The Establishment of Spanish Rule in America; an introduction to the history and politics of Spanish America

Introduction

TO THE HISTORY AND POLITICS OF SPANISH AMERICA BY BERNARD MOSES, Ph.D. Professor in the Unversity of California. Author of "Democracy and Social Growth in America." G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON Che HtnlCrterbccher press Copyright, 1898 BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Entered at Stationers' Hall, London Cbc ttntcfcerboclser press, lAcw Boris

Preface

THIS book has been written to present the main events connected with the establishment of Spanish rule in America, and to describe briefly the more important features of Spain's colonial organization and policy. It is not designed to embrace the history of the Spanish colonies, or to furnish a rigid analysis of their constitutional law. It aims, by the use of certain historical facts, to make clear to ordinary readers and to students in high schools and colleges the origin and character of the political and economic institutions constructed for the government of Spanish America. It aims, moreover, to suggest that American history is not all told in the history of the United States, and, by making accessi ble in a concise form a general account of the Spanish colonies in their earlier decades, to offer an introduction to the neglected half of American history. Parts of the volume have already appeared

PREFACE.

in print, and they are here reproduced with extensive modifications. The third chapter, ' The Casa de Contratacion," was first published in the Papers of t lie American Historical Association ; the fourth chapter, " The Audi encia and Viceroy Illustrated by Mexican Affairs, ' ' appeared in the Yale Review ; a part of the eleventh chapter, " Spain's Economic Policy in America," was printed in the Uni versity Chronicle ; and some paragraphs of the last chapter are from an essay in the Papers of the California Historical Society. Spanish rule in America had its beginning in the days of Spain's enterprise and daring, and has ended in the days of her weakness and degeneracy. It embraces three general sub jects for historical and political inquiry : the establishment of Spanish authority; the move ment towards civilization under this authority; and the struggles of the colonies to be free.

The first of these subjects is the theme of this volume. August, 1898. V CONTENTS PAGE Chronological Summary . . . . vii I Introductory ...... i II General Policy . . . . . 17 III The Casa de Contratacion ... 27 IV The Audiencia and Viceroy Illustrated by Mexican Affairs .... 68 V The Establishment of Spanish Power in Peru CONTENTS VI PAGE VI The Conquest of Chile .... T46 VII Venezuela and Colombia . . .161 VIII Rio de la Plata . . . . .188 IX The Jesuits and the Indians . . . 222 X The King and the Church, Illustrated by the Ecclesiastical Establishment in Mexico ...... 241 XI Spain's Economic Policy in America . 263 XII Spanish and English Colonies in America 293 Index ....... CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY 53i : Spanish-Gothic monarchy becomes elective. 711 : Invasion of the Moors. 755 : Abderraman independent of the Calif of Damascus. 1492 : Discovery of America by Columbus.

Fall of Granada. 1493 : Bull of Demarcation by Alexander VI. Columbus sails on his second voyage. 1494 : Treaty of Tordesillas. 1498 : Columbus sails on his third voyage. 1499 : Vespucius's first undisputed voyage. 1500 : Brazilian coast first visited. 1503 : India House organized. 1504 : Cortes comes to the New World. Columbus leaves the New World forever. Queen Isabella of Spain dies. 1508 : Cuba found to be an island. Solis on the coast of South America. 1509 : Francisco Pizarro reaches Darien. 151 1 : Diego Velasquez settles Cuba. 1512 : Sebastian Cabot enters Spanish service. 1513: Ponce de Leon discovers and names Florida. CHRONOLOGICAL SUM MAR Y Balboa discovers the Pacific. 1516: Las Casas made "Universal Protector of the Indians." Solis in Rio de la Plata. Ferdinand of Spain dies. 1517 : Balboa executed. 15 19 : Cortes reaches the Mexican coast.

