The Spanish Monarchy and the Creation of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (1717–1739): The Politics of Early Bourbon Reform in Spain and Spanish America

In this study of the Spanish monarchy in the early eighteenth century, Francisco Eissa-Barroso is concerned with charting the creation, suppression, and re-creation of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. While the author acknowledges that these historical events have long been recognized, he suggests that they have yet to be closely examined, analyzed, and explained. The author challenges the traditionally accepted analysis that the viceroyalty was created because of local circumstances; that the viceroy was a failure and his performance, as well as the expense of the viceregal court, caused the suppression; and that defensive considerations and international war stimulated its re-creation. Rather, Eissa-Barroso recontextualizes the creation of the Viceroyalty of New Granada as part of transformations in approaches and attitudes to monarchical rule in the early Bourbon period. His argument is that these seemingly ambivalent and contradictory processes in fact addressed both metropolitan and local Spanish American situations, even as...