, built by
Hernán Cortés and acquired by the Spanish crown to be the palace of the viceroy.
Growth of city After the conquest, the Spaniards generally left the existing Nahua city-states or
altepetl largely intact, but Mexico City was an exception since it became the seat of Spanish political power. It was established as a
ciudad de españoles (city of Spaniards) and initially kept the remnants of its prehispanic place name, being called "Mexico-Tenochtitlan". No longer the seat of Aztec power, the Spaniards allowed two areas to be ruled through Nahua governors (
gobernadores) and town councils (
cabildos), separate from the Spanish city council. San Juan Tenochtitlan and Santiago Tlatelolco became the mechanism for the crown to rule through indigenous intermediaries, particularly important in the Spanish capital since it also had a significant indigenous population. San Juan Tenochtitlan and Santiago Tlatelolco were not called by the Nahuatl term for polity, altepetl, but rather "partes" or "parcialidades" of Mexico City, with their new place names having a Christian saint's name preceding the
prehispanic designation, in typical colonial fashion. The structure in these two indigenous-ruled sections of the capital were on the same pattern of indigenous towns elsewhere in central Mexico. In the sixteenth century, these indigenous political structures mobilized tribute and labor rendered to the Spanish capital. Even though prehispanic Tenochtitlan-Tlatelolco was built on an island in the middle of the major lake system, they had political power over holdings on the mainland, a standard pattern of scattered rather than compact settlement and rule. These mainland holdings or
estancias rendered tribute and labor in the prehispanic period; in the colonial period this pattern continued during the early colonial period, but during the later period (ca. 1650–1821), the pattern broke down and estancias were separated. The city grew with buildings all near the same height and with the same terraced roofs
(azoteas), with only the tower and cross of the convent of San Francisco peaking up from above it all. This profile was due to royal decree. Even
the new cathedral being built had limitations as to its height. Near the end of the 16th century however, there was a proliferation of churches with bell towers, leading to a zigzag profile of the city, which was then later modified by church
cupolas. For centuries afterward, this profile remained constant with only the continuous building of the main Cathedral making any change in the
skyline. In the 19th century, the tallest structures were all churches. In addition to the Cathedral, there were the bell towers and cupolas of Santa Teresa la Antigua, the College of Saints Peter and Paul and the chapel of San Felipe Neri as landmarks. This is the oldest known representation of the Canal de la Viga and the
chinampas. Since Mexico City was built on an island in the center of a large but shallow lake system, flooding became a serious issue during the colonial period. Spaniards denuded hillsides of their trees from the early conquest era on, so that mud and silt made the lake system even shallower, exacerbating the periodic flooding. Spaniards had not maintained the Aztec drainage system, which included a major dike. Major floods in Mexico City were recorded in 1555, 1580, 1604, and 1607, indigenous labor was diverted when crown officials undertook a major project to divert water via a drainage system, known as the
Desagüe. In 1607, 4,500 Indigenous people were drafted to build the 8-mile-long combination drainage ditch and tunnel and 1608, the work was continued with 3,000. Flooding was controlled in the short term, and in subsequent years the Desagüe infrastructure was not maintained. In 1629, rains inundated the capital and flood waters remained in the capital for the next few years. Viceroy Don
Rodrigo Pacheco, 3rd Marquis of Cerralvo, the Mexico City council (cabildo), secular and regular clergy, and elite Spanish residents of Mexico City combined efforts to provide immediate relief, and taxes and diversion of indigenous labor to construction of the Desagüe aimed at dealing with the long-term problem of flooding. A number of Spaniards moved to dry land to the nearby settlement of
Coyoacán (now part of Mexico City), increasing the displacement of indigenous ownership of land there. In 1630, there was a serious proposal to move the capital to dry land rather than continue dealing with constant flooding. Elite Mexico City property owners and the city council opposed the plan, since they would incur huge real estate losses. There was another major push to deal with flooding, but the pattern of neglect of the desagüe infrastructure and subsequent inundation of the capital recurred, with flooding in 1645, 1674, 1691, 1707, 1714, 1724, 1747 and 1763. Floods continued into the early republic after independence. From the early eighteenth century, the city was able to grow as the waters of the lake receded. In 1700, the city advanced towards the east and south and west, as the north was still bounded by water. To the west, it expanded to what is now Balderas Street. In the latter half of the 18th century the populated area reached eastward to the lakeshore, which then was just beyond the now Circuito Interior and the
La Merced Market. To the south began to appear houses in an area now called
Colonia Doctores. To the west, following what is now Avenida Chapultepec towards the Ciudadela, now the National Library, near
Metro Balderas. To the north past Tlatelolco and to the south to Topacioa and the now Calzada de la Viga. As public health became more of a concern during the Porfiriato, the stench, uncleanliness, and perceived danger from the capital's water renewed efforts to implement the drainage project. Díaz created a commission to oversee work, but the project went further than merely controlling rainwater and stagnation and sought the expansion of water rights under its control for a growing population. This affected indigenous communities around the lake system. The commission sought foreign loans from the British firm of Pearson and Sons and foreign technology was utilized. The government authorized securing land for area through which the canal was to be built. Díaz considered the Desagüe a top priority, since Mexico's capital was considered a very dangerous place in terms of health. The lake waters ceased to threaten the capital as they disappeared in the modern era.
