Spaniards in the Colonial Empire traces the privileges, prejudices, and conflicts between American-born and European-born Spaniards, within the Spanish colonies in the Americas from the sixteenth to early nineteenth centuries.  * Covers three centuries of Spanish colonial power, beginning in the sixteenth century * Explores social tension between creole and peninsular factions, connecting this friction with later colonial bids for independence * Draws on recent research by Spanish and Spanish-American historians as well as Anglophone scholars * Includes some coverage of Brazil and British colonies