The Colonization Of North America Part 4

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VICEROYALTY OF NEW SPAIN

Cortes as administrator.--Cortes was not a mere conqueror. He appointed officers, and issued general ordinances affecting nearly all lines of activity. Encomenderos were required to equip themselves for defense and to promote agriculture. Cortes himself became a great planter, notably at Oaxaca. He introduced agricultural implements, opened a port at Vera Cruz, and established markets in Mexico City. In 1523 the king had forbidden encomiendas, but Cortes made so strong a protest on the grounds of policy and royal interest that the order was withdrawn.

Royal officials arrive.--In 1524 a corps of royal officials arrived to take the places of those appointed by Cortes. Estrada came as treasurer, Salazar as factor, Albornoz, as contador, and Chirinos as veedor. They came empowered to interfere in the government of Cortes, especially in matters of finance, a policy quite in keeping with the general Spanish practice of setting one officer to watch another.

The powers of Cortes curtailed.--The new officials were not slow to make trouble for Cortes. While he was in Honduras his enemies set about undermining him, both in Mexico and Spain. Salazar and Chirinos usurped authority, persecuted the conqueror's partisans, confiscated his property, and spread reports that he was dead. At last the friends of Cortes rebelled, overthrew the usurpers, Salazar and Chirinos, and sent for Cortes to return from Honduras. In May, 1526, he reached Vera Cruz.

Two years of investigation and persecution by other crown officials followed.

In response to complaints in Spain, Luis Ponce de Leon was sent early in the same year as governor and to hold a _residencia_ of Cortes, while the latter's jurisdiction as captain-general was lessened by the appointment of Nuno de Guzman as governor of Panuco. Ponce de Leon died in July, leaving Aguilar as governor. Aguilar died early in 1527 and Estrada became governor. He interfered with Cortes's explorations in the South Sea, and banished him from Mexico City as dangerous, but the breach was soon healed when both were threatened by the usurpations of Guzman. It was at this time that Cortes, finding his position unbearable, went to Spain for redress and to answer charges.

The first Audiencia of New Spain.--In view of the disturbed conditions in New Spain, in 1528 Charles V created an Audiencia or supreme court for Mexico, and empowered it to investigate the disorders and hold the _residencia_ of Cortes. It was composed of four _oidores_ and a president. To the latter office was appointed Nuno de Guzman. He proved to be an extreme partisan against Cortes, and so avaricious that he soon won the hatred of almost everyone except a few favorites. The old friends of Cortes stood by him and he secured the support of Bishop Zumarraga.

Cortes made Marquis of the Valley.--The arrival of Cortes in Spain caused his detractors to slink from sight, and he was conducted to court with almost royal honors. In consideration of his brilliant services, in 1529 he was granted twenty-two towns, with twenty-three thousand va.s.sals, with full civil and criminal jurisdiction and rentals for himself and his heirs. With these honors he was given the t.i.tles of Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, captain-general of New Spain, and governor of such islands as he might still discover in the South Sea. In 1530 he returned to New Spain, where he was acclaimed by the people, though opposed by the Audiencia.

The second Audiencia.--The abuses of the first Audiencia led to its replacement in 1530 by a new corps of judges, of whom the president was Sebastian Ramirez de Fuenleal. The oidores appointed were Salmeron, Maldonado, Ceynos, and Quiroga. They were especially instructed to hold the _residencias_ of their predecessors, restore the estates of Cortes, and consider the abolition of encomiendas. To replace control by encomenderos, local magistrates called _corregidores_ were introduced. A few of these functionaries were appointed, but the colonists raised such a cry that little change was accomplished, and the Audiencia confined itself, in this particular, to checking abuses of the encomienda system.

Quiroga later became bishop and civilizer of Michoacan, where he is still gratefully remembered.

The viceroyalty established.--The difficulties of government and the spread of conquests made closer centralization necessary, and New Spain was now made a viceroyalty. The first inc.u.mbent of the office of viceroy was Antonio de Mendoza, a n.o.bleman of fine character and ability. He arrived in 1535. As viceroy he was president of the Audiencia, governor, and captain-general, personally representing the king in all branches of government.

