Politics, Economy, and Society in Bourbon Central America, 1759-1821
edited by Jordana Dym and Christophe Belaubre
University Press of Colorado, 2007 Cloth: 978-0-87081-844-8 Library of Congress Classification F1437.P65 2007 Dewey Decimal Classification 972.803
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Politics, Economy, and Society in Bourbon Central America, 1759-1821 examines how the Spanish policies known broadly as the Bourbon Reforms affected Central American social, economic, and political institutions. Although historians have devoted significant attention to the purpose and impact of these reforms in Spain and some of Spain's other New World colonies, this book is the first to explore their impact on Central America.
These reforms profoundly changed aspects of Central America's politics and society; however, these essays reveal that changes in the region were shaped both internally and externally and that they weakened the region's ties to metropolitan Spain as often as they reinforced them. Contributors focus on specific policy changes and their consequences as well as transformations throughout the region for which no direct Bourbon inspiration appears to be responsible. Together they demonstrate that whether or not the Crown achieved its primary goals of centralization and control, its policies nevertheless provided opportunities for evident, often subtle, and occasionally unintentional shifts in the colonial government's relationship to its constituent populations. Contributors include Christophe Belaubre, Michel Bertrand, Jordana Dym, Jorge H. González, Timothy Hawkins, Sajid Alfredo Herrera, Gustavo Palma, Eugenia Rodriguez, Doug Tompson, and Stephen Webre.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Jordana Dym is an associate professor of Latin American History at Skidmore College. Christophe Belaubre holds a doctorate from the Universite de Toulouse-Le Mirail.
REVIEWS
"With its focus on the regional histories of Central America, Politics, Economy, and Society in Bourbon Central America, 1759-1821 offers new contexts and new empirical material for key debates in our field." —Kevin Gosner, Department of History, University of Arizona
"This book, then, makes valuable contributions to its theme, whether that theme is Bourbon reform in Central America, or Central America during the late Bourbon era." —Adrian Pearce, Bulletin of Latin American Research
"...[B]rings together an important collection of essays on politics, economy, and society in late colonial Central America, whose secondary importance within Spain's empire has contributed to neglect within Anglophone historiography....[T]his collection is first-rate, with each essay being an invitation to explore Central America's rich but understudied colonial past." —Mauricio Pajón, University of Texas at Austin; Colonial Latin American Historical Review
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Illustrations
Abbreviations
Introduction, Jordana Dym and Christophe Belaubre
Chapter 1: Primary Education in Bourbon San Salvador and Sonsonate, 1750¿1808¿Sajid Alfredo Herrera
Chapter 2: In the Shadow of the Great: Church Financiers¿ Everyday Resistance to the Bourbon Reforms, Guatemala City, 1773¿1821¿Christophe Belaubre
Chapter 3: Bourbon Reforms and City Government in Central America, 1759¿1808¿Jordana Dym
Chapter 4: Between Fidelity and Pragmatism: Guatemala¿s Commercial Elite Responds to Bourbon Reforms on Trade and Contraband¿Gustavo Palma Murga
Chapter 5: State Reform, Popular Resistance, and the Negotiation of Rule in Late Bourbon Guatemala: The Quetzaltenango Aguardiente Monopoly, 1785¿1807¿Jorge H. Gonz lez
Chapter 6: The Establecimientos Costeros of Bourbon Central America, 1787¿1800: Problems and Paradox in Spain¿s Occupation of the Atlantic Coast¿Doug Tompson
Chapter 7: ¿Relaciones Ilícitas y Matrimonios Desiguales¿: Bourbon Reforms and the Regulation of Sexual Mores in Eighteenth-Century Costa Rica¿Eugenia Rodríguez-S enz
Chapter 8: A Bourbon Reformer During the Age of Independence: José de Bustamante in Central America, 1811¿1818¿Timothy Hawkins
Chapter 9: Guatemala Social Elites on the Eve of Independence: Internal Structures and Dynamics¿ Michel Bertrand
Conclusion, Stephen Webre
About the Authors
Bibliography
Index
Politics, Economy, and Society in Bourbon Central America, 1759-1821
edited by Jordana Dym and Christophe Belaubre
University Press of Colorado, 2007 Cloth: 978-0-87081-844-8
Politics, Economy, and Society in Bourbon Central America, 1759-1821 examines how the Spanish policies known broadly as the Bourbon Reforms affected Central American social, economic, and political institutions. Although historians have devoted significant attention to the purpose and impact of these reforms in Spain and some of Spain's other New World colonies, this book is the first to explore their impact on Central America.
