An analysis of Spanish colonial society in South America would reveal a body of officials composed almost exclusively of men born in Spain, and educated in accordance with the ideas and traditions of Spain’s conservative administration. These were the viceroys, the judges of the audiencias, the royal treasurers, and the corregidores, or governors of small districts. Hardly less important than the civil officials were the ecclesiastics, who were sent to the colonies by the authorities in Spain, and paid out of the royal revenues of the colonies. These members of the clergy became teachers, missionaries, and parish priests, many of whom were friars belonging to the various religious orders. A third group was composed of soldiers, who were sent from Spain for a period of four or five years, and a more or less extensive body of militia. This military force was employed in putting down insurrections, defending the frontiers and extending the dominion of the Spaniards. And it was in this group that a number of the most noteworthy writers of South America appeared. Some of the officials, in the exercise of their practically irresponsible authority, often made illegitimate appropriations from the public funds that passed under their control; and the parish priests, in many cases, and the petty governors almost universally, extorted whatever was to be had from the Indians by a systematic process of merciless oppression. [Sidenote: The Creoles] [Sidenote: Social stagnation] The dishonesty of officials, coupled with the fact that they were almost exclusively Spaniards, sent from Spain to occupy their posts for a few years, at length alienated the sympathies of the creoles and the mestizos from the Spanish administration. The creoles, persons of pure Spanish blood born in America, in many cases took advantage of the instruction offered in the colonial universities, and in some instances continued their studies in Spain. They became men of cultivation and sober judgment; they knew the circumstances and needs of the society of which they were members; they had a patriotic interest and an instinctive pride in their communities or commonwealths; yet they were practically barred from office, and their advice was seldom, or never, solicited. By this egoistical and stupid conduct of the government in Spain the creoles and the mestizos were thrown into an attitude of opposition; a rigid line was drawn between them and the Spaniards; and on the American side of this line the creoles and mestizos formed a new society which increased in numbers and self-confidence with the passing decades. Finally, these two classes, merged into one and supported by the civilized Indians, asserted their determination to abolish Spanish domination and be independent. But throughout the two centuries and a half of colonial existence, under the influence of Spanish conservatism, the colonies remained, to a very great extent, in a state of social stagnation until near the end of the