Political power , built between 1783 and 1864. Built during the Viceroyalty as a summer house-castle for the Viceroy, it was also the official residence of Emperor
Maximilian I of Mexico (1864-1867) and the country's presidents between 1884 and 1935. By the 1530s, Mexico City was given jurisdiction over other town councils of New Spain and quickly established itself as the most populous and powerful city in the Americas. Like that of the Aztecs, the Spaniards' grasp extended well beyond the capital and the Valley of Mexico—only much farther. As the site of the viceroyalty of New Spain and archbishopric of Mexico, as well as economic elites, Mexico City was the center of power. Socially, the viceregal government and ecclesiastical authorities remained the pillars of Spanish colonialism. He was also concerned that the prior cult of Quetzalcoatl would find its way into the new religion by equating this god with the Apostle
Thomas, as an earlier attempt to evangelize the indigenous people before the Spanish conquest. File:FacadeSoledadDF3.JPG|
La Soledad Church, originally Augustinian, secularized and rebuilt as a neoclassical church 18th c File:LaSantisimaChurchDF.JPG|La Santísima Church, built in the 18th c. File:Universidad del claustro de Sor Juana, vista de la Calle de San Jerónimo.jpg|The 17th c. Jeronymite convent where
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz lived, now the
University of the Cloister of Sor Juana File:FacadeLaEnseñanza1DF.JPG|
La Enseñanza Church, 18th c. nunnery Image:TemploCorpusCristiMexicoCity.JPG|The 18th-century
Convent of Corpus Christi, built for elite indigenous women
Economic power , Mexico City. The elevation of silver mining as a profession and the ennoblement of silver miners was a development of the eighteenth-century
Bourbon Reforms Economically, Mexico City prospered as a result of its primacy. It was the capital of the viceroyalty, seat of the archbishopric, residence of civil and religious officials of all ranks, as well as wealthy merchants who engaged in international trade, but also the center of much regional trade. The establishment of a
consulado de mercaderes (merchant
guild) in Mexico City indicates the concentration and organization of this economic elite. The consulado was founded in Mexico City in 1594, controlled by
peninsular wholesale merchants who dealt in long-distance trade, who often married into local elite families with commercial ties. Their assets had to amount to at least 28,000 pesos. Although they were not supposed to deal in local retail trade, they often did some indirectly. They mainly lived in Mexico City and had positions on the city council
cabildo. A number of them were connected to the crown mint in the capital. They diversified the assets locally, investing in urban real estate. In the eighteenth century, as
New Spain's economy boomed, consulados were established in the port of
Veracruz and in
Guadalajara Mexico, indicating increased trade and the expansion of the merchant elite. The consulado in late colonial Mexico had approximately 200 members, who divided themselves into two factions based, the
Basque and Montañés, even though some were from neither of those Iberian regions. American-born merchants came to be part of the consulado in the later colonial period, but a small number of peninsular merchants dominated. Goods were shipped from the Spanish port of
Cádiz to Veracruz, but many of the goods were produced elsewhere in Europe. Unlike Brazil or
Peru, New Spain and its capital had easy contact with both the Atlantic and Pacific worlds. In fact, the
Philippines were colonized and evangelized from Mexico City rather than directly from Spain itself. From the late 1560s until 1813, the annual
Manila galleon took Mexican silver from the port of
Acapulco across the Pacific Ocean to
Manila, in exchange for Chinese silks and
porcelain from
Canton. The viceroy in Mexico City sought to restrict cargoes and frequency on the grounds that the Asiatic trade diverted silver from the principal route which was to Europe. The estimates of the European population in Mexico City is also imprecise, with figures coming from a variety of sources. In 1525 there were 150 households occupied by Spaniards, with the European population increasing steadily during the entire colonial period. The highest estimate for the colonial era is by
Alexander von Humboldt, who estimated ca. 1802 that there were 67,500 whites in Mexico City. The size of Mexico City's population and its demographic contours have been enduring questions for crown officials as well as modern scholars. There were major epidemics that affected the population, starting with the smallpox epidemic of 1520 that was a factor in the
Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire, but there were other major epidemics throughout the colonial period. There were estimates taken in the late seventeenth century, with the largest and most detailed census mandated by Viceroy
Revillagigedo in 1790. In 1689, there was an estimate of 57,000 residents. An estimate for 1753 based on a partial census mandated by the Audiencia put the population at 70,000. In the period between 1689 and 1753, there were at least nine epidemics. The Revillagigedo census of 1790 counts 112,926 residents, a significant increase. This might be due to migration to the city accelerating. An 1811 census done by the ‘'Juzgado de Policía'’ put the number even higher, at 168,811, which might well reflect displacement from the countryside from the insurgency of
Miguel Hidalgo and his successors. The census of 1813 done by the city government (
Ayuntamiento) shows a significant decrease to 123,907, perhaps showing the return of short-term migrants to their home communities following the waning of the insurgency, but also possibly "fevers" that affected the population. system in eighteenth-century Mexico. Spaniards were at the top of the system with mixed-race men and women consigned to the bottom ranks, with both engaging in manual labor.
