The Spanish Empire (also called Monarchy of Spain,[3] Spanish,[4] Catholic or Hispanic,[5][6] and, later, Kingdom of Spain and the Indies, of the Spains or of Spain[7][k]) was the first global Empire, a political structure that, for the first time in history, integrated a set of societies and territories in all continents at some point in their existence,[8] governed by the reigning dynasties and governments of Spain from century to century.
After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, which effectively closed the passage to the East through the eastern Mediterranean, the Iberian monarchies began the search for a new route that would avoid the Ottoman Empire's blockade of traditional trade routes. The Portuguese chose to surround the African continent at its southern end, the Cape of Good Hope. The Spaniards, taking into account the sphericity of the Earth, planned to open a western route through a circumnavigation expedition of the globe whose purpose was to depart from Spain sailing west to reach Cipango (Japan) and Cathay (China). As a result of this enterprise, in 1492 the discovery of America occurred.
Later, under the dynasty of the House of Austria, vast expanses of the American continent were explored and conquered, from the present-day southwest of the United States to Central America, as well as the Caribbean "Caribbean (region)"), the western part of South America, and some isolated forts and settlements in present-day Alaska and British Columbia.[9] All of these territories were integrated into the Crown of Castile and, later, as kingdoms of the Spanish Crown. Initially they were organized into two viceroyalties, the viceroyalty of New Spain and the viceroyalty of Peru.
With the discovery and settlement of several Pacific archipelagos at the end of the century, the Spanish East Indies, consisting of the Philippines, the Marianas (which included Guam), the northern portion of Formosa, and the Carolinas (which included Palau), were incorporated into the empire, under the jurisdiction of New Spain. Later, in the northern and southern portions of the viceroyalty of Peru, those of Nueva Granada and Río de la Plata were created, respectively.
In Europe, the Empire included the Netherlands, territories in Italy (mainly Milanese and the kingdoms of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia) and other possessions such as Franche-Comté and Roussillon (in modern-day France).[10]
peacemaking architecture
Introduction
The Spanish Empire (also called Monarchy of Spain,[3] Spanish,[4] Catholic or Hispanic,[5][6] and, later, Kingdom of Spain and the Indies, of the Spains or of Spain[7][k]) was the first global Empire, a political structure that, for the first time in history, integrated a set of societies and territories in all continents at some point in their existence,[8] governed by the reigning dynasties and governments of Spain from century to century.
After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, which effectively closed the passage to the East through the eastern Mediterranean, the Iberian monarchies began the search for a new route that would avoid the Ottoman Empire's blockade of traditional trade routes. The Portuguese chose to surround the African continent at its southern end, the Cape of Good Hope. The Spaniards, taking into account the sphericity of the Earth, planned to open a western route through a circumnavigation expedition of the globe whose purpose was to depart from Spain sailing west to reach Cipango (Japan) and Cathay (China). As a result of this enterprise, in 1492 the discovery of America occurred.
Later, under the dynasty of the House of Austria, vast expanses of the American continent were explored and conquered, from the present-day southwest of the United States to Central America, as well as the Caribbean "Caribbean (region)"), the western part of South America, and some isolated forts and settlements in present-day Alaska and British Columbia.[9] All of these territories were integrated into the Crown of Castile and, later, as kingdoms of the Spanish Crown. Initially they were organized into two viceroyalties, the viceroyalty of New Spain and the viceroyalty of Peru.
With the discovery and settlement of several Pacific archipelagos at the end of the century, the Spanish East Indies, consisting of the Philippines, the Marianas (which included Guam), the northern portion of Formosa, and the Carolinas (which included Palau), were incorporated into the empire, under the jurisdiction of New Spain. Later, in the northern and southern portions of the viceroyalty of Peru, those of Nueva Granada and Río de la Plata were created, respectively.
In Africa, apart from the Canary Islands integrated into the Crown of Castile since 1402 and Guinea since the end of 1700, until the century the Spanish territories were reduced to a series of strongholds and Guinea, which depended on the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata until 1821. As a result of the division of the continent between the European powers, Spain definitively began to administer territories in the Sahara, in the Gulf of Guinea and in Morocco.
The Spanish Empire reached between 14 million[11] and more than 24 million[1] square kilometers (almost one-seventh of the planet's land surface) by the end of the century, meaning that the Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in history (the second largest non-contiguous empire by area). However, some authors, such as the historian Raymond Carr, point out that one of its periods of maximum expansion is between the years 1580 and 1640, during the reigns of Philip II, Philip III and Philip IV, a period in which the dynastic union with Portugal took place (considered a Spanish conquest by a large number of historians).[12][13][14][15][16][17].
From its origins to the Catholic Monarchs
Medieval background
King Alfonso III of Asturias was one of the first kings in the Iberian Peninsula to adopt the imperial idea during the 19th century. In 867 it was titled Adefonsus totius Hispaniae imperator. Later, in 877, it appears as Adefonsus Hispaniae imperator, and in 906 as Adefonsus… Hispaniae rex. Several of his descendants also used the imperial title.[18].
At the beginning of the century, the different kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula pursued different objectives in their foreign policy. Navarra, soon confined by the expansion of Castile and Aragon, oriented its relations towards France.[19] On the other hand, the Treaty of Almizra delimited the territories for the reconquest of the crowns of Castile and Aragon,[20] which led them to develop similar foreign policies, although with differentiated interests. Castilla tried to complete the Reconquista and avoid new Muslim incursions by taking places and islands in North Africa, even before reconquering the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada.[21] At the same time, they were going through difficult times due to the civil war waged between supporters of the future Isabel la Católica and those of Juana la Beltraneja, in the fight to succeed Henry IV.
Aragon, for its part, oriented its expansionist policy to the central and eastern Mediterranean.[21] Thus, it came to dominate the Italian peninsula after claiming the inheritance of Constance II of the House of Hohenstaufen in Sicily during the Guelph and Ghibelline War, as well as receiving, through donations from the Pope, island kingdoms in Sardinia and Sicily. In turn, the Aragonese sphere of influence came to have a presence in the Balkans with the conquest of the Almogávares of Greek territories such as the Duchy of Athens and the Duchy of Neopatria (during the Francocracy), and even an eastern geopolitics was developed with Alfonso V the Magnanimous, who in 1451 managed to subjugate the Principality of Albania "Principality of Albania (medieval)") through Skanderbeg, and also briefly some fiefs of the Kingdom of Bosnia subordinated to Stjepan Vukčić Kosača (another vassal of Aragon until his fall).[22][23] However, conflicts with the Ottoman Empire and the Italian maritime Republics would cause it to lose its control in the Eastern Mediterranean.
This crown at the end of the Middle Ages also did not have a clear suitor to succeed Martin the Human (died in 1410), but it was resolved peacefully with the Compromise of Caspe. At the same time, this act laid the foundations for the future union with the Castilian Crown after Fernando de Antequera, a member of the Trastámara dynasty reigning in Castile, was elected, thus opening the door for the subsequent arrival of Fernando the Catholic and the subsequent unification of the two kingdoms.[24].
Portuguese expansionism
Finally, Portugal had finished its reconquest by defeating the Castilian king Alfonso Black.[25].
The unification of Spain and the end of Muslim power
The marriage of the Catholic Monarchs (Isabel I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon) produced the dynastic union of the two Crowns when, after defeating the supporters of Juana "la Beltraneja" in the War of Castilian Succession, Isabel ascended the throne. However, each kingdom maintained its own administration under the same monarchy. The formation of a unified state only materialized after centuries of union under the same rulers.[l] The new kings introduced the modern absolutist state into their domains, which they soon sought to expand.
Castile had intervened in the Atlantic, in what was the beginning of its extrapeninsular empire, competing with Portugal for its control since the end of the century, at which time several Andalusian and Biscayan expeditions were sent to the Canary Islands. The effective conquest of said archipelago had begun during the reign of Henry III of Castile, when in 1402 Jean de Béthencourt requested permission for such an undertaking from the Castilian king in exchange for vassalage; while, throughout the 20th century, Portuguese explorers such as Gonçalo Velho Cabral would colonize the Azores, Cape Verde and Madeira. The Treaty of Alcazobas of 1479, which brought about peace in the War of Castilian Succession, separated the zones of influence of each country in Africa and the Atlantic, granting Castile sovereignty over the Canary Islands and Portugal the islands it already owned, Guinea "Guinea (region)") and, in general, "everything that is found and is found, conquered or discovered in the said terms." The conquest of the Kingdom of Fez was also exclusively for the kingdom of Portugal. The treaty was confirmed by the pope in 1481, through the bull Aeterni regis. Meanwhile, the Catholic Monarchs began the last phase of the conquest of the Canary Islands, assuming this enterprise on their own due to the impossibility of the feudal lords to subjugate all the island indigenous people in a series of long and hard campaigns. Castilian armies seized Gran Canaria under Juan Rejón and Pedro de Vera (1478-1483), La Palma under Alonso Fernández de Lugo (1492-1493) and finally Tenerife, also conquered by Lugo (1494-1496).
As a continuation of the Castilian Reconquista, in 1492 the Catholic Monarchs conquered the Taifa kingdom of Granada, the last Muslim kingdom of al-Andalus, which had survived by paying tributes in gold "Parias (tribute)") to Castile, and its policy of alliances with Aragon and North Africa.
The expansionist policy of the Catholic Monarchs was also manifested in continental Africa. With the aim of ending the piracy that threatened the Andalusian coasts and Catalan and Valencian merchant communications, campaigns were carried out in North Africa: Melilla was taken in 1497, San Miguel de Saca (later abandoned) in 1500, Villa Cisneros in 1502, Mazalquivir in 1505, the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera in 1508, Oran "Oran (Algeria)") in 1509 "Conquest of Oran (1509)"), Algiers, Bejaia and Tripoli "Tripoli (Libya)") in 1510. The idea of Elizabeth I, expressed in her will, was that the reconquest would continue in North Africa, in what the Romans called Nova Hispania.
The European policy of the Catholic Monarchs
The Catholic Monarchs also inherited the Mediterranean policy of the Crown of Aragon, and supported the Aragonese House of Naples against Charles VIII of France and, after its extinction, demanded the reintegration of Naples to the Crown. As ruler of Aragon, Ferdinand II had become involved in the dispute with France and Venice for control of the Italian peninsula. These conflicts became the central axis of his foreign policy. In these battles, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (known as «The Great Captain») would create the colonelies (base of the future thirds), as the basic organization of the army, which meant a military revolution that would take the Spanish to their best moments.
After the death of Queen Isabella, Ferdinand, as the sole monarch, adopted a more aggressive policy than the one he had as Isabel's husband, using Castilian wealth to expand the area of Aragonese influence in Italy, against France, and fundamentally against the kingdom of Navarre, which he conquered in 1512.
The throne of Castile was assumed by his daughter Queen Juana I "the Mad", who was declared incapable of reigning, with her father maintaining the regency (although in all official documents Juana and Fernando appeared as kings, it was Fernando who exercised power).
King Ferdinand's first great challenge was in the war of the League of Cambrai against Venice, where Spanish soldiers distinguished themselves alongside their French allies in the battle of Agnadello (1509). Only a year later, Ferdinand became part of the Catholic League "Holy League (1511)") against France, seeing an opportunity to take Milan—a place over which he had a dynastic dispute—and Navarre. This war was not a success like the previous one against Venice and, in 1516, France accepted a truce that left Milan under its control and, in fact, ceded the Kingdom of Navarre to the Spanish monarch (which Ferdinand joined to the crown of Castile), since by withdrawing its support it left the Navarrese kings John III of Albret and Catherine of Foix isolated. This event was temporary since he would later return to support the struggle of the Navarrese in 1521.
With the aim of isolating France, a marriage policy was adopted that led to the marriage of the daughters of the Catholic Monarchs with the reigning dynasties in England, Burgundy and Austria. After the death of Ferdinand, the disqualification of Queen Juana I, made Charles of Austria, heir of Austria and Burgundy, also heir to the Spanish thrones.
Carlos had a political concept that was still medieval, and he developed it by using the riches of his peninsular kingdoms in the European policy of the Empire, instead of following what, with greater scope, his grandmother Isabel had marked in her will: continuing the Reconquista in North Africa. Although some Spanish advisors managed to get him to carry out some campaigns towards that objective (Oran, Tunisia, Algeria), however, he did not consider that goal as important as the endless religious-political disputes of his Central European heritage and, since, furthermore, a large part of the conquering impetus of the Castilians was directed towards the newly discovered lands of the West Indies, he did not collaborate decisively in the aggrandizement of his peninsular kingdoms, except in what was refers to the Italian campaigns. This abandonment of the policy of conquest of North Africa would cause headaches for Mediterranean Europe until the 20th century.
The discovery of the New World
However, the Atlantic expansion would be the one that would give the greatest successes. To reach the riches of the East, whose trade routes (especially spices from the Pacific Islands) were blocked by the Ottomans or monopolized by the Genoese and Venetians, the Portuguese and the Spanish competed to find a new route that was not the traditional one, by land, through the Near East. The Portuguese, who had finished their Reconquista long before the Spanish, had then begun their expeditions, first trying to access African riches and then to circumnavigate Africa, which would give them control of the islands and coasts of the continent, to open a new route to the East Indies, without depending on trade through the Ottoman Empire, monopolized by Genoa and Venice, laying the seed of the Portuguese Empire.
Later, when Castile finished its reconquest, the Catholic Monarchs supported Christopher Columbus who, apparently convinced that the circumference of the Earth was smaller than the real one, wanted to reach Cipango (Japan), Cathay (China), the Indies, the East by sailing to the West, with the same goal as the Portuguese: to become independent from the Italian cities to obtain the goods of the East, mainly spices and silk (finer than that produced in the kingdom of Murcia since Arab domination). Halfway there was America and, as is widely accepted, unknowingly discovered the continent for the rest of the world, which lived ignorant of its existence, initiating the Spanish colonization of those lands.
