Text | History of the Journey
Edit | History of the journey
Those Indians scattered in pastures, milpasses, or estates continued to legally belong to their people and were therefore subject to the same taxes.
Specifically, it applies a coefficient of 2.8 to married Indians and 2.3 to the reformed concept of taxation, which also applies to Labour Indians.
All of this is arbitrary and does not give a coherent explanation.
Thus, once the Spanish figures are excluded, the value he calculated estimates the population at about 4,540 Indians.
01
Population decline factors
The population decline, which was essentially the same as the first phase of the province's population shrinkage, famine, epidemics and migration, which was the continuing cause of population decline, was the natural reaction of Indians to times of crisis.
Finally, we must also refer to the data provided by another report published in 1676 by the bishop of Chiapas in the second half of the 17th century on the isolation of the bishops of Tabasco from the bishops of Yucatán in order to analyze the population of the province.
This report includes inquiries about the ease of including the state of Tabasco into the bishopric of Chiapas, where several references on the population of Tabasco can be found.
In most cases, the figure provided by witnesses is around 2,000 taxes, which leads us to believe that this amount is relatively reliable data.
After a sharp decline from the beginning of the conquest to the mid-sixteenth century, there was a much milder period of population decline, covering the entire sixteenth century.
It lasted until 1608. A slight recovery began then and lasted until the 1640s, when the population again declined significantly, reaching the lowest population level of the colonial period.
However, this did not prevent a change in trend until 1676, when it was thought that the trend would recover significantly, and from that moment on it would last until the end of the colonial period.
4 Without a doubt, the biggest problem that arose when conducting a study of the Spanish population in Tabasco was the lack of documents from the 16th and 17th centuries, in addition to the fact that a very small number of people settled in an area with little economic incentive and far from decision-making centers.
In fact, for most of the 16th century, there was only one Spanish city, Santa Maria della Vittoria, located around Potonchang, the leader of the Jontal tribe in the pre-Hispanic period.
The origins of this town date back to 1519, officially founded in 1525 by Juan de Valesillo, who brought instructions from Cortés and were the 60 soldiers who arrived with him, the first Spaniards still living in the province.
However, the city did not have data on its Spanish neighbors until 1545, when the Dominican Frei Tomás de la Torre, passing through Tabasco on his way to Chiapas, pointed out that this settlement had a figure of 30 Spanish neighbors, applying a conversion factor of 4 which meant that there were 120 Spaniards in total.
02
Spanish population data
A more reliable data is that we can extract from a letter written by Prince Philip to Audiencia de los Conlimits in 1553, in which he admitted receiving a report sent by the agency, where he was informed that there were about 20 neighbors in the town of Tabasco, most of them poor.
Taking into account these two testimonies, the Spanish population in Tabasco around 1550 was about 20 or 3 0 neighbors, which would add about 100 Spaniards, applying the corresponding conversion factor.
The next period in which we have data on the Spanish population of the province is the period corresponding to the decade 1570-1580, since there are several interesting testimonies.
The first of these appears in "Relations of the People of Spanish New Spain" in response to a questionnaire sent to Indian officials around 1570 for the need to obtain information about the Indies
。 Thanks to the data collected in it, we obtain a reference to the population of Tabasco at that time, since it is indicated that about 50 Spanish neighbors lived in the town of Victoria de Tabasco.
The second testimony was provided by López de Velasco, who pointed out that in the early seventies the town of La Victoria had 50 Spanish neighbors, "thirty-six entourage and poor people, since the largest distribution did not exceed three hundred Indians and other traffickers".
Finally, there is the "Relación de la villa de Santa María de la Victoria" of 1579, which refers to the Spanish population, very similar in quantity to the information provided previously, since it states that "now this province and town has 26 neighbors and 20 more without them".
Thus, after analyzing these testimonies, we can conclude that the number of Spaniards in 1570-1580 was about 50 neighbors, and applying a conversion factor of 4 meant that the total population was about 200 people.
Therefore, it is clear that the Spanish population has doubled compared to the previous period analyzed.
For the 17th century, we have the data contained in the 1601 letter from the Santa Maria della Vitoria chapter to the king, which informed the province of its concern about the decrease in the number of Spaniards and attributed this decrease to the distance and dependence of the Mexican hearings, as well as the almost testimony on-call presence in the town.
According to the letter, there are only 10 neighbors in the village, in addition to 22 entourage, 4 of whom do not live inside. According to these data, the number of inhabitants of the village will increase to 28.
Using the conversion factor of 5 used by Cook, Bora and García Bernal during this period, the total population is estimated to be about 140 Spaniards, a figure significantly lower than twenty years ago.
