México - History Lab

Need for blacks for the mines

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:11 +0000

Letters from the city of Mexico addressed to King Philip IV, communicating various issues relating to the need for blacks and mulattos to work in the mines, the inconveniences suffered by Mexican trade and the consulate, the harm suffered by the farmers as a result of the removal of the repartimientos of Indians and the sale of aguardiente to the Indians.

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Royal Provision authorising the foundation of a Study and University in Mexico

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:42 +0000

The presence of the Hispanic Monarchy in America resulted in the spread of the identity of the conquerors, their language, developing an intense process of evangelisation, hispanisation and acculturation. In this context, the first universities were created in the mid-16th century, such as those of Mexico (1551) and Lima (1555).

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Establishment of a Literary University in Mexico

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:42 +0000

The post Establishment of a Literary University in Mexico first appeared on History Lab.

Map of New Galicia, 1550

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:37 +0000

Contains a map of the province of Nueva Galicia. Boundaries: the Pacific Ocean to the south, the mines of Zacatecas to the north, the province of Michoacán to the east, and the villages of Cora, Guaynamota and Senstispac to the west. The orientation differs from the real one, as N is to the E of the map. It contains an extensive toponymy of towns and cities, as well as the Grande River and its tributaries, the lagoons of Chapala and Etzatlán, and the road that starts in Mexico, crosses Guadalajara and reaches Compostela through Etzatlán. The city of Guadalajara occupies a central space, represented with an urban grid layout. It indicates mining settlements, Spanish towns, indigenous villages and uninhabited areas. They are represented by means of buildings in elevation with flat or gabled roofs with vegetal roofing and a front door with two windows on the side. The towns under the jurisdiction of the Audiencia de México [towns of Ávalos] are marked with a cross above the villas, as indicated in the note overleaf. The river seems to indicate the border between the pacified land and the land of war. To the north of this is an abundance of human figures in war scenes. In the upper left-hand corner are the larger ones: a warrior with bow, arrows and quiver and two scenes of human sacrifice, the rest carrying bows in a warlike attitude. The ethnic groups at war are indicated: Tepeguanes, Tequales, Xuxuctequanes, Guaxixícar, Tezoles, Guaxacatlan, Chichimecas. On the coast another war scene next to Frayles called Punta de los Teconios. Mountainous territory, especially on the left and upper part, whose orography is represented in profile by means of scratches. The peñoles, or indigenous fortified defensive settlements located on the hilltops, are indicated: Teúl, Miztón [Mixtón], Juchipila Nochistlán and Coyna, war zones. The explanation and distances are found in the associated documentation. On the back are the notes: “Todos los pueblos que tyenen cruzes / son de la governación de Mexyco. El lic[encia]do Hern[an]do Martínez de la Marcha [signature and rubric]”. / “Contóse por hoja [rubric]” / “Contóse por hoja [rubric]”.

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Expansion of San Luis Potosí at the end of the 17th century

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:18 +0000

Throughout the second half of the 18th century, the city councils were the agents in charge of controlling and regulating different territories in New Spain, controlling income, expenses and the territory itself from the figure of the viceroy. San Luis Potosí was one of the most important nuclei in this organisation, instructing new officials in governmental matters in order to manage the finances of different cities.
Traditionally, the government of these cities was the responsibility of the aldermen, who were granted goods and lands in exchange for obtaining resources to satisfy the different public needs of the citizens registered in their territory thanks to their administration. Theoretically, this was not a problem until the Ordenanza de Intendentes stated that a fundamental task of the intendants was to ask the town councils for a report on their own property and taxes, with special emphasis on expenses and surpluses. With the results, the Council of the Indies could regulate the goods in order to minimise the surplus and obtain the remaining amount for the crown.
The tension between the regidores and the guidelines of the newly arrived intendants was more than evident. Until the second half of the 18th century, the surpluses in the cities served to legitimise the certain independence they enjoyed, but the intendants soon saw this wealth as another element to defend their power in the territories. Both applied regulations that gave them legitimacy to control these resources, so that conflict was practically assured if they could not reach an equitable agreement.
In this situation, the city council of San Luis Potosí undertook a northern expansion project that sought to regulate and integrate the agricultural and livestock production of the region, as well as the mining centres and the entire population that settled in its jurisdiction. The trade route to Mexico City and the corridor to Veracruz served as an articulator of the territory, a point for territorial pacification, and San Luis also managed to extend its influence to the Gulf of Mexico.

