Absolute Creoles: American-Born Spaniards and Imperial Centralization under Philip V, 1700–46

Historians have long associated Bourbon rule in Spanish America with the political and socio-economic marginalization of creole subjects. However, private correspondence sent to the crown during the reign of Philip V actually suggests the opposite—at least during the first forty-six years that the dynasty ruled over the Spanish empire. These letters written by creole elites in New Spain and Peru were not only eagerly received by the new king’s ministers, but also appear in part to have played a direct role in informing colonial policies and royal decrees. In this sense, the reign of Spanish America’s first Bourbon monarch accommodated many of the needs of creoles rather than challenged their autonomy. The cooperation of these loyal creoles stands in contrast to subjects in other parts of the empire who rebelled against Bourbon absolutism during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1715). Unlike his immediate Bourbon successors—and perhaps even his immediate Habsburg predecessor—the reforms or innovations of Philip V’s rule should be viewed as easing tensions between the crown and its creole subjects. While Bourbon rule ended in a turbulent rift between the crown and creoles in the early nineteenth century, it began with a far more amicable arrangement a century earlier.