Discussion Question(s) Could Latin American reactions to the Bourbon (Caroline era) Reforms be attributed to intellectual change (Enlightenment), religious changes (expulsion of the Jesuits, for instance), economic change (taxes), or political change (taking criollos off their prestigious jobs and replacing them with Peninsulars)? Was it any one of these specifically? All of them? (and if you are going to say "all of them," do you think one might have had more influence than the others?) Why? Lecture 12 This is where things start to get serious, because Spain isn't playing around anymore. Yes, we are still talking about the Bourbon Reforms- but more specifically, the Caroline Reforms (which happened during the reign of King Charles III, from 1759-1788). The reason that this is so important is because there was a lot of stuff happening during this period: rebellions, revolts, the expulsion of the Jesuits (a specific Catholic order of priests) from Spanish America and Spain, and perhaps most of all, more political reorganization.  But the question is the same as it was last week: why? Well, as we noted last week, there were a lot of conflicts in which Spain had found itself on the wrong side. Take, for example, The Seven Years' War: this particular war is known these days as the first true World War, but for a long time it was called the French and Indian War. Oooh!!!!--- why was it called the "French and Indian War"? Because the people who named it that (British and British colonists in North America) believed that the world revolved around them. "we are fighting the French and the Indians-- let's call it the French and Indian War!" Of course, when you call it that you are ignoring the fact that it wasn't just the French, Indians, and British fighting one another. In fact, here is who was fighting: 1) France  2) Native Americans (on both sides in North America) 3) Britain 4) Saxony 5) Sweden 6) Russia 7) Prussia (basically Germany) 8) Hanover (basically more Germany) 9) Spain (later) 10) Portugal (later) And this war (the fighting), with all these people involved, took place in: 1) Europe 2) Africa 3) North America 4) Philippines 5) India 6) Central America The war was happening everywhere, it seems. And yet, people in the United States called it The French and Indian War. Dorks. I kind of want to tell the British and their colonists in North America this: But that's why they called it the French and Indian War for so long.  In any case, Spain-- as noted above-- came late to the party, and joined the war on the French side in 1762.  As you might have predicted, this did not go well. France lost, but more importantly for our purposes, Spain lost by extension. And they lost big! First and foremost, they lost Cuba (albeit temporarily), they lost Florida-- gone forever in the Spanish empire (however, considering what it turned into in the 21st century, maybe they dodged a bullet (this link is not for the faint of heart.

1. Discussion Question(s)
Could Latin American reactions to the Bourbon (Caroline era)
Reforms be attributed to intellectual change (Enlightenment),
religious changes (expulsion of the Jesuits, for instance),
economic change (taxes), or political change (taking criollos off
their prestigious jobs and replacing them with Peninsulars)?
Was it any one of these specifically? All of them? (and if you
are going to say "all of them," do you think one might have had
more influence than the others?) Why?
Lecture 12
This is where things start to get serious, because Spain isn't
playing around anymore. Yes, we are still talking about the
Bourbon Reforms- but more specifically, the Caroline Reforms
(which happened during the reign of King Charles III, from
1759-1788). The reason that this is so important is because
there was a lot of stuff happening during this period: rebellions,
revolts, the expulsion of the Jesuits (a specific Catholic order of
priests) from Spanish America and Spain, and perhaps most of
all, more political reorganization.
But the question is the same as it was last week: why? Well, as
we noted last week, there were a lot of conflicts in which Spain
had found itself on the wrong side. Take, for example, The
Seven Years' War: this particular war is known these days as the
first true World War, but for a long time it was called the
French and Indian War.
Oooh!!!!--- why was it called the "French and Indian War"?
Because the people who named it that (British and British
colonists in North America) believed that the world revolved
around them. "we are fighting the French and the Indians-- let's

2. call it the French and Indian War!" Of course, when you call it
that you are ignoring the fact that it wasn't just the French,
Indians, and British fighting one another. In fact, here is who
was fighting:
1) France
2) Native Americans (on both sides in North America)
3) Britain
4) Saxony
5) Sweden
6) Russia
7) Prussia (basically Germany)
8) Hanover (basically more Germany)
9) Spain (later)
10) Portugal (later)
And this war (the fighting), with all these people involved, took
place in:
1) Europe
2) Africa
3) North America
4) Philippines

