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• Agricultural machinery

  The steam tractor greatly increased farming production
• The steam tractor could plough 5 hectares per day, far more than the 0.4 and 0.8 hectares ploughed by oxen and horses, respectively
• The war of the Spanish Succession

  1700-14
• The war of the Spanish Succession

  An international war to achieve hegemony over Europe, triggered by the death of Carlos II of Spain (the last of the Austrias Menores)
• Felipe d'Anjou (Felipe V), grandson of King Louis XIV of France and the Archduke Carlos, son of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopoldo I were the two candidates to succeed Carlos II
• After the war, settled by the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), the new Bourbon dynasty implemented a new model of government inspired by the French absolutist system
• Enlightenment despotism


  The model followed by the Bourbon monarchs
• Reforms implemented by the Bourbon monarchs

  1. Reorganizing the state to make it more efficient

  2. Major political, economic and cultural reforms
• Reforms by the Bourbon monarchs

  • The king was the only political decision-maker
  • Magnificent palaces were built to reinforce the king's image among the people
• Decretos de Nueva Planta


  1. Centralized power, suppressing the existing fueros or laws in the different territories of the Crown of Aragón

  2. Imposing the laws of Castilla in all Spanish territories
• Validos and councils


  Replaced by cabinets formed by ministers or secretarios de despacho
• Spain made alliances with France for two reasons: both countries belonged to the same dynasty (the Bourbon), and Great Britain's Atlantic expansion made it Spain's greatest rival for control of America
• The Pactos de Familia resulted in Spain's participation in the Seven Years' War, 1756-1763, in which France and Spain fought England for the control of North América, and the Treaty of Paris -1763- confirmed England's global hegemony by making Canada a British colony and France losing its territories in America
• During the 18th century Spanish population increased from 7 to 11 million, higher than the European average for this period
• Ownership types of land

  • Manos Muertas
  • Mayorazgos
  • Realengos
• Manos Muertas


  Land owned by the church and religious orders that could not be sold
• Mayorazgos

  Land owned by noble families that would be inherited entirely by the firstborn son
• Realengos


  Land owned by the king
• Enlightenment thinkers were influenced by the theory of Physiocracy, which stated that a nation's wealth was derived primarily from its agriculture
• Enlightenment thinkers criticized manos muertas and mayorazgos because they were not very productive, and many had been abandoned
• Carlos III gave realengo land to colonist so that they could farm it, with the aim of creating a new class of farm owners concerned about the productivity of their land
• Types of trade

  • Domestic trade
  • Foreign trade
• Domestic trade was difficult to be successful due to internal customs and the poor conditions of the roads
• Foreign trade, almost all with America, was through monopolies of large companies based only in the port of Cadiz, until Carlos III signed decrees approving free trade in various ports in the Iberian Peninsula and in Spanish colonies in America
• Trade with America was very unequal, with Spain exporting mainly raw materials and importing precious metals, tobacco and foods
• Enlightenment governments promoted the domestic industry, especially in the textile sector, but this sector could not compete with the factories in Catalonia
• The Bourbons' financial policy was based on reorganizing the Treasury, making census of the whole population to calculate how much wealth was being produced and how much the government could collect in tax, thanks to the catastros
• The nobility still did not pay taxes
• Enlightenment ideas had an influence in Spain, with Enlightenment despots promoting the publication of books and protecting some Enlightenment authors such as Augustinian monk Jeronimo Feijoo
• Some advances made in scientific revolution, such as Copernicus's heliocentric theory, were still not known by the wider public in Spain
• The enlightenment thinkers formed part of the political and cultural elite, and believed that Spain's backwardness was the result of its historic lack of development of science with practical applications
• Academies were important institutions, protected by the king to protect aspects of culture, such as the Academia de la Lengua Española and the Academia de Bellas Artes
• The Crown sponsored various scientific expeditions, such as the ones by Malaspina in South America, to gather geographical and botanical data