The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 99, July 1995 - April, 1996 Page: 436
626 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
government dispatched the Marqu6s de Rubi on an extended journey in
1766-1767.'
Rubi's comprehensive report served as the foundation for a series of
administrative reforms that altered the configuration of the political
landscape. The Reglamento of 1772, designed to upgrade the manage-
ment of frontier garrisons, affected the province of Texas by a reduction
in troop level and the transfer of the capital from Los Adaes to San An-
tonio de B6xar. Another administrative reform gradually evolved
through several phases until it emerged by 1776 as the Commandancy
General of the Interior Provinces.- Although nominally accommodated
within the larger framework of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the cre-
ation of the Commandancy General concentrated military and political
authority for the administration of the northern territory at the central
headquarters in Chihuahua. With responsibility of oversight for a vast
tier of provinces stretching from Texas to California, the commandant
general operated independently of the Viceroy of New Spain. During
the transition from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, Brig.
Nemesio Salcedo took charge of the commandancy general of the interi-
or provinces in Chihuahua.4 A career military officer, born in Bilbao,
Don Nemesio progressed rapidly in rank. Within two years after arriving
in New Spain in 1799 as a colonel of the Infantry Regiment of the
Crown, he earned promotion to brigadier general. The commandancy
general that he assumed included the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya, Sono-
ra, Sinaloa, Durango, Nuevo Le6n, Nuevo Santander, Nuevo M6xico,
Texas, Coahuila, and, at least in theory, the two Californias.5
Shortly after Brigadier Salcedo accepted responsibility of the Interior
Provinces, Texas became a focal point of international tension with the
American purchase of Louisiana. The subsequent exploration by Lewis
and Clark, followed by the expedition of Zebulon M. Pike into New
Mexico, aggravated relations between Spain and the United States.6
'Jack Jackson (ed.) and William C. Foster (annotator), Imaginary Kingdom. Texas as Seen by the
Rivera and Rubi Miltary Expeditzons, 1727 and 1767 (Austin: Texas State Historical Association,
1995), 71-88.
2 Luis Navarro Garcia, Don Josi de Gdlvez y la Comandancia General de las Provincias Internas del
Norte de Nueva Espafia (Sevilla: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos de Sevilla series, Consejo
Superior de Investigaciones Clentificas, 1964), 275-323.
' Bernard E. Bobb, The Viceregency of Antonio Maria Bucareli in New Span, 1771-r779 (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1962), 143-144-
1 Lorenzo Arellano Schetellg, "El Brigadier Comte. Gral. Don Nemesio Salcedo y Salcedo," Bo-
letin de la Sociedad Chihuahuense de Estudios Histricos, I (Julio 15, 1938), 76.
5 Christon I. Archer, The Army in Bourbon Mexico, 176o-1779 (Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press, 1977), 195; Marc Simmons, Spanish Government in New Mexico (Albuquerque: Uni-
versity of New Mexico Press, 1968), 31-32.
6 Luis Navarro Garcia, Las Provincias Internas en el Siglo XIX (Sevilla: Escuela de Estudios His-
pano-Americanos de Sevilla series, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1965),436
April
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 99, July 1995 - April, 1996, periodical, 1996; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101217/m1/514/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.