Philip has ordered a series of broad…

Philip has ordered a series of broad geographic-economic surveys of his overseas possessions between 1579 and 1585.

Known as the Relaciones geográficas, they are based on increasingly elaborate questionnaires that demand information from each town in the empire on virtually all aspects of Meso-American life: questions on the natural environment and resources, crops, population history, settlement patterns, taxes paid, markets and trade, the language, native history and customs, and progress of the missionization program.

The surveys also include the first systematic European study of the Andes Mountains.