A Translation of Pedro de Alvarado’s 1526 Contract with the Spanish Crown: Pacific Exploration and Territoriality

Abstract

Following the return to Spain of the remnant from the Magellan-Elcano voyage around the world (1519–22), various other Spanish voyages attempted to find the elusive return route eastward across the Pacific. Among those who proposed to search for that route was Pedro de Alvarado, a veteran of the conquests of Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras. In 1526, Alvarado visited the court of the young king of Spain, Charles I, then residing in Granada, and obtained a contract with the crown to build a fleet of ships in Guatemala to explore both westward into the Pacific, and northward along the coast of North America. The full text of the contract included benefits to Alvarado for the preparation of the voyage and rewards that he would receive if he was successful, but it left no doubt that the crown and its delegated overseers would remain in control of the enterprise. Nearly half of the text dealt with the proper treatment of peoples whom Alvarado’s expedition might encounter, in an attempt to atone for the abuses committed by earlier expeditions. The contract with Alvarado was an early articulation of the principle of territoriality, by which states claimed and defended rights of ownership and jurisdiction over lands, peoples, and resources, whether or not they had already been discovered.