On the theory that the Indians were its wards, the Crown felt obliged to protect, convert and civilize them, and justified in utilizing their labour. The chief means by which it was hoped to attain these ends was the encomienda system. Allotments (reparti mientos) were made to conquerors, to whom the Indians living thereon were given in trust (encomienda). Such a grantee (en comendero) was obligated to protect his Indians and to provide missionaries and teachers for them ; he was also empowered to exact tribute of them. Not all Indians were given in encomienda, those living on royal lands being under overseers, appointed by the king, known as corregidores and alcaldes mayores. These of ficials after 1786 were replaced by assistants of the governors intendant known as sub-delegates. While the theory of the en comienda system was benevolent, it resulted, in practice, in the abject enslavement of many of the natives. The system was intro duced in New Spain by Cortes. Steps looking toward its correc tion and final abolition were taken in 1542 but it was not finally abolished until the 18th century. It should be recorded that the first church council in Mexico protested against the abuse of power over the Indians. This was an early subject of difference between church and State.
Expansion of the State.—The most continuous development in New Spain—one of dramatic interest and international im portance alike—was the northward advance of the frontier of settlement. For the first decade after the capture of Mexico City, the Spaniards, except for the founding of Panuco (Tampico) in 1522, confined their activities to the regions south and west of the capital. The creation of royal provinces in Central America between 1525 and 1527 cut off opportUnities for expansion there. The heroic age of exploration followed, being ushered in by the journey of Cabeza de Vaca from the Florida and Texas coasts to the Gulf of California between 1528 and 1536. Soon afterward the Coronado and De Soto expeditions made known northern Mexico and the southern half of the present United States; the Cabrillo-Ferrelo expedition coasted as far north as Oregon ; and the Villalobos expedition from New Spain to the Philippines gave Spain title to those islands.
For nearly two decades following the founding of Culiacan, Sinaloa, in 1531, the frontier of settlement in New Spain extended in an irregular semi-circle, with the base resting on Guadalajara and Mexico City, from Culiacan, on the Gulf of California, to Panuco, on the Gulf of Mexico. Led by wealthy miners and cattle barons and by humble missionaries, the northernmost out posts in both the east and the west by 1590 advanced still farther north, while the arc of the circle, in large measure, was filled in. In that year the frontier stretched from Cerralvo, on the lower Rio Grande, by way of Saltillo and San Bartolorne, to San Felipe at the mouth of the Sinaloa river. Meanwhile, Florida had been permanently settled in 1565 by a large expedition from Spain under Menendez de Aviles. The purpose was to hold Florida against the French Huguenots who had attempted to colonize In 1598 the frontier of New Spain proper moved across 600 m. of desert north of the line of 1590 and halted in the upper valley of the Rio Grande. The objects were to make New Mexico a base from which to anticipate other nations in the discovery of a supposed strait (North-west Passage) and to exploit the sedentary Pueblo Indians. New Mexico was thus permanently occupied save
for the period of the Pueblo Rebellion (168o-92).
Spanish advances in the later 17th and 18th centuries were occasioned almost altogether by the fear of foreign aggression. The short-lived French settlement in Texas under La Salle (1684 87), although it failed, prompted Spain to occupy temporarily east Texas (169o-93) ; English aggressions westward from South Carolina prompted Spain to found Pensacola, Fla., in 1698. The founding and expansion of French Louisiana, beginning in 1699, made necessary the permanent occupation of Texas in 1716, title to which France never disputed with Spain after 1722. The boundary between French Louisiana and Spanish Texas came to be regarded as the Arroyo Hondo, midway between Los Adaes, the capital of Texas, and Nachitoches, the westernmost French outpost on the Red river, E. of Los Adaes. In north-western New Spain between 1591 and 1767 the Jesuits were chiefly responsible for the advance of the frontier from the line of settlement of 1590 into southern Arizona, and, beginning in 1697, into Lower California. The most noteworthy advances of the Spanish frontier were made after 1763. Western Louisiana having been acquired from France, it was necessary for the Spaniards to advance to the Mississippi and hold at that stream the Anglo-Americans all the way from New Orleans to and beyond St. Louis. From the acqui sition of the Floridas by treaty in 1783, until the retrocession of Louisiana to France in 1800 the frontier of settlement of Spain in America extended from St. Augustine, Florida, to New Orleans, thence north to St. Louis, and thence west, by way of Santa Fe, to San Francisco.
The leading events of the colonial period in New Spain proper can be given only in bare outline here. The first two viceroys, Mendoza and Velasco, are extremely important because by them the course of viceregal administration in New Spain was definitely marked out. Mendoza's administration (1535-5o), was made not able by his encouragement of exploration, an attempt to suppress the encomienda system, the Mixton Indian uprising, the definite incentive to northward expansion through the development of mining north of the line of settlement of 1531, and by a violent epidemic among the natives. Viceroy Velasco ranks high as a humanitarian and an expansionist. By freeing 150,000 male In dian slaves and a large number of women and children, he earned the titles of "Liberator" and "Father of his Country." The inordinate vanity of Martin Cortes, son of the Conqueror, and the fear of the encomenderos that they would lose their rights, culminated in an abortive and disastrous attempt in 1566 to set up Cortes as king—the only separatist movement prior to the 1 gth century. In the latter half of the 16th century Hawkins, Drake, Cavendish, and other Protestant freebooters, inspired by hatred of Catholicism and patriotic motives alike, engaged in lu crative smuggling of goods into Spanish America and in even more lucrative preying upon Spanish commerce and coast towns. The establishment of regular galleon service between Acapulco and Manila after 1571 made possible the development of an extensive commerce between Spain and the Far East across New Spain. This and the establishment of extensive woollen and cotton fac tories in the latter part of the 16th century redounded greatly to the material advantage of New Spain.