Ancient Cities of Mexico (Parts I. and II. Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, 1895–1897); W. Lehmann, Ergebnisse und Aufgaben der mexikanischen Forschung (Archiv. für Anthropologie, neue Folge, iii., 2; 1907), Eng. trans.: Methods and Results in Mexican Research, by Seymour de Ricci (Paris, 1909); Theobert Maler, Neue Entdeckung von Ruinen-Städten in Mittel-Amerika (Globus, lxx. 149–150, Braunschweig, 1896), and also contributions to American archaeological publications; A. P. Maudslay, Biologia Centrali-Americana-Archaeology (London, 1897); J. F. A. Nadaillac, Prehistoric America (New York, 1895); Zelia Nuttall, The Fundamental Principles of the Old and New World Civilizations (Arch. and Ethn. Papers, Peabody Museum, Cambridge, 1901); Antonio Penafiel, Monumentos del arte mexicano antiguo (1 vol. text, 2 vols. plates; Berlin, 1890); Carl Sapper, Das nördliche Mittel-Amerika (Braunschweig, 1897); Caecilie Saler, Auf alten Wegen in Mexico und Guatemala (Berlin, 1900); Eduard K. Seler, “Der Charakter der aztekischen und Maya-Handschriften” (Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Berlin, 1888), and other papers in various German publications; John L. Stephens (F. Catherwood, artist), Travels in Central America (2 vols., New York, 1841), and Incidents of Travel in Yucatan (2 vols., New York, 1843). (E. B. T.; W. L.*)
II.—Colonial Period. 1520–1821.
The conquest of Mexico by the Spanish forces under Hernando Cortes (q.v.) in 1520, and the death of the last Aztec emperor, Guatemozin, introduced what is known as the colonial period of Mexican history, which lasted down to the enforced resignation of the last viceroy, O’Donoju, in 1821. During these three centuries, after a brief but most unsatisfactory experience of government by audiencias (1521–1535), sixty-four viceroys ruled over New Spain. Of these a few were ecclesiastics: two had two terms of office; only two or three were of native birth, and their previous official life had always been passed in other parts of the Spanish dominions.
New Spain was one of four great viceroyalties, the other three being New Granada, Buenos Aires and Peru. Its viceroy ruled over districts differing in status and with overlapping and conflicting authorities, some of these being appointed directly by the king of Spain, andNew Spain: Extent. responsible to him. New Spain in its widest meaning includes the audiencias or judicial districts of Manila, San Domingo and Guatemala, and the viceroy had some sort of authority over them: but in its narrower meaning it comprised the audiencia district of Mexico and the subordinate audiencia district of Guadalajara, which together extended from Chiapas and Guatemala to beyond the eastern boundary of the modern state of Texas and northwards, eventually, to Vancouver’s Island. In the course of the 18th century this came to consist of the following divisions: (1) the kingdom of Mexico, which included the peninsula of Yucatan but not the present state of Chiapas or a part of Tabasco, these belonging to Guatemala. Approximately its south border ran from a point slightly east of Tehuantepec to the bay of Honduras, and its north limit was that of the modern states of Michoacan and Guanajuato, then cutting across San Luis Potosi to a point just above Tampico. (2) The kingdom of New Galicia, including the present states of Zacatecas, Jalisco and part of San Luis Potosi. (3) The Nuevo Regno de Leon (the present state of that name). (4) The Provincias Internas, i.e. “interior” regarded from the capital, viz. Nuevo Santander (Tamaulipas, and Texas to the bay of Corpus Christi, founded 1749), the several provinces of Nuevo Biscaya or Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora with Sinaloa, Coahuila, Texas (from Corpus Christi Bay to the mouth of the Mermenton in the present state of Louisiana), and the two Californias.
The audiencia councils also advised the Viceroy in matters of administration; and, as with other officials, his career was subject at its close to a formal examination by a commission—a process known as “taking his residencia.” Local government till 1786 was largelyGovernment and Organization. in the hands of alcaldes majores and corregidores, the latter established in 1531 to look after the Indians, and both appointed by purchase. Towns, which were to some extent founded after the conquest as centres of civilization for the Indians, were governed by civic officials appointed in the first instance by the governor of the province, but subsequently as a rule purchasing their posts.
