Spain, who had colonised half the world after her own fashion, was now re-discovered and colonised by Europeans.[1] The Spaniards seemed like poor Indians, guided by their Cacique the friar, with their rags covered with scapularies and miracle-working relics.

Anti-clericalism was the only remedy against all this superstition and ruin, and this spirit came in with the foreign colonists.

Philip V.wished to suppress the Inquisition and to end the naval war with the Mussulman nations which had lasted for a thousand years, depopulating the shores of the Mediterranean with the fear of the Barbary and Turkish pirates.

But the natives resisted any reform coming from the colonists, and the first Bourbon had to desist, finding his crown in danger.

Later on his immediate successors, having deeper roots in the country dared to continue his work.