Law of The Indies

The the designs of colonial cities in Central and South America were based on pre-fabricated ideas from Europe mixed together with Pre-Colombian influences. The Spaniards made their way to the Americas with these prefabricated grid-plan designs developed which also contained Roman and philosophical influences. These plans were also linked to a set of laws explaining how to properly found and build a new city. These laws were originally signed in 1573 and have been rewritten and reformed over the 500 years of Spanish occupation in the West. They are most commonly known as the Laws of the Indies.  

Some of the guide lines mentioned in Graziano Gasparini´s essay, ¨The Spanish-American Grid Plan, An Urban Bureaucratic Form¨ are:  

1-      Select a good site with clean water and abundant natural resources

2-      Plan the city before any construction begins

3-      The town should be planned with ‘cord and ruler’, with a central square and a layout that can grow in a planned manner

4-      The plaza or central square should be rectangular, with a length one-and-a-half times its width

5-      The plaza’s four corners should point towards the cardinal directions

6-      The main streets should lead from the town square out and two minor streets diverging from each corner of the square.

7-      All town streets should be straight and at right angles to each other.

8-      Smaller open spaces would be allocated elsewhere in town to provide for churches and other public amenities.

9-      There will be a town common for livestock and agriculture.

10-  The town will be developed without the presence of natives, in order to impress them when they were allowed to enter.

The selections for these sites were therefore based on the best location that the Spaniard colonialists could find. Many of them were unfortunately pre-occupied by natives and were forced to leave or be re-located. The cities we see today in South and Central America are all constructed on these grid-plans. The main objectives behind these plans were to keep order and control over its inhabitants through regulated movement through the space, maintain social hierarchy by maintaining a separation between racial and social classes, and finally to make the city safer and more defensible.