The Audiencias of Panama and Guatemala.--Alvarado served as governor and captain-general of Guatemala through appointment by Cortes till 1528, when he was commissioned directly by the emperor. Though frequently absent, he continued in office till his death in 1541. In 1537 Panama and Veragua were erected into the Audiencia of Panama, which was later attached to the viceroyalty of Peru, because the commerce of Peru crossed the Isthmus. Six years later the Audiencia of the Confines of Panama and Nicaragua was established. After various changes, by 1570 Guatemala became the seat of an Audiencia embracing all of Central America except Panama, Veragua, and Yucatan.

The New Laws.--Las Casas and others continued to oppose the encomienda system. In 1539 the great missionary returned to Spain to conduct the fight. While there he wrote his celebrated works called _The Destruction of the Indies_ and the _Twenty Reasons_ why Indians should not be enslaved. His pleadings were not in vain, for in 1542 the Council issued a new Indian code called the _New Laws_, which provided that encomiendas should be abolished on the death of the present holders. But so great was the opposition that in 1545 the vital clauses of the ordinance were repealed. In Peru the attempt to enforce the laws even led to bloodshed.

Mendoza sent to Peru.--Viceroy Mendoza continued to rule for fifteen years. He proved to be a wise, able, and honest administrator, who tried to improve the condition of both the colonists and the helpless natives.

He prohibited the use of the Indians as beasts of burden. In 1536 he established the printing press in Mexico, the first book published on the continent appearing in 1537. In that year he founded the college of Santa Cruz de Tlatelalco for the education of n.o.ble Indians. He opened roads from Mexico to Oaxaca, Tehuantepec, Acapulco, Michoacan, Colima, Jalisco, and other distant points. In 1550 he was sent to rule in troubled Peru, where the Spaniards were duplicating the brilliant exploits of Cortes and his followers.

READINGS

SPAIN DURING THE CONQUEST

Armstrong, E., _The Emperor Charles V._; Bourne, E.G., _Spain in America_, Ch. I; Chapman, Charles E., _A History of Spain_, 1-246, especially Chapters X-XXII; Cheyney, E.P., _European Background of American History_, Ch. V; Hume, M.A.S., _Spain, its Greatness and Decay_; Hume, M.A.S., _The Spanish People_; Lane-Poole, S., _The Moors in Spain_; Lowery, W., _Spanish Settlements within the present limits of the United States_, 1513-1565, pp. 79-101; Merriman, R.B., _The Rise of the Spanish Empire_; Prescott, W.H., _Ferdinand and Isabella_; Haring, C.H., _Trade and Navigation between Spain and the Indies in the Time of the Hapsburgs_.

THE WEST INDIES, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND MAGELLAN

Altolaguirre y Davale, D. Angel de, _D. Pedro de Alvarado, Conquistador de Guatemala y Honduras_; _Vasco Nunez de Balboa_; Bancroft, H.H., _Central America_, I, 183-247, 321-412, 478-511; Bourne, E.G., _Spain in America_, 20-53; 115-132; Fiske, John, _The Discovery of America_, I, 465-512, II, 184-212; Fortier, A., and Ficklen, J.R., _Mexico and Central America_, 1-102; Guardia, R.F., _History of the Discovery and Conquest of Costa Rica_; Guillemand, F.H.H, _Life of Magellan_; Helps, Arthur, _The Spanish Conquest_, I, 89-142, 193-320; Lowery, Woodbury, _Spanish Settlements within the present Limits of the United States_, 102-122; Richman, L.B., _The Spanish Conquerors_, 64-91, 139-154; Wright, L.A., _The early History of Cuba_, 1492-1586.

