From the Republic of Indians to the civil corporation. To live under permanent threat

Abstract

The Republic of Indians was the communal economic and social unity during Colonial times in Mexico. From its inception it was vulnerable vis a vis the ambitions of land and cheap workers exhibited by Spanish, Criollo and Mestizo land owners. The Bourbon crown implemented the first legal offensive against it. However it was the Mexican liberals of the 19th century who created the legal framework that deprived the Republic of virtually all its material possessions, at a time when it had acquired the official status of civil corporation.