Real Audiencia of Charcas

The Real Audiencia of Charcas was a Spanish colonial high court and governing council whose seat lay in what is now Bolivia. King Philip II established it by royal decree on 4 September 1559 at the Ciudad de la Plata de Nuevo Toledo, later called Charcas and today Sucre. It had jurisdiction over the Governorate of Charcas, Paraguay and the Governorate of the Rio de la Plata, now Uruguay and northern Argentina, and it oversaw the region of the Potosi silver mines. The audiencia was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru until 1776, when it passed to the newly created Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata. Juntas set up in 1809 deposed its judges, it was not re-established until 1816, and the Republic of Bolivia was created from its territory on 6 August 1825.