THE STATE DEPARTMENTS. 
SECRETARIA DE RELACIONES EXTERIORES. 
(SECRETARIAT OF ForEIGN RELATIONS.) 
INTRODUCTORY. 
HIsToRICcAL SKETCH. 
This department dates from 1821, when the Ministry of Foreign and 
Interior Relations was established by the Regency as one of the four minis- 
tries of state. Since that time it has undergone numerous changes of title and 
function. In 1837 it became the Ministry of Foreign Relations, its duties 
_as the interior department being assigned to the Ministry of the Interior, which, 
at the same time, was created out of the old Ministry of Justice and Ecclesias- 
tical Affairs. In 1841 it received the new title of Ministry of Foreign Rela- 
tions and of Government, with essentially the same functions as those which 
it had at first exercised. The chief charges at this time specified as those of 
its Government branch were: assemblies, departmental juntas, the national 
census, colonization, the national congress, division of territory, foreigners, 
naturalization, department governors, and boundaries. In 1853, when a sep- 
arate Secretariat of Government was created, the department became the 
Secretariat of Foreign Relations. In 1861 the departments of Foreign Rela- 
tions and Government were again united, but in 1867 they were separated, 
and have remained so ever since.’ Some of the functions formerly exercised 
by the Ministry of Foreign Relations and of Government have passed to the 
Secretariat of Fomento.’ 
At each extension or delimitation of the functions of the department, cer- 
tain classes of documents have been sent, naturally, to or from its archives. 
The result is that many papers foreign to the present business of the secre- 
tariat are now found in the archive, while some that logically belong to it 
have been taken to other departments, as those of Government and Fomento. 
PRESENT FUNCTIONS. 
As it is now organized, the principal functions of this secretariat and their 
distribution are as follows: 
I. Departamento Politico (Political Department). 
a. Section of North, Central, and South America. (1) All matters relative 
to the making, ratification, and fulfillment of treaties, (2) boundaries, (3) 
uncivilized Indians, (4) extradition, (5) reclamations, public or private, (6) 
reception and retirement of, and correspondence with, the diplomatic agents 
of the countries named, (7) appointment, change, and retirement of consular, 
diplomatic, and secret agents in the countries named, and correspondence with 
them concerning the affairs pertaining to this section. 
b. Section of Europe, Asia, and Africa. This section has functions in all 
respects parallel to those of the foregoing. 
1Dublan y Lozano, Legislacién Mexicana, IX. 129, 235, 337; X. 166. 
* Ibid., I. 554-559; III. 259; IV. 38-39; VI. 4or. 
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