In more specific provisions such as the Royal Ordinance of Charles I of Spain in 1523, a legal corpus is formed where the hypodamic plan layout of the founding of new cities is regularly configured. This Ordinance establishes:
The model of the city founded by the Spanish colonizers is delimited, which responds to the classic model of regular geometric layout, the so-called hypodamic plan, which was the model that expanded from the Greek poleis, passing through the Roman cities and which would lead, passing through the Renaissance theoretical model, to the pattern that, with variants, would be consolidated in the layout of the Granada city of Santa Fe "Santa Fe (Granada)"), founded by the Catholic Monarchs. in 1491. The kings insisted on making this old temporary Christian camp that was besieging the Nasrid city of Granada a city, of solid construction, as proof that this time it was going to be the place from which the last and definitive assault would be carried out, and the conquest of Granada in 1492, the last Muslim stronghold in the Iberian Peninsula.
The urban layout of Santa Fe approaches orthogonal shapes, at right angles, organized from two longitudinal streets and a transversal one at whose intersection the plaza appears, where civil and ecclesiastical buildings are located. A little later, the city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna on the island of Tenerife, founded between 1496 and 1497 by the advance Alonso Fernández de Lugo, followed the "new population" procedures that the Crown of Castile established in the conquest expeditions. This model, in the form of a grid, was experimented in the recently conquered Canary Islands and would also serve as a precedent for the vast majority of the new viceregal cities during the subsequent conquests of the Castilians in America and Asia.[9].
However, the idea of laying out a city in the shape of a grid is not exclusive to Europeans. The idea is also found in America, especially in the ancient cities of the Aztecs and Mayans.[10].
Starting in 1496, the inhabitants of the city of La Isabela began to leave and emigrate to other parts of the island and in 1500 it had been completely abandoned, and was never inhabited again. The viceregal city of Santo Domingo, today in the Dominican Republic, was founded in 1498, considered the oldest city in the New World still existing and is an excellent archetype of this viceregal urban and architectural style, with its grid streets.
Regarding city planning, successive ordinances had details about the preferred location of a new city and its location in relation to the sea, mountains and rivers. It also detailed the shape and measurements of the central plaza taking into account the spacing for commercial purposes, as well as the spacing for festivals or for the military, which sometimes involved the use of horses. In addition to specifying the location of the church "Church (building)"), the orientation of the roads leading to the main square, or even the width of the streets in relation to climatic conditions. The order in which the city should be built was also specified.[11].
In 1510 the city of Nombre de Dios "Name of God (Columbus)") (Panama) was founded; in 1515, Cumaná (Venezuela); in 1519, Havana (Cuba); León (Nicaragua) "León (Nicaragua)") and Granada (Nicaragua) "Granada (Nicaragua)") in 1524; Panama and Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz (Mexico); in 1525, Santa Marta "Santa Marta (Colombia)") (Colombia); in 1531, Guadalajara "Guadalajara (Mexico)") (Mexico); in 1533, Cartagena de Indias (Colombia); in 1534, San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador); in 1535, Lima (Peru); in 1536, Santa María del Buen Aire (Argentina); in 1537, Asunción (Paraguay); in 1538, Santa Fe de Bogotá (Colombia) and Villa de La Plata de la Nueva Toledo (Bolivia); in 1541, Santiago de Chile (Chile) in 1542, Mérida de Yucatán (Mexico) in 1545, Potosí (Bolivia), in 1548, Our Lady of La Paz (Bolivia); in 1548, Mendoza "Mendoza (Argentina)") (Argentina); in 1565, San Agustín de la Florida (United States).[12] Also on the Asian continent, the viceregal city of Intramuros was founded in 1571, today a district of Manila (Philippines).
The impressive foundation of cities, in such a short space of time, was due to the expansion and dynamics of the conquest itself, both from a military point of view (supply, chain of communications, base for future explorations), political (administrative centers), economic (distribution of land, trade) or social (contact between settlers and natives, social and religious indoctrination).[13] Around 1575 the Council of the Indies carried out an inventory and recognition of the domains where the important emigration towards "Las Indias", of around 100,000 Spaniards so far, which facilitated the founding of more than 500 cities in the entire Indian territories.[14] The number of cities founded reached, with reliable documentation, 230 in 1580 and up to 330 cities in 1630, all with stable settlements, and many others without being conveniently documented, so the real number is probably more double.[13].
In 1573, Philip II dictated, through the Council of the Indies, the Ordinances of discoveries, new population and pacification of the Indies, which compiled the ordinances and charters that had been issued eighty years before, including those issued by Charles I in 1523. In them, seeking stability and monitoring of his power, the urban planning model was specified and reworked, reflecting the experience existing until then, although it must be taken into account that the Most of the cities had already been erected.[15] They regulate, with Vitrubian and Renaissance inspiration, the model of the "ideal city", the arrangement of the elements that will be found in all the cities of the continent, such as the orthogonal layout of the road network, the width and orientation of the streets according to the climate, the size of the urban blocks, the empty urban block to be used as a municipal square and the location of the main and secondary churches, the construction of the church on the eastern side of the block, because the Catholic rite requires that the altar face east. The location of the squares is also regulated depending on whether the town is coastal or inland, in addition to the corresponding reserves of communal land and others.[16].
The first foundations, due to the needs of the moment, were fortified factories, which served as a platform for commercial exchanges and security, and the base on which they launched the exploration of new territories. When the situation was thought to be stabilized, settlements were carried out, in which the order model was imposed. Thus, mainly, due to the urgency in providing shelter to the first Spanish settlers, there were foundations of cities that, at the beginning, did not adjust to the definitive Hippodamic model, such as in La Isabela, the first foundation of Santo Domingo, Caparra "Caparra (Puerto Rico)") (Puerto Rico) in 1508, Sevilla la Nueva (Jamaica) in 1509 or Santa María la Antigua del Darién (Panama) in 1510. In the second founding of Santo Domingo, the grid shape and the location of the main buildings next to the plaza would already be evident.[16].
To achieve both an effect of inspiring awe among the indigenous peoples of the Americas, and of creating a legible and militarily manageable landscape, the early settlers used and located the new architecture within planned urban landscapes and complexes dedicated to the missions "Mission (Christianity)"). Many of the cities built were accommodated in already existing centers of the great indigenous civilizations, although almost never taking advantage of their original design. In other cases, their location was established for economic reasons, such as in the case of mining operations, or because they were commercially and militarily strategic, such as in the case of cities with sea ports.[15].
The act of founding and settlement was regulated and had to be recorded in a notarial act that included "the allocation of the plots for housing, the layout of streets and squares, the distribution of common lands, farmland and livestock, the constitution of the first council, the fixing of taxes and the Indian encomiendas."[12].
The Spanish viceregal city was the basis of the administrative and political life of the territory assigned to the Spanish viceroyalties, and arose, among others, from the need to organize, politically, socially, economically and militarily, the management of the new territories that were being discovered. In them, where appropriate, the headquarters of civil and ecclesiastical organizations were located.