Foreigners in the Intendencia of Paraguay

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Abstract
The Spanish American Empire in its last half century of existence experienced an economic resurgence in oceanic shipping and inter-change with Europe. That prosperity, prompted by the reforms of the enlightened Bourbon monarch, Charles III, produced an unexpected result. Non-Spanish immigrants appeared in ever increasing numbers in Spain's American colonies. That immigration, almost always illegal, had always occurred in the colonial era in spite of the many barriers erected to exclude foreigners. Now, searching for economic opportunities, these immigrants participated in the economic revitalization of Spanish America.For the most part these newcomers posed no threat to the state; and often by virtue of their commercial expertise or skilled labor, were a boon to Spanish American economic life. Unofficially, imperial officials were well aware of this. The major concern, regardless of official statements, was that immigrants profess the Catholic faith. Many of the newcomers soon acquired families in the New World, pursued their own ends, and quietly melded into Spanish American society. Certainly that proved to be the case in the Rio de la Plata. In this vast region, until the creation of the Viceroyalty in 1776, Spanish authority had been loose and the small foreign presence was generally tolerated or just ignored.

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