Panama founded. Vera Cruz founded. 1520 : Magellan enters the Pacific via the Straits. 1521 : City of Mexico captured. 1522 : Andagoya's expedition south from Darien. 1523 : Cortes sends Alvarado to Guatemala. 1524 : Pizarro sails from Panama. 1525 : Discovery of Cape Horn. 1526 : Pizarro's second expedition. Sebastian Cabot reaches Rio de la Plata. 1527 : Cortes's exploring fleet on the Pacific. Audiencia for Mexico created. 1528 : Pizarro goes to Spain. Cortes in Spain, made Marquis del Valle de Oajaca. 1530 : Pizarro returns to America. Cortes reaches Vera Cruz in July. 1 53 1 : Pizarro again sails from Panama. 1532 : Cartagena founded. Pizarro advances from Tumbez. 1533 : First printing in Mexico. Pizarro enters Cuzco. Atalhualpa executed. 1534 : Pedro de Alvarado reaches Peru. 1535 : Pizarro founds Lima.

CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY IX Mendoza, Spain's first viceroy, in America. First settlement at Buenos Aires by Pedro de Mendoza. 1536 : Almagro invades Chile. 1537 : Quesada conquers New Granada. 1538 : Hernando Pizarro defeats Almagro. Asuncion founded. 1539 : Federmann at Bogota. 1540 : Valdivia marches to Chile. Cabaca de Voca in the La Plata region. 1541 : Santiago de Chile founded. Francisco Pizarro assassinated. 1542 : The " New Laws " cause civil war in Peru. 1544: Valparaiso founded. " New Laws " proclaimed in Mexico. Gonzalo Pizarro enters Lima. 1545 : " New Laws" suspended. 1546 : Pedro de la Gasca reaches Panama. 1547 : Archbishopric of Mexico created. Cortes dies. 1548 : Gasca receives the submission of Gonzalo Pizarro ; enters Cuzco. 1550: Valdivia killed by Araucanians. Royal audiencia in Peru. 1 55 1 : Ant. de Mendoza viceroy of Peru. 1552 : Las Casas prints his Tracts. 1554 : Alvarado enters Cuzco : defeated by Giron. 1557 : Hurtado de Mendoza in Chile. 1563 : Quinoga governor of Chile. 1564 : Spain permanently occupies the Philippines 1565 : Audiencia in Chile. 1567 : Jesuits reach Peru.

CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY X 1571 : Inquisition established in Mexico. Tupac Amaru's revolt. 1572 : Drake on the Spanish Main. 1573 : The first Auto da Fe at Lima. 1574 : The first Auto da Fe in Mexico. 1576 : Caracas becomes the capital of Venezuela. 1578 : Drake in the Pacific. 1583 : Sotomayor governor of Chile. 1585 : Drake plunders the Spanish Main. 1590 : Hurtado de Mendoza viceroy of Peru. 1 60 1 : Porto Bello attacked by Parker. 1606 : Archbishop Toribio dies in Peru. 1718 : India House transferred to Cadiz. Venezuela transferred from audiencia of San Domingo to audiencia of Santa F&. 1728 : San Sebastian opened to trade with America. 1739 : Viceroyalty of New Granada finally established. 1765 : Other Spanish ports opened to American trade. 1767 : Expulsion of Jesuits. 1776 : Viceroyalty of Buenos Aires established. 1778 : New commercial code adopted. 1810 : Beginning of war for independence. 1824 : End of war for independence.1 1 See an elaborate " Chronological Conspectus of American History " in Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America, viii. , 511-556. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SPANISH RULE IN AMERICA THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SPANISH RULE IN AMERICA

Chapter I Introductory The

popular migration through which America was settled may be contrasted with the invasion of Roman territory by the Germanic tribes. A point of difference be tween the two movements is seen in the fact that the Germanic tribes carried the liberal izing spirit of unconventional barbarism into regions which had developed strong social institutions, while the Europeans who invaded America went from a fully formed social organ ization to develop new institutions in the wil derness. In the one case, the forms of an old civilization were imposed upon the invaders, and the barbarians became hedged about by the restraining influences of a mature social life. In the other case, civilized society sent its representatives to an unoccupied region, where their essentially similar conditions tended to produce the spirit of equality and a disregard of the conventionalities of a complex social existence.

The members of the Germanic tribes entered into a social organization which had been created by the Romans. The Euro pean settlers in America had to create new organizations adapted to new conditions. In the one case, new life was infused into ancient forms; in the other case, ancient forms yielded to the modifying influences of a new life. Spain had a large part in both of these movements. The beginning of the modern Spanish nation is with the settlement of the invading Germans. At the height of her power and prestige, Spain contributed largely to the early phases of the migration from Europe to Amer ica. The Germanic invaders of the Peninsula took possession of a large part of the country, introduced a new spirit, and laid the founda tions of a new social life. Supplanting the Romans, they became the dominant factor in the early history of modern Spanish civilization.

