This chapter identifies the major societal changes that occurred in the Iberian peninsula and Brazil during the eighteenth century through a comparative approach, with the end goal of analysing what these changes meant to these societies, organised by privilege and structural inequality. As the 18th century unfolded, Iberia’s political units became peripheral in the European context and the difference was clear. A number of reforms developed in the enlightenment context aimed to offset the divergence and to modernize Iberia according to the standards set in other regions of Europe, but they were not fully successful. The key questions within this framework are: what themes of change impacted the diversity of Iberian societies? What did change mean at this time? How did each social group react to change?

PTDC/ HIS- HIS/ 118227/ 2010; UID/HIS/00057/2013 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007702), FCT/Portugal, COMPETE, FEDER, Portugal2020. UID/HIS/00057/2019, FCT, Portugal.