Not that they were French. Really, but they were considered so by the propaganda and all the societal players that were opposed to the Bourbon Reforms, as their reforms were "french" and "Anti-spanish", the opened of the Trade routes to French Merchants and sailors, in opposition to the Spanish Merchant Interest, the reformation of the Army for one professional force and not one dependent of "hidalgos" or low nobility, the weakness of the Spanish guilds, the decreases in the territory dedicated to sheep transhumance, The Jesuit expulsion (a clear attack to an obvious Spanish religious Institution)The Bourbons were still considered French by this time? This is a century after Philip V...
Now don´t quote me bad, I consider a lot of these reforms necessary, but they were unpopular