Laws of the Indies

                On this week’s blog I will be focusing on the development of a set of urban laws that the Spanish created. These laws are vital to how cities were founded and built in the colonization of the Americas. These vital guidelines are outlined in the “Laws of the Indies”. According to Gasparini, the author of the essay I wrote, there are 148 laws that helped discover, establish and create the building of new cities.

When reading through all the laws, there are a few main points that I took away as being very important. To begin, the laws provide a spatial representation of information, giving guidelines about how a group or individual could discover or take over an area. These are laws numbered 1-31, discussing points such as no tolerance for encroaching on already inhabited and settled areas, as well as learning about natives that already lived in the area from a conquering point of view.

                The following section discusses more about the city planning aspects of the urban form. I found that the laws from this section could be broken into 3 groups or steps. The first step is about the physical structure of the land itself. People would want it to be fertile, close to water, and use the land to protect from others and the environment itself. Second, the laws focus on the selection of the site itself. The leader delineates land to others throughout an organization of a hierarchy of space. Once the other people have the land, they must begin farming or building on the land. Thirdly, there is a step in organizing the actual layout of the town. For a grid like plan there are many requirements such as the town square being the starting point of the town. Also, the street layout requires four principal streets within the square and four streets surrounding the square. In addition the size and overall design of the city will be varied based on the population. Finally, these laws are followed by laws for the commons.

                When reading the important features from the essay, it is obvious the Spanish had specific guidelines in its discovery and conquering of new cities. This shows that the urban form is created by specific rules which shows organization and advanced thinking in this period of time. When analyzing the three main areas of the Laws of Indies, it showed me that these laws had some control over the spread of the Spanish empire as well as stressed some importance about the original layout of the land, because they could see the importance of location and the physical environment in the long run. I also recognized that the laws do not directly state the city has to be built in a grid form, but because of the laws and restrictions, the grid pattern is enforced.

Overall the Spanish had specifics in creating their cities. From finding a location, to constructing the city, to planning the city, every step of the way was calculated based on these laws. It is fascinating to see how advanced thinking began that long ago. I believe that if these laws were followed in today’s society that we would have much more organized cities. Therefore, the Spanish had advanced laws that helped transform the urban landscape.

I will see you all next week for my final blog of the semester!