The First Delegates to the Cortes

On september 20 fourth 18 ten, the first assembly of the cortes convened. There were a hundred and four delegates, 30 of them american born. The original decree sent out by the central hunta had several causes that we don't need to get into but the big one is that spaniards would be represented at rate of one delegate per 50 thousand people. And not just people, but a rate of one per 100 thousand whites. So in effect, qo equal representation would give a tiny minority of American whites, who numbered maybe two to three million, a controlling majority of seats in the quartess.