Spanish East Indies exception of a short period at the end of the 18th century). In 1821 the New Spanish Viceroyalty collapsed following the Mexican War of Independence, which resulted in the First Mexican Empire. All control of the Spanish East Indies government was then transferred to Madrid, until the United States annexed most Spanish territories in the Asia-Pacific region after the Spanish–American War of 1898. In 1574 the Captaincy General of the Philippines was created as a dependency of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The Real Audiencia of Manila was created on and established in 1584 as the highest tribunal of the
East Indies and early 16th century led by the Portuguese explorers. The Portuguese described the entire region they discovered as the "Indies". Eventually, the region would be broken up into a series of "Indies": The East Indies, which was also called "Old Indies" or "Great Indies", consisting of India, and the West Indies, also called "New Indies" or "Little Indies", consisting of the Americas. These regions were important sources of trading goods, particularly cotton, indigo and spices after the establishment of European trading companies: the British East India Company and Dutch East India Company, among others, in the 17th century. The New