page_title: Spanish colonization of the Americas
section_title: Civil Governance
hierarchical_section_title: Spanish colonization of the Americas / Civil Governance
caption_attribution_description: Latina: America noviter delineata / auct. Jodoco Hondio; H. Picard fecit. English: America newly delineated / by Jodocus Hondius; engraved by H. Picard. A 17th-century map of the Americas. Scale ca. 1:45,000,000. Map ranges from W 125&#176;&#8211;W 5&#176; and N 70&#176;&#8211;S 60&#176;. Also includes insets of the polar regions. Français&#160;: L'amérique nouvellement cartographiée / Par Jocodus Hondius; gravé par H. Picard. Une carte des amériques du XVIIe siècle. Echelle: environ 1:45 000 000. La carte couvre un espace allant de 5&#176;W à 125&#176;W et de 60&#176;S à 70&#176;N. Elle inclut aussi en encarts les régions polaires.
context_page_description: The Spanish colonization of the Americas began under the Crown of Castile and spearheaded by the Spanish conquistadors. The Americas were invaded and incorporated into the Spanish Empire, with the exception of Brazil, British North America, and some small regions in South America and the Caribbean. The crown created civil and religious structures to administer this vast territory. The main motivations for colonial expansion were profit and the spread of Catholicism through indigenous conversions.
  Beginning with the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean and gaining control over more territory for over three centuries, the Spanish Empire would expand across the Caribbean Islands, half of South America, most of Central America and much of North America. It is estimated that during the colonial period, a total of 1.86 million Spaniards settled in the Americas and a further 3.5 million immigrated during the post-colonial era; the estimate is 250,000 in the 16th century, and most during the 18th century as immigration was encouraged by the new Bourbon Dynasty.
context_section_description: The empire in the Indies was a newly established dependency of the kingdom of Castile alone, so crown power was not impeded by any existing cortes (i.e. parliament), administrative or ecclesiastical institution, or seigneurial group. The crown sought to establish and maintain control over its overseas possessions through a complex, hierarchical bureaucracy, which in many ways was decentralized. The crown asserted is authority and sovereignty of the territory and vassals it claimed, collected taxes, maintained public order, meted out justice, and established policies for governance of large indigenous populations. Many institutions established in Castile found expression in The Indies from the early colonial period. Spanish universities expanded to train lawyer-bureaucrats (letrados) for administrative positions in Spain and its overseas empire.
  The end of the Habsburg dynasty in 1700 saw major administrative reforms in the eighteenth century under the Bourbon monarchy, starting with the first Spanish Bourbon monarch, Philip V (r. 1700-1746) and reaching its apogee under Charles III (r. 1759-1788). The reorganization of administration has been called "a revolution in government." Reforms sought to centralize government control through reorganization of administration, reinvigorate the economies of Spain and the Spanish empire through changes in mercantile and fiscal policies, defend Spanish colonies and territorial claims through the establishment of a standing military, undermine the power of the Catholic church, and rein in the power of the American-born elites.
caption: 17th c. Dutch map of the Americas
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