Colombia before independence

by Anthony McFarlane

This is a study of Colombia during the final century of Spanish rule, spanning the years between the accession of the Bourbon dynasty to the Spanish throne in 1700 and the collapse of Spain's colonial authority in 1810. Based on extensive research in Spanish and Colombian archives, it gives a full account of the region's economic and political development during a distinctive period in Spanish American history when the Bourbon monarchy strove to rebuild Spain'spower by rationalizing the institutions and expanding the economy of its empire. Columbia (then known as New Granada) was one of the first of Spain's American dominions affected by Bourbon reformism, and the interactions of new policies with existing economic structures, established forms of government, and entrenched political practices are central themes in this book. To gauge the impact of Bourbon imperialism, the study focuses first on the context within which colonial government functioned sketching the salient features of i