This thesis explores the changes introduced in the Spanish system of viceregal rule, both in Peninsular Spain and the Spanish America, during the reigns of Philip V (1700-1724 and 1724-1746). It argues that these changes reflect broader transformations in Spain's politics and political culture accelerated by the arrival of the Bourbon dynasty. In particular, the thesis documents the gradual emergence of three characteristics associated with the transition from a judicial to an administrative monarchy: the introduction of new decision making and implementation procedures which prioritise executive government and limited consultation; the consolidation of a new understanding of the role of monarchical government which places less emphasis on the provision of justice and more on the king's responsibilty for matters of economic government and development; and a reshuffling of the elites which make up governmental institutions in favour of individuals with direct connections to the new royal household, distinguished more for their loyalty, administrative efficiency or military merit than for their social status and distinctions. The thesis studies the suppression of viceregal rule in the Crown of Aragon, the initially failed but later successful attempts to establish a third viceroyalty in Spanish America, and the changing social origins, and career paths of the men appointed as viceroys through the period as well as the changing expectations placed on them. The thesis highlights important parallels between the reforms introduced in Peninsular Spain and Spanish America, both in their aims and the personnel chosen to implement them. It thus suggests that Spanish ministers during the first half of the eighteenth century often espoused the opinion that the Crown should look at the Indies, in the words of José del Campillo, 'as a sizeable portion of the Monarchy in which it is possible to implement the same improvements as in Spain'.

This thesis examines the development ofnatural history in the Spanish Empire (1750-1850). I explore why the Spanish Crown promoted scientific institutions and expeditions in the second halfofthe eighteenth century, and I situate Spanish engagement with natural history within an imperial context. One Spanish commentator, scrutinising the contents ofthe Real Gabinete de Historia Natural in 1788, gloried that 'we have seen form this immense collection of singularities ofnature, brought at considerable expense, not only from all regions ofEurope, but also from Asia, Africa and America; so that all parts ofthe world may contribute to forming the most complete treasure ofNatural History that exists in the Universe'. I suggest that Spain's capacity to procure and exhibit exotic natural treasures reflected the potency ofher imperial structures. I also address the social, religious and economic benefits associated with the classification, collection and cultivation of natural objects. I am especially interested in the part that Spanish Americans played in this process, and the ways in which the development ofthe natural sciences on the imperial periphery intersected with the evolution of creole patriotism in the late colonial period. I consider how the creation, legitimisation and dissemination of scientific knowledge reflected broader questions of imperial power and national identity. I examine the ambiguous position ofcreole naturalists, who were simultaneously anxious to secure European recognition for their work, to celebrate the natural wealth oftheir homelands and, in some cases, to vindicate local forms of knowledge against purportedly universal European systems such as Linnaean botany, and I extend this analysis beyond independence, asking whether political freedom fomented or compromised the pursuit of natural history in the former colonies.

The major objective of my thesis was to understand why sectors of the reconstructed anarcho-syndicalist trade union, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, were addressing concerns which were identical to sectors of the Marxist Left in other countries of Europe, For my views on anarchism had been informed by a Marxist interpretation of anarchism, which rested on the assumption that anarchism was an agrarian, and/or a petit bourgeois philopsopy which could have little relevance in advanced industrial societies. This anomaly - my experience of anarchist militants within the CUT, and the vision of anarchism expounded by "classical" Marxism - led me to undertake an historical study of the Spanish anarchist movement and a theoretical study of Marxist and anarchist thought. Moreover, in order to understand the demands of the anarchists and the CNT during the 1960's and 1970's, I had to thoroughly study the developments which had taken place within the workers' and student movements during the Francoist period, and the nature of the CUT organisation in exile, factors which would bear heavily on the CNT's attempt at reconstruction. Through extensive interviewing and the use of documents, I tried to piece together the process of anarchist re-emergence in Spain from the mid-1960s, and the nature of the reconstruction of the CUT during the political transition to democracy in Spain in 1976-1979. The overall theme of my thesis centres on the relationship between Marxism and anarchism, and their relationship to historical development and tradition. By emphasising the importance of historical tradition - the political aspect most sorely underestimated in both Marxist and anarchist thought - I hope my thesis will contribute towards the possibility of a more realisable socialist utopia.

This is a study of government and governance in the Audiencia of Santa Fe during the last two decades of Habsburg rule and the first two decades of Bourbon rule, a period largely neglected by historians of New Granada and of Spanish America in general. However, it is not simply an administrative history. Rather than focus primarily on the structure of government and formal mechanisms of power and authority, this study aims, as the title indicates, to examine the political activity contained within the formal structure of institutions and laws. It looks at the ways in which institutions of government actually functioned within the society they were designed to govern and control, in other words the workings of government. These are themes which have been little studied by historians of the region, despite the importance which has been attached to the colonial state as a force which played a primary role in shaping New Granada's history. Studies of the colonial state have tended to portray it as a hierarchy of institutions, closely controlled from the centre, which developed as Spain's monarchs sought to legitimise their dominion and impose their control over the vast territories of the Americas. They have presented royal institutions of government in the Indies, the audiencia and provincial governors in the case of New Granada as the tools of an absolutist monarchy, employed by the Spanish crown to expand royal power over Spanish American subjects. The present study thus aims to challenge this picture by making detailed reference to contemporary documentation and taking into account recent research on early modern government and governance in areas outside New Granada. We will attempt to show that government in the Audiencia of Santa Fe was not a rigid structure but very political in nature.

Between 1810 and 1826 Spain lost most of her possessions in the Americas, and the inhabitants of Spanish America ceased to be subjects of the king, and became citizens of a series of new republics such as Mexico, Peru, Chile and Colombia. This thesis explores how the transition from colonial to republican rule was experienced by the inhabitants of the provinces of Santa Marta and Riohacha (Colombia), and the extent to which the transition implied a radical break with the colonial past. Santa Marta was among the most important royalist strongholds in the northern part of Spanish South America, and the thesis offers an interpretation of the much-neglected theme of Spanish American royalism during the independence period. It focuses on the social and 'ethnic' configuration of the provinces, and it discusses how different social/ 'ethnic' groups were constructed in the colonial period, how they responded and acted during the wars of independence and what the transition to republican rule implied for the make-up of nineteenth-century society. The analyses of late colonial and early republican society are done principally (but not exclusively) through a detailed discussion of marriage practices and patterns. The study is based primarily on archival sources from Spanish and Colombian depositories.

In a context characterised by the shift from fordism to post-fordism in the Iberian peninsula, this thesis addresses the following question how are capital, governments and social movements organised in the processes of integration and resistance that affect foreign immigration' in Barcelona and Lisbon? Thus, in the first chapter, an analysis of the concept of "integration" is undertaken in order to understand the complexities and elusiveness that hide behind it, giving special attention to immigrants' integration literature. A distinction between systemic integration and social integration is adopted, and thus in the second chapter recent theorisation on capital and the state (i. e. systemic institutions) is approached, while in the third chapter social movements and organisations are taken into account. In chapter four epistemological and methodological elements are noted. The last three chapters are devoted to analyse original fieldwork data (mainly qualitative interviews): chapter 6 analyses immigration governmental policies at European, 'national-state', 'national-regional', and local levels; chapter 7 studies social and capital organisations in Barcelona in relation to 'foreign immigration'; and in chapter 8 social and capital organisations are studied in relation to 'foreign immigration' in Lisbon. Finally, some conclusions are revealed whilst other questions are posed.