BORBONIC reforms: causes and consequences

Throughout history, some reforms have had gigantic importance for the nations where they have been carried out, changing a country forever and thus achieving a total evolution. Of all the changes made by Spain throughout history, one of the biggest was the one made by the Bourbons after their arrival to the Spanish throne and, therefore, in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we must talk about the Bourbon reforms: causes and consequences.

The Bourbon reforms were a series of structural changes in different sections such as economic or social, given by the Bourbon dynasty upon his arrival to the Spanish throne in the XVIII century and that affected both peninsular Spain and the Spanish colonies in America.

After the death of King Charles II in Austria, the so-called War of the Spanish Succession, in which the Bourbon king Felipe V was victorious and became the king of Spain. After his arrival to the throne, the Bourbons began a series of reforms called as Bourbon reforms that were based on bringing the French model to the Spanish government, being a slow but constant process carried out by numerous monarchs. Philip V changed the system of monarchy composed of the Austria by a

An important part of the reforms were directed towards the american colonies Spanish, since the Bourbons, upon their arrival to the Spanish government, considered that part of the economic and social problems of Spain were due to the colonial situation. The Bourbon idea was to limit the power exercised from the colonies themselves and to re-centralize it in the peninsular government.

Changes as big as the Bourbon reforms are due to a serious situation that needs to be changed. Therefore, we must talk about the causes of the Bourbon reforms, to understand the reasoning that led the Bourbons to carry out these measurements. Some of the causes were the following:

• Medids for limit the power of religious classes, since the Bourbons considered that the ecclesiastics enjoyed too much power in the Spanish state.
• The clergy and the nobility had reached a power almost similar to that of the king and therefore the reforms had to support the absolute king increasing their power and descending that of the privileged classes.
• The government of the colonies, far removed from the mainland, had led to a series of corruptions and inequalities that had turned the colonies into real problems.
• Politics in America had been thought at a very different time than today and was not thought for the existence of other powers such as France or the United Kingdom in America.
• On centralism it had to be the base of the reforms, as much in colonial America as in the Peninsula centralism had to be the base of the government.
• Call creation municipalities in order to fight corruption of officials, being a model with much influence from the monarchy and that had already been used in Europe.
• The Social inequality between the different American races it had become a real problem.

These changes brought numerous consequences to the Spanish nation, being important to talk about them to understand the great importance of the arrival of the Bourbons and their ideas for the government Spanish. Some main consequences of the Bourbon reforms were the following:

• Decrease in church power and wealth both in Spain and in America. The clergy played a diminishing role in Spain, but maintained a much greater influence than in other nations.
• Greater control from the peninsula Of what happens in the colonies, the idea was to somehow centralize the administration of the region and everything was decided from the central government of the peninsula.
• Centralization of the Spanish Empire, all the decisions of any Spanish region in the world had to be decided in Madrid and by the king.
• Greater economic power in Spain Due to the increase in taxes, this caused a serious social crisis in the colonies, but the country saw its economic power increase enormously.
• Increased discontent of settlers with the king, initiating a process that over the years had a great influence on the independence of the American countries.
• Impoverishment of the colonies while Spain was getting stronger economically.
• Decline of education in the colonies for the expulsion of the Jesuits, since it was an order that had played a vital role in understanding American society after colonialism.