In addition to the reasons outlined by the city council, the reason for this decline may lie in the intervention of European pirates, mainly English pirates, which has often occurred on the coast of Tabasco since the late sixteenth century.
This climate of instability prompted many of Spain's neighbors to enter the interior of the province in search of safer settlements, so in 1598 Villa Felipe II was founded on Old San Juan Bautista, soon known as San Juan de Bia Hermosa.
The complexity experienced by the region is confirmed by the data at our disposal for the second decade of the seventeenth century, with its Spanish population scattered between a town in total decline in Santa Maria della Vitoria and another that has experienced slow but steady growth, such as San Juan de Bia Hermosa.
03
17th century Spain
In fact, the lawsuit to transfer the capital from Santa Maria to Villahermosa took place in the first half of the 17th century, and from 1604, Mayor Juan de Miranda prepared a report for the governor, sponsored by the chapter, in which he requested authorization to carry out the aforementioned transfer.
We must bear in mind that the information it provides about the indigenous population is measured by the number of confessors and not tributaries or neighbors, but this is not the case for the Spanish population, which refers to "neighbors", so we must apply a conversion factor of 5 to obtain data on the total white population.
Cárdenas reported that three Spanish settlements exist in the province, something that should be highlighted considering that Santa Maria della Vitoria was the only Spanish population center in the first century of Castilian rule.
On the one hand, it indicates that 15 neighbors settled in San Juan de Villahemosa, which confirms its gradual growth as a central focus of the government of the state of Tabasco.
On the other hand, for the benefit of Tepetitan, 30 Spaniards were commented on with the goal of saving their cocoa orchards, while for the benefit of Oxolotlan, the presence of 47 Spanish neighbors was hinted at.
Thus, in total there will be 92 neighbors living in the province, and after applying the aforementioned factors, our total population is about 460 Spaniards, a figure much higher than previously provided, but this coincides with the growth of the neighboring state of Yucatán, at a time when the Spanish population has increased significantly.
The following contribution to the Spanish population of Tabasco comes from the different information generated in 1663 about the convenience of isolating the province from the diocese of Yucatán. The first was provided by the mayor of the province, Juan del Águila, who spoke of some "80 Spaniards who live between the town and its estate".
Therefore, if we apply the conversion factor of 5 proposed in this century, the population of Spain will be about 400 people. The second information corresponds to a report by the Bishop of Chiapas, who said that the province is inhabited by "about 100 Spanish families living on their own farms", a figure that brings total 500 Spaniards after applying the conversion factor of 5.
Finally, Francisco Becerra's report allows us to confirm the assessment of the Spanish population at this time, since it coincides with the data provided by the bishop, which states that there are about 100 Spanish families in the province.
04
Uptrend in Spain
In short, given the correspondence previously reported, we can assume that the number of Spaniards who settled in the province around 1663 was about 500. The importance of this information lies in the fact that it offers the possibility of knowing that the Spanish population maintained an upward trend during a period of apparent recuperation of the indigenous population.
It is important to emphasize this if one considers the dire situation in the province (and in southeastern Mexico as a whole), which must have caused an imbalance in the growth rate due to epidemics, droughts and famines.
Finally, the analysis of a report published by the Bishop of Chiapas in 1676 provides data on the Spanish population for these dates, providing figures for the total population, according to which there will be about 600 Spaniards in the province
In summary, it contains the evolution of the Spanish population in the province of Tabasco, which shows well the trend that this population group has maintained, growing continuously over the two centuries studied, although on some dates (1601 and 1625) we only have data related to the town of Santa Maria della Vittoria.
After the first turbulent century, characterized by the arduous and long task of conquest of the territory, as well as a severe demographic crisis involving diseases and epidemics such as malaria, smallpox or measles, finally the Spanish population managed to consolidate steadily in the province from the second decade of the seventeenth century, beginning with gradual growth until the end of the colonial period.
However, we must highlight the small number of Spaniards living in Tabasco during this period, which may explain the marginal geography of the province, far from the center of power, with little possibility of enrichment.
In the author's opinion, the fact that the only commercially exploited resources were cocoa, cattle and all their derivatives and some forest products also led to the fact that Spaniards hardly came to live in the area, despite constant requests from local and ecclesiastical authorities in this regard.
Also in favor of the excesses, atrocities and excesses that were constantly carried out by many of the main mayors of the ruling power during this period, marked mainly by distribution, the practice became widespread throughout southeastern New Spain, especially from the seventeenth century.
Literature:
The Spanish Empire by Hugh Thomas.
The Conquest of Gaul: The Story of the Roman's Conquest of Spain.
A Concise History of Spain, William D. Phillips Jr. and Carla Rahn Phillips.