General Archive of the Indies
The Archivo General de Indias ( German short "India Archive" ) is a central archive of the Spanish State, the documents relating to the Spanish colonial empire (that is Spanish America and the Philippines ) collects. It is the building of the former Stock Exchange of Seville - housed and is considered the most comprehensive and important archive of the Spanish colonial period - the Casa Lonja de Mercaderes. 1987 both the building itself as well as the archive collections of the UNESCO declared World Heritage Site.
Establishment of the archive
The Archivo General de Indias was founded in 1785 by royal decree of Charles III. towards established that decreed that the archives of the India Council ( Consejo de Indias ) is now in the building of the former stock exchange of Seville, the Casa Lonja de Mercaderes to accommodate. The impetus for this foundation, the then Minister, given to the Spanish colonies, José de Gálvez y Gallardo, in turn, Juan Bautista Muñoz responsible for the project implementation, a historian who was considered most important Spanish cosmography of the Spanish colonial empire of its time. The aim of the venture was to all documents that had a reference to the Spanish colonies, to gather under one roof - these had been distributed so far on several archives, primarily those of Simancas, Cadiz and Seville. It played both the lack of space in the existing archives a role as well as the hope that in this way - in the spirit of the Enlightenment - to trigger a reappraisal of the Spanish colonial history.
The stock
The date for filing the year 1760 was fixed, ie all documents that emerged after 1760, remained in their original institutions. The first documents were transferred in October 1785 from the archives of Simancas in the newly founded Central Archives in Seville.
In Archvio General de Indias following institutions were included, inter alia, the stocks:
- Consejo de Indias, documents from the 16th - 19th century
- Casa de Contratación, documents from the 16th - 18th century
- Consulados de Sevilla y Cádiz, documents from the 16th - 19th century
- Secretarías de Estado y Despacho Universal de Indias, Estado de Gracia y Justicia, Hacienda y Guerra, documents from the 18th - 19th century
- Secretaría del Juzgado de Arribadas de Cádiz, documents from the 18th - 19th century
- Comisaría Interventora de la Hacienda Pública de Cádiz, Dirección General de la Renta de Correos, documents from the 18th - 19th century
- Sala de Ultramar del Court of Audit, documents from the 19th century
- Real Compañía de la Habana, documents from the 18th - 19th century
The archive assembled countless documents on all aspects of the Spanish colonial empire, from the time of the first conquistadors to the 19th century. Here precious original documents are kept extremely, such as the papal bull Inter caetera of Pope Alexander VI. , Which divided the world between Spain and Portugal, or prepared by Bartolomé de Las Casas copy of the log book of Christopher Columbus.
Today
Overall, the collection includes approximately 43,000 volumes, extending to 80 million pages and 8 kilometers of shelving.
From 2002 to 2004, the building of an extensive renovation and restoration has been subjected.
In 2005, a digitization project was launched, which has set itself the goal of making the inventory of the archive available on the internet.
The archive is open to all persons who can demonstrate a legitimate interest and research are in possession of a valid user ID.
The working spaces of researchers and archivists are now being outsourced from the Casa Lonja and housed in a nearby building.