As conquerors, they took possession of two thirds of the property in land, and by this their supremacy was assured. In the political results of the Germanic inva- IN TROD UC TOR Y 3 sion, we observe striking evidence of the solidity of the Roman political organization. Although the Goths had broken the authority of the Romans, and had come into the Spanish Peninsula as a hostile people, yet, when they set about the work of political construction, they found nothing better to do than to take the institutions of the Empire as their model. The monarchy which they set up was " absolute in appearance, although in reality given over to the excesses of the oligarchy, by the struggles of the royal election."' Although the form of the rule was like that of the absolute Empire, yet in the election of the king there was revealed the Germanic spirit, the sense of independence, and the desire on the part of the people to have some share in shap ing their own destiny.

Before the Spanish-Gothic monarchy became elective in 531, the headship of the tribe passed usually by the law of heredity. After this, the practice of election corresponded essentially with that carried out in the early Germanic kingdoms of England and Scandinavia. In Spain the elections degenerated, in the course of time, into struggles between a few oligarchi cal leaders, sometimes the representatives of families from which former kings had been chosen. 1 Santamaria de Paredes, Derecho Publico, 452. According to the Fuero Juzgo,1 the power to elect belonged to an assembly composed of " bishops and of mayors of the palace and of the people." The candidates had to be of Gothic stock, and of sound morals. In the list of those who might not be elected were mentioned foreigners, those who had taken holy orders, those who were descended from a servile origin, those who had been marked with infamy, and those who had been involved in conspiracies.

The conspicuous centre of the Gothic kingdom of Spain was the city of Toledo, and the elections were held, according to law, either here or at the place where the previous king had died. But the requirements of the law do not describe the historical facts 1 The Fuero Juzgo was the Visigothic code or the body of laws established in Spain by the Gothic kings. " It possessed legal authority not only during the rule of the Goths, but con tinued authoritative even after the invasion of the Saracens, as well among the Spaniards who remained subject to the Mohammedan yoke, as among those who succeeded in maintaining their liberty in the Pyrenees or in the mountains of Asturias." The term fuero as applied to the basis of municipal govern ment signifies a charter issued by the king or by a magnate in virtue of a privilege proceeding from the sovereign, in which are contained constitutions, ordinances, and laws, civil and criminal, intended firmly to establish towns and cities, to raise them to municipalities, and to assure to them a temperate and just government, suited to the public constitution of the king dom and to the circumstances of the towns.

See Escriche Diccionario de Legislation y Jurisprudencia, 728, 731. INTRODUCTORY 5 concerning the manner and place of electing the kings; for the disturbed condition of soci ety made it impossible in all cases to realize the provisions of the law. Royal power was often obtained by successful leadership in a rebellion, or by the fact that the candidate had been associated in the government with the previous ruler. The period of Spanish history extending from the invasion of the Moors, in 711, to the fall of Granada, in 1492, was marked by the con flict of two unlike civilizations. The first twenty years witnessed the conquest of the Peninsula by the Mohammedans; the last seven hundred and sixty years witnessed the reconquest by the Christians. Under the Moors, the Christians were allowed to govern themselves, in minor matters, by their own laws, and their ancient magistrates exercised civil and criminal jurisdiction, but they might not impose the death penalty without the approval of the Mohammedan authorities.

The Catholic worship was continued under the domination of the Moors, and was found estab lished in the churches of Toledo and Seville when these cities were reconquered by the Christians. During the early decades of Moorish rule in Spain, from 71 1 to 755, the country was under the immediate authority of a governor-general, called an Emir, who resided at Cordova, and was subordinated to the Calif of Damascus. The most illustrious of the Emirs was Abderra man, who undertook to subjugate the region north of the Pyrenees, and was overthrown by Charles Martel. The distance of the Emir from his superior made it impossible to main tain throughout the Peninsula a recognition of the Calif's or the Emir's power, and to prevent the movement towards the growth of independ ent local authorities. ' The government of the Emirs had reached a most unfortunate con dition ; the chiefs of the tribes were declaring themselves in open rebellion; the troops were giving themselves over to all kinds of excesses ; and anarchy began to endanger Arabian do minion on the soil of Spain.

