Bourbon Reforms Essay Example

half of the eighteenth century, wealthy creoles sometimes purchased high official positions. The second phase, in the second half of the eighteenth century, was the time of an anti-creole reaction. Jose de Galvez, colonial minister under Charles III, distrusted creole capacity to hold such positions and removed all high-ranking creoles from these posts in the imperial administration. There were also other Bourbon policies that damaged creole interests and deteriorated their traditions.

In 1804, for instance, the Spanish crown passed an emergency revenue measure, called the Consolidacion des Vales Reales, which ordered churches in the colonies to call in all of their capital that supported the charitable works of the church. These earnings were loaned to the crown, which would pay an annual interest to the church to fund such charitable activities. This Consolidation was bad news for the hacendados, merchants, and mine owners who had borrowed large amounts of money from church institutions, and were now expected to repay it or face bankruptcy.

Many landowners and other middle-class creole borrowers from the church were also threatened by the Consolidation. The Bourbon reforms strengthened Spain's empire at the expense of creoles in the New World. Expulsion of creoles from the government and the increasingly dependent position of Latin America in trade incited resistance among the colonists. Due to the Bourbon reforms, the creoles became increasingly estranged from the Spanish crown.