Colonial Government
After some initial improvisation, a definitive form of political organization took hold during the second half of the sixteenth century. The highest official was the captain general of New Granada, who from Santa Fe had oversight of all modern Colombia except the far southwest (Pasto and Popayán), which initially was administered from Quito in present-day Ecuador, and most of Venezuela except the area of Caracas. He shared superior jurisdiction with an audiencia, which functioned as both administrative council and court of appeal—separation of powers being foreign to the Spanish imperial system.
At an intermediate level, the colony was divided into provinces headed by governors, whose titles and powers might vary. For example, because of Cartagena’s strategic importance, its governor enjoyed a degree of military and other authority that most governors lacked. At the local level, the towns and cities had cabildos (municipal councils) in which positions were sometimes appointive, sometimes hereditary, and sometimes filled by election. Even in the latter case, elections were far from democratic, and it was only in town or city government that some element of direct popular participation could be found.
New Granada in the beginning formed part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, which was formed in 1544 and comprised all of Spanish South America plus Panama. However, subordination to the viceroy in Lima was mostly nominal, and in 1717–19 New Granada in its own right attained viceregal status, which it lost in 1723 but regained permanently in 1739. In its final shape, the Viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada included Venezuela, Quito (now shorn of jurisdiction over Pasto and Popayán), and Panama.
Venezuela became a captaincy general and as such conducted most affairs without reference to the viceroy, exactly as New Granada had done when attached to Peru, whereas Quito was a presidency and not quite so independent of the viceregal capital. Yet when even a fast courier would take weeks to travel from Santa Fe to Panama or Quito, officials in those outlying areas enjoyed substantial autonomy in practice.
Exactly the same could be said of the viceregal administration at Santa Fe vis-ŕ-vis the Council of the Indies and other officials in Spain who in principle exercised supreme executive, legislative, and judicial authority over all Spanish America. It was understood that sometimes an order from the mother country might be inapplicable in a given colony, whose top administrator could then suspend it while appealing for reconsideration—with a final decision likely to be years in coming, if it came at all.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
