Provincias Internas
Captaincy General of the Internal Provinces Capitanía General de las Provincias Internas | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1776–1821 | |||||||
Flag | |||||||
Status | Ferdinand VII | ||||||
Captain General | |||||||
• 1776–1783 | Teodoro de Croix | ||||||
Historical era | Spanish Empire | ||||||
• Administrative reorganisation | 1776 | ||||||
1821 | |||||||
| |||||||
Today part of | Mexico United States |
The Provincias Internas, also known as the Comandancia y Capitanía General de las Provincias Internas (Commandancy and General Captaincy of the Internal Provinces), was an administrative district of the
.History
Establishment
The Provincias Internas were the brainchild of
It is assumed that my actual title delivers in your favor that you have given the jurisdiction and extensive powers that you need as governor and captain General of the mentioned provinces and all its borders, I declare, by this Code and Royal Decree, that in your higher command are to be understood and adjoined the Subaltern governments of Coahuila, Texas and New Mexico with its presidios and all other administrative divisions that are situated in the established line on them from the Gulf of California to the Bay of the Holy Spirit, according to my rules and actual instruction given on September 10, 1772, that you shall observe in the most timely and in the same way as I was committed to my viceroy of New Spain.[1]
The new boundary was intended to give a unified military command to the northern provinces of New Spain, to improve their defense and promote the expansion and colonization of the territory, which was threatened by the expansion of Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and the new republic of the United States. The greatest threat, however, were the incursions and indigenous rebellions. Croix in the instructions from the king ordered that the Captaincy General were only nominally under the Viceroy:
Although all of the provisions and orders of your government and captaincy general would depend on just my real person and orders that I reserved directs the Indies route, you shall give notice to the viceroy of New Spain about interesting news and notable occurrences that may occur in the provinces under your control, in order that the higher head of the kingdom be informed about all that ensues in their domestic countries and provide the assistance that you will need as you command whenever you ask for it ( ... ). I further declare that in the provinces of your government You have to exercise the general superintendence of my real estate immediately under my real person and the reserved track of Indies, and by the laws the viceroys have of those domains and will continue that viceroy from the kingdom of Mexico for all the rest of New Spain. I also grant broad powers to the same laws of the Indies law with the viceroys and governors exercising my royal patronage( ... )
The King ordered that the headquarters of the commandant was initially going to be the town of
With the purpose that you always fall into the faculties to visit or give appropriate orders to the most distant places of your government, you will establish the capital of your residence in the town of Arizpe, situated on the Sonora river and close to the frontier of that province, being almost equidistant from the Californias and Nueva Vizcaya; and of course you can stay at the house next to the church that produced expatriate missionaries, meantime in another building in the same town or wherever convenient.
Teodoro de Croix arrived to Mexico City in December 1776 and from there he began his tenure as Captain general in February 1777, arriving at the city of Durango in September of the same year. After inspecting the provinces of Coahuila, Texas and Chihuahua, he came to Arizpe in the province of Sonora in October 1779 to set up his residence, declaring it the capital of the Captaincy on January 12, 1780. In Arizpe, Croix created a house Currency and in 1782 he created the Bank of San Carlos.
Due to the extent of its jurisdiction in 1782 Croix requested the appointment of an inspector commander, Brigadier Felipe de Neve, the Governor of the Californias, would be appointed as such.
On March 17, 1783, the king decided to create the
On May 21, 1785, the districts of Saltillo and Parras were separated from the province of Nueva Vizcaya (today states of Chihuahua and Durango) and were incorporated into Coahuila, which was confirmed by the Captain general on May 30, 1787.[4]
Division into three military districts
By instructions of the
Implementation of the Intendency system
The Inspector General Galvez proposed to Viceroy Croix in 1769 the creation of the Intendencies of the Californias and Sonora. The viceroy appointed Matías de Armona and then Felipe de Barri for the former and Eusebio Ventura Beleña for the latter, but those projections never reached implementation. On June 18, 1770, the Viceroy Croix appointed Pedro Antarctica as interim mayor of Sonora and operating the Intendency of Arizpe under subordination of the governor of Nueva Navarra until both administrative offices were unified in 1777, remaining Corbalán in these functions until 1787.
