La Organización Municipal en la América Hispana. Los “Pueblos de Indios”

Abstract

The Spanish dominion over the vast American territories demanded a powerful repopulation action and its effective settlement in territory. In the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, new settlements were created, which had to be urbanized and were ruled by a local government. The birth of the municipality had clear medieval Castilian roots; its creation adapted to the differences of the territory. There were two parallel situations, because of the segregation between the Hispanic and the Indian communities. Unlike the situation in the metropolis, with a powerful royal interventionism in the town councils, the municipalization in the American territories created an active local law, characterized by the popular participation in the local government both in the Hispanic and the Indian communities. The grouping of the natives to ease their «civilization» process –through the so called reductions– started a municipality’s creation process, which allowed the settlements to acquire a legal status, with their own organization and government.