CHAPTER 5 THE COLONIAL PERIOD IN MESOAMERICA
Despite the trauma of the conquest and the demographic collapse that occurred
over the course of the sixteenth century, the native peoples of Mesoamerica survived.
Their populations eventually rebounded, and at the end of the Colonial period, they
still accounted for the majority of the region’s inhabitants.
Ruled by Spain for three centuries, the peoples of Mesoamerica underwent the
usual fate of a colonized people: They were systematically impoverished, with their
resources and productive capacity redirected toward the enrichment of the invaders
and their descendants. However, in some ways Spain pursued a policy of indirect
rule, allowing the native people to run many of their own affairs within limits set by
the colonizers.
This chapter begins by describing how Spain ruled and administered its
Mesoamerican territories and then discusses the colonial institutions that had direct
impact on the native people, with particular attention to the role of the Catholic
Church. We then examine colonial society, first giving an overview of the social
makeup of the colony as a whole and then focusing on the way of life that developed
in the surviving native communities.THE COLONIAL REGIME
The Spanish king was, in all respects—economic, political, and religious—the
supreme ruler over Spain and its territories. A portion of all the wealth generated in
the Indies was destined for the royal treasury. The king and his advisers also had ul-
timate political power, overseeing the appointment of all high-ranking colonial of-
ficials. In addition, the Crown had been granted extraordinary privileges by the pope,
meaning that the Spanish king controlled all the ecclesiastical affairs in his domain.
But despite all this power and the vast wealth of the empire, the “golden age” of
Spain was fleeting.182