The new lands were claimed by the Catholic Monarchs, with the opposition of Portugal. Finally, Pope Alexander VI mediated, leading to the Treaty of Tordesillas, which divided the zones of Spanish and Portuguese influence 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands (the meridian located at 46° 37') west longitude, with the western zone corresponding to Spain and the eastern zone corresponding to Portugal. Thus, Spain theoretically became the owner of most of the continent with the exception of a small part, the eastern part - what is today the end of Brazil - which corresponded to Portugal. From then on, this papal transfer, together with the evangelizing responsibility over the discovered territories, was used by the Catholic Monarchs as legitimation in their imperial expansion. Shortly after, this "legitimation" was discussed by the Salamanca School.
In addition to the capture of Hispaniola, which was completed at the beginning of the century, the colonists began to look for new settlements. The conviction that there were large territories to colonize in the new discovered lands produced the desire to seek new conquests. From there, Juan Ponce de León conquered Puerto Rico and Diego Velázquez, Cuba. Alonso de Ojeda toured the Venezuelan and Central American coast, Diego de Nicuesa occupied what is now Nicaragua and Costa Rica, while Vasco Núñez de Balboa reached Panama and reached the South Sea (Pacific Ocean).
The Austrian Empire (1516-1700)
Contenido
El periodo comprendido entre la segunda mitad del siglo y la primera del es conocido como el Siglo de Oro por el florecimiento de las artes y las ciencias que se produjo.
Durante el siglo España llegó a tener una auténtica fortuna de oro y plata extraídos de «Las Indias». En el estudio económico realizado por Earl J.Hamilton (1975), «El tesoro americano y la Revolución de los precios en España, 1501-1659», esa fortuna tiene unas cifras concretas. Hamilton describe que en los siglos y , desde 1503 y durante los 160 años siguientes, durante la mayor actividad minera, arribaron desde la América española 16 900 toneladas de plata y 181 toneladas de oro. Sus cuentas son minuciosas: 16 886 815 303 gramos de plata y 181 333 180 gramos de oro.[m].
Se decía durante el reinado de Felipe II que «el Sol no se ponía en el Imperio», ya que estaba lo suficientemente disperso como para tener siempre alguna zona con luz solar. Este imperio tenía su centro neurálgico en Madrid sede de la Corte con Felipe II, siendo Sevilla el punto fundamental desde el que se organizaban las posesiones ultramarinas.
Como consecuencia del matrimonio político de los Reyes Católicos y de los casamientos estratégicos de sus hijos, su nieto, Carlos I heredó la Corona de Castilla en la península ibérica y una incipiente expansión en América (herencia de su abuela Isabel); las posesiones de la Corona de Aragón en el Mediterráneo italiano e ibérico (de su abuelo Fernando); las tierras de los Habsburgo en Austria a las que él incorporó Bohemia y Silesia logrando convertirse tras una disputada elección con Francisco I de Francia en emperador del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico con el nombre de Carlos V de Alemania; además de los Países Bajos a los que añadió nuevas provincias y el Franco Condado, herencia de su abuela María de Borgoña; conquistó personalmente Túnez y en pugna con Francia la región de Lombardía. Era un imperio compuesto de un conglomerado de territorios heredados, anexionados o conquistados.
La dinastía Habsburgo gastaba las riquezas castellanas y ya desde los tiempos de Carlos V pero en mayor medida a partir de Felipe II, las americanas, en guerras en toda Europa con el objetivo fundamental de proteger los territorios adquiridos, los intereses de los mismos, la causa católica y a veces por intereses meramente dinásticos. Todo ello produjo el impago frecuente de deudas contraídas con los banqueros, primero alemanes y genoveses después, y dejó a España en bancarrota. Los objetivos políticos de la Corona eran varios:.
• - El acceso a los productos americanos (oro, plata, bienes colombinos), africanos (diamantes, comercio de esclavos) y asiáticos (porcelana, especias, seda).
• - Minar el poder de Francia y su sistema de alianzas con Europa Oriental, contenerla en sus fronteras orientales y detener su expansionismo sobre Italia, los Pirineos y los dominios del SIRG.
• - Contener en Europa y el Norte de África la expansión del Imperio otomano (gran potencia musulmana que aspiraba a un Imperio universal y además negaba la legitimidad romano-imperial del SIRG) y la amenaza del Islam ante un renovado califato. Además, se buscaba neutralizar la piratería berberisca que asolaba las posesiones mediterráneas españolas e italianas, así como al resto de la Cristiandad con la Esclavitud blanca de no-musulmanes.
• - Mantener la hegemonía católica de los Habsburgo en Europa central, buscando consolidar los Poderes universales de Dominium mundi del Emperador Romano Germánico y el Papa sobre toda la Res publica christiana. Desembocando en la defensa hispano-austríaca de los intereses de la Iglesia católica en Alemania y Europa del norte contra el cisma de la Reforma protestante, así como en fomentar el espíritu misionero para Evangelizar América y las Indias recientemente conquistadas, como el espíritu Cruzado contra los Emiratos islámicos y Señoriós paganos hostiles de Oriente.
Ante la posibilidad de que Carlos I decidiera apoyar la mayor parte de las cargas de su imperio en el más rico de sus reinos, el de Castilla, lo cual no gustaba a los castellanos que no deseaban contribuir con oro, plata o caballos a guerras europeas que sentían ajenas, y enfrentados a un creciente absolutismo por parte del rey comenzó una sublevación que aún se celebra cada año llamada de los Comuneros, en la cual los rebeldes fueron derrotados.
de España y luego se convertía en el hombre más poderoso de Europa, con un imperio europeo que solo sería comparable en tamaño al de Napoleón Bonaparte. El emperador intentó sofocar la Reforma protestante en la Dieta de Worms, pero Lutero renunció a retractarse de su herejía. Firme defensor de la Catolicidad, durante su reinado se produjo sin embargo lo que se llamó el Saco de Roma, cuando sus tropas fuera de control atacaron la Santa Sede después de que el papa se uniera a la Liga de Cognac contra él.
Pese a que Carlos I era flamenco y su lengua materna era el francés vivió un proceso de españolización o, más concretamente, de castellanización. Así, cuando se entrevistó con el papa, le habló en español y más tarde, cuando recibió al embajador de Francia, un obispo francés se quejó por no haber entendido el discurso, a lo que el emperador contestó: «Señor obispo, entiéndame si quiere y no espere de mí otras palabras que de mi lengua española, la cual es tan noble que merece ser sabida y entendida de toda la gente cristiana».[28] Esta frase ha calado bastante en los españoles y, siglos después, aún se utiliza el dicho «Que hable en cristiano» cuando un español (o casi todo otro hispanoparlante) quiere que se le traduzca lo dicho.
The conquest of America and expansion in Asia and Oceania
The conquest continued in continental America and expansion in Asia and Oceania. Hernán Cortés came to the Aztec Empire and Francisco Pizarro to the Inca Empire. Years later, under Philip II, the Spanish Empire became a new source of wealth for the Spanish kingdoms and their power in Europe, but it also contributed to raising inflation, which harmed peninsular industry. As always happens, the most powerful economy, the Spanish one, began to depend on raw materials and manufactures from poorer countries, with cheaper labor, which facilitated the economic and social revolution in France, England and other parts of Europe. The problems caused by the excess of precious metals were discussed by the Salamanca School, which created a new way of understanding the economy that other European countries took a long time to understand.
On the other hand, the enormous and fruitless expenses of the wars that the European policy of Charles I dragged into, inherited by his successor Philip II, led to them being financed with loans from bankers, both Spanish and from Genoa, Antwerp and southern Germany, which meant that the benefits that the Crown (the State, after all) could have were much smaller than those obtained later by other countries with imperial interests, such as the Netherlands and later England.
From the Battle of Pavia to the Peace of Augsburg (1521-1555)
From 1492, the colonization of the New World was led by a series of warrior-explorers known as conquistadors. For this enterprise, they took advantage of the fact that some native peoples were at war with others and many were willing to seal alliances with the Spanish to defeat more powerful enemies such as the Aztecs or the Incas. The conquest, in addition, was facilitated by technological superiority,[29] including logistics, and the spread in America of diseases common in Europe (e.g., smallpox), but unknown in the New World, which decimated the native peoples of America.
The main conquerors were Hernán Cortés, who between 1519 and 1521, with around 200,000 Amerindian allies, defeated the Aztec Empire, at a time when it was devastated by smallpox,[n. 1] and entered Mexico, which would be the base of the viceroyalty of New Spain, which would extend southward rapidly thanks to the conquests of Pedro de Alvarado, Cortés' lieutenant, who, between 1521 and 1525, incorporated the current republics of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador into Spanish dominions; and Francisco Pizarro who would undertake the conquest of Peru in 1531 when the Inca Empire was seriously disorganized due to the civil war and the smallpox epidemic of 1529. The fruit of this conquest was the establishment of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
After the conquest of Mexico, and during and after the conquest of Peru, legends about "golden" cities (Cíbola in North America, El Dorado in South America) gave rise to numerous expeditions, but many of them returned without finding anything, and those that did find something were much less valuable than expected. In any case, the extraction of gold and silver was an important economic activity of the Spanish Empire in America, estimated at 850,000 kilograms of gold and more than 100 times that amount in silver during the imperial period. No less important was the trade in other merchandise such as cochineal, vanilla, cocoa, and sugar (sugar cane was taken to America where it was produced better than in the south of the peninsula, where it had been introduced by the Arabs). The exploration of this New World, known as the West Indies, was intense, with feats such as the first circumnavigation of the globe in 1522 by Juan Sebastián Elcano (who replaced Ferdinand Magellan, promoter of the expedition and who died on the way).
In Europe, feeling surrounded by the Habsburg possessions, Francis I of France invaded the Spanish possessions in Italy in 1521 and began a new era of hostilities between France and Spain, supporting Henry II of Navarre to recover the kingdom "Conquest of Navarre") taken by the Spanish. An uprising of the Navarrese population together with the entry of 12,000 men under the command of General Asparrots, André de Foix, in a few days recovered the entire kingdom with few victims. However, the imperial army was quickly reconstituted, forming well-equipped troops of 30,000 men, including many of the community members who surrendered to redeem their sentence. General Asparrots, instead of consolidating the kingdom, went to besiege Logroño, with which the Navarrese-Gascons suffered a severe defeat in the bloody battle of Noáin, leaving control of Navarre in the hands of Spain.
From San Quentin to Lepanto (1556-1571)
Emperor Charles divided his possessions between his only legitimate son, Philip II, and his brother Ferdinand (to whom he left the Habsburg Empire). For Philip II, Castile was the base of his empire, but the population of Castile was never large enough to provide the soldiers necessary to sustain the Empire. After the king's marriage to Mary Tudor, England and Spain were allies.
Spain was unable to have peace when the aggressive Henry II of France came to the throne in 1547, who immediately resumed conflicts with Spain. Philip II continued the war against France, crushing the French army at the Battle of St. Quentin (1557) in Picardy in 1558 and defeating Henry again at the Battle of Gravelines. The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, signed in 1559, definitively recognized Spanish claims in Italy. In the celebrations that followed the Treaty, Henry II died from a wound caused by a piece of wood from a spear. France was hit during the following years by a civil war that deepened the differences between Catholics and Protestants, giving Spain the opportunity to intervene in favor of the Catholics and preventing it from competing with Spain and the House of Habsburg in European power games. Freed from French opposition, Spain saw the height of its power and territorial extension in the period between 1559 and 1643.
The bankruptcy of 1557 marked the inauguration of the consortium of Genoese banks, which led the German bankers to chaos and ended the preponderance of the Fúcares as financiers of the Spanish State. Genoese bankers provided the Habsburgs with fluid credit and regular income.
Meanwhile, overseas expansion continued: Florida was colonized in 1565 by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés by founding San Agustín "Saint Augustine (United States)"), and by quickly defeating an illegal attempt by French captain Jean Ribault and 150 men to establish a supply post in Spanish territory. San Agustín quickly became a strategic defense base for Spanish ships full of gold and silver returning from the Indies dominions.
In Asia, on April 27, 1565, the first settlement in the Philippines was established by Miguel López de Legazpi and the route of the Manila Galleons (Nao de la China) was launched. Manila was founded in 1572.
After Spain's triumph over France and the beginning of the French Wars of Religion, Philip II's ambition increased. In the Mediterranean, the Ottoman Empire had questioned Spanish hegemony, losing Tripoli "Tripoli (Libya)") (1531) and Bugia (1554) while Berber and Ottoman piracy intensified. In 1565, however, Spanish aid to the besieged Knights of St. John saved Malta "Siege of Malta (1565)"), inflicting a severe defeat on the Turks.
The death of Suleiman the Magnificent and his succession by the less capable Selim II emboldened Philip II and he declared war on the sultan himself. In 1571, the Holy League "Holy League (1571)"), formed by Philip II, Venice and Pope Pius V, faced the Ottoman Empire, with a joint fleet commanded by Don Juan of Austria, illegitimate son of Charles I, who annihilated the Turkish fleet in the decisive battle of Lepanto. The defeat ended the Turkish threat in the Mediterranean and began a period of decline for the Ottoman Empire. This battle increased respect for Spain and its sovereignty outside its borders and the king assumed the burden of leading the Counter-Reformation.
The Kingdom in difficulties (1571-1598)
The time of joy in Madrid was short-lived. In 1566 the Calvinists had started a series of revolts in the Netherlands that caused the king to send the Duke of Alba to the area. In 1568, William I of Orange-Nassau led an unsuccessful attempt to drive the Duke of Alba out of the country. These battles are considered the beginning of the Eighty Years' War, which ended with the independence of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. Philip II, who had received from his father the inheritance of the territories of the house of Burgundy (the Netherlands and Franche-Comté), so that powerful Spain could defend the Empire from France, was forced to restore order and maintain his dominion over these territories. In 1572 a group of rebellious Dutch ships known as the watergeuzen, took several coastal cities, proclaimed their support for William I and rejected the Spanish government.
For Spain the war became an endless affair. In 1574, the Tercios of Flanders, under the command of Francisco de Valdés, were defeated in the siege of Leiden after the Dutch broke the dikes, causing massive flooding.
