Thesis advisor: Owen Stanwood / This dissertation is a history of the First Irish Diaspora and its relationship to the Spanish Empire’s eighteenth-century Bourbon Reforms. Although there is a long history of Irish migration to Spain, I argue that the conjuncture of the War of the English Succession (1688-1695) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) foreclosed hopes of a reversal of the seventeenth century Irish land-confiscations which defined the English conquest and colonization of Ireland, pushing thousands of Irish Catholics into exile near-simultaneous to the ascension of a reform-minded Bourbon monarchy to the Spanish thrown which opened new opportunities for useful subjects. At the same time, these wars established the emergent British Empire as a rising Atlantic hegemon and exposed the fragility of a Spanish Empire widely viewed by contemporaries as in decline. In such a context, Irish familiarity with British methods of empire-making made them ideal imperial translators for the Spanish Crown precisely as the empire embarked on its Bourbon Reform program. Genealogy and religion formed the foundations of Irish assimilation into the Spanish Empire – the Irish became Hiberno-Spaniards because of the “genealogical fiction” that the Irish sliocht (“race,” literally “seed”) descended from Spaniards and because they were Catholic. In Spain, the impact of this Hiberno-Spanish diaspora on the Bourbon Reforms began following the War of the Spanish Succession and reached its crescendo in the aftermath of Spain’s disastrous defeat in the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). Specifically, Hiberno-Spanish imperialists in the metropole were important participants in the debates and decisions that promoted liberalizing national-colonial trade, investments in infrastructure, the emulation of foreign practices such as British and Irish economic societies, and more; i.e. the emulation of British political economy. Their principal contribution to the empire was the translation of political economic statecraft and a cosmopolitanism of exile that honed their ability to translate foreign ideas in an age of imperial emulation and made them especially effective imperial intermediaries in polyglot and liminal spaces such as the Gulf Coast borderlands. There, in Cuba, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, Hiberno-Spanish slavers, governors, merchants, and imperialists were important contributors to Spain’s real but ephemeral resurgence in colonial North America and the Atlantic world. The Spanish Empire collapsed and Irish emigration patterns rerouted to North America, but Hiberno-Spaniards and the Bourbon Reforms first accelerated the processes of colonization and slavery that transformed Cuba and the Gulf Coast into the world’s capital of cotton, sugar, and slavery in the nineteenth century. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

During the late eighteenth century, as part of a broader reform initiative commonly referred to as the “Bourbon reforms,” royal officials attempted to transform theatrical productions at Mexico City’s Real Coliseo (Royal Theater). Influenced by new intellectual trends in Spain, especially the neoclassical movement, reformers hoped that theater could serve as a school of virtue, rationality and good citizenship. This essay analyzes the theatrical reform effort, traces its foundations from sixteenth-century Spain to eighteenth-century Mexico, and seeks to explain why the initiative failed to transform either the Coliseo’s shows or its audience’s artistic predilections. It argues that the initiative was unsuccessful for three primary reasons. First, reformers did not have the power to compel impresarios and actors to obey their new regulations, and economic constraints sometimes forced officials to bend their strict aesthetic standards to appease the audience's largely baroque predilections. Second, Mexico City’s diverse and thriving public sphere made imposing a new popular culture profoundly difficult, especially given that reformers’ one-dimensional vision of neoclassicism failed to account for the variety and debate within this movement. Consequently, the theater added fuel to public debate over the definition of buen gusto (good taste), rather than merely instructing passive citizens as reformers had hoped. Finally, widespread public derision of the performing profession meant that many spectators did not take actors seriously as teachers of morality, taste and rationality. Actors’ reputation as immoral lowlifes, which derived in part from late-sixteenth century debates in Spain over morality and illusion in drama, complicated reformers' already difficult project of transforming the theater into a school of sociability and citizenship. / text

La difusión de la literatura francesa en el virreinato peruano en la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII es el tema de estudio de este artículo. El autor reconstruye cómo por medio del comercio y del contrabando los libros franceses prohibidos y no prohibidos llegaron a manos de los lectores de la sociedad colonial. Argumenta que el estudio de la circulación de la literatura francesa permite examinar las contradicciones de la política cultural impulsada por la administración borbónica.---The dissemination of French literature in the Peruvian viceroyalty in the second part of the XVIII century is the theme of this article. The author reconstructs how, via commerce and contraband, forbidden and non-forbidden French books reached the hands of readers in colonial society. The author argues that the study of the circulation of French literature allows us to examine the contradictions in the cultural policy fostered by the Bourbon administration.

