Main stages of the Colonial Period

We can divide the History of the Colonial Period in Sonora, in two stages: Jesuit and Franciscan.

Jesuit Period

It belongs, chronologically, to the Hapsburg period in Spain, and will last in Sonora from the beginnings of the Colonal period to the expulsion of the Jesuits, in 1767.

During this period, the fundamental institution in Sonora, either from the economical, political or social viewpoint, is the Mission.

That is why the attention to the Indian is the main manifestation during this period. The aim is to incorporate the Indigenous social sector within the Colonial System.

In consequence, the non Indigenous (Spaniards, Criollos and remaining non Indians), will be relegated to a second stage. Their spiritual needs will be taken care by the secular clergy, even though there won´t be enough priests to attend to them.

Franciscan Period

In 1700, the last King of Spain belonging to the Hapsburg Dynasty, Charles II "the bewitched," passed away. We can see a painting of him at the right.

He didn´t have any direct descendants, and in his will he chose Phillip of Anjou as his successor. Phillip was a grandnephew of Louis XIV of France, and belonged to the Bourbon dynasty.

With the dynastic change in Spain, from the Hapsburg to the Bourbon, the ideas of the Enlightenment also acquired Spanish citizenship.

The ideas of the Enlightmenment are best exemplified by the painting to our left: The Martinueay Family, of Fleuriau de Roslin. In it, we see the head of the family, sitting and holding a book in his hand as a symbol of the new social trend: reason as the main aim. Enlightenment will hold reason as the solution to everything, and with it, the idea that societies will constantly advance following the road to progress.

Now, there will be a greater separation between Church and State, with predominance of the State, and the State personified in the King. Besides this, there will be a trend towards greater burocratization within the public administration, and greater emphasis of the mercantilist ideas as a solution to the economic problems inherited from the Hapsburg period.

Here, in Sonora, when the ideas of Enlightenment take over, there will be a simultaneous declination of the Mission. The first step in this process will be the expulsion of the Jesuit Order, and their substitution by the Franciscans. All of this, while the center of attention will shift now toward the Hispanic and Mestizo sectors of society.

If the emphasis of the baroque era during the Hapsburg administration had been the Indian in Sonora, now the Borbonic reforms were seen by the non Indians as greater administrative independence. Also, as greater authorization to self government in Sonora. The administrative decisions were not made in the faraway Capital of New Spain but in this region, in Arizpe, Capital of the Intendency, and by people that lived in this region.

Besides this, a cultural element of the Borbonic reforms was that with it, the concept of Notable, of social elite also came to be in this region.