Compare And Contrast The Republica De Indios

The Republica de Indios and Republica de Espanoles were the two political categories that Spaniards used for the inhabitants of Colonial Latin American colonies. These two republics were not actually republics though. Instead these two separate groups were called republics because they governed themselves on different levels. At all levels beyond the village these republics were both under political authority of Spanish colonial administrators.
In the Republica de Espanoles, a town council was the local ruling authority. The town council and local Spanish residents made up the population of the Republica de Espanoles. However, African slaves were attached subordinates of the Republica de Espanoles, usually as slaves or employees, but sometimes as free artisans or vendors.
In the Republica de Indios Native American

communities were semi-autonomous, but they remained subordinate pueblos in relation to nearby Spanish villas and ciudades. Each native pueblo still had elected representatives for its own cabildo, which was similar to the Spanish town council.
Since the governing bodies of both the Republica de Espanoles and Republica de Indios are similar, it is easy to think that the idea of a local governing body was passed on from the Spanish to the indigenous of Latin America.

However, that assumption is wrong because thousands of documents reveal that there were many variations between the traditional governance by respected elders. Many times the Spanish tried to intervene ,but native communities typically favored election of senior male representatives from previous ruling families prior to the Spanish conquest. Even though Spanish oversaw the native communities, local customs rather than Spanish customs determined the numbers, titles and terms of office of cabildo officers. Despite Spanish custom bringing in the different republics to identify with, natives still found their identity in their indigenous place name of their home community, which usually had a saint’s name attached to it. Indigenous terms for communities persisted as well. Natives used terms like altepetl, nuu, cah and ayllu to describe their communities, instead of using the term Republicas de Indios to describe a native

community.
At the local level of the Republics de Indios the governing body was a governor and cabildo. If a Republica de Indios was near a Republica de Espanoles, then two cabildos were formed to represent both republics. However, the native cabildo could only govern over the indigenous population. A difference to note between the two republics is that the Republica de Espanoles relied more on the Republica de Indios for survival, thus it was important for Spanish not to destroy native villages or seize land nearby.