Council of the Indies for Spanish, Spanish American, and European history, are housed in Seville. Council of the Indies The Council of the Indies; officially, the Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies (, ), was the most important administrative organ of the Spanish Empire for the Americas and the Philippines. The crown held absolute power over the Indies and the Council of the Indies was the administrative and advisory body for those overseas realms. It was established in 1524 by Charles V of Spain to administer "the Indies," Spain's name for its territories. Such an administrative entity, on the conciliar model of the
East Indies theatre of the French Revolutionary Wars centre at Canton in Qing Dynasty China. This linkage was the principal cause of British interest in the East Indies: the connection to and dominance of a lucrative network of intercontinental trade and exploration. France controlled a number of trading harbours along the Indian coast including Mahé and Chandernagore, all governed from the larger port of Pondicherry. However, the strongest French position in the region was the isolated island of Île de France, later known as Mauritius, with its subordinate bases of Réunion and small settlements on Madagascar in the Seychelles and on Rodrigues. Île de France, centred on the