I’ve read that Mesoamerican natives like the Tlascalans who helped Cortez overthrow the Aztecs later objected to not being treated any better by the Spanish and even tried to take their claims to Spanish courts. How did this work and did any succeed?

by Elphinstone1842
drylaw

You may be interested in my earlier answer on a similar topic over here.​ Its's pretty long, so here some orientation:

  • In the first part the section "Spanish administrative and judicial re-organisation" could be helpful, as it goes more generally into Spanish judicial influence in early colonial times

  • ​In the second part I look at Tlaxcala's "special status", so you can also go straight to this

  • This answer to a follow up also directly deals with Tlaxcala and its use of Spanish courts in more detail (esp. on the 2nd question)

Hope that's helpful! In case of questions let me know.

I'll also add a sort of short intro to that other post here, more directly connected to your question: The Spanish derecho indiano allowed for indigenous supplicants to directly petition the Spanish crown for rights - often carried out by elites and communities, and often successfully. Native people were then seen as vasalls of the Crown and hence under its protection when they had converted. These were tied to a special form of Iberian documents (aka relaciones de méritos) highlighting one's ancestors special merits, in these cases often focusing on native elites' ancestors' important roles in conquest and christianization. Especially well-known allies like the Tlaxcalans, but also the Mexica initially profited more from these law mechanisms, wheareas other groups could over time increasinlgly lose influence. In connection with this, from the late 16th c. native elites would also lose influence to Spaniards and other groups at community and municipial levels.

Then again, petitions to the crown did continue with some success througout colonial times, e.g. with the so-called títulos primordiales - and even had stronger backing through royal decrees from the late 17th c. onwards in Mexico (note that a similiar process to what I described was going in colonial Peru also). Actually, land and other rights for indigenous communities would really suffer in the independence period without the royal "protection" of native people through the derecho indiano.