In 1576, overwhelmed by the costs of maintaining an army of eighty thousand men in the Netherlands and the immense fleet that defeated Lepanto, together with the growing threat of piracy in the Atlantic and especially the shipwrecks that reduced the arrival of money from American possessions, Philip II was forced to declare a suspension of payments (which was interpreted as bankruptcy).
The army mutinied not long after, sacking Antwerp and the southern Netherlands, causing several cities, which had until then remained loyal, to join the rebellion. The Spanish chose the route of negotiation and managed to pacify most of the southern provinces with the Union of Arras in 1579.
This agreement required that all Spanish troops abandon those lands, which strengthened the position of Philip II when in 1580 the last member of the royal family of Portugal, Cardinal "Cardinal (Catholicism)"), King Henry I of Portugal, died without direct descendants. The king of Spain, son of Isabella of Portugal and therefore grandson of King Manuel I, asserted his claim to the Portuguese throne, and in June sent the Duke of Alba and his army to Lisbon to secure the succession. The other suitor, Don Antonio "Antonio (Prior of Crato)"), retreated to the Azores, where Philip's navy finished defeating him.
The temporary unification of the Iberian Peninsula put the Portuguese Empire in the hands of Philip II, that is, most of the explored territories of the New World in addition to the commercial colonies in Asia and Africa. In 1582, when the king returned the court to Madrid from Lisbon, where it was temporarily based to pacify his new kingdom, the decision was made to strengthen Spanish naval power.
Spain was still reeling from the bankruptcy of 1576. In 1584 William I of Orange-Nassau was assassinated by a French Catholic. It was hoped that the death of the popular resistance leader would mean the end of the war, but it did not.
"God is Spanish" (1598-1626)
Although we now know that the Spanish economy was undermined and its power was weakened, the Empire was still by far the strongest power. So much so that he could fight battles with England, France and the Netherlands at the same time. This power was confirmed by the rest of the European peoples; Thus the French Huguenot Duplessis-Mornay, for example, wrote after the assassination of William of Orange at the hands of Balthasar Gérard:
The burden caused by the continuous piracy against their ships in the Atlantic and the consequent decrease in gold income from the Indies has been shown in several literary works and especially in films. However, more in-depth investigations[35] indicate that this piracy actually consisted of several dozen ships and several hundred pirates, the first being of small tonnage, so they could not confront the Spanish galleons, having to settle for small ships or those that could separate themselves from the fleet. Secondly, there is the fact that, during the century, no pirate or privateer managed to sink any galleon; Likewise, of some six hundred fleets chartered by Spain (two per year for about three hundred years) only two fell into enemy hands and both by war navies, not by pirates or privateers.[35].
The corsair attacks, in any case, among which Francis Drake stood out, caused serious security problems for both the fleets and the ports, which forced the establishment of a convoy system as well as the exponential increase in defensive expenses destined for the training of militias and the construction of fortifications. However, it was the inclement weather that most seriously blocked all trade between America and Europe. More serious was the Mediterranean piracy, perpetrated by Berbers, which had a volume ten or more times greater than the Atlantic one and which devastated the entire Mediterranean coast as well as the Canary Islands, often blocking communications with this Archipelago and with the possessions in Italy.
Despite all the income coming from America, Spain was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1596.
Philip II's successor, Philip III, came to the throne in 1598. He was a man disinterested in politics, preferring to let others make decisions rather than take command. His supporter was the Duke of Lerma, who never had any interest in the affairs of his allied country, Austria.
The Spanish attempted to extricate themselves from the numerous conflicts in which they were involved, first by signing the Peace of Vervins with France in 1598, recognizing Henry IV (Catholic since 1593) as king of France, and reestablishing many of the conditions of the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis. With several consecutive defeats and an endless guerrilla war against the Catholics supported by Spain in Ireland, England agreed to negotiate in 1604, after the ascension to the throne of the Stuart James I.
Peace with France and England meant that Spain could focus its attention and energies on restoring its rule in the Dutch provinces. The Dutch, led by Maurice of Nassau, the son of William I, were successful in taking some border towns in 1590, including the fortress of Breda. Added to this were the Dutch overseas victories that occupied the Portuguese (and therefore Spanish) colonies in the East, taking Ceylon (1605), as well as other Spice Islands (between 1605 and 1619), establishing Batavia as the center of their empire in the East.
The beginning of the decline of the empire, the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648)
In 1617, the Spanish ambassador to Austria, Íñigo Vélez de Guevara y Tassis, preventing the end of the Twelve Years' Truce, would begin to develop rapprochements with the Habsburgs of Austria (who since 1612 had had tense relations with the Habsburgs of Spain due to agreeing to Ferdinand II of Habsburg, instead of the Infantes of Spain, to inherit the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Kingdom of Hungary and the Holy Empire), so he would manage to persuade the courts of Vienna and Madrid to agree to the Treaty of Oñate, by which the Spanish Royal Family renounced the succession of Hungary, Bohemia and the Holy Empire (unless the male succession of the Habsburgs of Austria was extinguished) in exchange for the Habsburg Monarchy agreeing to support Spain in its conflicts with the French and Dutch in Italy and the Netherlands, whose guarantee was the promise to cede the Austrian territories of Upper Alsace and Ortenau on the German-French border, as well as the delivery of the fiefs of Finale Ligure and Piombino in Italy through the authority of the Germanic Roman Emperor over the lords of the Kingdom of Italy "Kingdom of Italy (Holy Roman Empire)") (all these delivered territories allowed the Spanish Way to be strengthened).[37] The following year, in 1618, the king replaced Spínola with Baltasar de Zúñiga, veteran ambassador in Vienna. He thought that the key to stopping a resurgent France, and eliminating the Dutch, was to consolidate a close alliance with the Austrian Habsburgs. That same year, beginning with the Defenestration of Prague, Austria and Emperor Ferdinand II embarked on a campaign against Bohemia and the Protestant Union. Zúñiga encouraged Philip III to join the Austrian Habsburgs in the war, and Ambrosio Spínola was sent at the head of the Tercios of Flanders to intervene in the repression of the Bohemian Revolt (which occurred in present-day Czechia and its surroundings between 1618-1620). In this way, Spain entered the Thirty Years' War, which would soon attract all the other European powers of the time.
In Central Europe, the Bohemians were defeated at the Battle of the White Mountain in 1620, and later at Stadtlohn in 1623, clashes where the participation of the Spanish army allied to the Holy Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy (Austria, Hungary "Kingdom of Hungary (1526-1867)") and Croatia "Kingdom of Croatia (Habsburg)") and the Catholic League "Catholic League" were very relevant. (1609)") (led by Bavaria). However, the Bohemians in exile refused to surrender, as they had obtained the support of the Ottoman Empire through the Hungarian Protestant Gabriel Bethlen of Transylvania, and especially the Protestant German prince, Frederick V of the Palatinate (who had been crowned King of Bohemia previously and in his brief reign had managed to obtain allies from northern Europe), causing the Czech conflict to spread to the rest of the Holy Empire, moving the main area of the conflict to Germany until end in a general European religious war between Catholics and Protestants. Given this, Ambrosio Spínola and Maximilian I of Bavaria would invade the Electorate of the Palatinate (supported by England, the Netherlands, Transylvania and several Protestant German States), developing the Palatinate Campaign in which the Catholic side would triumph and the Spanish Empire would annex the Upper Palatinate for the Spanish Netherlands, which would be strategic to strengthen the Spanish Way.
The Empire with the last Habsburg (1665-1700)
At the death of Philip IV, his son Charles II was only four years old, so his mother Mariana of Austria ruled as regent. This ended up handing over the government tasks to a valid man, Father Nithard, an Austrian Jesuit. The reign of Charles II can be divided into two parts. The first would span from 1665 to 1679 and would be characterized by economic lethargy and power struggles between the king's loyalists, Father Nithard and Fernando de Valenzuela, with the illegitimate son of Philip IV, Don Juan José of Austria. The latter carried out a coup d'état in 1677 that forced the monarch to expel Nithard and Valenzuela from the government.
The image that has always been had of Charles II and his reign is that of total decline and stagnation in Spain; While the rest of Europe embarked on tremendous changes in governments and societies—the Revolution of 1688 in England and the reign of the Sun King in France—Spain continued to drift. The bureaucracy that had been established around Charles I and Philip II demanded a strong and hard-working monarch; The weakness and neglect of Philip III and Philip IV contributed to the Spanish decline. Charles II had few abilities, was impotent and died without an heir in 1700. However, modern historiography tends to be more condescending towards Charles II and his limitations, showing that the king, despite being on the limit of mental normality, was aware of the responsibility he had, the situation of greed that his empire was experiencing and the idea of majesty that he always tried to maintain. This was demonstrated in his will, which, according to popular song, was his best work; In it he declared:
The second part of his reign would begin in 1680 with the seizure of power of the Duke of Medinaceli as valid, who resumed the measures taken by Don Juan José of Austria to carry out the king's economic project to stabilize the economy. The valid one achieved one of the largest deflations in history, if not the largest, which damaged the monarchy's coffers, but meant a considerable increase in the purchasing power of citizens.[42].
In 1685, Manuel Joaquín Álvarez de Toledo, count of Oropesa, took office when the Count of Medinaceli resigned. Álvarez de Toledo proposed a fixed budget for Court expenses as a means to avoid new bankruptcies, reduce taxes, forgive debts to several municipalities, reform the cadastre and place experts instead of nobles in key positions.[42].
Throughout his reign, wars against France ended, especially after the Treaty of Ryswick, which partitioned the island of Hispaniola between France and Spain. After him, Charles II's project for his kingdoms was achieved: he kept the dominions of America and Europe under his power, in addition to enabling an economic recovery that his successor would later enjoy.[42].
The Bourbon Empire (1700-1833)
The change of dynasty
The new king was not excessively well received in Spain, apart from the delays in his entry into Madrid due to bad weather and the continuous receptions, the courtiers began to see that he was apathetic, chaste, pious, very follower of the wishes of his confessor and melancholic, writing him a verse:
But Philip V had no intention of monopolizing Spain for himself and those close to him as Philip the Fair intended to do. He wanted to be a good monarch despite the many differences he had with his new people. So much so that after the famous speech given by the Marquis of Castelldosrius, Spanish ambassador to France, Felipe did not understand anything, not even the famous phrase "There are no longer any Pyrenees"; because he did not know Spanish and it was his grandfather Louis XIV who had to intercede for him; but at the end of his reply to the ambassador, the Sun King told the future king "Be a good Spaniard." That seventeen-year-old young man fulfilled that mandate his entire life.[43].
The desire of the other powers for Spain and its possessions could not be settled with the royal will. So clashes were almost inevitable; Archduke Charles of Austria did not resign, which gave rise to the War of Succession (1702-1713).
This war and the negligence committed in it led to new defeats for Spanish weapons, even reaching the peninsular territory itself. Thus, Oran, Menorca and the most painful and prolonged loss: Gibraltar, where there were only fifty Spanish soldiers defending it against the Anglo-Dutch fleet.
Philip V was not prepared to lead the largest empire at that time and he knew it; but he also knew how to surround himself with the most prepared people of his time.[44] Thus the Bourbon monarchs and the men who came with them brought a project for the Spanish Empire and a desire to merge with it; For example, Alejandro Malaspina said that he felt like "an Italian in Spain and a Spaniard in Italy", Charles III of Spain had statues sculpted of all the Spanish kings and dignitaries since the Visigoths as the heir that he felt to be theirs, the Marquis of Esquilache was upset when the Spanish nobles did not address him as was customary or, in the afternoons, he drank chocolate, a tradition that differentiated the Spanish court from other European ones; but perhaps the clearest was Philip V in front of his grandfather Louis
In the Treaty of Utrecht (April 11, 1713), the European powers decided what the future of Spain was going to be in terms of the balance of power. The new king of the House of Bourbon, Philip V, maintained the overseas empire, but ceded Sicily and part of the Milanese to Savoy, Gibraltar and Menorca to Great Britain and the other continental territories to Austria (the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, Milan and Sardinia). It also meant the definitive separation of the crowns of France and Spain, and the renunciation of Philip V of his rights to the French throne. With this, the Empire turned its back on European territories. Likewise, Britain was guaranteed the slave trade for thirty years ("black seat").
The reform of the Empire
With the Bourbon monarch, the entire territorial organization of the State was modified with a series of decrees called New Plant Decrees, eliminating the jurisdictions and privileges of the old peninsular kingdoms and unifying the entire Spanish State by dividing it into provinces called General Captaincies under the charge of some official and almost all of them governed with the same laws; With this, the Spanish State was homogenized and centralized using the territorial model of France.
On the other hand, with Philip V came French mercantilist ideas based on a centralized monarchy, slowly put into operation in America. Their greatest concerns were to break the power of the Creole aristocracy and also to weaken the territorial control of the Society of Jesus: the Jesuits were expelled from Spanish America in 1767. In addition to the already established consulates of Mexico City and Lima, that of Vera Cruz was established.
Between 1717 and 1718 the institutions for the government of the Indies, the Council of the Indies and the Casa de la Contratación, were moved from Seville to Cádiz, which became the only port of trade with the Americas.
The executive bodies were reformed, creating state secretariats that would be the embryo of the ministries. The customs and tariff system and the contributory system were reformed, the cadastre was created (despite the contributory policy not being completely reformed), the Army was restructured into regiments instead of thirds...; but perhaps the great achievement was the unification of the different fleets and arsenals in the Navy. Men like José Patiño, José Campillo or Zenón de Somodevilla were dedicated to these reforms, who were examples of meritocracy and some of the best experts in naval material of their time.[45].
These reforms were followed by a new expansionist policy that sought to recover lost positions. Thus, in 1717 the Spanish fleet recovered Sardinia and Sicily, which it soon had to abandon before the coalition of Austria, France, Great Britain and the Netherlands, which won at Cape Pessaro. However, Spanish diplomacy, supported by Family Pacts with its French relatives, would ensure that the crown of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies fell to the second son of the Spanish king. The new dynastic branch would later be known as Bourbon-Two Sicilies.
