La redefinición de las relaciones imperiales: en torno a la relación reformas dieciochescas/independencia en América

The purpose of this article is to show how the discourse on Imperial Reforms at the end of the 18th century is of great significance to understand the changes in Spanish and Spanish American perceptions about their mutual relations before the collapse of the Spanish Monarchy in 1808. Factors as the Seven Years War and the great 18th century debate on Empires, the ways to modernize and keep them under metropolitan rule, played an important role in changing the political and cultural image of the Monarchy: the latter was no longer an unique community held by the ius commune embodied in the King, to become a federation of autonomous countries held together by commerce. As a result, it was not possible for the Spanish rulers to transform the Empire into a Nation during the crisis of the Monarchy