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Mexico City (Capital of New Spain)

Type Object Region North America Time 1631–1640

In the 17th century Mexico City was the administrative, religious and commercial center of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, on the site of the former Az…

Timeline

  1. c. 1631–1635Viceroy's palace district, Mexico City · Mexico CityIn the 1630s, as the seat of the Viceroy of New Spain, Mexico City concentrated the viceroy's palace, royal courts and municipal institutions, coordinating colonial administration from California to Central America.
  2. c. 1635–1640Cathedral district, Mexico City · Mexico CityThe metropolitan cathedral and surrounding monasteries and colleges were continuously built; the city's religious landscape and Baroque architecture took shape increasingly in the later 1630s, strengthening the visual authority of Spanish Catholicism in the Americas.
  3. 1630Mexico City · New SpainOutput from silver mines like Potosí circulated via the Acapulco–Manila route and to Spain itself; Mexico City gathered merchants, artisans and mestizo elites, becoming one of the most densely populated colonial cities in the Americas.

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