The distance between the viceroyalties posed significant challenges for Spain due to the following reasons:
1. Communication: The primary reason was the simple fact of distance. From Seville, the primary Spanish trading port, to Vera Cruz, the main port in New Spain, was almost 5,700 nautical miles. Sailing at 5 knots, it would take about 48 days from port to port. This does not include accounting for bad weather, stopping for supplies, or quarantines. It would be impossible to handle immediate situations with a twelve-week round-trip communication time.
2. Governance: The viceroy in New Spain was hampered in practice from exerting authority by the considerable independence of governors and royal audiencias in many of the subordinate areas. His power was largely confined to central and southern Mexico. Neither a single minister nor a council based in Madrid could control the whole of Spanish America in an effective way.
3. Diversity of Territories: The Spanish Empire in America encompassed a dizzying array of peoples, climates, and conditions. Madrid could never account for all circumstances and conditions. This led to the creation and increase in power of the viceroys.
4. Administrative Challenges: A Viceroyalty is granted by a king to exercise a government in his name in a territory that belongs to that kingdom and for which he cannot be directly responsible, either because of the distance or the extent of it. This political institution was also consolidated as a social and administrative institution of the Crown.
These factors combined made the governance and administration of the distant viceroyalties a complex and challenging task for Spain.