Nueva España - History Lab

List of the subjects destined for mining in New Spain and the Kingdom of Santa Fe, including their families and servants

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:30 +0000

In 1788, Manuel González Guiral, President of the Casa de Contratación, the institution in charge of organising commercial expeditions to America, approved the sending of different people to the mines of New Spain and the Kingdom of Santa Fe. Among them was Fausto Elhuyar, brother of Juan José Elhuyar and Director of Mines in Mexico, who travelled with his wife and a servant. Several well-known German mineralogists travelled with him, such as Alcance y contenido:Destined for New Spain- Fausto de Elhuyar, Director of the Royal body of mines of Mexico, with his wife, Juana de Raab, and their servants: Magdalena Kummer, Rosalía, free Black and Johann Knisrch.- Frederick Sonnenschmidt, Franz Fischer, Ludwig Lindner and Carlos Weinhold.

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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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Screen of the Palace of the Viceroys of Mexico

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

The Viceroy was the administrative figure during the Spanish Empire responsible for administering and governing, on behalf of the Spanish Monarchy, a territory. The Viceroy was therefore the personal representative of the King of Spain in other places. In the case of the Americas, due to the great extent of its possessions, the Spanish Crown created two Viceroyalties, the Viceroyalty of New Spain (1535-1821) and the Viceroyalty of Peru (1542-1824). In the case of the former, the life of the Viceroyalty of New Spain was governed internally from the buildings that formed the surroundings of the main square of Mexico City, such as the Viceroyal Palace, the City Hall, the Mint, the University and the Cathedral. The palace, in addition to being the seat of the viceroy, included numerous official offices, making it the nerve centre of viceregal power. The five panels on the right of the screen in the image depict the characteristics of this building before it burned down as a result of the riot of 1692. Opposite the façade of the Palace was the city’s most important market, El Parián, where many goods arrived from Manila. Its stalls sold all kinds of products and utensils, as well as the numerous foodstuffs that supplied the city from the surrounding area. The remaining three pages contain an incomplete view of the Paseo de la Alameda in the Spanish capital. This work offers a view of viceregal society and the role played by its different members. Thus, the ruling class is represented by Spaniards and Creoles, who were involved in the official and leisure world, going to the palace or strolling along the Alameda, while mestizos, mulattos and indigenous people were mainly engaged in service and merchant work.

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Miscegenation in American society (I)

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

This work, entitled “De chino cambujo e india, loba” (“Of Chinese Cambujo and Indian, Wolf”), depicts a family group consisting of a father, a mother and a son, identified by inscriptions that refer to their degree of miscegenation from indigenous, European and African ethnic origins. These representations are characteristic of a pictorial genre that developed in the Viceroyalty of New Spain throughout the 18th century. It is known as “caste painting” and is organised on the basis of series generally consisting of sixteen paintings in which the most common unions are arranged. As shown in this canvas, which belongs to a set dispersed among various collections, the clothing and adornment of the figures, the activity they perform and the setting in which the action takes place, act as fundamental elements in identifying the social status of those depicted. Miguel Cabrera, the author of this group, who signed and dated the last of the canvases in 1763, is the painter most widely recognised by his contemporaries and had a large number of disciples and followers who were often inspired by the master’s own models.

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Miscegenation in American society (II)

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

This work, entitled “De español y mestiza, castiza” (“Of Spaniard and Mestiza, Caste”), is a representation of mixed-race or caste painting, and is one of the main sources of information on everyday life in the Viceroyalty of New Spain in the 18th century. These representations are characteristic of a pictorial genre that developed during this century, known as “caste painting”. This genre was usually organised in series of 16 scenes depicting family groups made up of different ethnic groups, in response to the Enlightenment’s desire to order and classify the social structure and to show a self-image of the socio-cultural diversity of New Spain. It is likely that these works were intended for a foreign audience. This particular canvas was painted by Miguel Cabrera in 1763, the painter most recognised by his contemporaries. It depicts a family of high social rank, as can be deduced from the clothing and ornaments worn by the figures, who are standing in front of a shoe shop.