As part of the so-called
The government of Nueva Vizcaya formed the Intendency of Durango, with Felipe Ortega Díaz as its first mayor, and the provinces of Coahuila (Saltillo and Parras included), Texas, Nuevo Reyno de León and Nuevo Santander were under the jurisdiction of the Intendency of San Luis Potosí as to the affairs of the Royal Treasury, while in the same sector the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México came under direct jurisdiction of the viceroy. Intendency governors gathered under his command causes (or branches of government) of justice, police, finance and war, depending on the Captain General in the first two intendencies of Arizpe and Durango.
Despite the attempt of 1769, the Californias were excluded from the regime of intendencies and tracked affairs regarding the Real Hacienda under the direct supervision of the Captain General, which was expressed in the Article I of the ordinance: To my royal will, soon to have its due effect, control is now divided into twelve Intendencies, districts of that empire, not including Las Californias.[6]
On March 17, 1787, the Spanish King ordered the creation of the Intendency of Sinaloa, separating it from Arizpe, appointing Colonel Agustín de las Cuentas Zayas as Intendent Governor, but a royal order of July 30, 1789 reversed that creation before it would take effect, de las Cuentas Zayas became Intendent Governor of Chiapas.[7]
On 11 September 1813 the courts in New Spain created the Intendency of Saltillo, including Coahuila, Texas, Nuevo Leon and Nuevo Santander, but failed to be enacted with the repeal of the decree shortly after.[8]
Division of the Captaincy General
By order of the Spanish King in March 1787 the viceroyal authority was restored to the General Captain and on December 3, 1787, the viceroy Manuel Antonio Flórez Maldonado divided it into two general headquarters separated by the Guanaval River, only as for military jurisdiction, because the intendencies retained their functions:
- General Commandancy of the Western Internal Provinces — comprising the provinces of Baja California Peninsula and California), Nueva Vizcaya (present day Durango and Chihuahua), and Santa Fe de Nuevo México (present day New Mexico). Ugarte was appointed as Captain general, and Arizpeas the capital;
- General Commandancy of the Eastern Internal Provinces — comprising the provinces of Nuevo Leon), Nuevo Santander (present day Tamaulipas and southern Texas), and Coahuila (which included parts of present-day Texas south of Nueces River), as well as the jurisdictions of Saltillo and Parras. Juan de Ugalde was appointed as the Captain general and Santa Rosa (now Múzquiz) as the capital.[9]
In 1787 it was considered to create a real audiencia with jurisdiction over the Interior Provinces, but the project was not put into effect. The viceroy had a limited authority over the two general headquarters until the King ordered on March 11, 1788, restoring full viceroyal authority over them and abolished the position of Inspector Commander.
In 1790 Ugarte was replaced by Pedro Nava in the west, who in 1791 also served temporarily in the East after the resignation of Ugalde, until the position was occupied by Ramón de Castro y Gutierrez.
Reunification
In November 1790, King Charles IV stated that the General captaincy be reunited again and independent from the control of the Viceroy, but returned to undergo changes in 1791 and by royal order on 24 November 1792 returned to the control of the Viceroy.[10] Pedro Nava took power in 1793 as Captain general without any dependence of the viceroy, also gaining autonomy against the superintendent of the Royal Treasury of Mexico. Nava relocated the capital to the town of Chihuahua. It was decreed in 1793 that provinces of Californias, the Nuevo Reyno de León (New Kingdom of León) and Nuevo Santander were placed under military governors directly subject to the viceroy and separated from the Commandancy General.
On 28 March 1797 the military engineer Juan de Pagazaurtundúa, who was stationed in the Interior Provinces, sent a letter to Lieutenant General Luis Huet entitled ''Sucinta Descripción de las Provincias Internas (Succinct Description of the Internal Provinces) in which he described the Internal Provinces and their respective geographic features[11]
New division
Nava was the Captain general until 1804, when it was replaced by
In 1810 started the war of independence in New Spain.
Nuevo Santander in 1812 returned to join the Eastern Internal Provinces.
