This book considers the way that two different Iberian imperial systems responded to challenges in their struggle to sustain territorial integrity and economic interests in the face of international competition. Brian Hamnett shows how, during a period of -Enlightened Despotism, - absolutist governments in Spain and Portugal sought to harness Enlightenment ideas in service of their policies of reform, a process that contributed greatly to the longer-term project of transforming absolutist governments into constitutional systems.