Geographical Relations of the Indies
Relaciones geográficas de Indias
- Date
- 1577-1586 · confidence high
- Place
- Madrid, Community of Madrid, Spain
- Credited to
- Philip II and the Council of the Indies (questionnaire by Juan López de Velasco)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What it is
A fifty-question questionnaire sent to the towns of Spanish America that produced descriptions of places and, in some cases, maps painted by the indigenous people themselves. It is the largest geographical and ethnographic survey of its century.
The Indies survey (1577) followed one for Spain (1575); many replies survive in the Real Academia de la Historia and the Archivo de Indias.
What it led to
- indigenous maps such as that of Teozacoalco, of great historical value
- a basis for the geographical and toponymic knowledge of New Spain