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New Spain

The viceroyalty built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan — silver, missions and the Manila galleon.

Endured past 1800, until Mexican independence in 1821.

See it on the interactive map →

Borders over time

The atlas holds 9 border frames for New Spain — the shape you scrub through changes in 1519 · 1522 · 1546 · 1582 · 1600 · 1716 · 1764 · 1785 · 1804.

Moments from the Chronicle

• 1550 Chichimeca War begins Four decades of war open on the silver roads — the longest Indian war in New Spain's history (peace by purchase, 1590).

Further reading

• The Mexican Frontier, 1821-1846: The American Southwest Under Mexico David J. Weber · 1982

  The standard scholarly account of the far-northern frontier that New Spain bequeathed to Mexico, essential for understanding the Provincias Internas and Alta California.

• The Spanish Frontier in North America David J. Weber · 1992

  The definitive synthesis of Spanish expansion across the Southwest, California and Florida, directly relevant to the territorial frames of this entry.

• The Conquest of New Spain Bernal Díaz del Castillo · 1568

  The classic firsthand chronicle of the 1519-1521 conquest by a soldier who marched with Cortés, the foundational source for the conquest-corridor frame (widely available in J.M. Cohen's 1963 translation).

• Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest Matthew Restall · 2003

  A concise, authoritative corrective to popular misconceptions about the conquest of Mexico, grounded in current ethnohistory.

• The Mexican Wars for Independence: A History Timothy J. Henderson · 2009

  A readable narrative of the independence war from the Grito de Dolores to the Treaty of Córdoba that ended the viceroyalty (published as 'The Mexican Wars for Independence').

• Los empeños de una casa Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz · 1683 · fiction

  A comedia written by a nun of colonial New Spain, staged in Mexico City in the viceroyalty's golden literary age.

Sources

• New Spain — Wikipedia