Administrative divisions.—Spanish America was now divided into two viceroyalties, New Spain and Peru. New Spain included all of the American mainland north of Panamá, the West Indies, part of the northern coast of South America, the Islas del Poniente, and the Philippines. It comprised the four audiencias of Española, Mexico, Guatemala, and Nueva Galicia, the Audiencia of Panamá being a part of the viceroyalty of Peru. The four northern audiencia districts were subdivided into seventeen or eighteen gobiernos or provinces, corresponding closely to the modern states. The provinces were divided into corregimientos embracing Indian partidos. North America embraced twelve dioceses and the two archdioceses of Santo Domingo and Mexico.
Churches and monasteries.—Many fine churches, some of them still standing, had been built in the larger towns. The Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians were well established in New Spain, and the Jesuits had just begun their work. The friars were subject to their chapters and the Jesuits to their general in Spain. The Franciscans already had four provinces in New Spain, the Dominicans and Augustinians only one each. Hundreds of monasteries had been established, especially wherever there were Indians in encomienda. The expense of erecting them was borne jointly by king, encomenderos, and Indians.
The Universities.—"Enthusiasm for education characterizes the earliest establishment of the Spanish colonies in America. Wherever the priests went, a school was soon established for the instruction of the natives or a college for its clericals who were already at work as well as for those who were soon to take holy orders. From the colleges sprang the universities which, in all the Spanish dominions, were founded at a very early date for the pursuit of the 'general studies' which were at that time taught in the great peninsular universities of Alcalá and Salamanca. Half a century before Jamestown was founded by the English, the University of Mexico was conferring degrees upon graduates in law and theology. Before the seventeenth century closed, no less that seven universities had been erected in Spanish America, and their graduates were accepted on an equality with those of Spanish institutions of like grade." (Priestley.)
READINGS
THE REIGN OF PHILIP II
Chapman, Charles E., A History of Spain, Chapter XXXIII; Gayarré, C.E.A., Philip II of Spain; Hume, M.A.S., Philip II of Spain; Hume, M.A.S., Spain, Its Greatness and Decay; Hume, M.A.S., The Spanish People; Lea, H.C., A History of the Inquisition of Spain; Merriman, R.B., The Rise of the Spanish Empire; Prescott, W.H., History of the Reign of Philip the Second; Cheyney, E.P., European Background of American History, Chapter X.
ADVANCE INTO NORTHERN MEXICO
Bancroft, H.H., History of Mexico, II, chs. 22, 24, 34; North Mexican States and Texas, I, ch. 5; Cavo, Andrés, Tres Siglos de Mexico; Coroléu, José, America, Historia de su Colonización; Frejes, Fr. F., Conquista de los Estados; Gonzales, J.E., Colleción de Noticias; Historia de Nuevo León; León, A., Historia de Nuevo León; Mota Padilla, M., Historia de Nueva Galicia, ch. 23; Ortega, Fr. Joseph, Apostólica Afanes.
SETTLEMENT OF FLORIDA
Hamilton, P.J., The Colonization of the South, chs. 1-2; Lowery, Woodbury, Spanish Settlements, I, ch. 8, II; Shea, J.G., The Catholic Church in Colonial Days, pp. 100-183.