Nuño de Guzmán

Deceased Person

– 1558

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Who was Nuño de Guzmán?

Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán or sometimes Nuño de Guzmán was a Spanish conquistador and colonial administrator in New Spain. He was Governor of the province of Pánuco from 1525–1533, and of Nueva Galicia from 1529–1534, President of the first Audiencia from 1528-30. He founded several cities in Northwestern Mexico, including Guadalajara.

Originally a bodyguard of Charles V of Spain, he was sent to Mexico to counterbalance the influence of Hernán Cortés, as the King worried he was becoming too powerful. As Governor of Pánuco, Guzmán cracked down hard on the supporters of Cortés, stripping him and his supports of property and rights. He conducted numerous expeditions of conquest into the northwestern areas of Mexico, enslaving thousands of Indians and shipping them to the Caribbean colonies. In the resulting power struggles where he also made himself an enemy of important churchmen, Guzmán came out the loser. In 1537 he was arrested for treason, abuse of power, mistreatment of the indigenous inhabitants of his territories and he was sent to Spain in shackles. His subsequent reputation, in scholarship and popular discourse, has been that of a cruel, violent and irrational tyrant, but recent scholarship has suggested that while he was certainly no benevolent ruler or a friend of the Indians, his policies and actions were initially supported by the Spanish Crown and in line with contemporary heavyhanded colonial practices. His legacy has partly been colored by the fact that history was written largely by his political opponents, among them Hernán Cortés, Juan de Zumarraga and Vasco de Quiroga.

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Also known as
  • Nuno Beltran de Guzman
Nationality
  • Spain
Died
1558

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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