In March 1812 the
By a decree of 1812 county councils were created in the territories named in the constitution:
- Provincial Government of the Eastern Internal Provinces based in Monterrey, comprising the governments of Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Nuevo Santander, and Texas.
- Provincial Government of the Western Internal Provinces based in Durango, comprising the municipalities of Arizpe and Durango and the governments of New Mexico, Baja California and Alta California.[14]
On 4 May 1814, King
In 1819, the
On August 4, 1821, insurgent Celestino Negrete began the siege of the city of Durango, which was defended by the governor intendant Diego García Conde and marshal José de la Cruz, ending with their decision on September 6. On August 14, 1821, the Iturbidist Gaspar Antonio López took over as Captain general of the Eastern Internal Provinces in Monterrey. While, in the Western Internal Provinces Captain General Alejo García Conde pact with Negrete and joined the Plan of Iguala proclaimed by Agustín de Iturbide, making him swear it in Chihuahua on August 26 and then in Arizpe on September, 6.[15] The governor of Baja California, Fernando de la Toba, acceded to independence in 1822, ending the Spanish rule in northern New Spain.
Society
The finances of the Provincias Internas were subsidized by a situado ("subsidy") from the royal treasury of Mexico City. The first capital of the Commandancy General was
In the northern Provincias Internas, skirmishes between Spanish settlers (later Mexican nationals) and the indigenous peoples, extended even after the Mexican independence well into the 19th century. This was noted by the German scientist, geographer and explorer Alexander von Humboldt in his Essai politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne:
This struggle with Indians, which has lasted for centuries, and the necessity in which the colonist, living in some lonely farm, or travelling through arid deserts, finds himself of perpetually watching after his own safety, and defending his flock, his home, his wife, and his children against incursions of wandering Indians; and, in short, that state of nature which subsists in the midst of the appearance of an ancient civilization, have all concurred to give to the character of the inhabitants of the north of New Spain an energy and temperament peculiar to themselves. To these causes we must no doubt add the nature of the climate, which is temperate, an eminently salubrious atmosphere, the necessity of labour in a soil by no means rich or fertile, and the total want of Indians and slaves who might be employed by the whites for the sake of giving themselves up securely to idleness and sloth. In the Provincias Internas the development of physical strength is favoured by a life of singular activity, which is for the most part passed on horseback.
— Humboldt, 1811[16]
Some indigenous groups such as the
It is probable that the copper-coloured individual would rather choose to live in a village inhabited by other individuals of his own race, than to mix with whites who would domineer over him with arrogance.
— Humboldt, 1811[17]
Demographics
Province/Territory | Pop Spaniards/Criollo 1790 | % pop 1790 | Mestizo, Castizo and other castes 1790 | % pop 1790 | Indians 1790 | % pop 1790 | Total Population | Inhabitants per Sq.League |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Eastern Internal Provinces
| ||||||||
New Kingdom of León | 27,412 | 63% | 13,838 | 32% | 2,431 | 5% | 43,739 | 17 |
New Santander
|
14,639 | 26% | 28,825 | 51% | 13,251 | 23% | 56,715 | 11 |
Coahuila or New Extremadura | 13,285 | 32% | 17,215 | 40% | 12,411 | 28% | 42,937 | 6 |
Texas | 1,326 | 41% | 1,083 | 32% | 912 | 27% | 3,334 | N/A |
Western Internal Provinces | ||||||||
Durango | 35,992 | 21% | 77,302 | 43% | 63,890 | 36% | 177,400 | 10 |
New Navarre | 38,640 | 29% | 35,766 | 26% | 60,855 | 44% | 135,385 | 7 |
New Mexico | Unknown | -% | 23,628 | -% | 10,557 | -% | - | - |
Californias | ||||||||
Old or Lower (Baja)
|
Unknown | - | 2,325 | - | 2,153 | - | 4,496 | - |
New or Upper (Alta)
|
Unknown | - | 18,780 | - | 2,052 | - | 20,871 | 10 |
According to
Administrative reorganization
In the decades that lead up to Spanish American wars of independence, the Provincias Internas were restructured four times. In 1786 the Provincias Internas were split into three commands: the Western Internal Provinces (Sonora y Sinaloa) under the Commander General; the Central Internal Provinces (Nueva Vizcaya and Nuevo México) under the Viceroy; and the Easter Internal Provinces (Coahuila y Tejas, with Nuevo León and Nuevo Santander as well) also under the Viceroy. A year later this complex arrangement was changed to just two Western and Eastern districts. In 1792 the Commander General was put back in charge of a remnant Provincias Internas consisting of Sonora y Sinaloa, Nueva Vizcaya, Nuevo México, Coahuila y Tejas. Las Californias was also under his jurisdiction but the Viceroy oversaw him on matters in this province. Finally the Western and Eastern district arrangement was returned in 1811, but with the viceroy ultimately in charge.
