Public Land Policy and Use in Colonial Caracas

Abstract

M /[ OST Latin Americanists agree that the establishment of cities was a crucial part of the Spanish conquest and settlement of the New World. As centers of Spanish government and Spanish culture, cities served as focal points for royal administration, ecclesiastical ceremonies, commercial transactions, and political activity. Despite agreement about the relative importance of cities in settlement history, only a handful of scholars are studying colonial Spanish American urban history. These scholars' contributions are valuable, since they shed new light on the development of urban centers; however, there is still a need to study the evolution and growth of individual cities in Spanish America.' One broad subject that invites analysis is urban land use and public policy, topics that receive a great deal of attention for twentieth-century Latin American cities, but that are neglected for the colonial period. This article will attempt partially to fill that void by analyzing the public land policy of the Caracas cabildo