After the Seven Years War ended in 1763, Spain undertook fiscal reforms not only to pay for the costs of the conflict but also to improve imperial defenses. New and increased taxes led to colonial resistance. Meanwhile, the British Parliament imposed new taxes on its American subjects. In the British case, fiscal demands drove the Thirteen Colonies out of the empire, whereas in the Spanish colonies, the resistance provoked by the new fiscal policies did not lead to independence. This paper will examine some of the reasons for the different outcomes in British and Spanish America. / Después de que terminó la Guerra de los Siete Años en 1763, España inició una serie de reformas fiscales, que tuvo el propósito no solamente de sufragar el costo del conflicto sino también de mejorar las defensas imperiales. Los nuevos e incre- mentados impuestos causaron la resistencia en el ámbito colonial. El Parlamento británico también impuso nuevas contribuciones sobre sus colonos americanos. En el caso británico, las demandas fiscales resultaron en la Independencia de las Trece Colonias, mientras que, para el Perú, la nueva política fiscal no condujo a la Independencia. Este artículo examina algunas de las razones por las que en ambos procesos se dieron diferentes resultados.

The present work, through a broad historical survey and an analysis of laws on mission administration during the period of domination by the Society of Jesus (1620-1767) and the post-Jesuit period (1768-1801) in the territory occupied by the Guaraní, analyzes the characteristics of two models of organization and administration for the Guaraní population: Jesuit communalism and Bourbon assimilation. Specifically, we reconstruct the ideological bases, the contextual factors and the political objectives inscribed in each model, as well as contrasting them via specific oppositional frames: purity and mestizaje, community and individual, spatial subjection and mobility, and segregation and assimilation. / En el presente trabajo, por medio de un recorrido histórico amplio y del análisis de ordenanzas sobre la administración misional emitidas en el periodo de dominio de la Compañía de Jesús (1620-1767) y en el posjesuita (1768-1801) en el territorio ocupado por los guaraníes, se analizan las características de dos modelos de organización y administración de dicha población: el de comunalización jesuita y el de asimilación borbónica. Específicamente, se reconstruyen las bases ideológicas, los factores contextuales y los objetivos políticos inscritos en ambos modelos, como también se contrasta a estos últimos a partir de ciertos cuadros de oposiciones: pureza y mestizaje, comunidad e individuo, sujeción espacial y movilidad, y segregación y asimilación.

“Contested legalities in colonial Mexico : Francisco Xavier Gamboa and the defense of Derecho Indiano” explores the legal culture of late colonial Mexico through the lens of Francisco Xavier Gamboa, the most celebrated Mexican jurist of his era. Born in Guadalajara in 1717, Gamboa practiced in the courtrooms of Mexico City, represented the merchants guild of Mexico in Madrid from 1755 to 1764, analyzed mining legislation in the 1761 Comentarios a las Ordenanzas de Minas, and served three decades as an Audiencia judge until 1794. His long career encompassed the most salient features of the legal culture of his time. The central argument of this dissertation is that the legality Gamboa embodied and defended, known to historians as Derecho Indiano, came under attack in the period of the so-called Bourbon Reforms during the reign of Charles III. Led by José de Gálvez, the visitor-general of New Spain in the 1760s and later the secretary of state for the Indies from 1776 to 1787, the crown sought to streamline the legal order in order to root out corruption, restrict local autonomy, and strengthen royal authority. Gamboa and many other experienced officials opposed this effort. They argued that the old legal order, which recognized local customs and guaranteed judicial autonomy, provided the flexibility needed to maintain the Spanish empire in America. This contest in legalities marked the emergence of a centralized state in Spanish America and the moment when the Spanish legal order began to lose its legitimacy in America. / text

Le but de cette thèse est d'examiner les réformes politiques qui sont intervenues sous le règne de Charles III. La chronologie (1765-1787) se confond avec la visite générale de José de Gálvez en Nouvelle Espagne, puis avec sa nomination, en 1776, au secrétariat d’État des Indes. Au cours de cette période furent créées de nouvelles juridictions : une vice-royauté, deux capitaineries générales, trois audiencias et desintendances presque partout aux Indes. Ce moment est unique dans l'histoire de la monarchie espagnole par l'ampleur des réformes adoptées. Mais plus que les réformes elles-mêmes, c'est leur genèse et les moyens mis en œuvre pour les adopter qui ont attiré notre attention. À travers l'étude du réseau de José de Gálvez, nous avons pu observer une véritable politique de prise de contrôle du gouvernement des Indes. Le clientélisme du secrétaire d’État est alors mis au service de ses projets politiques. Ces réformes engagent une fragmentation du superior gobierno et un affaiblissement de l'autorité des vice-rois. Un nouveau système de gouvernement des Indes estalors expérimenté. / This dissertation examines the political reforms under the rule of Charles III and, especially, under José de Gálvez, first, as Visitador General of New Spain and, later, as Secretary of State of the Indies. Between 1765 and 1787, Gálvez undertook several profound changes in the Indies’ government, including the creation of new administrative territories: a viceroyalty, two capitanías generales, three audiencias, and numerous intendencias in almost all the Indies. This period was unique for the Spanish monarchy not only for the large-scale reforms, but also for the means to achieve them, which is the focus of our research. By studying the José de Gálvez’s network, we argued that it succeeded in taking control of the Indies’ government. In fact, the goal of the Secretary of State’s clientelism was to serve his political projects. Furthermore, Gálvez’s reforms caused the fragmentation of the Superior Gobierno and the weakness of viceroys’ authority, which resulted in a new government system in the Indies.

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