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Fleets of New Spain

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

The New Spain Fleets linked Spain and the Viceroyalty of Mexico during the Modern Age. The route of this fleet was established, usually departing along the Guadalquivir River from Seville-Sanlúcar de Barrameda and, from 1680, from the Bay of Cádiz. Once at sea, they would head for the Canary Islands, and from there they would set course for America until they reached the port of Veracruz. The image shows precisely the departure of the fleet from the port of Veracruz to Cadiz, on a return voyage to Spain. These fleets transported mainly agricultural and manufactured goods from Europe to America, and brought silver and colonial products such as grana cochineal, leather, tortoiseshell, ginger and cocoa, among others, to the old continent. Asian products such as silk, which had arrived in New Spain via the Manila Galleon, were also shipped. The New Spain Fleet would remain in force until the end of the 18th century, thus enjoying a long history.

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Caste painting

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

The canvas is divided into two registers, each of which in turn is subdivided into four, offering a total of eight scenes. Each scene is identified by inscriptions that refer to the degree of miscegenation based on ethnic origins (indigenous, European and African). This style is characteristic of a pictorial genre developed in the viceroyalty of New Spain throughout the 18th century. This genre is known as “caste painting” and is organised on the basis of series generally consisting of 16 paintings in which the most common unions are arranged. Luis Berrueco, who signed this series, descended from painters from Puebla and had a large group of followers. He was responsible for the first series of “caste paintings” commissioned in Puebla, the second most important city in the viceroyalty of New Spain.

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Quicksilver mines in New Spain

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

Quicksilver, or mercury, is a metal obtained from the mineral known as cinnabar, which was decisive in the processing of silver, and was therefore of vital importance to the miners of New Spain. The extraction of quicksilver was a monopoly of the Crown and was mainly supplied from the Peninsula, which sometimes caused shortages and difficulties, mainly due to wars and complications in maritime transport. It was in the 16th century when Bartolomé de Medina introduced the method of amalgamation with quicksilver, a method that was very successful and which revolutionised American metallurgy. This technique spread to all the mining centres in the Americas until the 19th century. The mines from which the Crown mainly supplied this metal were Almadén, in Spain, and Huancavelica, in Peru. During the 17th century in New Spain, despite some difficulties in the exploitation of the mercury mines existing in this viceroyalty, such as the lack of manpower, the scarcity of knowledge and metallurgical preparation or the lack of capital to cover the costs, some of them were exploited.

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Evolution of the Havana garrison (Cuba, 1701-1746)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:48 +0000

During the War of the Spanish Succession, numerous human resources were mobilised in the Indies in favour of the French pretender. But Philip V was aware of the logistical impossibility of transporting large contingents of troops from the Americas to the mainland and maintaining them adequately during the journey. Nevertheless, the military mobilisation in the Indies was large enough to rid the continent of foreign interference during this period. The resource shows the evolution of the Havana garrison, as measured by salaries, between 1701 and 1746. From a first stage of maintenance in numbers, with spending oscillating in a constant range, a new regulation was implemented in 1719 that sought to improve the isolation and permanence of the soldiers in Havana. For 20 years the average number of men was 800, a figure that increased exponentially with the Anglo-Spanish war that began in 1739 in the Caribbean. Known as the War of the Seat, the conflict forced more troops to be garrisoned and, except for the occasional episode of bankruptcy in 1742, the bonds enjoyed good health both because of the aid they received from New Spain (situated) and because of the administration of their own internal coffers. The withdrawal of the English fleet from the Caribbean eased Havana’s financial burden, showing a slight decrease at the end of 1746.

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Smallpox mortality in New Spain. The parish of San Pablo Apetatitlan, 1797-1798

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:48 +0000

During the Modern Age, smallpox was an epidemic that decimated numerous populations on the European continent. America’s joining the world-system meant that this territory also became involved in global problems. The resource shows the incidence in New Spain of the last smallpox epidemic of the 18th century in that viceroyalty through the parish of San Pablo Apetatitlan, in the governorate of Tlaxcala. In this rural parish, between December 1797 and December 1798, a total of 75 deaths from smallpox were recorded, most of them indigenous people from this rural area. The author places the epidemic cycle in October 1797 in the city of Puebla, arriving in the jurisdiction of Tlaxcala in the first week of December. Its arrival led to a dramatic increase in mortality in the first few days of its appearance; 91.42% of deaths from the disease were recorded in one month. After the strong impact, social isolation and quarantines were the measures adopted by the authorities.

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