Imperial wars during the 18th century
One of the most important Spanish victories of the entire imperial period in America, and without a doubt the most significant of the century, was that of the battle of Cartagena de Indias in 1741 (see War of the Asiento) in which a colossal fleet of one hundred and eighty-six English ships with twenty-three thousand six hundred men on board attacked the Spanish port of Cartagena de Indias (today Colombia). This naval action was the largest in the history of the English Navy, and the second largest of all time after the Battle of Normandy. After two months of intense cannon fire between the English ships and the defense batteries of Cartagena Bay and the San Felipe de Barajas Fort, the attackers retreated after losing fifty ships and eighteen thousand men. The successful strategy of the Spanish great admiral Blas de Lezo was decisive in containing the English attack and achieving a victory that extended Spanish naval supremacy until the beginning of the century.
After the defeat, the English prohibited the dissemination of the news and the censorship was so strict that few English history books contain references to this momentous naval conflict. Even today, little is known about this great battle, compared to the well-known episode of Trafalgar or even that of the Invincible Armada.
Spain also clashed with Portugal over the Colonia del Sacramento in present-day Uruguay, which was the base for British smuggling through the Río de la Plata. In 1750 Portugal ceded the colony to Spain in exchange for seven of the Jesuits' thirty Guaraní reductions on the border with Brazil. The Spanish had to expel the Jesuits, generating a conflict with the Guaraní that lasted eleven years.
The development of naval trade promoted by the Bourbons in America was interrupted by the British fleet during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) in which Spain and France faced Great Britain and Portugal over imperial conflicts. Spanish successes in northern Portugal were overshadowed by the English capture of Havana and Manila. Finally, the Treaty of Paris "Treaty of Paris (1763)") (1763) ended the war. With this peace, Spain recovered Manila and Havana, although it had to return Sacramento. In addition, France gave Spain Louisiana west of the Mississippi, including its capital, New Orleans, and Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain.
In any case, the century was a period of prosperity in the overseas empire thanks to the constant growth of trade, especially in the second half of the century due to the Bourbon reforms. Single ship routes at regular intervals were slowly replacing the old custom of sending the Indies fleets, and in the 1760s, there were regular routes between Cádiz, Havana and Puerto Rico, and at longer intervals with the Río de la Plata, where a new viceroyalty had been created in what until then was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, the so-called Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776. Contraband, which "was the cancer of the Habsburg empire, it declined when the registry ships were launched").
The end of the global empire
The Spanish Empire of the century was consolidated as a mid-level power on the geopolitical board, although far from its former superpower status. Its vast empire in the Indies gave it notable global relevance, although powers such as France, England and Austria predominated in Europe. Despite this, Spain maintained the most powerful fleet in the world, and its currency remained one of the strongest. Although the Spanish Empire had not recovered its former splendor, it managed to emerge from the difficulties of the beginning of the century, when it was vulnerable to other powers. The relative peace for much of the century under the new monarchy allowed reconstruction and the beginning of a long process of economic and institutional modernization. The demographic decline of the century had been reversed, although it was necessary to encourage immigration, mainly of Germans and Swiss. However, all these advances would be overshadowed by the tumult that would shake Europe at the end of the century: the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.
After the French Revolution of 1789, Spain joined the countries that allied themselves to combat the revolution. An army led by General Ricardos reconquered Roussillon, but just a few years later, in 1794, French troops expelled them and invaded Spanish territory. Godoy's rise to prime minister entailed a policy of appeasement with France: with the Peace of Basel "Treaty of Basel (July 22, 1795)") of 1795, French withdrawal was achieved in exchange for half of Hispaniola (what is today the Dominican Republic).
In 1796 the Treaty of San Ildefonso "Treaty of San Ildefonso (1796)") marked the alliance with Napoleonic France against Great Britain, which marked the union of their respective armed forces. The naval combat at Cape San Vicente was a relative victory for the British, which they did not know how to take advantage of, although in Cádiz and Santa Cruz de Tenerife the British fleet suffered two failures. The most notable was the loss "Invasion of Trinidad (1797)") of Trinidad Island (Trinidad and Tobago) in 1797 and Menorca. In 1802, the Peace of Amiens was signed, a truce that allowed Spain to recover Menorca.
Hostilities soon resumed, and the Napoleonic project of a cross-Channel invasion was developed. However, the destruction of the allied Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) ruined the plan. The absolute domination of the sea by the British Royal Navy was sterile in the colonial struggle against Spain, reaping resounding failures during the English attempts to invade the Río de la Plata in 1806 and 1807 or Venezuela. However, the Napoleonic occupation of peninsular Spain gave way to liberal movements within Hispanicism, which, supported by the United Kingdom, broke the consensus within the Spanish Empire and allowed the passage of the British colonial intervention by sending tons of weapons, ships and thousands of combatants for the peninsular war and support for the revolutionaries.[47].
The Disaster of '98 and the loss of the Caribbean and Philippine islands
In what remained of the Empire, the War of Independence was followed by an absolute monarchy (ominous decade), dynastic conflicts, absolutist uprisings, liberal pronouncements and power struggles between liberal factions that only allowed certain periods stable enough for the development of an active foreign policy. Prominent among these is the government of Leopoldo O'Donnell (1856-1863), who, after a harsh repression of dissent, was able to actively intervene again on the international scene: a war was won against Morocco with the victories of Tetouan and Wad-Ras that allowed the expansion of Ceuta and the concession of the plaza of Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequena (identified with Sidi Ifni) on the Atlantic coast facing the Canary Islands.
An attempt was also made to pacify the Philippines, the emperor of Mexico was supported (supported by the colonial powers) and, together with the French, a punitive expedition was sent to Cochinchina, where several missionaries had been murdered. At the same time, Pedro Santana, at the head of a certain Dominican faction, returned what is now the Dominican Republic to an imperial status only for the vicissitudes of the island's internal politics and Haitian support to cause it to be definitively lost in 1865.
The economic crisis derived from the rise in the price of cotton due to the American Civil War, the poor harvests and the poor results of the attempts to modernize agriculture (confiscation), infrastructure (railway) put an end to the O'Donnell regime and its imperialist experience. Wars and disputes between progressives, liberals and conservatives, who refused to accept that the country had a low status on an international scale, became frequent. Growing discontent over instability and the perennial economic crisis led to the outbreak of a revolution that gave way to political experiments and the First Spanish Republic. The subsequent monarchical restoration of 1875 marked a new, more favorable period, when Alfonso XII and his ministers had some success in regaining the vigor of Spanish politics and prestige, in part by having accepted the reality of Spanish circumstances and working intelligently.
Despite these ups and downs, Spain had maintained control of the last fragments of its empire until the increase in the level of nationalism and anti-colonial uprisings in several areas, which broke out during the 1870s. This conflict would become international as a result of the involvement of the United States, leading to the Spanish-American War of 1898, when a weak Spain faced a much stronger United States that needed new markets to continue expanding its already strong economy.
The trigger for this war was the sinking of the Maine battleship "USS Maine (ACR-1)"), for which Spain was blamed (after an aggressive press campaign by William Randolph Hearst). The latest investigations have not proven anything conclusively: neither whether it was an accident or external sabotage, nor who would be responsible, even so there is a theory that it was the Americans themselves who caused the fire on the Maine with the purpose of sinking it, blaming Spain and provoking a war to seize the Spanish overseas provinces, defining themselves as defenders of the Cubans against Spanish tyranny. This war ended with a humiliating Spanish defeat and the independence of Cuba.
In the Philippines, the independence movement also had American support. Spain was forced to request an armistice, and the Treaty of Paris "Treaty of Paris (1898)") was signed, by which Cuba was definitively renounced and the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam were ceded to the United States. This series of events is known as the "disaster of '98." The last Spanish territories in Oceania were eventually sold to Germany in the German-Spanish Treaty of 1899 "German-Spanish Treaty (1899)").
The last territories, Africa (1885-1975)
Since 1778, with the Treaty of El Pardo "Treaty of El Pardo (1778)"), by which the Portuguese ceded to Spain in exchange for territories in South America on the island of Bioko and its nearby islets as well as the commercial rights of the territory between the Niger and Ogoué rivers, Spain maintained a presence in the Gulf of Guinea. In the 19th century, some explorers, such as Manuel Iradier, crossed this limit.
Meanwhile, fighting in the Mediterranean had continued, losing Spanish positions in North Africa. In 1848, however, Spanish troops conquered the Chafarinas Islands.
The loss of most of the American Empire led Spain to increasingly focus on its dominions in Africa, especially after the defeat against the United States in the Spanish-American War of 1898.
In 1860, after the war against Morocco, Spain obtained the territory of Sidi Ifni through the Treaty of Wad-Ras. At the Berlin Conference of 1884, Spain obtained recognition of sovereignty over the territories explored by Emilio Bonelli from Cape Bojador to Cabo Blanco "Cape Blanco (Mauritania)") as Spanish Sahara, whose northern limit was finally defined by the Treaty of Paris of 1900.
Regarding the territory of the coast of Guinea in western equatorial Africa, Spain had coastal possessions, called Spanish Guinea and claimed a coastal territory that diffusely extended between the mouth of the Niger River in the north to the Ogoué River in the south,[56] however such claims were restricted to the coasts and islands of current Equatorial Guinea, although even at the end of the century Spain maintained Transpaís claims until almost reaching the left banks of the Congo River.[57] Conflicting claims to Guinea were resolved in the Treaty of Paris of 1900, Río Muni became a protectorate in 1885 and a colony "Colony (administrative)") in 1900.
Within the disputes between the European powers over the division of Africa, in 1912 France obtained the French protectorate of Morocco through the Treaty of Fez with Morocco. On November 27, 1912, France promoted the Franco-Spanish treaty that granted Spain the Spanish protectorate of Morocco, with the aim of diluting its presence in Morocco in the face of the misgivings of Germany and the other powers over French colonial hegemony in North Africa. Its capital was Tetouan, its southern part "Cape Juby (territory of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco)") bordered the Spanish Sahara and one of its greatest economic assets were the mines of the Rif. Resistance to the Spanish occupation was manifested in the Rif War, when the Annual disaster occurred, the greatest defeat in the history of the Spanish army and the final victory in 1927.
Between 1926 and 1959, Bioko and Río Muni "Continental Region (Equatorial Guinea)") were united under the name of Spanish Guinea.
Spain lost interest in developing an extensive economic structure in the African colonies during the first part of the century. However, he developed extensive cocoa plantations, for which thousands of Nigerians were introduced as workers. The Spanish also helped Equatorial Guinea achieve one of the best literacy levels on the continent and develop a network of health facilities.
In 1956, Spain returned the northern territory of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco to Morocco, preserving the southern territory, called Cape Juby "Cape Juby (territory of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco)"), considering that, although it had been administered as a protectorate by Spain, Morocco lacked legal or historical arguments to claim it. In 1957 Mohamed V promoted the Ifni-Sahara war against Spain and France, resolved by the Cintra Agreement by which Spain ceded Cape Juby and most of Ifni to Morocco.
In 1959, the Spanish territory of the Gulf of Guinea was granted the status of a Spanish overseas province. As a Spanish Equatorial Region, it was governed by a governor general who exercised military and civil powers. The first local elections were held in 1960, and the first attorneys in Equatoguinean courts were elected. Through the Basic Law of December 1963, the two provinces were reunified as Equatorial Guinea and endowed with limited autonomy, with bodies common to the entire territory (including a legislative body) and bodies specific to each province. Although the commissioner general appointed by the Spanish government had broad powers, the General Assembly of Equatorial Guinea had considerable initiative in formulating laws and regulations.
In March 1968, under pressure from Equatoguinean nationalists and the United Nations, Spain announced that it would grant independence. Already independent in 1968, Equatorial Guinea had one of the highest per capita incomes in all of Africa.
As a result of the decolonization processes promoted by the UN, in 1969 the diplomatic process culminated in Spain handing over Sidi Ifni to Morocco. Finally, in 1976 the abandonment of the Spanish Sahara, with its fishing and mining wealth, was completed by the Madrid agreement. During the political instability of late Francoism, this was forced by the political decolonization urged by the UN and the pre-war climate of which the green march and the Polisario Front attacks were exponents.
Territories of the Spanish Empire
No existe una postura unánime entre los historiadores sobre los territorios concretos de España porque, en ocasiones, resulta difícil delimitar si determinado lugar era parte de España o formaba parte de las posesiones del rey de España, o si el territorio era una posesión efectiva o jurídica, en épocas que abarcan siglos, incorporados por heredados "Herencia (derecho)") o conquistados, y en las que no estaban igualmente definidas la diferencia entre las posesiones del rey y las de la nación, como tampoco lo estaba la hacienda o la herencia ni el derecho internacional. A pesar de todo, el que la Monarquía Hispánica fuera una monarquía autoritaria, casi absolutista, hace que la tesis más lógica sea la de que todas las posesiones del rey, eran posesiones de la nación. De hecho no se puede hablar de una separación de escudo nacional y escudo real hasta bien entrado el siglo , lo cual pone de manifiesto que el rey de España era prácticamente lo mismo que el Estado, atendiendo a las delimitaciones del régimen polisinodial por el que se regía el Imperio español.
America
Plus all the territories currently belonging to Latin America.
The Kingdoms of the Indies were subordinated to the Crown of Castile by order of Isabella the Catholic, which was evident in the fact that the Council of the Indies was initially an extension of the Council of Castile, and that the Indian Law began in the Seven Partidas of the Kingdom of Castile and not in the Fueros of Aragon. In turn, during the Iberian Union "Unión Ibérica (1580-1640)"), they would be in a different jurisdiction than that of the Council of Portugal.
• - Viceroyalty of the Indies (1492-1535): first territorial entity formed after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, it was made up of all the territories discovered, explored, claimed and controlled by the Spanish in the New World, mainly the Antilles and Castilla de Oro (Panama). Succeeded by the viceroyalty of New Spain after the conquest of the Aztec empire.
