All the BORBONIC reforms in America

The reforms have been essential in the history of humanity, serving to change a civilization in all areas, from the economy, through society and politics. Even with that, not all the reforms have been equally important and among the essential ones we must talk about the Bourbon reforms, being key to the future of Spain and all its colonies. To understand the big changes, in this lesson from a teacher we offer you a summary of the Bourbon reforms in America so that you know better what happened.

All the great reforms throughout the history of mankind originate from a series of causes, the which make it necessary to create a series of measures to adapt a type of system to the situation current. The causes of the Bourbon reform were the following:

• The clergy had become too powerful a class, especially in New Spain, and on certain occasions it seemed that he even had more power than the monarch himself. One of the ideas of the reforms was to diminish the power of religion in the Spanish state.
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• The idea of ​​the reform was change in part the estate system, the king had to become absolute and have much more power, while the importance of nobles and clerics had to be lowered.
• The situation of corruption in America It was frowned upon from all over Spain, and the remoteness of the colonies and the Spanish crown caused difficulties when making decisions.
• The Spanish policy that emerged in America had lagged behind, and was no longer useful in the situation of the time.
• A centralist political system was sought, in which everything will be taken from Madrid and the king will make all possible decisions, both in Spain and in the colonies.
• Creation of the so-called "intendencies", being a system that was believed basic to be able to end Hispanic corruption.
• The existence of so many races in the colonies it had led to enormous racial inequality, in which the birthright was too important, one of the causes of the reforms being the search to end this.

To continue with this summary of the Bourbon reforms in America, we must summarize all the Bourbon reforms that took place in America and Spain and understand the profound changes that these regions suffered and their transformation forever. The Bourbon reforms summarized are the following:

• Creation of Viceroyaltiesfrom New Granada and Río de la Plata and the Captaincy General of Venezuela and Chile. The idea was that by dividing the region into more zones and therefore a greater number of rulers, corruption would it would reduce, reducing the territory of some areas such as the Viceroyalty of Peru and causing protests for it.
• Creation of municipalities, being a type of official who was in charge of monitoring the proper functioning of the rulers and thereby stopping corruption. This system was maintained both in the colonies and in Spain, although its main utility was to control the regions far from the king.
• Establishment of free trade to end the monopolies that arose in the region and that created serious economic crises for the colonies, and at the same time so that the colonies could trade with regions other than the metropolis.
• New taxes were created in all Spanish regions to increase the Spanish economic crisis, being especially numerous those created in the colonies. Some of these taxes were aimed at fighting the creation of smuggling.
• An exchange system was created between the colonies and the metropolis, in which the colonies gave raw materials and the peninsula sent products already manufactured.
• Expulsion of religious orders Like the Jesuits they were considered to have too much power in the colonies. This order had been essential for the emergence of the education of the colonies, and their expulsion was very frowned upon by the people.
• Church tax privileges were restricted to try to curb his power and influence throughout the Kingdom.

To conclude this lesson on the Bourbon reforms in America, we must list the effects that had the Bourbon reforms in all Spain and especially in the Spanish colonial regions. The consequences that are usually considered the most important of those caused by the Bourbon reforms are the following:

• The influence of the clergy in Spain was much lessr, both in the metropolis and in the colonies, being quite a big change in a region where the Church had always had a supreme power.
• Changes in government failed to centralize power, and corruption remained as usual in the colonies. In the metropolis the centralization of power was maintained for some years.
• The king became the center of the entire empire and all decisions had to go through him, be they from the colonies or the metropolis.
• Spain improved its economy thanks to the new taxes, managing to catch up with other European powers.
• The colonial races were not favored and the racism region of.
• The privileges of the Spanish ports were eliminated, serving to improve trade from the colonies.
• Colonial education went into crisis, since the elimination of the Jesuits in the area affected the educational system that had been in use since the conquest.