elmonoenano t1_izf32j8 wrote on December 8, 2022 at 5:20 PM

Reply to comment by jandemor in Why is the Spanish colonial empire often said/implied to be "less focused on trade" or "not prioritising trade" compared to other empires like the Dutch, British, Portuguese etc.? by raori921

It's important to remember that at this time there wasn't really an idea of citizenship in Spain. It was just starting to really form in places like England and the Netherlands. The model of governance was arranged more around the crown and its subjects. And subjects had groups within them. Aristocrats, military officers, missionaries, people in certain towns, peasants, non-Christians, non-Catholics, all had different statuses rights and duties in the Spanish system. Rights, responsibilities, and privileges weren't uniform anywhere. You could be a resident of one town and have the same status and profession as a resident of the next town over and have completely different tax burdens and feudal duties b/c your city or your guild had negotiated something different than the next town or guild has. They were always negotiations between the crown and the subjects.

So it's very true to that the Philippines or Mexico were provinces, but they were also colonies b/c that was type of grant of authority the King and Queen had given to the administrators, and the people in those colonies had different duties and rights both within the colony (Native born Spaniards having the most) and between their colony and the metropole.

jandemor t1_izipf0m wrote on December 9, 2022 at 12:01 PM

Thank you for your reply.

Citizenship wasn't developed anywhere in the world until the French revolution. I said "citizens" to use the modern term; before that, people were subjects (to a crown).

On this, the Leyes de Burgos (1512) clearly state: "los nativos son seres humanos libres y vasallos de la Corona Castellana" (natives are free human beings and subjects of the Castillian Crown), and as such had the same rights as Spanish-born Spaniards: to own property, free movement, right to a proper lodging, paid and dignified work, good health, to marry and to create a family, to nourish themselves, and even to keep their traditional indigenous customs, culture and languages.

I know rights and duties, taxes etc. changed even if you moved to the next town over (still does!), but your "fundamental" rights were the same for all Spaniards (indians and Spanish-born) in the whole realm of the Spanish (in 1512, Castillian) Crown. 300 years later, the first Spanish Constitution (1812) recognized citizenship for the first time in Spanish history, and granted Spanish citizenship to all "Spaniards in both hemispheres".