Caminos hacia la modernidad: La gestión del territorio bajo gobierno hispano en América.

The Management of Territory under the Spanish Rule in the Americas

Abstract

The eighteenth century was an important boost for Latin American civil engineering, which must be related to the aspirations of international modernity of the time. In this way, this work aims to show that the American viceroyalties and other local administrations bet on improving communications in line with contemporary challenges. To achieve this objective, this paper starts from the numerous previous studies on this topic, based on documentation preserved in Spain, complementing it with the approach to the resources preserved in the general archives of the nation of Mexico, Colombia, and Peru. Thanks to this perspective, it will be possible to offer a better-defined general interpretation of this heritage, local participation and the management system of the viceregal administration, a perspective without which it is difficult to propose protection and revaluation tasks for contemporary communities.