Abstract

GALVEZ RUIZ, María Ángeles. A New Government Project for the Western Provinces of the Novohispanic Pacific. Secuencia [online]. 2015, n.93, pp.07-27. ISSN 2395-8464.

A mid-18th century project to bring the Western provinces of the Novo-Hispanic Pacific under a single government responds to the need to establish greater control over its coasts, exposed to smuggling or illegal trade involving a vast territory with a great variety of routes and regional markets, located mostly within the jurisdictional limits of the Audiencia of Nueva Galicia. Reports by port authorities such as the Castilian Report on Acapulco, or verdicts such as the one issued by the prosecutor of the audiencia of Mexico offer particular views on this project as well as rich additional information on the northwestern coasts. Although the presence of foreign vessels on the coasts of Nueva Galicia and imperial rivalry partly explain the emergence of these projects, other regional interests and political and economic objectives of greater scope may account for the failure of the proposal.

Keywords : Nueva Galicia; Audiencia of Guadalajara; northwestern coasts and ports; Pacific; coastal defense.

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