" ' In view of this drift in affairs, it became necessary to establish an independent power in the Peninsula, which might check the tendency to anarchy. There was then created the Calif of Cordova, an act involving a revolution which set aside the supremacy of the Calif of Damascus, established a sovereign government in Mohammedan Spain, and placed on the throne Abderra man, the only surviving member of the de throned Ommeyad dynasty. Abderraman divided his dominions into six provinces: To ledo, Merida, Zaragoza, Granada, Valencia, 1 Santamaria de Paredes, Dcrecho Politico, 470. INTRODUCTORY 7 and Murcia. One of the consequences of this division was the development of the authority of the provincial governments and the decline of the political power of the Califs, till at last the Calif represented merely the religious su premacy.

Internal discord and hostility among the governors weakened the Mohammedans, and facilitated the conquests of the increasing Christian powers. The government of the Moors in Spain was an absolute monarchy, in which both religious and political supremacy were united in the Calif. In the transfer of his power to a successor, the principle of heredity and the appointing will of the Calif were both recognized. He might designate which of his sons he wished to succeed him. He might associate with himself in the government the person designated, and cause him to be recognized as the heir to the throne by the chief officers of the state. The exercise of this freedom of choice was, how ever, often the source of dissatisfaction, and led to social disturbance and rebellion. The practice of dividing the political inheritance among several sons, which prevailed in certain contemporary Christian states, was not per mitted in the Mohammedan state.

The Mo hammedan ruler was regarded as the bearer of the sacred inheritance of the Prophet, which had to be preserved and passed on undivided. Some of the most important features of Spanish life and policy have been determined by the fact that Spain was for several centuries the meeting-place of Eastern and Western cul ture. The Arabs and the Jews represented the East, and the various invading tribes of Ger manic Christians stood for the culture of the West. This colliding of two great waves of migration had a physical effect by mingling the blood of several peoples, and a spiritual effect in developing a peculiar quality of mind, and in giving the nation a point of view quite its own. When the Christians and the Moham medans first came into conflict in Spain, both parties were eager for the fray.

The Moham medans were rendered uncompromising by a hundred and fifty years of unparalleled success, and the Christians had already whetted their zeal on the unfortunate Jews. When the Christian rule of Spain receded before the rising power of the Mohammedans, the con temned Jew, remembering the indignities he had suffered, threw the weight of his marvel lous ability and the propelling force of a holy indignation to the side of the Moors. Under the Moors, the Jews found their circumstances especially favorable. They rose to positions of honor and power. They turned again to agriculture and the pastoral life. They took part in the intellectual revival of the Moors ; INTRODUCTORY 9 and through the combined influence of the Moors and the Jews, Spain for a time led the civilization of Europe. The Jews not only enjoyed liberty, but they also acquired great wealth ; and this wealth caused a further mix ture of races.

The impoverished Christians married the rich Jewesses in the hope of re pairing broken fortunes; and the Jews con sented to these marriages, hoping to extend their period of toleration under the Christians. And their hopes, though not on account of intermarriage, were in a large measure realized. During a part of the period of reconquest, while it was still uncertain whether the cross or the crescent would triumph, the position of the Jews in the kingdoms of Christian Spain was even higher than it had been under the Mohammedan power; and many of the characteristics of the modern Spaniard date from this period, when the blood of the Goth and that of the Jew were freely mingled. The final victory of the Christians over the Moors meant little more than the overthrow of Mohammedan rule. Those who went with the exiled leaders to Africa, after the fall of Gra nada, were few compared with those who, only a short time before, had acknowledged alle giance to the Moorish government.

The bulk of the subjects of the dethroned prince, Boab dil, remained within the borders of Spain, be- LN AMERICA came closely allied to the other elements of the nation, and exerted a modifying influence not only on its physical qualities, but also on its intellectual tone. The period during which Spanish territory was divided between the Christians and the Mohammedans appears, from the standpoint of social enlightenment, the most hopeful in the history of the Peninsula. The process of race affiliation and assimilation had begun, and, through the mingling of the elements present, there was forming a new nation, big with the prospects of great material achievements and of splendid cultivation. The governments of the several Christian kingdoms within the Spanish Peninsula rested on a broad basis of constitutionalism; and the local governments of the municipalities became specially con spicuous for their administration under charters of privileges, which have been justly celebrated throughout the civilized world.

