The Enlightened Patrolman Early Law Enforcement In Mexico City Nicole Von Germeten by Nicole Von Germeten 9781496233073, 1496233077 instant download after payment.

The late eighteenth century ushered in a period of transition for the Spanish world that has been associated with the reforms promulgated by the Bourbon Kings. Historians of Mexico have long been fascinated by these transformations and there is considerable scholarship on the ways that the administration, military, Church, and economic structures were refashioned and how these modifications contributed to the push for independence that followed in the early nineteenth century. More recent scholarship has looked at the social implications of these reforms in terms of race, gender, and culture. Nicole Van Germeten’s latest book is an extension of these two aspects of the study of the Bourbon reforms. In this delightful volume, she examines the night watchmen—a corps of patrolmen who were part of the innovations linked to the Bourbon reforms.

The patrolmen that are the focus of this book were part of early forms of policing but yet they were not a formal police force. As part of the modernization drive of the late eighteenth century, viceregal officials installed lanterns in Mexico City’s central streets and the patrolmen both lit these lanterns at dusk but also guarded them and tried to keep order in the nocturnal streets. Both the lighting and the patrolmen were not always welcomed by residents who perceived these novelties as intrusions into their habitual ways. It is within these points of contact—sometimes positive but frequently hostile—that Von Germeten uncovers the dynamics of this transformation and the emerging policing of an urban population.