Racial composition Although Mexico City was designated the capital of the viceroyalty, it still had a significant non-white population throughout the colonial period. In the early period after the conquest, the Spanish population played a pivotal role in the capital. In his analysis of the 1790 census of Mexico City and its surrounding area, Dennis Nodin Valdés compared the population of the capital with the census of the Intendancy of Mexico in 1794. The total number of Mexico City residents counted in 1793 was 104,760 (which excludes 8,166 officials) and in the intendancy as a whole 1,043,223, excluding 2,299 officials. In both the capital and the intendancy, the European population was the smallest percentage, with 2,335 in the capital (2.2%) and the intendancy 1,330 (.1%). The listing for Spaniard (español) was 50,371 (48.1%), with the intendancy showing 134,695 (12.9%). For
mestizos (in which he has merged the castizos), in the capital there were 19,357 (18.5%) and in the intendancy 112,113 (10.7%). For the mulatto category, the capital listed 7,094 (6.8%) with the intendancy showing 52,629 (5.0%). There is apparently no separate category for blacks (Negros). The category Indian showed 25,603 (24.4%), with the intendancy with 742,186 (71.1). The capital thus had the largest concentration of Spaniards and
castas, with the countryside being overwhelmingly indigenous. The population of the capital "indicates that conditions favoring mestizaje were more favorable in the city than the outlying area" and that there were more high status occupations in the city. Further analysis of the two censuses found that the population of the capital was older and had more women. Women migrated to the capital in higher numbers than men from the surrounding countryside.
Racial residential patterns In studying the 1811 census, there is no absolute segregation by race. The highest concentration of Spaniards was around the
traza, the central sector of the city where the civil and religious institutions were based and where there was the highest concentration of wealthy merchants. But non-Spaniards also lived there. Indigenous people were found in higher concentrations in the sectors on the fringes of the capital. Castas appear as residents in all sectors of the capital.
Nobility in Mexico City – "City of Palaces" , completed in 1737, home of the counts of Orizaba. It became the Jockey Club during the Porfiriato, and is now owned by Walgreens. , now owned by Banamex , residence of French mining magnate
José de la Borda built between 1583 and 1749. The concept of nobility transferred to New Spain in a way not seen in other parts of the Americas. A noble title here did not mean one exercised great political power as one's power was limited even if the accumulation of wealth was not. These estates were centered in the modern-day state of
Durango, and their specialty was sheep-raising. Meat from their stock supplied Mexico City and
wool was sold to various textile workshops. The Aguayos left these estates in the hands of administrators, backed by armed guards to ward off indigenous attack, to live off the revenues in Mexico City, where they possessed four palatial residences. Their title had been awarded in 1682, but the land purchases by the family dated from the 1580s. That institution lasted about a century, until 1871, going from a
poor house or
work house for adults to mainly being an orphanage for abandoned street children. The Mexico City Poor House was partially supported by another eighteenth-century institution, the Royal Lottery. There was also a foundling home established in 1767, the ‘'Casa de Cuna'’ (house of the cradle).
De Mestizo y dd India; Coyote.
