Events in Spain in the early 1700s…

Events in Spain in the early 1700s are to have long-lasting repercussions in Nicaragua.

The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14) results in the Bourbons replacing the Habsburgs on the Spanish throne.

The Habsburgs had supported strict trade monopolies, especially in the Spanish colonies.

The Bourbons are proponents of more liberal free-trade policies.

Throughout the captaincy general, groups are hurt or helped by these changes; the factions supporting changes in trading policy come to be known as liberals while those who had profited under the old rules are known as conservatives.

Liberals generally consist of growers with new crops to sell, merchants, or export interests.
Conservatives were generally composed of landowners who had profited under the old protectionism and who resist new competition.

In time, conservatism also becomes associated with support for the Roman Catholic Church; the liberals take a more anticlerical stand.