• - Viceroyalty of New Spain (1535-1821): composed of the current countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and the southwestern states of the United States (California, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Nevada, Florida, Utah, Louisiana and part of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma) and the Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Saint Martin Island, Anguilla "Anguilla (dependency)"), Bonaire, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada "Grenada (country)"), Curaçao, Aruba, Jamaica, Virgin Islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Guadeloupe "Guadeloupe (France")), Martinique, Saint Barthelemy "Saint Barthelemy (France")), Barbados, Turks and Caicos Islands, Saint Lucia and the Cayman Islands), Most of these were lost in the century with the exception of Trinidad (ceded to the United Kingdom in 1797), Hispaniola, Cuba and Puerto Rico, in addition to the Philippine Islands in Asia and the Mariana Islands and the Carolinas in Oceania. It also included claims to the east coast of the modern United States. Spain kept these territories under its control until 1821, the year it became independent, although in several of the states of the Great Plains and the Lesser Antilles there was no stable Spanish presence.
Captaincy General of Santo Domingo (1535-1795; 1809-1821; 1861-1865): it was the first Spanish province in the New World, and included the entire island of Hispaniola, the eastern part of which later became the Dominican Republic, while the western part became the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1697, which would eventually become independent as Haiti.
Captaincy General of Cuba (1777-1898): during the previous two centuries, a New Spain governorate was made up of the island of Cuba and adjacent areas, as well as Florida and Louisiana.
Governorate of Louisiana (1764-1803): ceded by France, it incorporated territories of the current states of the American Midwest (Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Minnesota and Iowa).
Captaincy General of Guatemala (1543-1821): also known as the Kingdom of Guatemala, it was made up of the territories of Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and the Mexican state of Chiapas. It declared its independence in 1821, to join the First Mexican Empire, from which it separated (except Chiapas) on July 1, 1823.
Captaincy General of Puerto Rico (1582-1898), later province: it covered the island of Puerto Rico and other minor islands adjacent to it.
Captaincy General of Yucatán (1565-1821): included the current Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo and eastern Tabasco. The inclusion of Belize and El Petén are a source of controversy by some historians.[58]
General Command of the Internal Provinces (1776-1821): it was created by King Charles III through a royal decree of August 22, 1776, giving the commanding general, over these previously established provinces, powers comparable to those of the viceroy of New Spain; It included the current territories of Sonora and Sinaloa, the Californias, Coahuila, Nuevo Reino de León, Nuevo Santander, Texas, Nueva Vizcaya, and New Mexico. Between 1787 and 1790 and between 1813 and 1821 it was divided into two General Commands: East and West.
Nutca Territory (1789-1795): although the effective presence was reduced to the forts of San Miguel de Nutca and Núñez Gaona "Neah Bay (Washington)"), the claimed territory included the current states of the American northwest (Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Washington "Washington (state)"), as well as the southwest of the Canadian province of British Columbia, the Yukon Territory and the current US state of Alaska up to parallel 61° N. Spanish settlements were evicted in 1795 as agreed by the Nutca Conventions and territorial claims were ceded to the United States by the Adams-Onís Treaty (1819).
• - Viceroyalty of Peru (1542-1824): Throughout its existence it covered the territory of the current countries of Peru, Panama, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Guyana, Suriname, Colombia (including the San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina Archipelago until 1544), Argentina (including the Malvinas Islands until 1760), Chile (including the Juan Fernández Archipelago, the Desventuradas, Sala y Gómez Island, Rapa Nui Island and adjacent to it), Ecuador (including the Galapagos Islands), as well as territories of the North, Central-West, Southeast, and South regions of Brazil (the entirety of the current states of Acre "Acre (Brazil)"), Amazonas "Amazonas (Brazil)"), Rondonia, Roraima, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Amapá, and Río Grande of the South, most of the present-day states of Pará, Goiás, Paraná, Santa Catarina, as well as minor parts of the present-day states of Tocantins, Minas Gerais, and Sao Paulo), as well as Venezuela (roughly the present-day states of Amazonas "Estado Amazonas (Venezuela)", and Bolívar), and of France (the present-day overseas department of French Guiana). These territories also include territorial claims in the regions of the Amazon, the Gran Chaco, and Patagonia, and in other continents such as Oceania and Antarctica. The territory of the viceroyalty was organized, in addition to the entities detailed below, through Royal Courts, namely: Panama, Lima, Santafé de Bogotá, Charcas, Quito, Chile, Buenos Aires, and Cuzco. In the 19th century, Peru suffered severe territorial dismemberments at the hands of the Bourbons "House of Bourbon (Spain)"), giving rise to two new viceroyalties: New Granada, and the Río de la Plata, thus leaving only the Royal Courts of Lima and Cuzco under its jurisdiction, until its independence.
Captaincy General of Chile (1541-1818): Also called the Kingdom of Chile, it was under the jurisdiction of the viceroyalty of Peru until 1798, the year in which it obtained independence from said entity. "Modern Chile" on the map of Cano and Olmedilla of 1775[60][61]), the Terra Australis[62][63][64] and the island of San Carlos[65] in Polynesia.
The territory of Tucumán, which had originally been part of this general captaincy, passed to the Government of Buenos Aires and, with the creation of the viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, the territories of the cities of San Juan and Mendoza (Cuyo) were transferred. Other territories were recovered by the Mapuche indigenous people or became in legal limbo with the viceroyalty of Peru, as is the case of Chiloé.
General Command of Maynas (1802-1822): Created by royal decree of 1802. It approximately covered the area of the current Peruvian departments of San Martín, Loreto and Ucayali. This region, whose governor reported directly to the viceroy of Peru, received special treatment for geopolitical and military reasons, mainly in order to prevent Portugal from taking over the territory in question.
Government of Guayaquil (1764-1820): Created from the territories that made up the Corregimiento of Guayaquil. It had its headquarters in the city of Santiago de Guayaquil, and since the creation of the viceroyalty of New Granada, its jurisdiction was modified several times, becoming alternately dependent on both said viceroyalty and the viceroyalty of Peru.
Government of Chiloé (1567-1826): Its creation dates back to the beginning of the Spanish conquest in 1567, and it depended on the Captaincy General of Chile until 1767, passing that year provisionally to the viceroyalty of Peru for the construction of defenses,[66] a situation that remained until its dissolution in 1824. On October 1, 1780, the king issued another royal order returning Chiloé to the dependence of the government of Chile, but the order was never carried out by the viceroy of Peru, which was among his powers since any royal order could not be executed until receiving the fulfillment of the viceroy. All official crown maps continued to show Chiloé and its district within Chile. The mayor's office depended on the religious matters of the bishopric of Concepción, while on the military level it had to commensurate its decisions with the commander of the Chilean Borders.[61]
Puerto de Nuestra Señora del Paposo (1803-1824): After receiving Andreu y Guerrero on June 27, 1803, King Carlos IV decided on October 1 of that year, through a royal order, the transfer of Paposo and its adjacent territory to the viceroyalty of Peru, without modifying the ecclesiastical jurisdictions that actually existed.
Governorate of Terra Australis (1539-1555): in the territories south of the Strait of Magellan (Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn) between the line of the treaty of Tordesillas and that of the treaty of Zaragoza, they limit
• - Viceroyalty of New Granada (1717-1723;1739-1822): created with territories of the northern portion of the viceroyalty of Peru, it included the current countries of Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, northern Brazil, western Guyana, and the Galapagos Islands.
Captaincy General of Venezuela (1777-1823): created by Charles III of Spain, civilly and militarily autonomous from the viceroyalty of New Granada. It corresponded to the current territory of Venezuela, western Guyana and the island of Trinidad.
• - Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (1776-1818): created with territories from the southern portion of the viceroyalty of Peru, it included the current countries of Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and part of central and northern Argentina, as well as southern Brazil. It included the Falkland Islands (until 1810) and territories in the Gulf of Guinea, Africa. The monarch commissioned the viceroys of Buenos Aires, starting in 1778, to found settlements on the coasts of Eastern Patagonia, arranging that they accidentally depended on the viceroyalty due to proximity issues, without this altering the political jurisdiction of the Atlantic Patagonian coastline, making it explicit as part of the kingdom of Chile in the royal decree of June 8, 1778.[60] In 1779, the fort and port of San José de la Candelaria, in the San José Gulf, northeast of the Chubut River. In 1775 the fort was incorporated into the Patagones Command, whose headquarters was the Carmen de Patagones fort. At the end of the century, attempts to incorporate Patagonia into the Spanish Empire were resumed, but were paralyzed with the Spanish-American independence of 1810.[75][76].
During the Iberian Union (1580-1640), the territories of the Portuguese Empire in America also came under the government of the House of Austria, and the Crown of Portugal would keep its traditions and particular laws intact (Fuero), being a different jurisdiction despite the political Union, and not a subdivision:
• - Estado do Brasil (1580-1608; 1612-1640): formed around the coast of Brazil. Between 1608 and 1612 it was divided into two General Governments, one with its capital in Bahia and the other in Rio de Janeiro.
• - Estado do Maranhão (1621-1640): formed by the Captaincies of Maranhão, Grão-Pará and Ceará when dividing the State of Brazil.
Asia and Oceania
• - Captaincy General of the Philippines (1565-1898): also known as the Spanish East Indies, it was part of the viceroyalty of New Spain until the independence of Mexico in 1821. It was made up of the archipelago of the Philippines, including the islands of Mindanao and Joló, although these were not subjugated until the 2nd century, and in Oceania by the Caroline and Mariana Islands (mainly Guam). It also included claims to Sabah, in northern Borneo until 1885. Multiple territories temporarily occupied by Spain (such as Brunei during the seventy-two-day "War of Castile (Borneo)") in 1578) were also part of the Captaincy General of the Philippines.
Spanish Protectorate of Cambodia
Protectorate over Cambodia (1597-1599): briefly held when a group of Spanish and Portuguese adventurers placed King Barom Reachea II on the throne and made him accept a Spanish protectorate, but both the monarch and his foreign supporters were assassinated by Malay Muslims two years later.
Protectorate over Brunei (1578): briefly controlled by Spain with the assistance of local nobles, such as Pengiran Seri Lela") and Pengiran Seri Ratna"), who offered subjugation in exchange for taking over the throne usurped by Saiful Rijal.[77]
Spanish Moluccas
Governorate of the Moluccas (1606-1663): consisting of a protectorate over the sultanate of Tidore (1526-1545; 1580-1663) and on half of the island of Ternate (1606-1663), in addition to some minor settlements (some of Portuguese origin) in the rest of the Moluccas islands and northern Sulawesi, in Indonesia.[78][79]
Spanish Formosa
Governorate of Formosa (1626-1642): located in the north of the island of Taiwan with the purpose of trading with China, it was part of the viceroyalty of New Spain for 16 years.
Protectorate over Joló (1851-1898): obtained after the Balanguingui Expedition, in which the Sultan's dependencies would continue under his government if they agreed to subjugate the Philippines under the sovereignty of Spain.[80] It would be ratified internationally by the Madrid Protocol of 1885 (although ceding northern Borneo to a British Protectorate that would be part of British Malaysia, while Spain would remain with the Joló Archipelago until the American Occupation of the Philippines).[81].
• - El Piñal "El Piñal (China)") (1598-1600): Brief trading post in China under Castilian administration by concession of the Ming.
Spanish expeditions to the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Africa
• - Canary Islands (since 1479/1496): first territory conquered by the crown of Castile overseas, currently a Spanish autonomous community.
• - North African presidios (1479-end of the century): settlements taken by Castile on the coast of North Africa to expand and try to control Barbary piracy. After the Capitulation of Cintra in 1509, the area of Spanish influence was delimited to include present-day Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, while Portugal received the Atlantic coast of Africa.
Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequena (1479-1524):, Melilla (since 1497, currently a Spanish autonomous city), Cazaza (1505-1532), Mazalquivir (1505-1708; 1732-1792), the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera (1508-1522; since 1564, currently a plaza of Spanish sovereignty), Orán "Orán (Algeria)") (1509-1708; 1732-1792), Bejaia (1510-1555), the Rock of Algiers (1510-1529), Tripoli "Tripoli (Libya)") (1510-1523), Djerba "Djerba (Tunisia)") (1521-1524; 1551-1560), Honaine (1531-1535), Bizerte (1535-1573), La Goleta (1535-1574), Tunis "Tunisia (city)") (1535-1574), Bona (1535-1540), Monastir "Monastir (Tunisia)") (1541-1550), Susa "Susa (Tunisia)") (1541-1550), Mahdía (1550-1553), the Al Hoceima Islands (since 1559, currently a place of Spanish sovereignty), La Mamora (1614-1681),[90] Larache (1610-1689)[n. 2], Ceuta (since 1640, previously Portuguese, currently a Spanish autonomous city) and the Chafarinas Islands (since 1848, currently a place of Spanish sovereignty).
Spanish Guinea and territorial claims (in dark red its territory for 1960).
• - Spanish Guinea (1777 de jure/1843 de facto-1968): officially ceded by Portugal by the treaties of San Ildefonso "Treaty of San Ildefonso (1777)") and El Pardo "Treaty of El Pardo (1778)"), initially consisted of the islands of Fernando Poo (present-day Bioko) and Annobón and was part of the viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, but would not be effectively occupied until the middle of the century, adding in 1885 the continental zone of the Río Muni.
Spanish colonial project in the Red Sea during the late 19th century to improve communication between peninsular Spain and the Philippines.[91].
• - Spanish Assab (1887-1890 de jure/not occupied de facto): brief cession by Italian Eritrea of a small piece of territory on the Eritrean coast of Danakil (between Buia and Mergabela/Margableh, near Alela, opposite the island of Um Ālbahār), located in the Bay of Assab with access to the Red Sea, as agreed in the Mediterranean Pacts of 1887 "in:Mediterranean Agreements (1887)"). The Spanish were tacitly expected to help in the defense of Italian Assab against conflicts with the Ethiopian Empire. However, the agreed delivery would not be completed due to British and German pressure.[92][93]
Europe
• - Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands:
Territories of the Crown of Castile: Formed by the elevation of the county of Castile to a kingdom and its subsequent union with the Kingdom of León. Its union of the Crown of Castile with Aragon would give way to peninsular Spain and the current Spanish Monarchy. They would be administered by the Council of Castile.
