Spanish East Indies not materialize.) In a similar vein, to promote innovation and education among the residents of the islands, Governor-General José Basco y Vargas established the Economic Society of the Friends of the Country. For over 256 years, the Spanish East Indies were governed by a governor-captain general, and an audiencia. All economic matters of the Philippines were managed by the Viceroyalty of New Spain, located in Mexico. Because the eastward route was more widely used for military purposes, in addition to commerce that included the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade, most government correspondence went through Mexico, rather than directly to Spain (with the
French and British interregnum in the Dutch East Indies in Malaccan strait, the island of Singapore and Penang. As the British coveted the Dutch colonies in the region, the French-controlled East Indies was bracing for the predicted incoming British invasion. In 1806, King Lodewijk Napoleon of the Netherlands sent one of his general, Herman Willem Daendels, serving as governor-general of East Indies based in Java. Daendels was sent to strengthen Javanese defences against a perceived incoming British invasion. He arrived in the city of Batavia (now Jakarta) on 5 January 1808 and relieved the former Governor General, Albertus Wiese. He raised new forces, built new roads within Java, and