The Rebirth of the Spanish Empire: Rumor, Propaganda, and the Crisis over Monarchical Succession in Early Eighteenth-Century Mexico

FAIN: FEL-268047-20

Frances L. Ramos
University of South Florida (Tampa, FL 33620-9951)

Research and writing leading to a book on the reception of the Bourbon dynasty in colonial Mexico during the early 18th century.

"The Rebirth of the Spanish Empire" focuses on the political influence campaign that took place in Mexico during the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1714) to cast the first member of the Bourbon dynasty to sit on the Spanish throne as legitimate heir to the infertile Habsburg Charles II. When Charles II died heirless in 1700, priests, bureaucrats, and even sailors in Mexico worked to characterize the change in dynasty as a "rebirth," and to remind Spain's American subjects that they belonged to an empire. This study reframes our understanding of early modern imperial identity, as historians have underestimated the degree of attachment that early modern Spaniards had developed for their empire. What is more, when attacked from without, bureaucrats and ecclesiastics cultivated affective ties to the broader polity. Themes like political identity, affect, and transatlantic communication will speak to a broad range of scholars, as will my interdisciplinary approach to sources.