Miguel Cabrera, 1763, oil on canvas, Waldo-Dentzel Art Center. During the viceroyalty of
Revillagigedo, there were attempts to control the public behavior of the poor in Mexico City. Ordinances such as forbidding public defecation and urination had little effect, especially since there was no alternative for the poor to relieving one's self on the street. Also forbidden were the discarding of trash buckets, dead dogs and horse in the streets and gutters. A local police force was tasked with creating order and tidiness. The crown also attempted to regulate taverns, where the poor congregated, drank, gambled and in the estimate of elites, generally got up to no good. Revillagigedo focused special attention on cleaning up the Plaza Mayor and the viceregal palace, removing pulque stalls, garbage, wandering dogs, cows, and pigs, moved the market area elsewhere. He had the area paved with cobblestones, and the area was illuminated with newly place streetlamps. The Alameda park was cleaned and the entrance to it was guarded to prevent the poorly clad plebe from entering. Public space was thus regulated cultural space, separating elites from the poor. The founding of the Royal Cigar Factory was another eighteenth-century crown project, part of the establishment of the royal tobacco monopoly, which both brought significant revenue to the crown in the sale of cigars and cigarettes, but the factory in Mexico City and a few other major colonial centers, created thousands of good jobs for the urban poor including women. As Mexico experienced a series of droughts and bad harvests in the eighteenth century, the crown set up granaries (
alhóndigas) to store wheat and corn so that the price of basic staples did not soar for the urban poor. It was as much an act of charity as prudent state planning to prevent bread riots. Mexico City had experienced two major riots in the seventeenth century, one in 1624 that ousted the viceroy who attempted to eliminate excessive profits for grain and other goods by creole traders. The other was in 1692 where a mob burned the archbishop's and the viceroy's official residence. A first-hand account of the 1692 riot was recorded by seventeenth-century savant, Don
Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora. Other institutions designed to protect and aid the vulnerable were the General Indian Court, founded in 1591, to give access of indigenous communities and indigenous individuals to justice and supported by a half-real tax to pay for lawyers. For women who needed protection, the Church created the
recogimientos de mujeres, a kind of shelter for healthy women who voluntarily wished to live a sheltered life in a religious atmosphere; some other institutions for women were to reform prostitutes and were not voluntary. Both types were in decline when the Mexico City Poor House was established. In the capital and other Spanish cities in New Spain (and later after independence in 1821), there was a population of
léperos, a term elites gave to shiftless vagrants of various racial categories in the colonial hierarchical racial system, the
sociedad de castas. They were considered a kind of criminal class, contributing to the disorder of Mexico City. Research has found that they included
mestizos, indigenous people, and poor whites (españoles).
Léperos were viewed as unrespectable people (
el pueblo bajo) by polite society (
la gente culta), who judged them as being morally and biologically inferior. Léperos supported themselves as they could through petty commerce or begging, but many resorted to crime. A study of crime in eighteenth-century Mexico City based on official arrest records of the two police forces of Mexico City indicates that léperos were "neither marginal types nor dregs of the lower classes. They consisted of both men and women; they were not particularly young; they were not mainly single and rootless; they were not merely indigenous and casta; and they were not largely unskilled." All of the popular stereotypes of a young rootless, unskilled male are not borne out by the arrest records. "The dangerous class existed only in the collective mind of the colonial elite." Arrest records are one of the few ways to get at empirical data about the urban poor. Not all arrests led to criminal cases and prosecuted, and not all prosecutions led to convictions. Formal prosecutions usually involved serious crimes against persons (homicide, aggravated assault), but also gambling. In the late colonial period, the police actively arrested the largest number of people (both men and women) for tavern violations, drunkenness, gambling, disorderly conduct, and violence, as well as the sexual crimes of "incontinence", i.e., what English law calls common-law marriage, living together without marriage, and promiscuity. They made arrests for other crimes only when a complaint was filed; these crimes included theft, vagrancy, family offenses, and debt. Indigenous people were over-represented in arrest records, that is they were arrested at higher rates than their proportion of the population. They were most often arrested for drunkenness, theft, and violence. Women were arrested less frequently than men, but they were still about a quarter of total arrests. Women were arrested for violence, mainly violence against other women. An early nineteenth-century lithograph by
Claudio Linati shows two indigenous women fighting, each with a baby on her back. Women also attacked men whom the woman knew as an acquaintance or a common law partner; less frequently they attacked their legitimate husbands. One explanation for the pattern of female violence among the poor in Mexico City is that their position within the family was subordinate, that there was a pattern of male domestic violence "often growing out of a need to demonstrate virility or control over the wife", resulting in the wife violently acting out against others outside of the nuclear family. Women were also arrested for desertion at higher rates than men, mainly when the women were in their twenties. Arrest records indicate that many of these women had provincial origins and the women migrated to the capital leaving a spouse behind. Their arrests for desertion indicates their spouses wanted them reunited with the family. In trials the women often stated that nonsupport or domestic abuse was the reason they deserted. Men also deserted their wives, but were arrested in smaller numbers (perhaps not reflecting the real extent of their desertion); these men abandoning their families did so between the ages of 20 and 49. In their trials, many men cited their inability to support their families as the reason for desertion. The insecurity of employment of the lower classes meant that there was continuous stress on the urban poor families, particularly for unskilled or semi-skilled workers, although artisans also abandoned their families. ==Independence to the Mexican Revolution==