3. 5) India
6) Central America
The war was happening everywhere, it seems. And yet, people
in the United States called it The French and Indian War. Dorks.
I kind of want to tell the British and their colonists in North
America this:
But that's why they called it the French and Indian War for so
long.
In any case, Spain-- as noted above-- came late to the party, and
joined the war on the French side in 1762.
As you might have predicted, this did not go well. France lost,
but more importantly for our purposes, Spain lost by extension.
And they lost big! First and foremost, they lost Cuba (albeit
temporarily), they lost Florida-- gone forever in the Spanish
empire (however, considering what it turned into in the 21st
century,
maybe they dodged a bullet (this link is not for the faint of
heart) (Links to an external site.)
.
Sure, they got Cuba back (which was good for them, because
Cuba was making them a lot of money through sugar and
tobacco!), but the bottom line is that being in a war, especially
after the losses they sustained, costs a lot of money. In this
sense, the Caroline Reforms were crucial to the continued well-
being of Spain.
The political position of Spain vis a vis the rest of Europe
wasn't the only thing that was changing. The Spanish crown was
also interested in reorganizing the colonies. Sure, as mentioned

4. last week, the Spanish crown wanted to modernize and
rationalize the colonies, but they did this for a reason. See, from
the "conquest" of the Americas up until this point, the
conquerors and their descendants liked to think that their heroic
forefathers had carved out rich New World kingdoms for their
monarchs, kingdoms equal in importance and dignity to Old
World kingdoms. To the Bourbon reformers, and especially
those involved in the reorganization that happened during the
Caroline Era of reforms, this was NOT the case. These new
leaders wanted colonies to act...well, they wanted them to act
like colonies, which is to say that colonies were, by design,
supposed to support the kingdom in Europe
first
. the idea of a strong New Spain, or Viceroyalty of Peru was
dismissed out of hand as an old-fashioned idea.
This was a rather convenient change in philosophy, since it
benefitted the Spanish crown and gave them exactly what they
needed: revenue to make up for their losses in the Seven Years'
War, and reinforce their own power in Europe, which was
flagging.
So the reformers (Bourbon Reformers-- which again, is not
about people who want better alcohol, as I once thought) main
concern was increasing the profitability of the colonies for
Spain and Portugal. So they raised taxes across the board, and
introduced a bunch of new ways to make tax collection more
effective. So King Philip and then King Charles II were like:
But it wasn't only about taxes, it was also about finding other
ways to make sure that whatever profits there were to be had in
Spanish America, that they were going to the Spanish crown. So
in addition to taxes, the king and reformers tightened
limitations on the production of certain goods, such as cloth or
wine, in the Americas. They wanted people in the colonies to

5. buy cloth and wine from Spain, and didn't want to have to
compete with anyone else.
Now, in a way, this makes sense. A colony is a colony is a
colony, right? And paying taxes and doing more business with
Spain than other countries had a certain logic to it-- because
they are a colony!
But there is a twist here. See, Spain (and even Portugal) didn't
really have a good idea what was happening in "their" colonies.
In fact, before the Bourbon Reforms, the hold that Spain had on
"their" colonies was not all that tight. (Again, I feel I must
mention
"obedezco pero no cumplo"
). Because of this, there were a lot of developments that
occurred in the colonies that the Bourbons (rulers in Spain) did
not really consider: first, the expansion of businesses. For
example, some folks made their money through the importation
of goods from places other than Spain. The Bourbon Reforms
made it tough to keep that kind of business going.
And that's just one example.
From the Spanish crown's point of view, none of the colonial
subjects should have had a problem with this, least of all
criollos
(Remember:
criollos=
people of pure Spanish blood, but were born in the Americas).
But there was a double standard here. Sure, the Spanish crown
would officially say that colonial subjects were Europeans
(especially
criollos
), but in reality, the crown didn't really trust them. The Bourbon
reformers reasoned, logically enough, that colonial officials

6. would have European interests most at heart when they were
themselves
actual
Europeans, which is to say,
born
in Spain. In contrast, the native born elites (
criollos
) were much more likely to defend their own local interests.
Because European-born Spaniards were regarded as superior
agents of imperial control, they could be trusted-- which meant
that they would receive systematic preference throughout civil
and church structures.
As a result, the proud heirs of the conquerors-- people who,
although of European blood and descended from the
conquistadors themselves-- began to lose judgeships and
administrative positions that they had previously enjoyed, a
tremendous blow to their pride, and to their opportunities for
social advancement.
Can you feel it? Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
No, movements for independence did not start happening quite
yet-- calm down, Michael Cera!
No, there was another level of things going on, outside of the
major political and administrative changes in Spanish and
Portuguese America.
The Expulsion of the Jesuits
Alright, this is one of those things that seems like it is not a big
deal, but it really is: The expulsion of the Jesuits from Spanish
America.

