VICEROYALTY OF NUEVA GRANADA: HISTORY, ORGANIZATION AND ECONOMY - HISTORY

The Viceroyalty of New Granada, also known as the Viceroyalty of Santafé, was a territorial entity within the American colonies belonging to the Spanish Empire. The territories that made it up were the current Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama. The capital was established in Santafé de Bogotá.

At first, the Royal Audiences that were the antecedent of New Granada, were part of the Viceroyalty of Peru. The attempt at administrative and economic management reform carried out by the Spanish Crown under the Bourbon House was the main cause of the formation of the new entity.

jluisrs, from Wikimedia Commons

The Viceroyalty of New Granada had a short history and with several phases. It was created in 1717 and dissolved, mainly for economic reasons, in 1724. Later, in 1740, it was re-founded, until the triumph of the first independence rebellions made it disappear in 1810.

Finally, it reappeared for a few years, when King Fernando VII tried to regain control of the area in 1816. Its definitive abolition occurred in 1822, when the different territories were strengthening their independence from the Spanish Crown.

Origin

The first Spanish settlements in the area date back to 1514, specifically in Santa Marta and Cartagena de Indias. From the coast they began to expand inland and, in 1538, Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada founded what is now Bogotá, baptized at the time as Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza and, later, as Santafé de Bogotá.

In those early years of conquest, the Crown of Castile maintained political control through the Royal Court, a judicial body. In 1528, the Real Audiencia de Nueva Granada was created. Later, in 1550, the Real Audiencia de Santafé de Bogotá appeared within the Viceroyalty of Peru and with jurisdiction over the New Kingdom of Granada.

Causes of the creation of the Viceroyalty

The antecedent to the creation of the Viceroyalty of New Granada was the establishment of the Royal Audience of Santa Fe de Bogotá in 1550. At that time, the Audience came under the mandate of the Viceroyalty of Peru and controlled the governments of Popayán, Cartagena and Santa Marta..

It soon became clear that the vast expanse of the territory made the authority of the Viceroy of Peru very blurred. For this reason, the Spanish Crown granted much autonomy to the governments of New Granada, Tierra Firme, Venezuela or Nueva Andalucía, among others.

Ultimately, this caused a petition to be raised to King Philip V to allow the creation of an independent viceroyalty.

In addition to the problems caused by the vast expanse of the territory, the Crown also took into account the strategic location between the two oceans, allowing for greater control of piracy activities and the British threat throughout South America.

The second great benefit that the Spanish authorities contemplated was the existence of gold mines and other sources of wealth. The creation of a local government would make it possible to take advantage of them more efficiently.

Internal conflicts

To this, according to historians, we must add the constant conflicts between the presidents of the Royal Court of Santafé and the archbishopric. The viceregal authority, located in Lima, was too far away to mediate and calms the situation.

Brief story

Daniel Py, from Wikimedia Commons

The Spanish king sent some visitors to check the situation on the spot. These, recommended to Felipe V the creation of an independent Viceroyalty in 1717, although it would not be official until June 13, 1718.

The first Viceroy, with whom the Viceroyalty was no longer provisional, arrived on November 25, 1719.

The Royal Decree promulgated on April 29, 1717, with which the Viceroyalty was created, granted it a territory of more than six hundred thousand square kilometers. Among the territories it encompassed were the current Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama.

First Viceroy

The first Viceroy of New Granada was Jorge de Villalonga. The order that ratified his appointment was received by the then president of the Audiencia, Pedrosa, accompanied by a sheet of instructions on how the government should be. The main point was to promote all the regulations approved by Felipe IV for the colonies.

However, Viceroy Villalonga was unable to carry out that task successfully. During his mandate he was unable to change the existing negative aspects, nor to satisfy the economic demands expected by the Council of the Indies.

This caused that the very creation of the Viceroyalty began to be questioned. Pedrosa, for example, demanded its deletion. The main idea was that it was an expense that the New Granada society could not afford.

Dissolution of the Viceroyalty

To the lack of success of the Viceroy, he was joined by the delicate economic situation in which Spain remained after the war with the Quadruple Alliance in 1724. Finally, the Viceroyalty of New Granada was dissolved and it was once again governed by a presidency.

On this occasion, however, the president also incorporated the functions of the governor and the captain general. This gave him the same powers as a Viceroy.

In principle, New Granada once again depended on the Viceroyalty of Peru, although, in practice, the Council of the Indies legislated that the President of the Audiencia governed with all the power that the viceroys of New Spain had. In this way, autonomy from Peru was total.

