The links below provide access to online digital scans or transcripts of various editions of colonial legislation for the Spanish empire during the colonial era. Although laws were generally created because violations were common or expected, Spanish colonial legislation was extensive and intricate, and reflects a template for society that was extended throughout the New World during the colonial era. Apart from the links below, the website La legislación colonial española de Indias provides overviews, transcriptions, and scans of a number of important colonial laws from 1512-1681, and there are transcriptions of a large number of relevant laws at the site 500 años de México en documentos, organized by century and decade. For the early 16th-century, the following contemporary compilations give alphabetized topical overviews of existing laws at the time.