Looking back from our point of advantage, Spain appears in that period destined to become the successful rival of England in leading the political de velopment of Europe. Its resources for establishing a high grade of civilization appear to have exceeded those of any other Western nation at that time. But we have only to compare modern with mediæval Spain, in order to see that at some INTRODUCTORY 11 point there came a change in the mental attitude of the nation, giving to its later civilization a character which is not the legitimate outcome of its early condition. In the early years of Mohammedan dominion in Spain, the chief accusation raised against the Moors was not the familiar later charge that they were infidels ; rather that they had invaded the fields, taken possession of the towns, overthrown the government, and in its stead set up the rule of the usurping stranger.

Towards the close of the eleventh century, in France, Germany, and Italy, under the war-cry of the crusades, great undisciplined armies were moved with a holy frenzy to throw themselves upon the infidels of Palestine. While the fiery zeal of the crusa ders was slowly burning itself out in the East, the infection had taken in Spain, and princes and nobles undertook a new crusade. The ancient prospects of toleration disappeared, and the hopes of the Jews were blasted. After the enjoyment of power and wealth, the favor of princes, and assurances of continued prosperity, they were compelled to abandon the land which had become their second fatherland, and to go into exile. These events appear to indicate a change in the national spirit, a turning-point in the course of Spanish civilization. The hopeful prospects of constitution alism and municipal liberty were destroyed.

SPANISH RUIE IN AMERICA 12 Religious intolerance and royal absolutism gave character to public action. In the six teenth and seventeenth centuries, all European states drifted into absolute monarchy; but in some nations, as in England and Sweden, this movement was met by a resisting force in the body of the people, which rendered practical absolutism short-lived. But in Spain the tran sition was thorough, and the hope of freedom found no general public expression till the popular uprising in 1812. The absolutism of the Spanish kings differed from that developed in other European states, by reason of the peculiar circumstances of Spain. In England, France, Denmark, Sweden, and the German kingdoms, the positive movement towards absolutism came after the Prot estant Revolution had weakened the authority of the church in relation to the affairs of the state.

But in Spain the movement fell within the years marked by the crusade against the Jews and the Moors, when the king and priests were directed by one common overpowering motive, when the royal activity was not determined by economic and political considerations, but by the desire to realize in Spain the de signs of the church, involving the consolidation of ecclesiastical power and the unity of faith. The Spanish kings became, therefore, rather the champions of ecclesiasticism than the de- INTRODUCTORY 13 fenders of the temporal interests of the nation. To this change of attitude may be traced the general character of later Spanish civilization, and also many of the ills which overtook Spain in the subsequent course of her decline. The Jews were expelled, and thereby the nation suffered an irreparable loss of commercial and financial ability, that peculiar ability which since the expulsion has been wanting in the Spanish people, whether in Spain or America.

In obedience to the demands of awakened fanaticism, the dominion of the Moors was destroyed, and the beautiful cultivation of An dalusia was wasted by the conquerors. What might have been the later condition of Southern Spain, had it been allowed to rest under the dominion of the Moors, it is impossible now to determine. It is easy to say that the civilization which was destroyed had already culmi nated, and that it had no future but a miserable decline into the semi-barbarism of the Orient. It is possible that this would have been the outcome, but the evidence presented by the history of the Moors in Spain does not force upon us this conclusion. Even while the northern border of their dominions was being pushed towards the south by the Christians, they continued to advance in cultivation and the arts of peace; and in many departments of civilized life they had never reached a higher position than that which they occupied at the time of their final defeat.

What might have followed their continued presence in the Penin sula, the historian may not positively affirm. He knows, however, that whenever a nation is observed to be advancing in a knowledge of the arts of civilized life and in cultivation, and still shows no decline in material resources, the probability of a further advance, unless over whelmed by war, amounts almost to a cer tainty; on this basis he infers that the upward course of the Moors had not been fully run. The later expulsion of the Moriscoes, in 1610, by which " about a million of the most industrious inhabitants of Spain were hunted out like wild beasts," had a far-reaching effect on the material interests of the Peninsula. " The cultivation of rice, cotton, and sugar, and the manufacture of silk and paper had been almost exclusively in the hands of the Moriscoes.