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Conquest of Mexico. Moctezuma’s reception

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:33 +0000

The image depicts the retinue formed by the Emperor Montezuma and his nobles, organised to meet Hernán Cortés and welcome him as he entered the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital. This work is part of a set of 24 panels produced using the technique of ‘enconchado’. This passage of the Conquest of Mexico was narrated by numerous chroniclers, who served as inspiration for the authors of several pictorial series in which the images depict the most significant events of the story. The series is signed in 1698 by two painters who lived in Mexico City, the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Spain: Juan and Miguel González, the most famous artists in the production of enconchados. The entire ensemble was commissioned for King Charles II and from the beginning of the 18th century it became part of the royal collections. In the enconchados, the pictorial layer is combined with fragments of mother-of-pearl arranged on a preparation of plaster applied to a wooden support, often covered with canvas. The production of this type of work can be traced to Mexico between the mid-17th and 18th centuries.

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Village cooking

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:14 +0000

The table shows, through the genre of still lifes and still lifes, European tradition with a local Mexican flavour. Scattered around the table are pulque, avocados, tortillas, chiles en nogada, meat in sauce, chicken in mole and hot chocolate. Agustín Arrieta was the greatest representative of Puebla’s kitchens in terms of table settings and cupboards. Far from the mystical meanings and on the fringes of artistic symbolism, we can understand the consumption habits of the new middle and bourgeois classes of post-independence Mexico, as well as the sensory experience of the suggestive world of colours, smells, flavours and form of Puebla’s gastronomy.

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Map of the province of Baja California discovered by Hernán Cortés

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:09 +0000

Hernán Cortés is now considered the discoverer of the Baja California peninsula, although the first European to land there was Fortún Jiménez (who thought it was an island). Cortés undertook in 1529, while in Spain, to send soldiers to discover islands and territories in the South Sea where his main aim was to find a link between the Pacific and the Atlantic in addition to land and the more than possible and coveted precious metals such as gold. Embarked on the ship San Lázaro, Cortés arrived at Bahía de la Santa Cruz on 3 May 1535, a territory now known as La Paz, located in Baja California del Sur, where Fortún Jiménez died. There he established a colony with materials and soldiers from Sinaloa where, due to bad weather, only one of the ships in charge of transporting supplies appeared. The supply problem was considerable and the discoverer returned to New Spain to supply the region, leaving the province under the command of Francisco de Ulloa. However, in the face of general discontent and unrest, the viceroy ordered the settlers to return to the same destination to which Cortés had gone.

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Imperial Relief System. The evolution of military expenditure in the Manila coffers, 1580-1660

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:41 +0000

Spain’s introduction of America into the world system gave birth to the Spanish Empire through the conquest of numerous territories. Parts of Asia also came under the umbrella of the Empire. The Imperial articulation had its enemies at the international level. In the case of the Philippines, between 1600 and 1624, the Dutch Armada carried out nine operations aimed at fragmenting Spain. Important actions such as the bombardment of Iloilo, the siege of Manila in 1616 and the blockade of the city in 1621 and 1624 caused the local economy to suffer considerably. The evolution of military spending showed exponential growth during the first half of the 17th century, a time of increased Dutch pressure. The Philippines, a Spanish sovereign territory that was self-financed by the revenue collected from the Islands, was financially supported by the Empire in what is known as “situados”. A situado was, in the author’s words, the transfer executed from a surplus to a fiscal deficit in the imperial tax pool. Aid to the Philippines from the Mexican viceroyalty was used to finance defence and troop costs. Increased military spending led to the pacification of hostilities by protecting Spanish and Philippine interests in the West Indies.

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Hernán Cortés and the Conquest of Mexico

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:11 +0000

A 7-minute video in which the figure of Hernán Cortés and the Conquest of Mexico are briefly analysed. It is essential to revisit the events that ancient chronicles have left us. What happened between 1519 and the fall of the Mexica Empire constitutes the first Hispanic continental advance in the New World. These events have lent themselves to various mythologies that present the Spaniards as a sort of supermen in shining armour, but also as a predatory band that wiped out an arcadian world. Iván Vélez, with great acuity and critical sense, analyses the complex warlike, juridical, economic and religious aspects that accompanied the conquest, but also the political order that succeeded it. A raw, exciting and extraordinary story about one of the greatest adventures the world has ever seen.

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