The Council of the Indies was an administrative body of the Spanish Empire that was established to rule over the colonies, including territories in North and South America. It consisted of officials who had legislative, executive, and judicial power, and was formed to represent the monarch’s rule. The council was appointed by the King of Spain, issued laws, implemented court responsibilities, and controlled various areas of life in the colonies. In Mexico, the establishment of the Council of the Indies was a symbol of the fall of the Aztec Empire and the victory of Spain over the indigenous people. As a result, viceroys and imperial officers, starting with Antonio de Mendoza in 1535, became the major officials who oversaw the centralized system of regional courts, provincial administrations, and city councils. This resulted, among other things, in establishing ethnic segregation, when the crown proposed law “to create a society divided into two parts”: the Republic of Spaniards and the Republic of Indians (Beezley, 2011, p. 34). This artificial divide in its turn propelled the system of inequality where representatives of native communities were used as a cheap source of labor, subjected to forceful acculturation, violence, and abuse.
References
Beezley, W. H. (2011). Mexico in World History. Oxford University Press.