184 UNIT 2 COLONIAL MESOAMERICA
The New Laws prohibited slavery of Indians, regulated the tribute that could be
paid by Indians to their encomenderos,and, of most importance, forbade the granting
of any new encomiendasand prohibited the inheritance of those already in existence.
Throughout the colonies, the New Laws were met with outrage on the part of the
Spanish colonists. In Peru their implementation resulted in the death of the viceroy
and a civil war. In New Spain the portion of the New Laws that prohibited new en-
comiendasand the inheritance of encomiendaswas simply not enforced.
After several years of instability, a governing apparatus was put into place that was
based on the organization of government in Spain. Sixteenth-century Spain did not
recognize a separation of church and state. The Spanish, as well as the Spanish colo-
nial, government, was divided into five branches: civil, judicial, military, treasury, and
ecclesiastical. The jurisdictional units for the five branches of government were not
necessarily the same, and the powers of officials—the king as well as some lower-
ranking officials—were broad, often crosscutting the various branches. We will briefly
outline the civil and ecclesiastical administrations.
The Spanish Crown ruled its American colonies with the help of the Council of
the Indies, which was charged with overseeing Spain’s New World possessions. In the
colonies, royal power was delegated to viceroys. By the 1540s, there were two viceroy-
alties in the Americas, New Spain and Peru. Within the viceroyalties were smaller ju-
risdictions called Audiencias, ruled by a group of Crown-appointed judges or oidores.
Different regions of Mesoamerica fell under the jurisdictions of the Audiencias of
Mexico, created in 1527; Guatemala, created in 1543; and Guadalajara, created in
1548 (Figure 5.1).
Smaller political units were kingdoms (reinos)and provinces (provincias),which
were ruled by governors; even smaller units, called corregimientosand alcaldías mayores,
were governed by lesser-ranking officials, corregidoresand alcaldes mayores,who were sub-
ordinate to the governors. A special category of corregidor,the corregidor de indios,was re-
sponsible for the administration of Indian towns. Finally, municipalities, both Spanish
and Indian, were governed by a group of officials collectively called the cabildo,or town
council. In addition to this hierarchy of officials, the Crown regularly appointed royal
inspectors (visitadores)who conducted inspections (visitas)and filed reports directly to
the king. The king also was kept informed about the performance of colonial officials
through a program of investigations (residendias)whereby testimony was given by any
interested party about the behavior of officials during their term of office.
In the eighteenth century, after the French Bourbon dynasty replaced the
Habsburg dynasty on the Spanish throne, the administrative organization of Spain
and its colonies was overhauled. In the colonies one of the changes made by Bour-
bon King Charles III was the introduction, in 1786, of the intendancy system devel-
oped in France to strengthen royal control. This change resulted in the creation of
new jurisdictions that replaced, and in many cases crosscut, previous divisions. Sim-
ilarly, the new office of intendant replaced the offices of governor, alcalde mayor,and
corregidor.The intendancy system was introduced in order to bring governance in
the colonies under more direct control by Spain: Intendants were to be Spanish-
born, and they reported directly to officials in Spain.