Council of the Indies
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The Council of the Indies, in Spanish the Real y Supremo Consejo de Indias ("Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies"), was the most important administrative organ of the Spanish Empire, both in the Americas and in the Philippines, combining legislative, executive and judicial functions. The Crown of Castile incorporated the new territories into its domains when Queen Isabella withdrew the authority, granted Columbus, and the first conquistadors. and established direct royal control.
The evolving structure of colonial government was not fully formed until the third quarter of the 16th century; however, their Catholic Majesties designated Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca to study the problems attendant on the colonization process with Christopher Columbus. Rodríguez de Fonseca effectively became minister for the Indies and laid the foundations for the creation of a colonial bureaucracy. He presided over the Council, which contained a number of members of the Council of Castile (Consejo de Castilla) and formed a Junta de Indias of about eight counsellors. Carlos V was already using the term in 1519. The Council of the Indies took up its powers on 1 August 1524. The king was informed weekly of decisions reached by the Council, which came to exercise supreme authority over the Indies at the local level and over the Casa de Contratación founded in 1503 at Seville as a customs storehouse for the Indies. Civil suits of sufficient importance could be appealed from an audiencia in the New World to the Consejo, functioning as a court of last resort.
Scandals in Peru and the untiring efforts of Bartolomé de Las Casas resulted in Carlos' overhauling the structure of the Council in 1542 with a series of ordenanzas.
The terms of trade between the far-flung colonies and Seville, the port through which all trade flowed, was controlled by the existing Casa de la Contratación at Seville, which was authorized (1503) to control colonial commerce, emigration, and maritime enterprise.
Decisions by the Council and Crown legislation for the Indies were formally codified in 1680. The Bourbon reforms enacted from 1714, with the creation of a Minister of the Indies and a Secretariat for War, the Navy and the Indies, superseded the administrative functions of the Council, which was not actually abolished until 1834. A separate Secretariat for the Indies was set up by Charles III
The archives of the Council, the Archivo General de Indias one of the major centers of documentation for European history, are housed in Seville.
[edit] Further reading
- Burkholder, Mark A. Biographical Dictionary of Councilors of the Indies, 1717-1808. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1986. ISBN 0313240248
- Schäfer, Ernesto. El Consejo Real y Supremo de las Indias: Su historia, organización, y labor administrativo hasta la terminación de la Casa de Austria (University of Seville) 1935.
