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Informationen zum Autor Allan J. Kuethe is an académico correspondiente of the Spanish Royal Academy of History and has published extensively on eighteenth-century Spain and America both in the United States and in Europe. His work began with monographs on military reform, then extended to commercial policy, and, as expressed in the present volume, has advanced to a comprehensive overview of Bourbon Madrid's struggle to modernize and to sustain its vast holdings in the Western hemisphere. He is Paul Whitfield Horn Professor at Texas Tech University, to which he has dedicated his entire academic career. Klappentext This volume elucidates Bourbon colonial policy with emphasis on Madrid's efforts to reform and modernize its American holdings. Set in an Atlantic world context, the book highlights the interplay between Spain and America as the Spanish empire struggled for survival amid the fierce international competition that dominated the eighteenth century. The authors use extensive research in the repositories of Spain and America, as well as innovative consultation of the French Foreign Affairs archive, to bring into focus the poorly understood reformist efforts of the early Bourbons, which laid the foundation for the better-known agenda of Charles III. As the book unfolds, the narrative puts flesh on the men and women who, for better or worse, influenced colonial governance. It is the story of power, ambition and idealism at the highest levels. Zusammenfassung This book covers the evolution of royal policy in Spanish America as eighteenth-century Spain modernized its empire and transformed itself into a power of the first order. Tracing the interplay between war and reform! the analysis confronts the diverse realities of the Spanish Atlantic world! which stretched from the northern Mexican borderlands to Argentina and Chile. Inhaltsverzeichnis Part I. Alberoni, Patiño, and the Beginnings of Atlantic Reform, 1700-1736: 1. Alberoni and the first stirrings of reform, 1714-1721; 2. Alberoni and colonial reform; 3. José de Patiño and the revival of reform, 1726-1736; Part II. The Second Wave of Reform, 1736-1759: 4. War and reform, 1736-1749; 5. Clerical reform and the secularization of the Doctrinas de Indios; 6. The downfall of Ensenada and the pause in reform, 1750-1762; Part III. Pinnacle of the Bourbon Reforms, 1759-1796: 7. The first phase of reform under Charles III, 1762-1767; 8. The reorganization of Spain's Atlantic empire, 1767-1783; 9. Adjustments and refinements in the reformist agenda, 1783-1796; Conclusion: war and reform in the Spanish Atlantic world....
