With contact between indigenous populations, Spaniards, Africans (many of which were slaves), and starting in the late sixteenth century, Asian slaves ("chinos") brought as goods the trade via the Manila Galleon there was intermingling of the groups, with mixed-race castas, particularly mestizos, becoming a component of Spanish cities and to a lesser extent indigenous communities. The Spanish legal structure formally separated what they called the "república de indios" (the republic of Indians) from the "república de españoles" (republic of Spaniards), the latter of which encompassed all those in the Hispanic sphere: Spaniards, Africans, and mixed-race castas. Although in many ways indigenous peoples were marginalized in the colonial system, the paternalistic structure of colonial rule supported the continued existence and structure of indigenous communities. The Spanish crown recognized the existing ruling group, gave protection to the land holdings of indigenous communities, and communities' and individuals had access to the Spanish legal system. In practice in central Mexico this meant that until the nineteenth-century liberal reform that eliminated the corporate status of indigenous communities, indigenous communities had a protected status.