24 
Introduction 
served as a great check on the arbitrary rule of the viceroy; by the com¬ 
plaints of any citizens of his jurisdiction; by his short term of office; by the 
residencia , or the official investigation into his conduct in office, which 
usually came at the end of his term; and by the visita , or the official in¬ 
spection that might be made at any time during his term. 35 It is thus seen 
that it was not the policy of the Spanish government to set up a colonial 
hierarchy; instead of autocracy, co-ordination and a system of checks 
and balances were the keynotes of the Spanish colonial system. 
So much for the larger units of colonial government. Local govern¬ 
ment was as much, if not more, a matter of political evolution. At the 
outset the system was a simple one. Until the beginning of the second 
quarter of the sixteenth century local government was largely in the 
hands of individual conquistadores , who had personal supervision over 
large areas worked by native labor. This type of manorial system lasted 
only a few years when a definite form of local government, modelled 
after the Spanish governmental system, was established. This provided 
for three forms of local units: the gobierno , administered by a governor; 
the corregimiento, administered by a corregidor ; and the alcaldía mayor, 
administered by an alcalde mayor . On the whole these various units 
increased in number, but all three forms were not found in any one audi¬ 
encia district, while within the present United States only the gobierno 
was established. 
The highest provincial officer was the governor. Within his province 
a governor might exercise only civil power, or he might exercise both 
civil and military power. In the former case his title was only that of 
governor; in the latter it was governor and captain-general. In both New 
Mexico and Texas it was the usual thing for the governor to exercise both 
civil and military power. In such isolated colonies it was also customary 
for the governor to be granted more discretionary powers than was the 
case with governors elsewhere. The governor was quite frequently 
appointed by the viceroy and confirmed by the Council of the Indies, 
though the king frequently appointed directly. While the governor was 
subject to the viceroy in both civil and military matters, provision was 
made whereby he could communicate directly with the king and the Coun¬ 
cil of the Indies. As was true of all the higher officers, the governors 
were usually native born Spaniards. 
At the head of another subdivision was the corregidor, who was often 
appointed by the viceroy and confirmed by the Council of the Indies. 
Corregidores who were sent from Spain were supposed to serve for five 
years, while a Creole served for only three. Within their districts they 
combined all functions and their control over the inhabitants was very 
autocratic. While the corregidor was subject to the visita and the resi¬ 
dencia , he was, in fact, because he was so isolated, seldom molested by 
35 For further information concerning the viceroy see: Alamán, op. cit., pp. 40-45; 
Antequera, op. cit., pp. 566-567; Bourne, op. cit., pp. 229-233; Desdevises du Desert, 
op. cit., pp. 122-133; Shepherd, Latin America (New York, 1914), pp. 25-26; Moses, 
op. cit., pp. 267-275; Solórzano y Pereyra, op. cit., vol. II.; Recopilación, lib. 3, tit. 3, 
leyes 1-74. 