CORTES AND HIS FOLLOWERS

Bancroft, H.H., _Central America_, I, 522-643; Diaz del Castillo, Bernal, _True History of the Conquest of New Spain_; Fortier and Ficklen, _Mexico and Central America_, 181-238; Helps, Arthur, _Life of Cortes_; _Life of Las Casas_; _The Spanish Conquest_, III, 23-67, 164-289; Mc.n.u.tt, F.A., _Cortes and the Conquest of Mexico_, 43-67; _The Letters of Cortes to Charles V._; Prescott, W.H., _The Conquest of Mexico_, Bks. II-IV; Bolton, H.E., The Spanish Borderlands; Means, P.A., _History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas_.

EXPLORATIONS TO THE NORTH AND IN THE PACIFIC

Bancroft, H.H., _History of California_, I, 64-81; Bandelier, A.D.F., _The Gilded Man; Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (Trail Makers' Series)_; Blair and Robertson, _The Philippine Islands_, I-II; Bolton, H.E., _Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542-1706 (Original Narratives Series)_, 1-39; Bourne, E.G., _Spain in America_, 158-174; _Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto (Trail Makers' Series)_; Brittain, Alfred, _Discovery and Exploration_, 343-361; Hodge, F.W., and Lewis, T.H., _The Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, 1528-1543 (Original Narratives Series)_; Irving, Theodore, _The Conquest of Florida_; Lowery, Woodbury, _Spanish Settlements within the present Limits of the United States_, 130-350; Richman, L.B., _California under Spain and Mexico_, 3-11; Schafer, Joseph, _Pacific Coast and Alaska_, 3-23; Wins.h.i.+p, G.P., _The Coronado Expedition_ (Bureau of American Ethnology, _14th Report_, Part I.); _The Journey of Coronado (Trail Makers' Series)_, Richman, I.B., _The Spanish Conquerors_, 91-139.

CHAPTER III

THE EXPANSION OF NEW SPAIN (1543-1609)

OLD AND NEW SPAIN UNDER PHILIP II

Philip's inheritance.--Charles V's stormy reign came to a close in 1556, when he abdicated in favor of his son, Philip II, who inherited Spain with its colonies, Naples, Milan, Franche Comte, and the Netherlands.

The imperial office and the Hapsburg possessions went to Charles's brother, Ferdinand I.

The Protestant movement.--The Protestant movement, which began in Germany and Switzerland, spread into France, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, and the Scandinavian countries. The Catholic church saw itself in danger of losing the religious supremacy in Europe, and put forth all its power to check it. Its three great agencies in the Counter-Reformation were the Council of Trent, the Jesuits, and Philip II.

The Revolt of the Netherlands.--The Spanish king devoted all his resources to stamping out Protestantism in the Netherlands, France, and England. To the wealthy Dutch burghers Philip was a foreigner; they resented the quartering of his soldiers and they objected to his regent, the d.u.c.h.ess of Parma, the king's half sister. The Inquisition had been introduced into the Netherlands by Charles V. and it became more active under his son. In 1566 the Dutch n.o.bles headed a revolt, which was furthered by the Protestant preachers. The Duke of Alva was sent with an army to suppress it. William of Orange and other leaders fled the country, as did many Flemish weavers. Alva established a special court which became known as the Council of Blood; a reign of terror followed, thousands being executed. William of Orange, known as the Silent, in 1568 collected a small army and began the struggle for independence.

After many years of warfare the Protestant provinces in the north gained their autonomy.

The Defeat of the Armada.--In France the Protestant leader, Coligny, attempted to unite both Catholics and Protestants in a national war against Spain. This was frustrated by the Guises. Later, when they intrigued to place Mary Queen of Scots upon the English throne, Philip entered into their designs, but was prevented from giving much a.s.sistance by the revolt in the Netherlands. The English retaliated by raiding the Spanish Main. The culmination of the struggle was the defeat of the Spanish Armada, in 1588, which freed England from the danger of invasion. In Spain Philip carried out his policy of expelling the rest of the Moors, the most industrious and enlightened of his subjects, and by rigorously pus.h.i.+ng the work of the Inquisition.

