The New Kingdom of Granada

Santiago Muñoz-Arbeláez examines the century-long (1530–1630) processes by which diverse indigenous landscapes of the northern Andes were reshaped into the New Kingdom of Granada, a political unit within the Spanish monarchy.

Drawing on correspondence, visitation reports, legal records, maps, textiles, and accounting documents, the book foregrounds indigenous interpreters, scribes, and political actors who both helped build and contested colonial institutions.

It emphasizes the uneven, disrupted, and non-linear character of imperial formation, showing how highland administrative consolidation contrasted with persistent lowland resistance and autonomous indigenous projects.

The author argues that indigenous participation in legal and paper-based practices produced crucial sources for understanding colonial politics while also producing silences that require careful interpretation.

The book reframes long-term legacies of colonial centralization and territorial imaginaries that influenced later republican and national projects in Colombia.