Reinstatement

It was not until 1739 when the Viceroyalty of New Granada re-established itself. The reasons adduced by the Spanish Crown were matters such as the conversion of the natives, relations with the Church and the defense of ports. To these matters, the improvement of the economic development of the colony was added.

In 1740, the Royal Audience of Quito rejoined the Viceroyalty again and, two years later, the Royal Audience of Venezuela became dependent on the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

After this second foundation, the New Granada port of Cartagena was attacked by the British. The viceregal troops managed to repel the attempted conquest.

Illustration in New Granada

One of the most outstanding characteristics of the viceregal governments in New Granada was the great influence of the enlightenment. The Viceroys and the reforms promoted by the Bourbons, carried out enlightened policies aimed at modernizing all the administrative and economic structures of the Viceroyalty.

Among the measures taken, the creation of the Bogota Mint, the founding of the first public library and the introduction of free trade stand out.

The Botanical Expedition

In the cultural and scientific field, one of the most important events was the Botanical Expedition. This was promoted by the viceroy Antonio Caballero y Góngora, in 1783. The priest José Celestino Mutis was placed in front.

The Viceroy himself advanced part of the necessary money from his pocket until the Court gave its approval. The main objective was to investigate the Colombian flora, as well as to make astronomical, physical and geographical observations.

Rebellions

The French invasion of Spain caused and the coronation of José Bonaparte to replace Fernando VII, caused insurrections to break out throughout colonial America. In New Granada, a group of Creoles took up arms in August 1809.

The insurrection took place in Quito and the rebels created a Governing Board that was unaware of the colonial authorities but remained loyal to Fernando VII. After this, another uprising took place in Valledupar, Colombia.

The Cadiz Governing Board, one of those formed to resist against the French, commissioned a Royal Commissioner, Antonio Villavicencio, to communicate the replacement of Viceroy Amar y Borbón.

On May 22, a revolutionary movement created a new Government Junta in Cartagena. The same happened on July 3 in Santiago de Calí, which was followed by Socorro and Pamplona.

On the 30th of that same month, the events known as the Florero de Llorente, in Santa Fé, ended with the arrest of the Viceroy and the practical dissolution of the Viceroyalty.

Declarations of Independence

Those first revolutionary movements maintained loyalty to the King of Spain. This began to change in July 1811, when the Junta de Caracas proclaimed its independence.

In Colombia, it was the city of Cartagena that took the initiative in this matter. After its declaration of independence, many others followed in the other cities of New Granada.

The months that followed these statements were characterized by open conflict between different political options. Federalists and centralists fought each other and, together, against the royalists.

Brief restoration of the Viceroyalty

When Fernando VII managed to return to the throne, one of his priorities was to regain power in the colonies. In 1815, Nueva Granada, Chile, Venezuela and the Río de la Plata were in independence hands, although there were also some Juntas in favor of the monarch.

The troops commanded by Pablo Morillo, reinforced by the troops sent from Spain, managed to recover most of the territory lost in New Granada and Venezuela. After this, the Spanish appointed a new Viceroy: Juan de Sámano.

Independence

The years between 1816 and 1819 are known as the time of terror in New Spain. The Spanish blocked several ports and were reconquering the territories to restore the Viceroyalty to its origins.

Despite the repression exerted by the royalists, some republican groups managed to resist. Thus, they maintained power in Venezuelan Guiana and in Casanare. The counterattack, however, did not occur until 1819.

That year, Simón Bolívar and his army crossed the mountains that separate Casanare de Tunja and Santa Fe. After winning several battles, he managed to take Santa Fe on August 10, 1819.

Sámano fled the capital, leaving the Viceroyalty without its capital. However, the Spanish still controlled some cities and regions, such as Quito, Pasto, Cartagena de Indias, Caracas or Panama.

In 1820, taking advantage of a truce, Bolívar declared the birth of the Republic of Colombia. The following year, hostilities returned, in which the Republicans were gaining ground. By 1822, the royalists had lost control of the entire Viceroyalty of New Granada, on this occasion, permanently.

Political and social organization

The viceroyalty was the most important territorial and administrative entity in the Spanish dominions in America. Its task was, mainly, to guarantee the authority of the Crown. In addition, it had to maximize the benefits obtained in its territories.

Peninsular authorities

The main authority of the viceroyalty, and of the entire Empire, was the King of Spain, with absolutist powers.