By their expulsion, all this was destroyed at a blow, and most of it was destroyed forever. For, the Spanish Christians considered such pursuits be neath their dignity. In their judgment, war and religion were the only two avocations worthy of being followed. To fight for the king, or to enter the church, was honorable ; but everything else was mean and sordid. When, therefore, the Moris coes were thrust out of Spain, there was no one to fill their place ; arts and manufactures either degen erated, or were entirely lost, and immense regions INTRODUCTORY 15 of arable land were left uncultivated. Some of the richest parts of Valencia and Granada were so neglected, that means were wanting to feed even the scanty population which remained there. Whole districts were suddenly deserted, and down to the present day have never been repeopled." ' The long wars involved in these centuries which led up to the overthrow of the Moham medans merged the interests of the church in the interests of the crown, and often made it impossible afterwards to discriminate between the ecclesiastical and political functions, be tween the government and the church.

These wars also kept alive the fanatical zeal of the nation, and gave an ecclesiastical coloring to all great public undertakings. In this view it appears significant that the discovery of Amer ica was contemporaneous with the fall of Gra nada. The discovery of a new world occupied by a non-Christian people, at a time when the heroic efforts to suppress the Moorish infidel had been crowned with success, appeared to the Spaniards as evidence that they were the instruments preferred by Providence in ex tending the kingdom of heaven on earth. It was natural, therefore, that the exploration and occupation of America should assume somewhat of the character of a crusade. If the conduct of some of the leaders of Spanish exploration and conquest in America does not ' Buckle, Civilization in England, ii. , 52. seem to exemplify the gospel of peace and gentleness, it should be remembered, in the first place, that, by reason of the great distance and the lack of communication, there were many opportunities for the agents to depart from the intentions of their principal, the king, and, in the second place, that the crusaders, whether in Palestine or in Spain, were not al ways averse to cruelty and even the shedding of blood.

But the cruelty and excesses of which the Indians of America were the victims cannot be justly charged to the Spanish court, but rather to the unprincipled adventurers to whom, in a number of cases, was confided the task of conquering and settling America. For, removed from the immediate control of the court, they could and did violate its orders with impunity. They disregarded the com mands of their superiors, and sought only their own interests, without much regard to the effect of their conduct on the natives. The accumulation of power in the crown through the wars against the Moors had a marked in fluence, not only on civilization in Spain, but also on the form and prospects of society in Spanish America. The policy of Spain with reference to her American possessions was in its essential features determined by the circum stances which made the Spanish nation and its government what they had become.

Chapter II General Policy The

establishment of the absolute power of the Spanish crown made easy the adoption of the fundamental provision of Spain's Ameri can policy, namely, that Spanish America should be regarded and treated as directly sub ject to the king, and not to be controlled by the functionaries hitherto existing for the government of Spain. When it is said that Spain founded her rights in the New World on the celebrated bull of Alexander VI., which was designed to put an end to conflicting preten sions between Spain and Portugal, there is revealed an attempt to conceal the fact that the only claims which Spain or the Spanish king had to lands in America were based on usur pation. Carrying the pretended right back to a grant by the pope only fixed the act of usurpation one step earlier. But whatever title was transmitted by the papal bull was 2 '7 conveyed to Ferdinand and Isabella, not to the Spanish nation, and the subsequent politi cal and ecclesiastical administration of the affairs of Spanish America was carried on under the presumption that the king was the sole political superior.

From a strictly legal point of view, Mexico and Peru, and, later, the other states of equal dignity, appear as kingdoms in a personal union with the kingdom of Spain, rather than as colonies in the ordinary meaning of that term. As a consequence of this fundamental fact of Spanish policy, the king was the most conspicu ous functionary who exercised authority both in Spain and the Indies. Other political agencies were created to assist the king in ad ministering the affairs of his American possessions, and except in very rare instances they exercised no power in Spain. They were new institutions, and were formed for the special work of governing in America. The first in rank of these special agencies was the Council of the Indies. It was created while Columbus was making preparations for his second voyage, and at the time of its establishment consisted of eight councillors.