New Spain and Mexico: Intendancies, Constitutional Models and Territorial Categories-1786-1835

Abstract

The organization and conceptualization of the territory developed during the XVIII century is explained by the metropolitan administration and the adequateness imposed by the New Hispanic governments before and after Cadiz, to better understand the territorial ordination of the Mexican federal system, also taking into account, besides the constitutionalism of Cadiz, the influence of the North American and French constitutional models. Also analyzed, are the principal categories and territorial delimitations which formed the political administrative fabric established from the old regime, its legal disposition and the adequateness established during the first federalism in relation to the states and the models from which they came. In this respect it is considered indispensable to adapt a more ample chronology which will permit an analysis of the organization of the New-Hispanic and Mexican territories as a part of the political and administrative process which did not initiate with the separation of the Spanish metropolis, as has been traditionally viewed, but that geminated throughout the formation of the New-Hispanic territory.