Political and administrative organization

v  Firsts attempts to organize: 1492-1535/1543

The application of the institutions and organization elements in the Americas was very gradual, because the Spanish people who arrived to those new lands did not have any example, any experience about colonizing. This is the main idea, and it is important to realize that it was no planned. When they arrived to America, there were some different empires and societies, so the way in which they organized those new lands depended on the previous situation of them. The size of the lands was very important too.

Another important question is that Castile did not send an army, they send colonists and religious men, but, even so, they had guns, which the natives had no.

During the first 8 years, they establish an inheritable viceroyalty, so Colon was the king until he dies. It was applied to Antilles, Cuba and La Española. Then, they created governors and they organize the land to manage resources and share benefits, but this system was good until it was limited to a little territories.

v  The political and administrative system during the Habsburgs ( 1540-1710)

In the first step was a simple system, putting governors with direct contact with the crown,

Now they establish a system of four levels for governing. And along with that there were also local institutions.

This system is based on the figure of a king, with the same conceptions of power that we have on Castile, the king is in the top of the power.

There were different institutions:

-          CENTRAL INSTITUTIONS

         1-Casa de la Contratación. The House of Contracting (1503) was an institution made with the objective of controlling the trade, namely, for controlling of the taxes.  After a royal ordenanza issued in Alcalá de Henares, 1503, the main objective of the House of Contraction was to manage the trade monopoly between Castile and America, and Seville had the monopoly  to departure to the Americas.

About the competences of this institution, we have to remark the following ones: customs duties, control of trade, control of migration, navigation… so if anyone wants to travel to America, he had to go to Seville, and there they had to ask for permission. This monopoly lasted until the end of the colonies.

         2-Consejo de las indias. The Council of the Indias.1524.

At the beginning, two were its main competences: the general (civil and ecclesiastical) government of the Indies, as well as the management of Justice. Later two new elements (royal treasury and defence) were also included to these competences.

Even it was not allow to make laws, it was allowed to give counsels or advices, which were sent to the King, and once he agreed,

It has no capacity of making laws, but giving counsels or advices. These advices were sent to the king, who must first agree, therefore, the Council would be in charge of proclaiming, disseminating and enforcing them.

It also nominated the candidates for the any governing body in the Indies ( except city councils) and was in charge of controlling them in their duties, through two main systems: << juicio de residencia>> and <<visita>>.

Finally it became the veritable central government agency for the American territories.

-          REGIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN AMERICA

1-    Governorates

o   Creation: conquest and capitulations

o   Competences in governments.

o   Governorates and captaincies: during the whole colonial age, they were the basic unit of the administrative system of the Colonial Spanish America.

2-    The Audiences, they were created after the conquest of Mexico.

Originally, they were high courts or tribunals, and the objective of these institutions was to avoid the abuses of one-person governing bodies.

In America it had supposed a problem from the beginning, first with Colon and then with Hernan Cortes, who had under his domain a land that was 3 times bigger than Castile.

So the goal was to make a collective body to govern the whole Audiencia, and whose role also be to act like a governor.

The audiencia, as a collective body, will govern the whole audiencia, will also be acting like a governor.

Functions: competences in Justice and government.

Composition: oidores ( judges), president ( not judge), prosecutor, protector of the Indians.

Evolution and types: viceroyalty, subordinate, praetorial ( the president is military)

- VICEROYALTIES: in the top we found this level, which was governed by the Viceroy, who was a person whose job was to manage and govern a specific site in the Americas, always in the name of the Spanish Crown. There were two, New Spain in the north, and Peru in the south.

New Spain in the north, and Peru in the south

1. Implementation

         New Spain, 1535.

         It was a consequence of the failure of the two previously attempted systems of government. The viceroyalty was set in Mexico, and in their hand were the different Audiencias.

         Peru, 1543

         One of whose aims was to erase definitely the system of encomienda. (which was not created to be permanent, but it became permantent.)

2. Duration: This distribution lasted about 150 years, until the arrival of the Bourbons.

But there were some problems, like for example the vertical accumulation of power (because on more than one occasion the same person was ruling all the presidencies.) also the geographical situation became a problem, because the most places within America were very badly connected to each, which slowed any management.  

v  Reforms of the Bourbon period ( 18^th  century)

a)   Division of the viceroyalties. Nueva españa, Peru,  Nueva Granada, De La Plata.

b)   A new institution: intendencias. They established this new institution between the governors and the audiencias, so now the audiencias had only the role of court.

c)    Control of the borders: captaincies and commandancies

d)   The end of polysynody in the central bodies, in reference to the political organization based on councils that Spanish Crown had.

BRITISH COLONIES

In the case of the 13 colonies under the control of the Kingdom of Great Britain, we can find three main bodies of power, which are:

-          The Governor: he was the head of the colonial organization, and used to be directly elected by the King. He also was the head of the armed forces. He could convene and dissolve assemblies.

-          The Lawmaker Assembly: it was formed by all the freemen, namely, all adult, male and white landowners, which supposed between 50-80% of the male population.

-          The Council: serving as the upper chamber of the legislative power.

We can see that there are many differences between the organization of north and south America, and the main is not only the governance model of the colonizers, but the interest and the objectives of them in these lands. South America, which was under the control of the Spanish Crown was much richer in natural resources and offered greater profit expectations, so the Crown decided to establish a rigorous control over them. In the other hand, we have North America, which did not have mining and natural resources sufficient to cause the British government to get involved in the organization. The government's goal was provide an outlet for excess population, so they established population-colonies.

These are the main causes of the actual differences between the Two Americas.

GALEANO, Eduardo; Las venas abiertas de América Latina, Editorial Siglo XXI, 2011.

ELLIOT, J.H.; España, Europa y el mundo de ultramar (1500-1800), Editorial Taurus, 2010.