Spanish weakness.--The reign of Philip II had witnessed a vast change in Europe. England had become a Protestant country. In France the wars of religion had culminated by Henry IV ascending the throne. In the Netherlands the northern half had risen into an independent state.

Portugal had become a Spanish province. In Spain the expulsion of the Moors, the constant drain upon the country to carry on Philip's foreign enterprises, and the commercial losses inflicted by the English, had weakened the country to such an extent that it could no longer be looked upon as preeminent in Europe. Nevertheless, the Spanish colonies continued to develop and expand. The story of that expansion is the subject of this chapter.

Luis de Velasco, second viceroy (1551-1564).--Viceroy Mendoza was succeeded by Luis de Velasco, a member of a n.o.ble Castilian family, who took possession in Mexico in 1551 and ruled till 1564. Velasco installed his rule by releasing 160,000 natives from forced labor in the mines. To put down disorder and protect the natives in 1552 he established in Mexico the Tribunal de la Santa Hermandad. A year later the royal University of Mexico was founded, the first in North America. During Velasco's rule the great ca.n.a.l of Huehuetoca for draining the City of Mexico was begun, 6000 Indians being employed in the work. Velasco was an expansionist, and vigorously promoted the colonization of Florida, the Philippines, and Nueva Vizcaya.

Martin Cortes, second Marquis of the Valley.--At the same time with Velasco came Martin Cortes, son of the conqueror, and second Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca. He possessed city property in Mexico, Oaxaca, Toluca, and Cuernavaca, and his estates were the richest in New Spain.

Other encomenderos looked to him as their protector against the royal officials and induced him to conspire for an independent crown. He yielded, but with six others was arrested in 1568. Two of the conspirators were executed, Cortes and the rest being sent to Spain.

Expansion of the frontiers.--Having exploded for the time being some of the notions of great wonders in the far distant interior, the Spanish pioneers fell back on the established frontiers, and by a more gradual and rational process extended them northward, much as the English a century later slowly pushed their settlements from the Atlantic sh.o.r.eline across the Tidewater and up into the Piedmont.

On the Atlantic seaboard Spanish outposts were advanced from the West Indies into what are now Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and, momentarily, into Virginia. In Mexico, missions, mines, farms, and stock ranches advanced northward in regular succession or side by side.

Between the return of Coronado and the end of the century the frontiers of actual occupation moved forward, roughly speaking, from Guadalajara, Queretaro, and Panuco, to a line drawn irregularly through the mouth of the Rio Grande westward to the Pacific, with many large s.p.a.ces, of course, left vacant to be filled in by subsequent advances. The Spanish pioneers, like those of England and France, recorded their home attachments by the place names given their new abodes, and thus the whole northern district of Mexico was comprised within the three provinces of New Galicia, New Vizcaya, and New Leon. During the same period the Philippine Islands had been occupied as an outpost of Mexico.

The Adelantados.--The latter sixteenth century was still within the age of the _adelantados_, when the development of the Spanish frontiers was left largely to men of means, obligated to bear most of the expense of conquering and peopling the wilderness, in return for wide powers, extravagant t.i.tles, and extensive economic privileges. As types of these proprietary conquerors of the period there stand out Ibarra in Nueva Vizcaya, Menendez in Florida, Legazpi in the Philippines, Carabajal in Nuevo Leon, and Onate in New Mexico. The period likewise was still within the age of the _encomienda_, when the right to parcel out the natives was inherent in the privilege of conquest. With the turn of the century the custom practically ceased, a fact which sharply distinguishes Florida and New Mexico from the later frontier Spanish provinces of Texas, California, and Louisiana.

A new spirit.--The age of wanton bloodshed, too, had largely pa.s.sed. The New Laws, promulgated in 1543, stood for a new spirit, and royal authority had by now become somewhat established on the frontiers. In proportion as the _encomenderos_ were discredited for their abuses and as their power over the Indians was checked, a larger and larger place was found on the frontier for the missionaries, to whom pa.s.sed much of the actual work of subduing and controlling the natives.

