Viceroyalty of New Spain (Virreinato de la Nueva España) (aug 18, 1521 – may 31, 1820)

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New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Spanish: Virreinato de la Nueva España Spanish pronunciation: [birejˈnato ðe ˈnweβa esˈpaɲa]), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. It covered a huge area that included what are now Mexico, much of the American Southwest and California in North America, Central America, northern parts of South America, and several Pacific Ocean archipelagos, namely the Philippines and Guam.

In 1786 King Charles III introduced reforms in the organization of the viceroyalty, known as Bourbon reforms. These created the intendencias, which somewhat limited the powers of the viceroy in each area.

New Spain developed highly regional divisions, based on the effects of climate, topography, indigenous populations, and mineral resources. Central and southern Mexico had dense indigenous populations, each with complex social, political, and economic organization. By contrast, the northern area of Mexico was arid and mountainous, a region of nomadic and semi-nomadic indigenous populations. It did not easily support dense settlements. But, in the 1540s, the discovery of silver in Zacatecas attracted miners and other workers, and officials, to exploit the mines. Silver mining became integral to the wealth of New Spain; it also vastly enriched Spain and transformed the global economy. New Spain became the New World terminus of the Philippine trade. The territory became a vital link between Spain's New World empire and its East Indies empire.

From the beginning of the 19th century, the kingdom fell into crisis, aggravated by the Peninsular War, and its direct consequence in the kingdom, the political crisis in Mexico in 1808, which ended with the government of Viceroy José de Iturrigaray and, later, gave rise to the Conspiracy of Valladolid and the Conspiracy of Querétaro. This last one was the direct antecedent of the Mexican War of Independence, which, when concluding in 1821, disintegrated the viceroyalty and gave way to the Mexican Empire, in which finally Agustín de Iturbide would be crowned.

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