External and internal borders at the dawn of the bourbon period: policies, uprisings and power relations. Bruno Mauricio de Zabala’s administration as governor of the Río de la Plata (1717-1735)

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the Rio de la Plata region and its main frontier conflicts facing foreign powers, indigenous groups and the Creole resistance from Asunción during the early 17th Century. We focus in Governor Mauricio Zabala (1717-1734) since his administration meant an incipient change in the political direction the Crown sought to implement in the colony in general, but above all in border areas linked to the new dynasty’s interests. The political trajectory of Zabala, as responsible of suffocating the Creole uprisings in Asunción, becomes relevant to understand the strategies chosen by the Crown in marginal regions, whose elites struggled to maintain the amount of autonomy they were accustomed to have.