These reforms profoundly changed aspects of Central America's politics and society; however, these essays reveal that changes in the region were shaped both internally and externally and that they weakened the region's ties to metropolitan Spain as often as they reinforced them. Contributors focus on specific policy changes and their consequences as well as transformations throughout the region for which no direct Bourbon inspiration appears to be responsible. Together they demonstrate that whether or not the Crown achieved its primary goals of centralization and control, its policies nevertheless provided opportunities for evident, often subtle, and occasionally unintentional shifts in the colonial government's relationship to its constituent populations. Contributors include Christophe Belaubre, Michel Bertrand, Jordana Dym, Jorge H. González, Timothy Hawkins, Sajid Alfredo Herrera, Gustavo Palma, Eugenia Rodriguez, Doug Tompson, and Stephen Webre.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Jordana Dym is an associate professor of Latin American History at Skidmore College. Christophe Belaubre holds a doctorate from the Universite de Toulouse-Le Mirail.
REVIEWS
"With its focus on the regional histories of Central America, Politics, Economy, and Society in Bourbon Central America, 1759-1821 offers new contexts and new empirical material for key debates in our field." —Kevin Gosner, Department of History, University of Arizona
"This book, then, makes valuable contributions to its theme, whether that theme is Bourbon reform in Central America, or Central America during the late Bourbon era." —Adrian Pearce, Bulletin of Latin American Research
"...[B]rings together an important collection of essays on politics, economy, and society in late colonial Central America, whose secondary importance within Spain's empire has contributed to neglect within Anglophone historiography....[T]his collection is first-rate, with each essay being an invitation to explore Central America's rich but understudied colonial past." —Mauricio Pajón, University of Texas at Austin; Colonial Latin American Historical Review
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Illustrations
Abbreviations
Introduction, Jordana Dym and Christophe Belaubre
Chapter 1: Primary Education in Bourbon San Salvador and Sonsonate, 1750¿1808¿Sajid Alfredo Herrera
Chapter 2: In the Shadow of the Great: Church Financiers¿ Everyday Resistance to the Bourbon Reforms, Guatemala City, 1773¿1821¿Christophe Belaubre
Chapter 3: Bourbon Reforms and City Government in Central America, 1759¿1808¿Jordana Dym
Chapter 4: Between Fidelity and Pragmatism: Guatemala¿s Commercial Elite Responds to Bourbon Reforms on Trade and Contraband¿Gustavo Palma Murga
Chapter 5: State Reform, Popular Resistance, and the Negotiation of Rule in Late Bourbon Guatemala: The Quetzaltenango Aguardiente Monopoly, 1785¿1807¿Jorge H. Gonz lez
Chapter 6: The Establecimientos Costeros of Bourbon Central America, 1787¿1800: Problems and Paradox in Spain¿s Occupation of the Atlantic Coast¿Doug Tompson
Chapter 7: ¿Relaciones Ilícitas y Matrimonios Desiguales¿: Bourbon Reforms and the Regulation of Sexual Mores in Eighteenth-Century Costa Rica¿Eugenia Rodríguez-S enz
Chapter 8: A Bourbon Reformer During the Age of Independence: José de Bustamante in Central America, 1811¿1818¿Timothy Hawkins
Chapter 9: Guatemala Social Elites on the Eve of Independence: Internal Structures and Dynamics¿ Michel Bertrand
Conclusion, Stephen Webre
About the Authors
Bibliography
Index
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC