HIST 8B Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Túpac Amaru Ii, Bourbon Reforms, Real Audiencia
Week 2 Book Readings: Reform, Crisis, and Independence
● End of 17th century: The Indies are the basis Spain’s economy
● Trade restrictions with other countries relatively ignored through contraband
● Habsburg imperial state became a bit passive: gave the creole oligarchies access to the North
Atlantic trading system and power to shape their societies largely to their own advantage
● Spain suffered long economic depression and severe depopulation due to expansive, religious
wars’
● 1700: Charles II died and a war among the European powers broke out to see who would succeed
the king
○ Philip of Anjou (grandson of Louis XIV of France acceded the throne)
■ obtained the Crown with the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713: gave away Spanish
territories to the other European powers
● Britain and Portugal infringe the monopoly of trade with the Indies
(Spain had tried hard to prevent this)
● Spain’s sovereignty reduced to the Peninsula and her realms in America
and the Philippines
Spain Under French Rule: Bourbon reform
● The new dynasty of French Bourbons would rule Spain as a European nation state among others
○ the Americas would be regarded as resources to be exploited economically
■ would be used to strengthen Spain
● The spirit of reform altered the ideological basis of the Catholic monarchy
● French regalist inspiration
● The monarch was invested with the authority to rule by God Himself
○ his power was not limited in principle by religious and ethical sanction upheld by the
Church
○ avoided the ancient, medieval sense of contract with or obligation to King’s subjects
■ this ideology was very existent in the Americas between the conquistadores and
the King
● The new regalism permitted the Crown to frame policies on pragmatic grounds of national self-
interest
○ different to the former ideology that needed to have a religious meaning
○ Ex: the protection of Indian rights no longer needed to be pursued beyond reasonable
limits
○ lowered the power of the Catholic Church: the pillar of the social order and a unifying
factor in a far-flung empire
● Ideology of Bourbon reformers: Catholic Enlightenment
○ cautious attempt to adjust to the scientific and rationalist spirit of the 18th century
without disturbing the fundamentals of the Catholic faith
○ Introduction of principles of reason and utility which had been carefully extracted from
the wider philosophical framework for fear of promoting ideas subversive of religion
○ Bourbon reform weakened the political foundations of the Catholic monarchy
● Spain: Bourbons created a more centralized and executive form of government
○ introduction of bureaucratic machine consisting of secretaries of state run by an
administrative elite whose overriding aim was the modernization of the country
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○ the landed aristocracy was excluded from the administration and its privileges curtailed
■ traditional rights of the Kingdom of Aragon abolished
■ official army created and navy strengthened
● Agriculture and industry did not improve; the Americas still a larger producer
● The impact of reform in the New World served to unsettle the status quo
○ before reform the creole elites were prospering
○ authority of the Crown in the Indies weakened
Bourbon Reforms in Spanish America
● Seven Years War: Spain loses Havana and Manila to the British
○ large need to rebuild imperial power
● 1765: administrator Jose de Galvez was sent to the Indies on a number of visitas generales to
review the state of the colonies
○ his reports formed the basis for a programme of comprehensive change
○ reforms intended to raise revenues for the Crown
○ administrative reorganization to improve the tax yield from America
○ restructuring of imperial commerce to stimulate Spanish economy
○ creoles and Indians angered by reforms
● Galvez recommended the creation of a new viceroyalty and several new audiencias in order to
reinforce administrative controls and develop the economies of the Atlantic seaboard
● 1776: Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata was founded with its seat in the small port of Buenos Aires
○ included the province of Upper Peru (modern Bolivia) where the bulk of the silver-
mining industry was concentrated
○ cut the time and cost of transatlantic commerce
○ Reorganization dislocated local economies in the Andean region angering the people
● Most of the posts in the old Habsburg bureaucracy had come to be occupied by creoles
● Bourbon reformers replaced them with Spanish-born officials
○ the courts of the audiencia were filled by peninsular judges
○ replacement of provincial governors by French-style intendants sent out from Spain
