The Crown and Spanish colonisation

From the earliest years after the discovery of the New World, the exploration, conquest and settlement of the vast territories that were to fall under the dominion of the Spanish Crown were left largely to private initiative. Rather than investing directly in the incorporation of new territories, the Spanish Crown limited its role, with few exceptions, to that of sanctioning privately financed expeditions and setting down the conditions within which the conquest and settlement of unexplored regions were to take place. These conditions were laid down in a contract, or licence, called the capitulación – a document that stipulated the duties and obligations of the leaders of expeditions as well as the political and economic privileges that they would receive in the newly acquired territories following conquest. The concept of the capitulación, whereby the Crown or its agents commissioned an individual to take charge of a particular military enterprise or other public service, existed in Spanish law long before the discovery of America. After the discovery, however, the number of capitulaciones issued increased enormously, while their principal objective now became the occupation of a new continent. Early in the sixteenth century, the Crown delegated the right to issue licences for new discoveries to Spanish institutions such as the Casa de Contratación in Seville. Later, Spanish officials in the colonies were also authorised to negotiate such agreements provisionally, though always subject to the final approval of the Council of the Indies.

Capitulaciones had two principal purposes. On the one hand, they were intended to stimulate the exploration and occupation of vast new territories. On the other, they sought to ensure, through the granting of an array of political and military privileges or mercedes to expeditionary leaders, that newly conquered and settled areas should become and remain possessions of the Spanish Crown. The contracts followed a fairly standard pattern. The expeditionary leader pledged himself to undertake and finance the campaigns that would result in the securing of new territorial possessions for the Crown.