Kingdom of Galicia
Principality of Asturias
Kingdom of León
Kingdom of Castile
Kingdom of Toledo "Kingdom of Toledo (Crown of Castile)")
Kingdom of Murcia "Kingdom of Murcia (Crown of Castile)")
Kingdom of Jaén "Kingdom of Jaén (Crown of Castile)")
Kingdom of Córdoba "Kingdom of Córdoba (Crown of Castile)")
Kingdom of Seville "Kingdom of Seville (Crown of Castile)")
Gibraltar: stronghold located in the strait of the same name, ceded to Great Britain after the Peace of Utrecht (1713).
Kingdom of Granada "Kingdom of Granada (Crown of Castile)")
Molina Lordship
Lordship of Vizcaya
Kingdom of Navarra: Its annexation to the Union of Castile and Aragon would integrate it into peninsular Spain.
Lower Navarra: ultra-Pyrenean territory definitively abandoned in 1530 due to its difficult defense against the French.[94]
Territories of the Crown of Aragon: Its union with Castile would give way to peninsular Spain and the current Spanish Monarchy. They would be administered by the Council of Aragon
Kingdom of Aragon
Kingdom of Valencia
Principality of Catalonia: Composed of the Catalan Counties south of the Pyrenees.
Barcelona County
Urgell County
Principality of Andorra: Donated by Ferdinand the Catholic to Germana de Foix (vassal of the King of France) and integrated into the French Monarchy between 1607 and 1815.
Pallars County
Lordship of Tarragona")
Roussillon: ultra-Pyrenean territory ceded to France after the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659) and the Treaty of Llivia (1660). The town of Llivia remained under Spanish sovereignty.
Territories under the area of influence of the Empire
Estos eran regiones bajo la Esfera de influencia española en una relación de Estado cliente, Protectorado informal o bajo alguna forma de Dominación social "Dominación (sociología)") indirecta, pero que no necesariamente habían sido anexados formalmente a la Monarquía Española.
During the Pax Hispanica, the entire Italian peninsula (especially southern Italy) came to be within the area of influence of the Spanish Empire through the social and political power "Power (social and political)") that the territories of Spanish Italy had among their neighbors, first by the Crown of Aragon, then by the Council of Italy with the Habsburgs of Madrid aided by the control of the [SIRG in the Kingdom of Italy "Kingdom of Italy (Holy Roman Empire)") northern], and finally by the cadet branches of the Spanish Bourbons among the Italian monarchies. All Italian political entities that had little geopolitical power would become satellite states of the Hispanic Monarchy, forming part of a “Spanish system” of political, social and/or economic influence on the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean. Although some Italian nationalist authors have postulated that it was a form of Colonialism, several academic authors consider that it was rather a form of political clientelism.[36].
• - Republic of Genoa (1528-1682): Under Spanish protectorate from 1528, with the rise of Andrea Doria through military aid from Charles V (who rejected proposals to annex it directly to the Italian viceroyalty),[100] until the War of the Reunions when they renounced their alliance with Spain in favor of France. It was located in the Liguria region (blocking the access to the sea to the Spanish Milanese) and they were under pressure from the Hispanic Monarchy to integrate the Spanish Way. The Genoese, as bankers who financed a large part of the companies of the Spanish Empire, would be dependent on the economic results of the Spanish economy (having a golden age simultaneous with the Golden Age, and a decline simultaneous with the decline of peninsular Spain), and also closely linked to a de facto military dependence against its rivals (Venice and Savoy) under the French sphere of influence.
Corsica: annexed by Aragon during the Middle Ages until its annexation by the Genoese.
• - Papal States (1555-1815): Since the end of the Italian wars "Italian Wars (1494-1559)"), the States of the Church would be part of the Spanish system, with a relationship of military Protectorate that would extend until the Congress of Vienna (which recognized papal neutrality and independence in foreign relations). The Spanish Monarchy, in addition to constantly providing Rome with its military defense against French, Ottoman or Austro-German invasions; He had great influence over the College of Cardinals, usually preventing anti-Spanish candidates to succeed the See of Rome from being elected Pope. Furthermore, aristocratic families of the Pontifical Nobility would develop strong ties with the king of Spain, being dual vassals through acquiring properties in Spanish Italy (especially the Kingdom of Naples). Thus, they served as multipliers of their power and means for Spain to exercise it through its ambassadors at the Roman court.[36].
• - Duchy of Savoy (1555-1610): during the Golden Age with great Spanish influence through the military dependence of Charles III of Savoy and Manuel Filibert of Savoy on Spain to free their domains from French occupation and influence, until the Treaty of Bruzolo") of 1610 when it once again entered the French orbit.
During the Pax Hispanica, especially through the alliances between the Spanish Habsburgs with the Austrian Habsburgs (who had hegemony in the Kingdom of Germany as Emperors of the Holy Empire), as well as through the social and political power of the Spanish fiefdoms of the Council of Flanders or the Council of Italy in the SIRG, the Spanish Empire would achieve a sphere of influence among the German States that reached its peak with the personal union of Charles V of Germany and I of Spain, but would be weakened by the challenges of the Protestant Reformation and the hostility of the North German princes towards the Catholic Church (of which Spain was a close ally during the European Religious Wars, especially through the Jesuit Order, which had a large predominance of Spanish theologians close to the Spanish Court during the Counter-Reformation). For the most part it consisted of the German territories through which the Spanish Way crossed, predominantly the Catholic monarchies of Southern Germany, with more intensity in the Rhine-Meuse region.[101][102] The legacy of the influence of the Hispanic monarchy on the SIRG was the Spanish fashion among European courts.
• - The Principality of Liège (1555-1714): Being surrounded by the Spanish Netherlands, it would be within its sphere of political, economic and military influence during the entire period in which Spain had dominion over modern Belgium until the end of the War of Spanish Succession.
• - The Catholic cantons of the Old Swiss Confederation (1587-1648): After Ludwig Pfyffer established himself as the most powerful Catholic in Switzerland at the end of the century, he would seek rapprochements with the Hispanic Monarchy through Carlos Borromeo (archbishop of Milan) to be a protector of the Swiss states of the Goldener Bund (an alliance of Catholic cantons to protect themselves from the Protestant cantons, the French and other enemies to its autonomy). Spanish influence would end with the independence of Switzerland from the SIRG, with recognition of its perpetual Neutrality, as well as French pressure to be the new protector of the Catholic cantons after the Peace of Westphalia.[103][104].
• - The Duchy of Bavaria (1559-1648): It would occur through the influence of the Spanish Jesuits from the middle of the government of Albert V of Bavaria, reaching its climax with the Colonial War in which the Wittelsbachs depended on Spanish support to emerge victorious. Spanish influence would end with the Thirty Years' War.[26].
• - The Electorate of Cologne (1586-1648): It would occur through the victory of the Bavarians in the Cologne War, in turn allowing Spanish military influence in the territory to integrate it into the Spanish Way during the rest of the Eighty Years' War.
• - The Duchy of Jülich (1542-1666): It would occur after the victory of Charles V over Duke William V (consolidated in the Treaty of Venlo) and reinforced after the Crisis of the Juliers-Cleveris succession with the Spanish occupation of important fortresses in the area. Ended with the Treaty of Cleves.
In Africa
During the Iberian Union (1580-1640), the Hispanic Monarchy was free to participate in Africa (which had been designated to the Portuguese Empire in exchange for it not interfering in Spanish America according to the Treaty of Tordesillas) through the Council of Portugal. Previously, the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon attempted to colonize the Maghreb in a broader Mediterranean imperial project against Muslim Expansion.
At the beginning of the century, the Spanish Empire managed to establish a Sphere of influence in North Africa that allowed it to intervene in the dynastic disputes of the regional emirs, reaching its climax with the subjugation of the Ziyanid Kingdom of Tlemcen (present-day Algeria) in 1510 and that of the Hafsida Kingdom of Ifriquia (present-day Tunisia and northwest Libya) in 1535.[105] However, There was immediately a proxy war against the sphere of influence of the Ottoman Empire, which would decline the projection of Spanish power in the North African region through Barbary Piracy.[106] On the other hand, the Republic of Sale established by the Moriscos, after becoming independent from the Saadi Sultanate of Morocco, occasionally served as a client state of Spain.[105]
Thus, during this period the Spanish Empire would hold the Protectorate of Portuguese Angola over the Kingdom of Congo (including its vassals such as Ngoyo, Kakongo, Loango, Ndongo, Matamba, etc.), granting a projection of informal power in Central Africa.[107] On the other hand, through the Jesuit Order, the Hispanic Monarchy would inherit the Sphere of military influence of the Crown of Portugal over the Ethiopian Empire against the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa, along with attempts to convert the Solomonic Dynasty to Catholicism (especially with Susenyos I of Ethiopia)[108] to achieve its full integration into the Res publica christiana through Spanish-Portuguese and papal protection.[109].
Administration of the Empire
El matrimonio de los Reyes Católicos (Isabel I de Castilla y Fernando II de Aragón) supuso una única dirección de ambos reinos bajo una administración superior única, el Consejo Real. Se unificó la hacienda (pero no los impuestos), la política interior y exterior, el ejército, las órdenes militares y la Inquisición y, en lo que no afectase a estos temas, cada reino mantuvo su propia administración, moneda, normas jurídicas, etc.
De esa forma, la formación de un estado unificado al estilo de las naciones-Estado nunca llegó a ser una realidad en España. Los Reyes Católicos introdujeron un estado moderno absolutista en sus dominios, restringiendo el poder de la nobleza, organizando su gobierno en torno a los Consejos y dividiendo el país en Reales Audiencias como órganos superiores de justicia, y manteniendo los fueros y tradiciones de sus pueblos.
La organización administrativa de las nuevas conquistas en América parte con la incorporación de las Indias a la Corona de Castilla a título de «descubrimiento» (res nullius), apoyados por la donación papal. Isabel la Católica, en su testamento, refuerza la pertenencia a esta corona. Sin embargo, será el Consejo de Indias y no el Consejo de Castilla el que asesore al rey sobre las nuevas tierras. Este Consejo se convirtió en el máximo órgano administrativo sobre las posesiones americanas. El comercio con América se centralizó a través de la Casa de Contratación, con sede en Sevilla, restringiéndose a esta los derechos comerciales sobre el Nuevo Mundo, lo que supuso un impulso demográfico para Sevilla, al obligar a los comerciantes españoles y extranjeros a establecerse en dicha ciudad.
A la muerte de los Reyes Católicos, Carlos I de España, manteniendo formalmente a su madre como reina, pasó a gobernar las nuevas tierras. Las Indias fueron incorporadas definitivamente a la Corona de Castilla en 1519.
La situación se mantuvo parecida durante el reinado de Felipe II, que hereda de su padre la Corona de España, pero no la del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico y las posesiones de los Habsburgo. Bajo su reinado, Portugal y su imperio fueron anexionados a la Monarquía Hispánica, aunque no así a la Corona de Castilla, manteniendo Portugal una posición semejante a la Corona de Aragón. Bajo los llamados Austrias Menores (Felipe III, Felipe IV y Carlos II) las Provincias Unidas alcanzaron una independencia de facto que les sería reconocida en 1648.
A la muerte de Carlos II, le sucede Felipe V. Dos años después de su toma de posesión, se presenta un nuevo pretendiente, Carlos de Austria, apoyado por Inglaterra y Austria, y esto provoca la guerra de sucesión española que supuso la pérdida de los reinos italianos y de lo que quedaba de los Países Bajos españoles.
Tras la derrota del pretendiente austriaco a la sucesión del trono, el nuevo rey, Felipe V de España va publicando los decretos de Nueva Planta, diferentes para Aragón y Valencia (1707), Aragón (1711), Baleares (1715), y Cataluña (1716). En ellos, como castigo por su rebelión, deroga parte de los fueros y derechos de los territorios de la Corona de Aragón sobre los que considera tener derecho de conquista. Los decretos tenían matices y efectos diferentes según el territorio histórico y no afectaron ni al Valle de Arán, ni a Navarra ni a las Provincias Vascongadas, los cuales mantienen todos sus fueros por haber sido leales a Felipe de Anjou. Por ejemplo, Cataluña mantiene su derecho civil y parte de sus fueros e instituciones, mientras que Valencia no.
America and the Philippines
In the Indies, given its distance from the metropolis, an administrative organization was gradually developed, which rested on a series of territorial bodies or authorities (viceroys, governors, royal audiences, magistrates, etc.), subject to the central bodies (king and the Council of the Indies).
The Council of the Indies, since its foundation in 1524, was the highest administrative body in relation to the Indies. Among its functions were:
• - In the Temporary Government: all government administration is the responsibility of the Council of the Indies:
Planning and proposal to the King of policies related to the New World (population, relationship with the aborigines, trade, etc.).
Administrative organization of the Indies, whether with the creation of new viceroyalties, new Governorates, etc., and their autonomy with respect to the metropolis.
Proposal to the King of the positions of great American authorities (viceroys, governors, oidores, etc.).
Protection of the proper functioning of the authorities, issuing administrative probity measures and appointing a Residency Judge to carry out the respective Residency Trial.
Daily review of correspondence coming from America and other possessions. Likewise, authorization of the export or import of books to America.
Since 1614, authorization of the application of Castilian legislation in the Indies.
Approval or rejection of legislation originating in America.
Preparation of the rules that would govern the Indies and that were dictated by the king as Royal Cédulas or Royal Provisions (similar to the Royal Cédulas but more solemn).
• - In Spiritual Government: concern for spiritual matters, analyzing the rights granted by the Holy See, for example:
Exercise of the Right of Presentation.
Division of the Bishoprics.
Review of papal bulls; accordingly, they are given Exequatur or Royal Pass; Without this the bulls are not fulfilled.
Examination of the provisions of the Church in America and the Synods; These are not fulfilled without the approval of the Council of the Indies.
