Politics, political culture and policy making: The reform of viceregal rule in the Spanish world under Philip V (1700-1746)

This thesis explores the changes introduced in the Spanish system of viceregal rule,both in Peninsular Spain and Spanish America, during the reigns of Philip V (1700-1724 and 1724-1746). It argues that these changes reflect broader transformations inSpain’s politics and political culture accelerated by the arrival of the Bourbondynasty. In particular, the thesis documents the gradual emergence of threecharacteristics associated with the transition from a judicial to an administrativemonarchy: the introduction of new decision making and implementation procedureswhich prioritise executive government and limited consultation; the consolidationof a new understanding of the role of monarchical government which places lessemphasis on the provision of justice and more on the king’s responsibility formatters of economic government and development; and a reshuffling of the eliteswhich make up governmental institutions in favour of individuals with directconnections to the new royal household, distinguished more for their loyalty,administrative efficiency or military merit than for their social status anddistinctions.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 inSpanish America, and the changing social origins, and career paths of the menappointed as viceroys through the period as well as the changing expectationsplaced on them. The thesis highlights important parallels between the reformsintroduced in Peninsular Spain and Spanish America, both in their aims and thepersonnel chosen to implement them. It thus suggests that Spanish ministers duringthe first half of the eighteenth century often espoused the opinion that the Crownshould look at the Indies, in the words of José del Campillo, ‘as a sizeable portionof the Monarchy in which it is possible to implement the same improvements as inSpain’.