7. Now, for those of you who do not know, the Catholic church is
quite organized. I won't go through the entire hierarchy of the
church, but we can start with what I bet you know already: the
Pope is at the top. Now, the people below the church
(Archbishops, Bishops, etc) are all fine and good, but most
catholic clergy belong to a "regular order"-- for example, there
are Franciscans, Dominicans, Benedictines, and Jesuits. Your
reading will tell you more about what kind of people the Jesuits
are, but the point is, Jesuits were expelled from Spanish
America because they posed a challenge to the authority of the
Spanish crown in the colonies. As your reading states, "in 1749
Ferdinand VI decreed that all parishes in Peru and New Spain
still ministered by
regular orders
(think "friars" to get picture of what they look like) should be
transferred to secular clergy (think, the guy at the local church
who wears the collar-- that you likely see on TV) (p. 314).
Our reading goes on to tell us that the Jesuits were expelled
from Spanish America because some municipal riots were
influenced by the Jesuits. However, as the reading goes on, we
find out that the real reason was most likely because the Jesuits
were not bowing to royal authority (this is something that
Jesuits rarely do, by the way), and it was messing up what the
Bourbons were trying to do-- keep tighter control over the
colonies to make sure that they all stayed loyal to Spain. After
the expulsion, the crown confiscated the Society of Jesus's
(Jesuits) estates and assets, including colleges, land, haciendas,
and slaves.
Now think about this: the church is an institution throughout
Spanish America that not only wielded a great deal of influence,
but they also had a lot of people who were dedicated to the
church itself-- they took their religion seriously. How can they
read this and other apparently anti-religious actions as a
violation of their beliefs, or at the very least, direct aggression

8. against the church and its members?
So to recap:
1) Bourbon reforms change administration, favoring European-
born elites rather than American-born elites. This angers the
American-born elites, especially since losing their positions
means that they will always be second class citizens (and this is
only the wealthy elites I'm talking about)
2) Expulsion of the Jesuits and a lot of other supposedly anti-
Catholic activity (taking away land, positions, assets, etc) leads
to a lot of religious folk being quite unhappy with the Spanish
crown.
What logically comes next?
NOT YET THEODEN!! (yes, I'm a Lord of the Rings nerd.
Whatever).
There is one more thing:
The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment a period in the 18th century when
philosophers took the principles and curiosity that came with
the Scientific Revolution in the previous century and applied it
to politics and social life—it gave them an opportunity to
question humanity, which only seemed new to them, but in
reality it was just restarting what older philosophers like Plato
and Aristotle did in classical Greece.
However, this is the key thing—what makes the Enlightenment
in the 18th

9. century so damn special:
that they wanted not just to convey new ideas to the elite, but
also to spread them widely. This was new.
"Whoa" is right, Keanu! Because in Latin America, a set of
Spanish and Portuguese colonies that are, during this period,
constantly reminded that they are a colony (and not really a part
of Spain), people are starting to think twice about Spain. They
are reading the Enlightenment literature that questions the
notion of "divine right" (that Kings and Queens are chosen by
God, meaning that they could not be questioned), the rights of
man, and what humanity really means. And with all of this, the
colonists started to think about Independence.
This is the last few sentences, and read this carefully, because it
is going to get tricky: while
technically
most people living in Spanish America had a reason to be
unhappy with Bourbon rule, the people who it affected the most
were the people who were, in fact, the most powerful (outside
of the European Spanish): the
criollos.
They had hit a glass ceiling of sorts-- politically (losing
positions to Peninsulars), socially (by losing positions to
Peninsulars), and economically (rising taxes, restrictions on
trade, etc).
So really, the people who are the angriest now are the wealthy
white elites. Sure, the expulsion of the Jesuits might have
angered some mestizos and indigenous folks, but at best they
just wanted better priests. It was the
criollos
that, in the wake of the Bourbon Reforms, were ready for
change.

10. And that is what we are going to talk about Next week--
Independence!