• - In military matters:
In 1600, the Indian War Board was created within the Council, a committee of "cloak and dagger ministers" (military) in charge of coordinating military strategies with the Supreme War Council.
Crown of Aragon
The integration of the Crown territories into the new monarchy was marked by the hegemonic power of Castile. As in all the territories not incorporated into the Castilian structure (Flanders, Indies, Naples, Sicily, Navarra, Vizcaya, etc.), the Council of Aragon and the viceroy became the center of administration. The Supreme Council of Aragon was a consultative body of the crown created in 1494, following a reform in the royal chancellery carried out by Ferdinand the Catholic, which from 1522 would be made up of a vice-chancellor and six regents, two for the kingdom of Aragon, two for the kingdom of Valencia and two for Catalonia, Mallorca and Sardinia. For their part, the viceroys assumed military, administrative, judicial and financial functions.
Conflicts between local institutions and absolutist kings occurred throughout the modern centuries, until the War of Succession. In 1521, the Germanías took place, a movement that emerged in Valencia among the incipient bourgeoisie against its aristocracy, which lasted until 1523. In Mallorca, another similar movement took place in the same years, led by Joanot Colom. The final defeat of the Germans led to strong repression and the reaffirmation of lordly dominion. Likewise, in 1569, all the deputies of the Generalitat of Catalonia were imprisoned on charges of heresy, in the context of the dispute over the payment of the toilet tax.
In 1591, the "alterations of Aragon" took place, generated when the Justice of Aragon refused to hand over to Philip II the former secretary of the king, Antonio Pérez "Antonio Pérez (royal secretary)"), convicted for the death of the secretary of Don Juan of Austria, who had taken refuge in Aragon. The monarch transgressed all Aragonese privileges to arrest him and even had the Chief Justice of Aragon, Juan de Lanuza, executed.
During the century, tensions were much greater. The financial needs of the monarchs led them to try to increase by all means the fiscal pressure on the territories of the Crown of Aragon, trying to equalize taxes throughout Spain. But the charters guaranteed important protections against royal claims. The Olivares Arms Union projects, which sought for the other kingdoms to share the war burdens of Castile, are an example of this.
After the crown went to war with France in 1635, the deployment of the thirds over Catalonia generated serious conflicts, which triggered the Reapers' War "Uprising of Catalonia (1640)") in 1640. The Generalitat of Catalonia, trying to dominate the popular uprising, declared the formation of a Catalan Republic but, faced with the impossibility of maintaining it, named Louis XIII of France Count of Barcelona. The conflict ended with the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659), by which the county of Roussillon and the northern half of the county of Cerdanya passed forever under French rule and France returned Catalonia in the south of the Pyrenees to Spain. At the end of the century, in 1693, the Second Germanía would also break out in Valencia, a peasant and anti-lordly uprising around the division of the crops.
Population and legal system in America and the Philippines
La sociedad del Imperio español en América se rigió por estatutos completamente nuevos, pero inspirados en los cuerpos legales castellanos, que distinguían diversos tipos de súbditos y los asignaban a ordenamientos jurídicos diferentes: las Repúblicas de españoles y las Repúblicas de indios. La población de los nuevos territorios pertenecía a varias categorías raciales y jurídicas:.
Peninsular Spaniards
They were those subjects of European origin, born in America (creoles) or in the metropolis (peninsulares). The Spanish were never the majority in any of the territories of the empire, except in the metropolis and some others such as Cuba, Argentina, Chile, Puerto Rico and the New Kingdom of León (Northeast of Mexico).[111][112][113].
In the Viceroyalty of Peru, at the level of the entire entity, the peninsular Spaniards did not represent a majority of the population, however, by the year 1796, there were four cities, three of them very important, in which this group was the majority, outnumbering the Indians, mestizos, blacks, and all other human groups. The city of Lima, which in the population records appears as the Cercado district within the Municipality of Lima, was the first of them, in which the number of peninsular Spaniards was almost double the number of Indians, and almost quadruple the number of mestizos. Also, the city of Arequipa, corresponding to the Cercado district of the Municipality of Arequipa, had a number of peninsular Spaniards that quadrupled that of Indians, and mestizos. Likewise, in the city of Cuzco, belonging to the Cercado district of the Municipality of Cuzco, more peninsular Spaniards lived than indigenous and mestizos, although in this case the proportion between the first two was more even. Finally, in the city of Camaná, whose jurisdiction corresponds to the district of Camaná within the Municipality of Arequipa, citizens from peninsular Spain quadrupled the number of Indian citizens, and quintupled the number of mestizo citizens.[114].
The demographic cost for Spain, especially for the Crown of Castile, was irrelevant, so population growth was barely affected by emigration to America.[115][116][117][118].
indigenous
The indigenous population decreased dramatically after the arrival of the European colonizers, without there being a consensus on the initial figures or their decline. The causes are also debated, although they would be a combination of diseases spread by the colonizers (against which the Native Americans had no defenses), wars of conquest, deportations and forced labor.[119].
At first the Indians were taken as slaves and sent to the Peninsula.[120]
Starting in 1495, during the first years of the conquest, Indians were captured on the Caribbean islands and sent as slaves to be sold in Spain.[121][122].
The Crown authorized taking indigenous people on other islands and taking them to work, which multiplied these captures in the years 1509 and 1510 between San Juan Island and other islands in the Caribbean and the Antilles,[123] until King Ferdinand prohibited it with the promulgation of the Laws of Burgos.[121] Spain was the first empire to recognize the humanity and rights of the Indians and prohibit their slavery.[124] In 1542 Spain prohibited slavery. slavery of all Indians.[120] After the destruction of the seven cities in southern Chile, a Royal Decree of 1608 allowed the slavery of indigenous people living in rebel territory; The freedom of the enslaved indigenous people was declared in 1674, but its effects lasted until 1696.[125].
The defense of the rights of indigenous people had its greatest exponents in the School of Salamanca and in Bartolomé de las Casas. In the Junta de Valladolid of 1550, and despite the opposition of Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, it was ruled that the indigenous people had a soul. Previously, the will of Queen Isabella the Catholic had declared the Amerindians subjects of the Crown of Castile, and therefore, not susceptible to slavery, which led to the arrival of black slaves from Africa. However, this legal protection in many cases was more theoretical than practical. According to the American historian Jane Landers, the Spanish had already taken with them to what is now the United States of America the first Africans, who under Hispanic rule received much more humane treatment. In fact, although there were also slaves in Spanish Florida, this land became the promise of freedom for slaves subjected to the cruel exploitation of British plantations.[126].
It was in the oldest city in the United States, St. Augustine "St. Augustine (Florida)") (Florida), where the first settlement of free blacks was established; The Emancipation Proclamation was read, and civil rights activists demonstrated. In reality, the first men of African origin arrived even before the founding of Saint Augustine. The first contingent of slaves was brought to North America by Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón, who in 1526 founded San Miguel de Guadalupe in the present-day territory of Georgia, but this settlement ultimately failed. There were also African slaves, among other expeditions, in the unfortunate adventure of Pánfilo de Narváez in 1528. One of them, named Estevan, was among the four survivors led by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca who wandered for eight years through the inhospitable North American territories until they managed to return to New Spain (Mexico).
Jane Landers points out that those first slaves did not come directly from Africa, but from southern Spain. «Although most Africans in Spain were slaves, not all were. Spanish law and customs guaranteed slaves a moral and legal personality, as well as certain rights and protections that are not found in other slavery systems," he points out. As he explains, "they had the right to personal security and legal mechanisms by which to escape a cruel master," they were even allowed to own and transfer property and undertake legal proceedings, which would lead to the "right to self-purchase." "Social and religious values in Spanish society encouraged honor, charity and paternalism towards the 'miserable classes', which often ameliorated the hardships that slaves suffered and sometimes led their owners to manumit them." Landers points out that this does not mean that Spain or its overseas territories in the New World were free of racial prejudice, but "the emphasis on the humanity and rights of the slave and the lenient attitude toward manumission recognized in Spanish slave codes and social mores made possible the existence of a significant free black class."
Both free Africans and slaves also participated from the first decades in the conquest and subsequent military defense of the colony, creating units normally made up of free blacks who worked as artisans and other skilled workers.
Famous black Spanish conquistadors were, for example, Juan Garrido and Sebastián Toral, in Mexico, Juan Bardales in Honduras and Panama, Juan García in Peru, or Juan Valiente and Juan Beltrán in Chile.
Over time, Spanish Florida became the hope of freedom for slaves in the southern British colonies. In 1693, Charles II guaranteed all slaves that they would be free men if they converted to Catholicism. In exchange, those freed promised to shed every last drop of blood in defense of the Crown and the Faith.[127].
From then on, the number of blacks escaping slavery on British plantations to Florida began to increase. The growing flow of escapees led in 1738 to the creation by the governor, Manuel de Montiano, of the town of Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, the first self-managed community by free blacks and Native Americans with the support of the authorities in the territory of what is now the United States. In this community, located three kilometers from San Agustín and better known as Fort Mose, lived men, women and children of various ethnicities and all the men participated in the militia, which was led by a Mandinka African named Francisco Menéndez.[128].
The socioeconomic institution of the encomienda, which assumed the duty of the encomendero to protect and evangelize the indigenous people in exchange for receiving the taxes demanded from them, led to exploitation and forced labor (for example, through the mita system).[129].
In the 2nd century, the Jesuits established missions or "reductions" in the border area between Portuguese Brazil and Spanish America with the purpose of evangelizing the region. These reductions enjoyed great autonomy, inspired by the freedoms and privileges of the cities, although adapted to the indigenous way of life. Its existence was not viewed very favorably by the settlers, especially the Portuguese from Brazil, and was a cause of tension in the region. After the expulsion of the Jesuits with Charles III, they were dismantled.
Mestizos
Spanish American society had a strong mestizo component that was not found in the French or British colonies. The miscegenation was carried out almost mostly by Spanish men. From the first years of the conquest, marriage with baptized indigenous people was authorized by Spanish laws. Thus, by Royal Decree of Fernando the Catholic, dated January 14, 1514, marriages between Spaniards and Native Americans were authorized. One of those marriages was emblematic: that of Isabel Moctezuma (Tecuichpo Ixcazochtzin, before being baptized, daughter of Moctezuma II and last empress of the Aztecs) with Juan Cano from Extremadura, from whom 5 children would be born who would begin the genealogy of the Dukes of Miravalle, a title that still exists today.
The German historian Enrique Otte collects on page 61 of his book Private Letters of Emigrants to the Indies: 1540-1616 (FCE 1993) a letter from a colonizer named Andrés García, dated February 10, 1571, addressed to his nephew Pedro Guiñón, in Colmenar Viejo, in which he communicates his marriage to an indigenous American woman:
From the beginning of the conquest, the Crown restricted marriage permits so that its subjects did not marry Indian women or any ethnic group other than Europeans, but over time it had no choice but to tolerate, despite itself, free mixed interracial unions.[130] Legitimate marriage unions sanctioned by the Catholic creed were preferably carried out between people of the same ethnic group, so the substrate of illegitimacy will definitively mark to children born from interracial extramarital unions. In Lima, for example, during the 2nd centuries, 91.2% of legitimate marriages were between people of the same ethnic group.[130] In 1778, unions between members of different ethnic groups were prohibited unless they had parental consent.[130]
In fact, Spanish law even prohibited marriage between a serving peninsular Spanish official and a Creole woman; that is, a woman born in America even if she was white of Spanish descent. This did not prevent de facto unions from being carried out between Creole women and Spanish officials.[131].
It is interesting to see how this process of miscegenation was not limited to marriages between Spaniards and indigenous people, but was extended and approved so that Spanish women could also marry Indians. Although there are not many documented cases of Christian women marrying Indians, these unions existed, even among women from "well-known" families, such as the case of María Amarilla de Esquivel, from a distinguished Extremaduran family who married Carlos Inca Yupanqui, grandson of Huayna Cápac.
The children between Spaniards and Indian women were generally called young men of the land"), for not having a recognized father, as happened in the province of Paraguay in the century where a Spaniard, or any European admitted to the Spanish Empire, could have several indigenous concubines.[132].
Africans and others
Starting in 1495, during the first years of the conquest, Indians were captured on the Caribbean islands and sent as slaves to be sold in Spain.[120][121][122][123] Until Queen Isabel prohibited it.[120][121] The legal protection of the Amerindians (sponsored by Fray Bartolomé de las Casas) and the Laws of the Indies, It favored the importation of African slaves, who became the majority of the population in some territories of the Caribbean Sea basin and in Brazil.
Science in the Empire
In recent years, an academic literature has developed around the "Iberian turn" of the scientific revolution.[138][139] Various publications have shown interest in scientific developments in the Spanish Empire, especially the pioneering institutionalization of epistemological and empirical practices in the Casa de la Contratación de Indias in Seville[140] and the imperial reforms of Juan de Ovando that systematized the search for knowledge in the Indies.[141].
These empirical practices resulted in the advancement of various sciences in the early modern Hispanic Age: natural history,[142] medicine,[143][144][145] ethnology,[146] cosmography, astronomy, cartography and geography.[147][148] In the century, the Geographical Relations of the Indies were published in which, by order of Philip II and his minister Juan de Ovando, Viceregal officials were required to answer questionnaires about data, information and knowledge about all types of American phenomena (geographical, ethnographic, naturalistic, mineralogical, astronomical, health...).
In cartography, the monumental works of Juan de la Cosa stand out, with his Map in which America appeared for the first time; Alonso de Santa Cruz, creator of the World Atlas given to Charles V and the Atlas of All the Islands of the World; and the Royal Registry of the Casa de Contratación.[149] In medicine and botany, Nicolás Monardes stood out, describing for the first time various species of American flora such as holy thistle, cebadilla, jalapa "Jalapa (plant)"), sassafras, guaiac, pepper, Indian cinnamon, tobacco, or Tolú balsam. In natural history, the works of José de Acosta and his Natural and moral history of the Indies, in which he discovered the Humboldt Current and supported the theory of the arrival of the indigenous Americans from Asia were published;[150] and Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo and his General and natural history of the Indies, islands and the mainland of the ocean sea..
