Royal Audiencia of Charcas

Bolivia, 1559–1825. Draft, not yet reviewed

The Real Audiencia of Charcas was a Spanish audiencia with its seat in what is today Bolivia. It was established in 1559 in Ciudad de la Plata de Nuevo Toledo (later Charcas, modern-day Sucre) and had jurisdiction over Paraguay and the Governorate of the Río de la Plata (now Uruguay and northern Argentina). The audiencia oversaw the incredible silver output of the mines at Potosí. The Republic of Bolivia was created from the Royal Audiencia of Charcas on August 6, 1825.

Seat of power: Sucre

No rulers documented for this era yet.

Culture

• The Cerro Rico is the reason for Potosí's historical importance since it was the major supply of silver for the Spanish Empire until Guanajuato in Mexico surpassed it in the 18th century.
• At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, it was the second largest city in the world, after London.
• Some of the silver also made its way east to Buenos Aires, via the Rio de la Plata, or to Acapulco, Mexico, where it was sent via the Manila Galleons to buy Asian products.

Picture

Potosí, in Bolivia, was the location of the Spanish colonial silver mint and grew rapidly after the discovery of the Cerro Rico in 1545.

Image: Parallelepiped09, CC BY-SA 4.0, file

Sources

• Real Audiencia of Charcas (Wikipedia)
• Royal Audiencia of Charcas (Wikidata)
• About the picture (Wikipedia)

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.