I pp. 448–57 Pedrarias, Dávila to Crown, 15.1.1529, PAT 26–5 and CS I pp. 457–70 Cerezeda to Crown 20.1.1529, AG 110 and CS III pp. 113–16 Protector of the Indians, Alvarez Osorio 30.11.1531.Google Scholar

123 Herrera, , op. cit., X dec. 5 lib. I cap. 10 p. 72.Google Scholar

124 CDHCR VI pp. 199–255 Rodríguez, to Crown, 9.7.1545;Google ScholarLas, Casas, op. cit., 1812, p. 43.Google Scholar

125 AGI, AG 50 Royal officials to Crown, 15.3.1586.Google Scholar

126 AGI, JU 293 and CS, VII pp. 151–224 Petición‖ sobre el conducta del Lic. Castañeda 16.11.1541; CDHCR VI pp. 199–211 Rodríguez, to Crown, 9.7.1545Google ScholarHerrera, , op. cit., VIII dec. 4 lib. 3 cap. 2 p. 149;Google ScholarSaco, J. A., Historia de la Esclavitud de los Indios en el Nueuo Mundo (2 vols., Havana, 1932) II 168;Google Scholarde P. García Peláez, F., Memorias para la Historia del Antiguo Reino de Guatemala (3 vols. Guatemala City, 1943–1944) 1, 96.Google Scholar

127 AGI, JU 292 and CS IV pp. 1–760 Juicio de residencia de Francisco de Castañeda 23.1.1536.

128 AGI, AG 9 and CDI XXV pp. 37–49 Audiencia, to Crown, 6.9.1554.Google Scholar

129 The numbers introduced under individual licences generally did not exceed five, although in 1527 the city of Granada had petitioned the Crown to allow colonists to introduce twelve slaves each (CDHCR IV pp. 7–11. ‘Instrucciones a los procuradores de la ciudad de Granada’. 10.7.1527). For examples of the small numbers introduced from Spain, see: AGI, AG 402–2 and CS III p. 171 real cédula 29.11.1532, IC 1206 and CS VI pp. 118–28. ‘Relación de los bienes que el Cap. Juan Tellez dejó en Nicaragua’. 8.7.1540.

130 The only ratios comparable to those calculated for Nicaragua are for coastal Peru with a depopulation ratio of 58:1 from 1525 to 1570. Smith, C. T., ‘Depopulation of the Central Andes in the Sixteenth Century’, Current Anthropology, 2 (1970), pp. 453–464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar reterence to p. 459, and Amazonia with a depopulation ratio of 35:1 from contact to population nadir. W. M. Denevan, ‘The Aboriginal Population of Amazonia’ in Denevan, , op. cit., pp. 205–34, reference to p. 212. In addition, the Indian population of the Caribbean islands became almost extinct within a generation.Google Scholar

131 For a parallel study of the decline in the Indian population of sixteenth-century Honduras see: Newson, L. A., ‘Demographic Catastrophe in Sixteenth-Century Honduras’ in Studies in Spanish American Population History, Robinson, D. J. (ed.), (Boulder, Colorado, 1981) pp. 217–41.Google Scholar