To improve control of the colonies, the Crown created the Casa de Contratación, which dealt with trade, and the Council of the Indies, for judicial and political matters.

The Viceroy

The viceroy was the king's representative in the American territories. It had to stop abuses by officials and enforce the law. He was appointed by the monarch after hearing the recommendations of the Council of the Indies.

The Royal Audience

Presided over by the Viceroy, the Royal Audience was the highest judicial authority in the Viceroyalty. There were several in Nueva Granada, such as those of Santafé de Bogotá, that of Panama or that of Quito.

The Council

The cabildos occupied the last level in the government hierarchy. As municipal authority, its jurisdiction were the towns of the Viceroyalty. They were made up of councilors and mayors and their functions were to impose municipal taxes, distribute the land and control the prices of products in the market, among others.

Social organization

The social organization of Nueva Granada was divided between the republic of the Spanish and the republic of the Indians. In the first, the dominant social classes were found, starting with whites born in Spain.

After these, the children of the Spaniards born in the Viceroyalty, the Creoles, were placed. Although they gained economic power, the law did not allow them to occupy the most important positions in the government or the church.

Indigenous

Below these groups were the indigenous people. The laws issued in Spain were quite protective, but, in practice, they were hardly observed in the Viceroyalty

The slaves

The need for labor in the mines, due in part to the fact that the indigenous people had been decimated by epidemics and mistreatment, led to the introduction of more than 2,000 African slaves.

These were at the lower level of society. A small attempt to protect them was the so-called slave code, which had the objective of alleviating the helplessness that this class suffered and protecting the owners in their evangelization.

Finally, a series of racial mixtures with hardly any rights, such as that of indigenous people or blacks or that of Spanish and indigenous people.

Economy

The main source of wealth for Nueva Granada was the extraction of minerals. Along with this, the other prominent economic activities were agriculture and commerce.

Antonio Nariño, one of the heroes of independence, declared the following about the economy of the Viceroyalty in 1797: “Commerce is languid: the treasury does not correspond to its population, nor to its territorial wealth; and its inhabitants are the poorest in America "

Entrustment

The encomienda was one of the characteristic institutions of economic activity in the Spanish colonies.

These consisted in the concession of indigenous groups to an encomendero, who had to assume their evangelization and build houses for them. In return, the Indians had to pay tribute by working for him or, as happened later, in money or property.

In theory, this figure was aimed at preventing abuses against indigenous people. In practice, it often led to semi-slavery situations.

The mita

The conquerors often found themselves short of manpower. The decrease in the number of indigenous people, victims of epidemics and abuses, meant that the haciendas, mines or works did not have enough workers.

To avoid that, the Crown created the mita. With this figure, a group of indigenous people were forced to work for a time, according to the law, in exchange for remuneration.

Mining

The production of gold was the main source of wealth in New Granada, even before it became a viceroyalty. At first, the work was carried out by the natives, who were largely replaced by black slaves at the end of the 16th century.

Already during the Viceroyalty, in the 18th century, gold exports increased by 2.3 percent a year. According to experts, it was the best century for New Granada in this area.

The big mines belonged directly to the Spanish Crown. The smallest, for their part, were exploited by individuals who had to pay a tax to the Royal Treasury.

Trade

For several centuries, trade had a monopoly character in the Spanish colonies. The American ports could only carry out commercial exchanges with the metropolis, ignoring the rest of the European continent.

The Crown created the Casa de Contratación, based in Seville (Spain) to control everything related to this activity. From Nueva Granada, the House received gold and sent wines, oils, brandy or fabrics.

The Bourbon reforms eliminated the monopoly situation, but Spain maintained heavy tax burdens.

References

Hernández Laguna, M. Virreinato de Nueva Granada. Obtained from lhistoria.com
Bank of the Republic, Colombia. The viceroyalty of New Granada. Retrieved from banrepcultural.org
Herrera Ángel, Marta. The political-administrative divisions of the viceroyalty of the new Granada at the end of the colonial period. Recovered from magazines.uniandes.edu.co
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Viceroyalty of New Granada. Retrieved from britannica.com
Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. New Granada, Viceroyalty Of. Retrieved from encyclopedia.com
Khan Academy. Introduction to the Spanish Viceroyalties in the Americas. Retrieved from khanacademy.org
Gascoigne, Bamber. History of Colombia. Retrieved from historyworld.net

VICEROYALTY OF NUEVA GRANADA: HISTORY, ORGANIZATION AND ECONOMY - HISTORY - 2025