Baltasar de Zúñiga, 1st Duke of Arión

Baltasar de Zúñiga y Guzmán, duque de Arión y marqués de Valero (1658, Spain – December 26, 1727, Madrid) was Spanish viceroy of New Spain from August 16, 1716 to October 14, 1722 and later president of the Council of the Indies.

Zúñiga y Guzmán was born in Spain in 1658, second son of Juan Manuel de Manrique y Zúñiga, and thus of royal blood.

With his elder brother he participated in the Great Turkish War and fought the Battle of Buda (1686), in which he was slightly wounded, but his brother killed. Between 1692 and 1697, he was Viceroy of Navarre.
At the start of the Spanish Succession War, he chose the side of Philip V and became Viceroy of Sardinia between 1704 and 1707.

He made his formal entrance into Mexico City on August 16, 1716 and received his office from the previous viceroy, Fernando de Alencastre, 1st Duke of Linares. Zúñiga was the first bachelor to be viceroy of New Spain. He was soon informed of famine in Texas, which was causing colonists to abandon their villages. He immediately ordered the governor of Coahuila to send aid to the region. He also ordered that the Indians be taught agriculture and animal husbandry.

In 1717 Florida Indian chiefs meeting in Pensacola asked to come to Mexico City. Viceroy Zúñiga sent a ship from the Armada de Barlovento (coast guard) to pick them up and transport them to Veracruz. They traveled by stagecoach from there to the capital, where they were received with honors. They accepted baptism and promised friendship to the Spaniards, a promise which they kept.

In 1717 the Spanish Crown established its monopoly on tobacco in Cuba and New Spain, and the private factories disappeared. The export of tobacco to Peru was prohibited. The changes resulted in a large increase in royal revenue.

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