THE MINES OF NORTHERN MEXICO

Audiencia and diocese of Nueva Galicia.--In 1544 Compostela became the seat of the new diocese of Nueva Galicia. Four years later the new Audiencia of Nueva Galicia was established there. About 1550 Guadalajara became the seat of both jurisdictions, and the judicial and ecclesiastical capital of all the country to the north and northeast, a position which it long occupied. The Audiencia district was subdivided into _corregimientos_, each under an alcalde, subject to the Audiencia.

Within the _corregimientos_ were Indian _partidos_, each under a native alcalde, subject to the encomenderos or the missionaries.

The Zacatecas mines.--In spite of the check caused by the Mixton War, northward expansion in Mexico was soon stimulated by the discovery of rich mines, and by the ambitions of the new viceroy. Mines developed in southern Nueva Galicia were soon eclipsed by those of Zacatecas, which were opened in 1548 by Juan de Tolosa, Cristobal de Onate, Diego de Ibarra, and Baltasar Trevino. These men soon became the richest in America, and Zacatecas the first mining town in New Spain. The fame of the "diggins" spread, and other parts of the country were for a time nearly depopulated by the rush of miners.

Francisco de Ibarra.--Inspired by the "boom" at Zacatecas, the Audiencia of Nueva Galicia planned to subdue the districts of Sinaloa and Durango.

Gines Vazquez de Mercado, sent for this purpose in 1552, wasted his energies in a fruitless search for a fabled mountain of pure silver, and was defeated by the Indians near Sombrerete. Martin Perez, sent by the Audiencia to the same district in 1558, came into conflict with Francisco de Ibarra, agent of the viceroy. In 1554 Ibarra began a series of explorations by means of which, in the course of eight years, he and his men opened in northern Zacatecas the mines of San Martin, San Lucas, Sombrerete, Chalchuites, Avino, Fresnillo, and other places. To make these expeditions, he equipped himself at his own or his uncle's expense with soldiers, horses, Negro slaves, Indian servants, and droves of stock for food. He attracted miners and settlers by furnis.h.i.+ng them with outfits and by giving them free use of mineral deposits.

Nueva Vizcaya founded.--In 1558 Velasco planned to send Ibarra northward to pacify a region called Copala, but his departure was delayed by the sending of the De Luna expedition to Florida. In 1562 Ibarra was made governor and captain-general of a new province called Nueva Vizcaya, comprising the unconquered districts beyond Nueva Galicia, to which Zacatecas remained attached. In the following year he founded Nombre de Dios and Durango, the latter of which became and long remained the military capital of all the northern country. In the same year Rodrigo del Rio de Losa was sent with soldiers and miners to open the mines of Inde, and of Santa Barbara and San Juan in southern Chihuahua. The shortage of Indian labor in the mines there resulted by 1580 in slave hunting raids down the Conchos River and across the Rio Grande into modern Texas.

Ibarra on the Pacific slope.--Amid extreme hards.h.i.+ps in 1564 Ibarra crossed the mountains to the westward, and conquered Topia, which he had hoped would prove to be "another Mexico." Disappointed in this, he spent two or three years in developing Sinaloa. Beyond Culiacan, on the Rio Fuerte (then called Rio Sinaloa) he founded the Villa of San Juan. From here with new recruits from Mexico and Guadalajara, in June, 1567, he set out northward. Ascending the Yaqui valley, at Zaguaripa he defeated the very Indians who had destroyed Coronado's town of San Geronimo.

Crossing the sierra eastward, he emerged on the plains at the river and ruined pueblo of Paquime (Casas Grandes) in northern Chihuahua. Turning back along the eastern slope of the Sierras, he recrossed them, with terrible hards.h.i.+p, into the lower Yaqui valley. Returning to Chiametla, he died about 1570, after twenty years of exploring, mining, colonizing, and administration. He was one, of the ablest of the second generation of colonizers in New Spain.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Advance into Northern Mexico, 1543-1590.]