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After the 1494 territorial division of South America between Spain and Portugal in theTreaty of Tordesillas, the colonial administration of the continent was divided intoGovernorates.

• Governorate of Santo Domingo 1493 toChristopher Columbus
• Governorate ofPuerto Rico 1508 toJuan Ponce de León
• Governorate of Cuba 1511 toDiego Velázquez de Cuéllar
• Governorate ofNew Andalucia-Coquibacoa (Venezuela) 1501 toAlonso de Ojeda
• Governorate ofNew Andalucia (Colombia) 1510 toAlonso de Ojeda
• Governorate ofCastilla de Oro 1513 toPedro Arias Dávila
• Governorate of Pánuco. Its ill-defined territory may have corresponded to theHuasteca, as far north as thePánuco River. Thisgobierno was absorbed byNew Spain in 1534 whenNuño de Guzmán moved toNueva Galicia.^[1]
• Governorate ofNew Spain 1521 toHernán Cortés, elevated into aviceroyalty in 1535.
• Governorate ofLa Florida 1565 toPedro Menéndez de Avilés
• Governorate ofLouisiana 1762 toBernardo de Gálvez

Four enclaves afterSpanish conquest of the Inca Empire:

• Governorate of New Castile, granted in 1529 toFrancisco Pizarro and redefined in 1534, it consisted of the territories approximately from the presentEcuador–Colombia border in the north toCusco in the south
• Governorate of New Toledo, granted in 1534 toDiego de Almagro and consisting of the southern half of the formerInca Empire,Bolivia, parts of Southern Brazil, and stretching towards current parts of northernChile.
• Governorate of New Andalusia, granted in 1534 toPedro de Mendoza, was defined as stretching 200leagues along the Pacific coast south of the New Toledo grant and reaching east to the Atlantic, covering the vast territory of current days North and CentralArgentina, the totality ofUruguay andParaguay, and parts of CentralChile. Only small areas of it were colonized, mainly along theParaná River; this region did not fully develop colonially until decades later.
• Governorate of New Léon, granted in 1529 toSimón de Alcazaba y Sotomayor and redefined in 1534, it consisted of the southernmost part of the continent covering the Southern tip of the continent what is today currentPatagoniaArgentina andChile, and Southern islands towardsAntarctica; this was the last part of the colony to develop; and eventually attacked by the British pirates coming fromEurope crossing the waters towards the Pacific Ocean en route toTasmania current daysAustralia.
• Governorate of Terra Australis, granted toPedro Sánchez de la Hoz in 1539 originally, included the territories from the south of theStrait of Magellan to theSouth Pole.
• Governorate of the Río de la Plata, established in 1549, it was originally simply a renamed New Andalusia until it was reorganized in the 17th century after successful settlement, this territory was granted to GovernorDomingo Martínez de Irala and developed around the Silver River (Spanish:Río de la Plata) this governorate gave origin to the creation ofArgentina andUruguay.

• Governorates of the Spanish Empire
• Subdivisions of the Spanish Empire
• Spanish colonization of the Americas
• Governorates

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