Carrera de Indias (Fleet System of the Indies Route)

Timeline

1. 1551–1560Andalusian coast and Canary waters · AndalusiaAfter French pirates attacked Havana and elsewhere, the risk of single-ship Atlantic crossings rose. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and others advised Philip II of mandatory sailing in company with armed escorts. Temporary convoys and coastal galley patrols in the 1550s served as experiments for the later two-fleet edicts.
2. 1561–1564Seville and the Bay of Cádiz · AndalusiaEdicts of 1561 and 1564 stipulated: no sailing to the Americas without sailing in company; annually the New Spain fleet and the mainland (galleon) fleet departed from Andalusia with an escort armada. The system codified trade monopoly, sailing calendar, and armed escort into one set of rules, largely followed for the next two centuries.
3. 1566–1573Caribbean assembly system (Veracruz–Isthmus–Havana) · CaribbeanThe New Spain fleet sailed to Veracruz, the mainland galleon fleet to the isthmus and ports of New Granada; on the return they assembled at Havana to cross the Atlantic together. Around 1573 the isthmus fair gradually shifted from Nombre de Dios to Portobelo, showing the fleet system was a multi-port network rather than a single American terminus.
4. 1580–1600Seville–Cádiz–Havana route · AtlanticEnglish and French privateering intensified in the 1580s; the attack on Cádiz in 1587 and the Armada of 1588 drained escort strength, yet the two-fleet calendar was maintained. The Casa de Contratación handled licenses and tariffs in Seville, large ships assembled in the Bay of Cádiz, and American silver and European goods flowed under the same escort system, making the fleet system an annual rhythm of imperial finance.