Topic 2

Spanish and Portuguese rule over Latin America

-Spanish colonial administration formalized by 1570.

Administrative centers in Mexico and Peru were governed by viceroys.

-Viceroys were reviewed by audiencias, which were courts appointed by the king.

-Portuguese king granted Brazil to nobles with a governor to oversee it.

-There were more exploitation of the New World than settlement.

-Bureaucrats charged with the implementation of royal policy and the administration of royal justice replaced the soldiers of fortune.

-In Mexico they built a new capital called Mexico City, and in Peru they originally hoped to rule from the Inca capital of Cuzco, but they didn't like the high altitude and the Andean city too inaccessible for their purposes.