Early Bourbon Spanish America

Book excerpt: The years between the accession of the house of Bourbon to the Spanish throne in 1700 and the coronation of Carlos III in 1759 have often been bundled up, and dismissed, together with the later years of Habsburg rule. Growing out of the first Anglophone academic workshop to focus exclusively on Early Bourbon Spanish America, this collective volume gives prominence to the first half of the eighteenth century as a distinct historical period. Discussing from different methodological and geographical perspectives the ways in which the Bourbon succession, international competition over access to Spanish American resources, and war affected the Indies, the contributors examine some of the key changes experienced in Spanish America at the local, provincial and imperial level.