ABSTRACT
The eighteenth century saw the rise in Europe of an intellectual movement called the Enlightenment, a philosophy that sought to replace religion with science and reason as the foundation of all authority. The Bourbon dynasty, which had assumed control over Spanish America in 1700, introduced the Enlightenment into colonial government through a variety of measures in the second half of the eighteenth century. Among these was its support for the establishment of news periodicals in urban centers—among them, the Gazeta de Mexico. The Gazeta de Mexico, published from 1784 to 1821, was one of New Spain’s first news periodicals. The paper was created to disseminate the message of the Enlightenment to the populace and to foment the popularity of both the Spanish crown and the Mexican viceroy. The Gazeta’s readership consisted of the civil and ecclesiastical bureaucracy of royal government in Mexico and the larger group of the general literate elite in the capital city and across the Viceroyalty.
