Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0089/00898.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 31KB | 488 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00898}
$Pretitle{226}
$Title{Colombia
Chapter 3B.   Characteristics of Colonial Administration}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Howard I. Blutstein}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{new
government
political
spanish
kingdom
first
church
colonial
indians
authority}
$Date{1977}
$Log{}
Country:     Colombia
Book:        Colombia, A Country Study
Author:      Howard I. Blutstein
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1977

Chapter 3B.   Characteristics of Colonial Administration

     New Granada was less profitable to Spain than New Spain or Peru. During
the most of its history it was technically subordinate to Peru, but for the
most part it functioned autonomously. Still it was as thoroughly subordinate
to royal authority as the other territories of the empire. A decree signed by
Charles V in July 1549 provided for the establishment of the Royal Court,
which gave the Granadine territories a collective body with political and
administrative as well as judicial powers. A president of New Granada was
appointed in 1564. The presidency was maintained until 1718, after which the
territory was ruled under a separate viceroyalty until independence, except
for an interval between 1723 and 1739 during which the presidency was
restored.

     The pattern of government was the same, with minor variations, as that
found elsewhere in Spanish America. The earliest authorities were the leaders
of certain expeditions, who were granted full powers of government and whose
status was gradually transformed into a more stable governorship under such
titles as governor, town magistrate (corregidor), and mayor. The jurisdiction
of the governor was usually greater than that of the other two and less
certainly associated with the government of a town. An early governor usually
created a town council as one of his first acts upon establishing a
settlement. The municipal jurisdiction, except where it was impeded by rough
terrain or wide stretches of wilderness or desert, often stretched for
hundreds of miles until it became contiguous with the jurisdiction of another
municipality.

     The governor and particularly the magistrates were associated in one
degree or another with the councils and early were authorized to intervene in
their affairs in the public interest. Widely separated from authority
exercised from above, these officials often extracted profit from their
positions, frequently at the expense of the Indians. The system of provincial
administration in Spanish America was reformed late in the colonial period
during the reign of Charles III by the establishment of internal political
subdivisions called intendencies (intendencias), under intendents who were
responsible for the more centralized and efficient administration of areas
larger than the old provinces. The system was not formally established in the
New Kingdom of Granada because of opposition, but a good deal of the
terminology of the system and some of its substance appeared in the
government.

     The town councils became the first effective agency of civil government,
antedating the Colombian Royal Court as a means of regularizing the processes
of government and tempering the authority of the governor, even though their
membership was composed of his subordinates. They included a varying number of
magistrates or aldermen, depending on the size of the community, and two
mayors. The functions of the town governments were particularly important in
Spanish America, including Colombia, because these territories inherited from
Spain a tradition that emphasized municipal rather than rural life. The towns
were the centers of Spanish concern, and the countryside and its economy
functioned to support them. The town councils early became the centers of
power in the basic political entities. They were the only colonial
institutions that were not mere creatures of the royal government, although
later their power became circumscribed by regulations imposed by that
government.

     During times of crisis the town citizens of importance might be invited
to sit with the council in what was called the open council. This body became
a means of increasing participation in government and figured in the movement
leading to the wars of independence. The two mayors on the council were
elected annually and initially acted as judges in courts of first instance
with criminal and civil jurisdiction. Appeals from their decisions might be
taken to the local governor or to a person functioning as his deputy and
finally to the royal court of jurisdiction.

     The royal courts, unlike their counterparts in Spain, exercised
administrative and political as well as judicial functions. They constituted
the major check on the arbitrary use of power by the viceroy or any
subordinate official in the New Kingdom or any other Spanish colony and also
shared in other powers of government. Major courts of which the viceroys,
captains general, or presidents were the presiding officers ex officio,
existed in the viceregal or other major seats; subordinate courts existed in
lesser places. Courts were made up of judges who often sat in separate
chambers and who were assisted by a number of associated officials. As courts
of law they heard appeals from numerous inferior courts on strictly judicial
as well as administrative matters. They were assigned the special function of
protecting the interests of the Indians and possessed original criminal
jurisdiction over cases arising in or within a specified radius of towns in
which they resided, cases involving royal officials or the crown, cases
between ecclesiastics and secular persons, and cases involving clergy under
the civil law.

     Under the Supreme Council of the Indies the viceroys, captains general,
and presidents, as the direct representatives of the sovereign, exercised
royal authority in all civil and military affairs, in the secular aspects of
church affairs, and in the supervision of the administration of justice.
Subject to the overall supervision of peninsular authorities, the executives
also exercised a degree of legislative power. Two additional governmental
institutions were the residencia (public judicial inquiry) and the visita
(secret investigation). The residencia was performed at the end of an
official's term of office by a judge who went to the chief seat of the
jurisdiction of the official in question to hear anyone who wished to make
charges or to offer testimony concerning the official's performance in office.
The visita could take place at any time without warning during an official's
tenure and was performed by a visitant. All local officials were required to
render assistance to the visitant, who might, in the performance of his task,
sit with a court in public hearings.

Political and Economic Factors

     The first territories brought under the control of Santa Fe were those
included in the present-day departments of Magdalena, Atlantico, Bolivar,
Cordoba, Norte de Santander, Santander, Boyaca, Tolima, and Cundinamarca and
present-day Panama. Later Antioquia and the historical provinces of Venezuela
were included. Of the many executives who successively held the presidency (so
called because the executive served as president of the court), some were
outstanding contributors to political and social development. The personality
of the executive was always more important than any of the factional interests
in determining the trend of administration. In many respects the politics of
the New Kingdom during the colonial period, with a few notable exceptions,
remained relatively dormant. In some periods the history of the country was
not so much social as personal.

     During the first years of the presidency the population decreased as a
result of the many pressures bearing on the Indians, including the ravages of
European diseases. Although this trend was not reversed until the latter part
of the seventeenth century, the spread of Spanish settlements continued to be
the means by which the co