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Commandancy General of the Provincias Internas
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The Commandancy General of the Internal Provinces of the North or Commandancy General of the Provincias Internas del Norte was an administrative district of colonial Spain, created in 1776 to provide more autonomy for the frontier provinces of Viceroyalty of New Spain. The goal of its creation was to establish a unified government in political (governorship), military (commandancy general), and fiscal (intendancy) affairs.
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Encyclopedia
The Commandancy General of the Internal Provinces of the North or Commandancy General of the Provincias Internas del Norte was an administrative district of colonial Spain, created in 1776 to provide more autonomy for the frontier provinces of Viceroyalty of New Spain. The goal of its creation was to establish a unified government in political (governorship), military (commandancy general), and fiscal (intendancy) affairs. Nevertheless, the Commandancy General experienced significant changes in its administration due to both experimentation to find the best government for the frontier region and bureaucratic in-fighting. Its creation was part of the Bourbon Reforms and was part of an effort to invigorate economic and population growth in the region to stave off encroachment on the region by foreign powers. At one point or another, the Commandancy General encompassed the Provinces of Sonora y Sinaloa, Nueva Vizcaya, Las Californias, Coahuila and Texas (formerly Nueva Extremadura).
History
Establishment
The Provincias Internas were the brainchild of José de Gálvez. He hit upon the idea during his time as royal visitador (inspector) to New Spain from 1761 to 1772. His initial idea was to create a full-fledged viceroyalty or captaincy general out of the northern provinces, but the low population of the area and large military expenses of the area in comparison to its revenues, prevented this. Instead the chief official of the area received the military title of commander general, or commandant general (comandante general, in Spanish), in addition to being the absolute civil executive officer of the region. Due to objections from the viceroys of New Spain, Gálvez was unable to implement his plan during his time as visitador, but a few years after his return he was appointed Minister of the Indies. This was essentially a new office created by Charles III which made Gálvez, for all purposes, independent of the Council of the Indies (of which he was also an honorary member). From his new position, Gálvez was able to implement his vision for Spanish America. In addition to the Provincias Internas, Gálvez also created the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and the Captaincy General of Venezuela (which was essentially a new viceroyalty in all but name). He also recommenced the stalled project of replacing the older corregimientos and alcaldías mayores with intendants. Gálvez appointed Teodoro de Croix as the first Commander General of the Provinicas Internas.
Society
Like most of the governments of the Caribbean, 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 Arizpe in Sonora. The provinces that had been incorporated into the new district had been, and continued to be, under the jurisdiction of the Real Audiencia of Guadalajara. They were also different in culture from those of New Spain proper. Whereas the southern provinces had been the site of complex, settled societies—such as the Mexica, the Zapotec, Mixtec and the P'urhépecha (Tarascan)—at the time of the conquest, the areas under the Audiencia of Guadalajara had not. Instead the semi-nomadic peoples (referred to at the time by the Nahuatl term, Chichimeca) that lived in this more arid region (and who had resisted Spanish incursions into the area) had either been pushed onto marginal lands or been absorbed into a new Hispanic culture that emerged in the haciendas, towns and cities near the many silver mines that promoted the settlement of this region.
Administrative reorganization
In the decades that lead up to to Spanish American 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 and Texas, 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 rump Provincias Internas consisting of Sonora y Sinaloa, Nueva Vizcaya, Nuevo México, Coahuila and Texas. 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
- List of governors in the Viceroyalty of New Spain
Bibliography
- Gerhard, Peter. The North Frontier of New Spain. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1982.
- 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 9780826304988
- Weber, David J. The Spanish Frontier in North America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992. ISBN 9780300059175
- Weber, David J. The Mexican Frontier, 1821-1846: The American Southwest under Mexico. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1982. ISBN 9780826306029
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