The Viceroyalty of New Spain reaches from…

The Viceroyalty of New Spain reaches from New Mexico to Panama by the end of the seventeenth century and includes the Caribbean islands and the Philippines.

Local audiencias enjoy greater autonomy in the most distant areas, and viceregal authority is merely nominal.

After the sixteenth-century expansion of power, the seventeenth century has been marked by a decline in central authority, even though the administrative structure transplanted to the New World remains intact.