Provincias Internas
The Provincias Internas (Spanish: Inner Provinces), also known as the Comandancia y Capitanía General de las Provincias Internas (Commandancy and General Captaincy of the Inner Provinces), was an administrative district of the Spanish Empire envisioned in 1768 as including Sinaloa, Sonora, Nueva Vizcaya (today's Chihuahua and Durango) and Baja and Alta California, with its capital in Arizpe (Sonora). The jurisdiction was formally created in 1776, on the official grounds that it would provide more autonomy for the frontier provinces, present-day northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States—and perhaps with the unofficial goal of reducing the political and economic power of the viceroy running New Spain from Mexico City by creating a command for the northern regions.