The church rapidly supplemented the work of the conquerors. The first Franciscan mission arrived in 1524; other orders followed. The announcement of the apparition of the Virgin to an Indian near Mexico City provided a place of pilgrimage and a patroness in Our Lady ofThe Church and the People. Guadalupe; and the friars ingeniously used the hieroglyphic writing for instruction in Christian doctrine, and taught the natives trades, for which they showed much aptitude. The university of Mexico was founded in 1553. The Jesuits established themselves in 1572, devoting themselves actively to the education both of whites and of natives, and were a powerful factor in the exploring and civilizing of the northern districts. The Inquisition was introduced in 1571. With the natives south of the latitude of Tampico there was little trouble after the Mixton War (in Guadalajara) in 1540–1562, save for occasional risings in Yucatan, Tehuantepec, and in 1711 in the Nayarit mountain region west of Zacatecas, and Tamaulipas was conquered in 1748; but the wild Indians of Sonora and New Mexico gave constant trouble to the missions and outlying settlers. There were occasionally riots due to scarcity of corn (notably in Mexico itself in 1692). As in other Spanish possessions, Indian labour was replaced or supplemented by that of negro slaves, but these were almost wholly confined to the coast regions of Vera Cruz and Acapulco, and early in the 19th century there were only some 10,000 in all.
As the Spanish conquerors brought few women, there was much mixture of races. Among the pure whites—who were practically all of Spanish extraction—there were two well-defined classes, the Gachupines or chapetones, Spaniards born in Europe, said to be so named inRaces and Castes. allusion to their spurs, from Aztec words meaning “prickers with the foot,” and the native-born or creoles: the former, though a small minority, had almost all the higher positions both in the public services and in commerce. Besides these there were five well-defined castas: mestizoes (Indian and white); mulattoes (negro and white); Zambos (negro and Indian), who were regarded as specially vicious and dangerous; native Indians and negroes. But there were about a dozen intermediate “named varieties,” of which the salto-atras (tending away from white) and tente en l’aire (tending towards white) may be mentioned; and many of the last named eventually passed into the Creole class, sometimes by the decree of a court. The fact that the trade route to Manila passed through Vera Cruz, Mexico City and Acapulco entailed the settlement also of a few Chinese and Malays, chiefly on the Pacific coast.
The natives were subject to tribute and kept in perpetual
tutelage: divided at the conquest, with the land, as serfs of the
conquerors, in repartimientos or encomiendas, they
were gradually freed at an early date from their
serfage, and allowed to sell their labour as theyPosition of
the Natives.
pleased; they were, however, to a great extent kept in villages
or settlements, compelled to cultivate land which they held
for their life only, and strictly controlled by the friars or the
priests. Their numbers were several times seriously reduced
by the matlazhuatl, apparently analogous to yellow fever, but
not attacking the whites, and unknown before the conquest.
The negroes were allowed to buy their freedom gradually at
rates fixed by the judicial authorities, and slavery seems never
to have taken much hold except in the coast region.
Of the events of this period only a bare outline can here be
given. The term of office of the first viceroy, Antonio de
Mendoza, was marked by the Mixton War, by an
attempt to suppress the encomienda system, and by
a violent epidemic among the natives. Under his
successor, Velasco, the measures taken for the relief of the
Leading Events:
1535–1822.
natives provoked the landowners to a conspiracy (repressed
with great severity) to set up Cortes’ son as king of New Spain.
In 1568 the island of Sacrificios, near Vera Cruz, was seized by
John Hawkins (q.v.), who was surprised by the Spanish fleet
accompanying the new viceroy, de Almansa, and escaped with
Sir Francis Drake (q.v.), but without the remaining ships of his
squadron. In 1572 and 1578, however, Drake took abundant