○ Spanish-born officials in charge of collecting taxes from the creoles
○ In Indian communities: Spanish subdelegados directly responsible to the intendants took
over from corrupt creole corregidores de indios and attempted to increase the yield from
the tribute
■ brought more categories of Indian into the tax net
■ abolished the repartimiento de comercio and other forms of bureaucratic private
enterprise which diverted fiscal resources due to the Crown
● Tried to create a meaningful market for Spanish exports by prohibiting the production of certain
commodities (wheat, wine, olive oil) in the colonies
● Spanish textile industry of Catalonia was protected from competition by the forced closure of
obrajes in Peru and New Spain
● The economic autonomy allowed the Indies under the Habsburgs was threatened by an artificial
economic exchange
● Tariffs and tax incentives were adjusted to encourage production esp. silver
● Indians were induced to enter the labour force for wages
● Goods were no longer channelled exclusively through Mexico City/ Lima to Seville or Cadiz
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○ other colonial centres such as Buenos Aires, Caracas, Cartagena and Havana could trade
directly with a number of ports in Spain
○ comercio libre y protegido: free trade under the protection of the state
● Increase in the sales tax hit the general population
○ Wealthy creoles were continually being pressured by the servants of the Crown for
donations
○ The forced sale of Church lands deprived the clergy of rents
○ Indian communities were harassed for greater yields of tribute
○ Resistance to these exactions led in places to riots and open revolt
● The regions which saw the greatest unrest were those where administrative reorganization had
caused the greatest dislocation
○ Peru, Upper Peru, and New Granada
● The most serious uprising had its origins in southern Peru where an Indian cacique Jose Gabriel
Condorcanqui began to agitate against the abuses the Indians had to bear at the hands of Spanish
officials
○ assumed the name Tupac Amaru II
○ raised a rebellion against the royal authorities
○ 1781: Indians seize the provincial capital of La Paz
○ Tupac Amaru called for an end to the mita, forced loans
○ Declared aim: get rid of the Spaniards
○ Indians began to slaughter all whites
○ Large Indian casualties
○ Tupac Amaru fell into the hands of the Spanish authorities
■ had him torn limb from limb and put his body on his display in Cuzco
■ 1782: Indian revolt put to an end
● 1781: rebellion in the region of Socorro in New Granada (Colombia)
○ sparked in response to the Bourbon reform’s pressing tax demands for private tobacco
growing
○ rebels included modest planters, mestizos, and Indians
○ sympathy from clergy, provincial creole officials, and the elite of Bogota
○ insurgents demanded the return of usurped lands
● Comunero revolt: social and ethnic war
○ half-caste Jose Atonio Galan was the leader
○ Creole elites sided w/ the royal authorities and the insurrection was eventually crushed
● Rebellions were not based on independence: were intense but ultimately limited reactions to the
interventionism of the Bourbon monarchy
○ an outward sign that the imperial relationship between Spain and the Indies was
undergoing further change
● The Bourbon reforms threatened to precipitate a crisis of political legitimacy
○ under the Habsburgs the Crown enjoyed legitimacy due to its compact with the Church
and its promise to give land and administrative positions to the conquistadores
○ the loyalty of the creole aristocracy had endured in the 17th cent.
○ legitimacy was not questioned because the creole elites were allowed to exercise power
within their own societies and had participation in international trade through smuggling
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Document Summary
Week 2 book readings: reform, crisis, and independence. End of 17th century: the indies are the basis spain"s economy. Trade restrictions with other countries relatively ignored through contraband. Habsburg imperial state became a bit passive: gave the creole oligarchies access to the north. Atlantic trading system and power to shape their societies largely to their own advantage. Spain suffered long economic depression and severe depopulation due to expansive, religious wars". 1700: charles ii died and a war among the european powers broke out to see who would succeed the king. Philip of anjou (grandson of louis xiv of france acceded the throne) Obtained the crown with the treaty of utrecht of 1713: gave away spanish territories to the other european powers. Britain and portugal infringe the monopoly of trade with the indies (spain had tried hard to prevent this) Spain"s sovereignty reduced to the peninsula and her realms in america. Spain under french rule: bourbon reform and the philippines.
