Chapter 16 Sec 3 The Spanish Colonial System

Chapter 16 Sec. 3: The Spanish Colonial System

Spain and its colonies • System of monopolistic trade regulation • Actual gov’t was informal • Queen Isabella of Castile (r. 1474 -1504) • Had few limitations • Council of Indies: Castilian monarch assigned the government of America • Audiencias: local officers

Trade Regulation • Casa de contratacion: House of Trade regulated all trade with the new World • Each year a fleet of commercial vessels • Escorted by warships, carrying merchandise from Spain would stop at ports in S. America • Sell their goods and then the ships were loaded with gold and silver • Trade outside it was illegal

Colonial Reform Under the Spanish Bourbon Monarchs • War of the Spanish Succession (17011746) and the Treaty of Utrech (1713) replaced the Spanish Habsburg with the Bourbons of France on the Spanish throne (Philip V) • Tried to suppress smuggling in American waters • Led to war with England in 1739

Charles III (r. 1759 -1788) • Reassert control of the empire • After 1765; abolished the monopolies of Seville • Permitted other Spanish cities to trade with America • Increased tax collection like Louis XIV did in France (intendant) • Did stimulate the imperial economy

Cont. • Brought the empire more fully under direct Spanish control • Peninsulares: people born in Spain enter the New World to fill posts • Creoles: persons of European descent born in Spanish colonies had resentment • Led to wars of independence • Charles III = to British gov’t after 1763