See also
References
- ^ España. Real instrucción dada a Teodoro de Croix, primer gobernador y comandante general en jefe de las Provincias Internas de Nueva España. San Ildefonso, 22 de agosto de 1776. 2ª página del manuscrito de la Biblioteca Nacional de México.
- ISBN 968-7326-01-8, 9789687326016
- ^ Ignacio Del Rio, Manon Edgardo Lopez (1985) the Bishop of Sonora, Pág.241, Chapter VII, the Bourbon Institutional Reform, Volume II, General History of Sonora State Government.
- ^ Del Río Ignacio, López Mañón Edgardo (1985) El Obispado de Sonora, Pág.241, Capítulo VII, La Reforma Institucional Borbónica, Tomo II, Historia General de Sonora, Gobierno del Estado.
- ^ Carnegie Institution of Washington publication, Número 163, pág. 75-76. Autor: Carnegie Institution of Washington. Editor: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1913
- ^ Recopilacion sumaria de todos los autos acordados de la Real Audiencia y Sala del crimen de esta Nueva España y providencias de su superior gobierno: De varias reales cedulas y ordenes. Copias a la letra, Volumen 2. Autor: Eusebio Buenaventura Belena. Editor: Zuñiga y Antiveros, 1787
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-12-22. Retrieved 2014-04-16.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ISBN 968-36-7345-7, 9789683673459
- ^ "Juan de Ugalde". Oocities.org. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
- ISBN 968-16-5378-5
- ^ Maya, Jose Omar Moncada. "Una descripción de las provincias internas de la Nueva España a finales del siglo XVIII". Ub.edu. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
- ^ E., CHIPMAN, DONALD (15 June 2010). "PROVINCIAS INTERNAS". Tshaonline.org. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "La crisis de la Independencia". Bibliotecadigital.ilce.edu.mx. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
- ^ "14-035". www.cddhcu.gob.mx. Archived from the original on 25 May 2006. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
- ^ "La Independencia en la intendencia de Arizpe. Autor: José Marcos Medina Bustos" (PDF). Retrieved 23 December 2017.[dead link]
- ^ Alexander Humboldt (1814). Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, Volume 2. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown. p. 242.
- ^ Alexander Humboldt (1814). Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, Volume 2. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown. p. 241.
- ^ "New Spain (Mexico), 1790 Statistics Charts". 24 December 2013. Archived from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ISBN 978-968-36-2875-6.
Bibliography
- Gálvez, Bernardo de(1967) [1786]. Instructions for Governing the Interior Provinces of New Spain, 1786. New York: Arno Press.
- Gerhard, Peter. The North Frontier of New Spain. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1982.
- De la Teja, Frank and Ross Frank (2005). Choice, Persuasion, and Coercion: Social Control on Spain's North American Frontiers. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0-8263-3646-9
- Tenenbaum, Barbara A. "The Making of a Fait Accompli: Mexico and the Provincias Internas, 1776-1846" in Jaime E. Rodríguez O., The Origins of Mexican National Politics, 1808-1847. Wilmington, Scholarly Resources, 1997. ISBN 0-8420-2723-8
- Weber, David J. New Spain's Far Northern Frontier: Essays on Spain in the American West, 1540-1821. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1979. ISBN 978-0-8263-0498-8
- Weber, David J. The Spanish Frontier in North America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992. ISBN 978-0-300-05917-5
- Weber, David J. The Mexican Frontier, 1821-1846: The American Southwest under Mexico. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1982. ISBN 978-0-8263-0602-9
External links