In 1700, Spanish King Carlos II died without leaving an heir. After a power struggle known as the War of Spanish Succession (1702—1713), Felipe V, the grandson of French King Louis XIV, came to the Spanish throne, the first of the Bourbon dynasty. During the latter part of the eighteenth century, the Spanish government implemented a number of measures, generally known as the Bourbon reforms, since members of that dynasty carried them out. The Crown justified the resulting increase in state power by claiming that such an increase promoted the material prosperity and well-being of its subjects. The reforms led to substantial tax increases, which offended colonial taxpayers and undermined their stated aim of improving colonists’ lives.49
Carlos III, the greatest of the Spanish Bourbon monarchs, ruled between 1759 and 1788. He and his ministers saw absolutism as the best means for introducing economic reform and government efficiency. They assumed that solving Spain’s problems required an all powerful king rather than the social contract and balancing of special interests that the Habsburgs had relied on. Bourbons centralized power and effectively subordinated Church to state. The Habsburgs had perpetuated the notion New Spain enjoyed the same status as the various regions of Spain, such as Aragon and Castile. In contrast, the Bourbons viewed Mexico more as a modern colony, serving to provide revenue to the Crown.50
The notion of the monarch as the promoter of public well-being replaced the notion of the monarch as a simple upholder of natural law. The Bourbon reforms centralized imperial administration and finance, eliminated corporate privilege, political autonomy, and commercial monopolies. They also favored industries, such as mining, which would provide revenue to the Crown. Bourbon rulers expected Mexico to cover its administrative costs, subsidize defense costs throughout the viceroyalty, and still transfer a substantial surplus to Spain. Fulfilling these goals required limiting the power of the Creoles, a group that the Crown felt manipulated politics and retarded development. Administrative reforms already undertaken by the French and British provided a model for the Bourbon reforms.51
In 1767, following the example set by France and Portugal, Carlos III ordered the expulsion of Jesuits from the New World and the confiscation of the order’s estates and other assets. This represented an attempt by the Spanish king, who resented Jesuit wealth, power and independence, to establish the supremacy of the state over the Church. He regarded the Jesuits as an autonomous, secretive international society, in much the same way as some small nations today regard multinational corporations (MNC). At the time of their expulsion, the 678 Jesuits in Mexico maintained haciendas, more than a hundred missions in northwestern Mexico, and the best schools, including twenty-three colleges and various seminaries.52
Given the Jesuits’ importance in supplying credit and educating the Creole elite, they enjoyed widespread support in central Mexico. In response to their expulsion, rebellion broke out in Michoacan, San Luis Potosi, and Guanajuato. After the army quelled these protests, authorities hanged eighty-five persons and whipped and imprisoned hundreds more. This decision made it clear that the Crown expected submission, not discussion. Viceroy Marquis de Croix ordered Mexicans to accept the expulsion since “the subjects of the great monarch who occupies the throne of Spain should know once and for all that they were born to keep silent and obey, not to discuss or express opinion on high matters of government.”53
In 1786, the Council of the Indies ordered that Mexico be divided into twelve new administrative districts known as intendancies. Most of these administrative units, such as Durango, San Luis Potosi, and Yucatan, remain as the modern states of Mexico. Within each intendancy, an intendant promoted economic growth and oversaw public administration, finance, justice, military preparedness, public works, and revenue collection. Intendants reported directly to the Minister of the Indies in Madrid, not the viceroy. The Crown modeled the office of intendant on the position of the same name and function in Louis XlV’s France.54
The Crown felt that by appointing officials tied to Spain rather than to local economic interests, it could break the power of the regional oligarchies. However, newly appointed intendants found they could not govern without coming to some accommodation with existing elite interests, so little changed in this regard. The intendancy system did result in the disappearance of some 150 alcaldias mayores, which had allowed Creoles to control local government and in the process exploit the Indian population. The creation of the intendancy weakened the political links between the provinces and Mexico City. A tumultuous century would elapse before such links could be firmly reestablished.55
To the modern observer, many of the changes instituted by the Bourbons appear to be the epitome of sound administration. In 1755, the first free public school opened in Mexico City. During that decade, the Crown ceased to sell public office. In 1792, the Crown founded the Royal College of Mining, the first technical school in the New World. Professors there applied recent advances in physics, mineralogy, and chemistry to mining. This mining school provided a generation of Creoles with a sound technical and scientific education. In addition, the Bourbons sent foreign technology and mining missions to upgrade Mexican mines. In 1804, less than a decade after the discovery of the smallpox vaccination, the Spanish government dispatched teams of medical workers to carry out a massive immunization program in Mexico. Team members not only vaccinated tens of thousands, but trained Mexican doctors and curanderos in the technique.56
However, to the late eighteenth-century Creole observer, the reforms were an unwelcome intrusion. Creoles had grown accustomed to staffing the middle layers of the bureaucracy and resented their displacement by Spaniards. Only one of the twelve people appointed to head the newly created intendancies was a Creole. Peasants, as well as the elite, resented tax increases and the extension of tribute to new groups. The Crown assumed control of community funds previously beyond the reach of officials. In the name of equality and efficiency, Indians no longer received special protection.57
For most of the colonial period, the Spanish had not felt the need for a large standing army. Other institutions, especially the Church, maintained social control. As late as 1758, most of the 3,000 soldiers stationed in Mexico were in port cities or on the northern frontier. However, after the British occupied Havana during the Seven Years’ War (1756—1763), the Crown decided Mexico needed protection from other European powers. As a result, by the turn of the nineteenth century, the regular infantry had increased to 10,000 and a 30,000-man militia had been formed. The infantry was concentrated in the Veracruz area to prevent British invasion, while militia forces were organized in practically all the cities of the viceroyalty. Colonial subjects were expected to bear the costs of the militia.58
The creation of a standing militia came at a time of rising rural tension. As silver production rose, mine owners bought more grain to support their operations. Agricultural exports, such as cacao, coffee, sugar, and hemp, increased. The increase in the area planted in cash crops forced many peasants from their ancestral lands. Increased demand from cities and mines caused the price of staples to rise, which led landowners to curtail the distribution of rations to their laborers. Protest, litigation, and occasional revolt followed. In many cases, those pushed from the countryside became the urban unemployed.59
Annual population growth during the eighteenth century averaged between 0.7 and 0.8 percent. In both 1742 and 1810, Indians comprised about 60 percent of Mexico’s population, indicating that the Indian and non-Indian populations were increasing at about the same rate. Even though Mexico’s total population had increased to 5.8 million by 1803, it remained considerably below the pre-Conquest level.60
The Bourbon dynasty tightened the colonial bond and extracted an ever-increasing surplus from Mexico. Between 1712 and 1798, revenue supplied by New Spain to the mother country increased from 3 million pesos to more than 20 million. The tribute Indians paid rose from 200,000 pesos in the 1660s to 1 million pesos in 1779. In 1790, New Spain contributed 44 percent more per capita to imperial coffers than did Spaniards. As historian John Lynch noted, by increasing the monetary demands on New Spain, the Bourbons “gained a revenue and lost an empire.”61
World History
