Colonial rule inlocal contexts. The administration of indigenous districts in New-Spain and Peru in the 18th century

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Spanish America represented a paradigmatic case of xenocracy that followed initial cultural contact and was characterized by long-lasting perceptions of foreignness. The Spanish colonial empire lasted for three centuries. Different American societies had to be integrated. Populations lumped together as indigenous were legally and administratively separated from the Spanish-descended population. In addition, African-descended people and descendants from exogamous unions were added. Spanish rule was stabilized through a differentiated administrative structure in which ascriptions of foreignness played an important role in the creation and treatment of different social groups. When the Bourbon reforms initiated far-reaching administrative changes in the second half of the 18th century, local administration had to be renegotiated because of the intensification of colonial control and exploitation, but also because of the introduction of new administrative levels such as the intendancies and the accompanying reorganization of district administration. The reforms in part exacerbated ascriptions of foreignness. The project examines local administrative practices in indigenous, rural districts - the lowest level of crown administration - in the two most important parts of the empire, New Spain and Peru. It inquires into the relevance of categories of difference based on foreignness for administrative practices, asks how these categories changed in the course of the comprehensive reforms of the colonial administration, and explores the significance of ascriptions of foreignness in the processes of negotiation between the local population and officials. On the one hand, the officials in charge were direct representatives of xenocratic rule which they established through symbolic acts and specific forms of communication. They maintained social networks and had the task of maintaining order and organizing jurisdiction, tribute collection, and the distribution of labor obligations. On the other hand, they had to deal with indigenous agency and resistance on the ground and were involved in processes of transculturation. For the stabilization of colonial rule, resulting tensions had to be balanced. With this perspective, which closely follows the research group’s main research questions, the project argues that in New Spain and Peru constructions of foreignness were negotiated in a conflictive, fluid, and productive field of tension that was characterized by powerful inscriptions and appropriation and agency on the part of the population alike.