Bernardino de Sahagún, a Spanish missionary who arrived in Mexico in 1529, would publish his General History of the Things of New Spain[151]*,* a work of oceanic knowledge that has served as an indispensable study for the reconstruction of the pre-Hispanic history of Mexico. The book, written in Nahuatl, Spanish and Latin, is considered a pioneer of modern ethnography, and contains studies of various aspects of the life of the indigenous people: the worshiped gods (book 1), the festivals, the calendar, ceremonies, sacrifices and solemnities (book 2), the birth of those worshiped gods (book 3), the art of guessing which days were lucky and which were not (book 4), the predictions of divining the future (book 5), the religious, moral, social and philosophical concepts (book 6), astronomy and natural philosophy (book 7), emperors (tlatoani) and lords (tecuhtli) (book 8), merchants, luxury, offerings and artisans (book 9), Mexican medicine and a description of the indigenous peoples of ancient Mexico, which consists of a monumental ethnological work (book 10), a study of nature, properties of animals, birds, fish, trees, herbs, flowers, metals and stones, and colors (book 11), the conquest of Mexico (book 12).[152].
During the Enlightenment, the Spanish Empire focused its scientific efforts on the fields of botany and economic botany.[153] Dozens of scientific expeditions were carried out, under the patronage of the Spanish Crown, that toured the viceroyalties for the discovery and taxonomy of American flora.[154] The Royal Botanical Expedition to the viceroyalty of Peru led by Hipólito Ruiz López, the Royal Botanical Expedition of the New Kingdom of Granada by José Celestino Mutis and the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain directed by Martín Sessé y Lacasta were the most important.
• - Illustration of a hacienda benefiting from the Proaño mine in Zacatecas, (present-day Mexico), using the patio method, created by Bartolomé de Medina "Bartolomé de Medina (miner)") in the 19th century, which allowed silver to be separated from other metals using mercury "Mercury (element)") and various salts.
• - Imperial City of Potosí (1758), by Gaspar Miguel de Berrío. In Cerro Rico de Potosí (present-day Bolivia), the largest silver mine in the world was located over the centuries, attached to a large industrial complex intended for foundry and metallurgy.[155].
• - The map of Murillo Velarde. The World Digital Library describes it as the "first and most important scientific map of the Philippines."
• - Cover of Grammar and new art of the general language of all of Peru, called Qquichua language, or language of the Inca (1607). Written by Diego González Holguín, and published in the City of the Kings, it is one of the first Quechua dictionaries printed in the viceroyalty of Peru.
• - Illustration from 1794 of a specimen of Pouteria lucuma (lucuma), emblematic fruit of Peru, as part of the Royal Botanical Expedition to the viceroyalty of Peru, which lasted around 11 years after the arrival of the expedition members from Cádiz to the city of Lima in 1778.
• - Geographic relationship of Oaxtepec. The Geographical Relations are considered the first statistical study of the New World.[156].
• - Illustration of a Quiscalus palustris, Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain.
• - A copy of the scientific book Observaciones astronomicas y phisicas en los Reynos del Perú, published in 1748 by the illustrated scientist Jorge Juan y Santacilia. It details maps, plans and illustrations of the viceroyalty of Peru.
• - A page of the General History of the Things of New Spain.
• - Map of Juan de la Cosa.
Cultural legacy of the Spanish Empire
Due to the great extension of the Spanish Empire throughout the world, its cultural legacy is great and strong (this without counting the current migratory flows). From the current western and southern United States to even Patagonia in America, the Philippines in Asia or Equatorial Guinea in Africa, such a legacy of said viceregal and later colonial Empire can be found.
The Spanish language, after Mandarin Chinese, is the most spoken language in the world due to the number of speakers who have it as their mother tongue. It is also an official language in several of the main international political-economic organizations (UN, European Union, AU, OAS, NAFTA, MERCOSUR, FTAA, UNASUR, CAN and the Ibero-American General Secretariat, among others). It is spoken as a first and second language by between 450 and 500 million people, and it may be the third most spoken language considering those who speak it as a first and second language. On the other hand, Spanish is the second most studied language in the world after English, with at least 17,800,000 (seventeen million eight hundred thousand) students; Although other sources indicate that there are more than 46 million students distributed in 90 countries, the Association of Spanish Language Academies contributes to its regulation as a supranational entity.
Catholicism is the branch of Christianity with the most followers worldwide; Today, Catholicism is the majority throughout Latin America, the Philippines, Guam and other Pacific islands; or in territories where Spanish rule has been shorter, such as Equatorial Guinea.
Adding a large part of the American countries (including the United States, Canada and several Caribbean islands) and the Philippines, there are 52 historical complexes and monuments (not including natural sites) built during the viceregal period that are today World Heritage Sites.[157].
In terms of gastronomy, there has been an exchange and reciprocal influence between the peninsular Mediterranean gastronomy and that of the different Hispanic possessions (Creole Gastronomy). Products such as tobacco or foods such as potatoes, tomatoes or chocolate were introduced in the Iberian Peninsula, which later spread throughout Europe and were incorporated into the gastronomy of many countries.
Role of the city in the conquest
El papel de la ciudad en la América colonial no se limitó al espacio ocupado por los conquistadores o su expresión cultural, sino que fue un pilar vital en la apropiación del territorio y la integración de sus medios de gobernanza, así como la hibridación cultural de la expresión indígena y española. Es realmente relevante para comprender la metodología de la conquista española y sus posteriores consecuencias, como la consolidación de mentalidades de autosuficiencia de los poderes locales.[163].
Francisco López de Gómora, cronista y capellán de Hernán Cortes escribió en su crónica Hispania victrix en 1552 refiriéndose directamente a la importancia de la fundación de ciudades:[163].
Tan importante era la ciudad que se convertía en un elemento indispensable en la conversión de los pueblos indígenas y por tanto de la colonización y de la hibridación cultural. Los centros de poder solían hacerse en los mismos espacios que gobernaban a las poblaciones indígenas, como por ejemplo en la conquista de Tenochtitlan, era importante que todos los habitantes conocieran el nuevo orden y la ubicación de la ciudad era esencial para ese fin y de la misma manera la cultura hispana y la local se hibridaba.[164].
La ciudad se erigió a partir de expediciones conformadas mayoritariamente por individuos de clases sociales bajas, ya que las clases altas no participaron activamente en el proceso de colonización. La regulación de estas ciudades estaba a cargo del rey, quien establecía normativas mediante ordenanzas. Como contrapartida a recibir los recursos necesarios para la fundación y vida en estos asentamientos, los conquistadores comprometían tributos a la corona y su poder central.[163].
La ciudad se construyó a partir de expediciones populares que fueron regularizadas por el rey a través de ordenanzas. A cambio de recibir los recursos para fundar y vivir ahí, los conquistadores entregaban tributos y negociaban con los poderes locales para hacer lo mismo.[165].
España tenía un sistema administrativo policéntrico lo que significaba que existían muchos centros de poder distribuidos por todo el imperio y la ciudad en sí misma se distribuía con una lógica similar donde existía una relación vertical de poder y esto se veía reflejado en la organización misma de la ciudad, que empezaba en el centro donde estaba la iglesia, la plaza y los edificios administrativos y conforme se alejaba más del centro menos era la influencia que tenían los habitantes sobre las decisiones y así mismo, menos acceso al conocimiento. Así la ciudad se convirtió en una parte esencial de la trasmisión del orden jerárquico español en América.[163].
Ordinances of 1573
The Ordinances of 1573, promulgated by Juan de Ovando with the support of the Crown, constituted a crucial legal framework for Spanish colonization in America. The first part of these ordinances focused on establishing absolute control of the discoveries, with the objective of carrying out these companies "with more ease and as appropriate to the service of God and ours and the good of the natives."[163].
According to article 1 of the Ordinances, no one had the right to undertake and dominate a new discovery by sea or land, new town or ranch in the territory without the proper license or provision. The penalty for violating this rule was severe, including the death penalty and the loss of property. To ensure compliance with these provisions, local authorities had to be informed of the border situation. In this context, it was specified that from a neighboring town "vassal Indians would be sent to discover the land and religious people and Spaniards with ransoms".[163]
When discoveries were made by sea, the Ordinances established detailed requirements. At least two small ships with crew, pilots, clergy and goods of little value for rescue were to participate in the expedition. Once in the discovered territory, explorers were expected to take possession, document their actions, and assign names to mountains, rivers, and towns. Interaction with natives required a peaceful approach, prohibiting participation in wars or conflicts between them. Furthermore, returning with natives, even if they had been acquired as slaves, carried the death penalty for the discoverers.
Although the colonists were allowed to dominate the discovered territories, the crown maintained very detailed information about the spaces and the inhabitants with whom the conquerors lived and their goods for tribute, despite the long journey that was undertaken from the Iberian Peninsula to America, the crown had power over what they did in these territories thanks to mechanisms such as the Indian Council or through inspecting officials who kept records of their actions.[163].
General
Other recommended readings
de la Fuente Merás, Manuel (2018). Political Philosophy in Imperial Spain. KDP. 386 pages. ISBN 978-1730871139.
• - Wikimedia Commons hosts a multimedia category on Spanish Empire.
• - Spanish Fortresses of America.
• - Stanley G. Payne's online Iberian information library, History of Spain and Portugal, Vol. 1, Chap. 13: «The Spanish Empire» .
• - Extension of the empires of history.
• - The Iberian empire, "where the sun never set" (video).
• - Illustrated map of the territories that once belonged to the Spanish Crown.
References
[1] ↑ En 1402 comenzó la conquista de las islas Canarias, primera expansión territorial castellana en ultramar y antecedente de las exploraciones atlánticas españolas. Con el descubrimiento de América en 1492 se iniciará el proceso de conquista de estos nuevos territorios. 1898 es el año de la secesión de las últimas provincias de ultramar del Imperio español en América (Cuba y Puerto Rico) y Asia (Filipinas). Sin embargo, España conservaría varios archipiélagos en Oceanía (islas Marianas, Carolinas y Palaos) hasta su venta a Alemania en 1899. También mantuvo e incorporó varios dominios coloniales en África, los cuales conservó hasta la segunda mitad del siglo XX: el protectorado español de Marruecos (independizado en 1956), la Guinea española (emancipada en 1968), Ifni (entregado al Marruecos independiente en 1969) y el Sahara español (anexionado por Marruecos en 1976).
[2] ↑ en el virreinato de Nueva España.
[3] ↑ en el virreinato del Perú.
[4] ↑ en la gobernación del Paraguay.
[5] ↑ en la capitanía general de Filipinas.
[6] ↑ Tras los Decretos de Nueva Planta el Imperio se centralizó, eliminando el régimen polisinodial con la excepción del Consejo de Indias y el Consejo de Castilla.
[7] ↑ En Navarra y en las provincias vascongadas los fueros no fueron abolidos y subsistieron hasta poco después de la muerte de Fernando VII en 1833. Tampoco se puede calificar a la monarquía borbónica de absoluta pese a su despotismo ilustrado, pues el rey seguía restringido en sus capacidades por una serie de instituciones, como claro legado del modelo tradicional de monarquía en España.
[8] ↑ Brevemente ya había sido practicada en 1812-1814 con la Constitución de Cádiz, y luego en 1820-1823 con el Trienio Liberal.
[9] ↑ Entre 1873 y 1874, el régimen político vigente fue una república, al igual que entre 1931 y 1936.
[10] ↑ Un régimen de transición basado en la carta otorgada por el jefe de estado. Primeramente se dio, tras la victoria liberal en la primera guerra carlista, con el Estatuto Real de 1834 según la soberanía absoluta hasta la promulgación de la Constitución española de 1837 según la soberanía popular. Posteriormente, entre 1939 y 1975, la forma de gobierno tuvo una variación dictatorial según sus Leyes Fundamentales del Reino con corte fascistizado.
[11] ↑ Según Ruiz Martín (2003, p. 466), también se le llama Monarquía universal española para diferenciarla del Sacro Imperio.
[12] ↑ Henry Kamen comentaría después, España fue creada por el Imperio, y no el Imperio por España.[cita requerida].
[13] ↑ Actualmente son cifras equivalentes a la extracción industrial de plata de poco más de dos años (26 meses) y la aurífera de medio año. Y aunque el estudio de Hamilton no abarca los casi 150 años hasta que en 1808, bajo un mismo ritmo, desde la Conquista hasta el año 1808 no se alcanza a superar el equivalente a cuatro años de extracción de Plata y un año de Oro. El contrabando estimado por Hamilton, pudo estar más cerca del 10 % que de un imposible 50 %. Los cálculos equivalentes se basan en datos actuales de extracción tomados de Gold Fields Mineral Services Ltd (GFMS) y el International Copper Study Group, y reproducidos por publicaciones mineras, y que describen como la República del Perú solamente durante el año 2007 tuvo una extracción industrial de 170 toneladas de oro, respecto de la producción mundial de oro (2008) [1] Archivado el 1 de febrero de 2009 en Wayback Machine.: http://www.dani2989.com/gold/worldgold08es.htm
[18] ↑ a b Álvarez Junco, José; Fuente, Gregorio de la (2017). El relato nacional Historia de la historia de España. Penguin Random House. p. 624. ISBN 9788430617661. «La «monarquía católica», según su nombre oficial, o «española», según el lenguaje diario de la diplomacia internacional, no se limitaba ya a la península, sino que era mucho más, un imperio europeo e incluso planetario.».
[19] ↑ a b Rodríguez de la Peña, Manuel Alejandro (2022). Imperios de crueldad: La Antigüedad clásica y la inhumanidad. Encuentro. p. 608. ISBN 9788413394350. «El Imperio español, cuyo nombre oficial fue siempre el de Monarquía Católica (esto es, Universal)».
[20] ↑ a b Jarabo Jordán, Cesáreo (2023). El fin del Imperio de España en América. El Imperio inglés contra el español. Sekotia. p. 419. ISBN 9788418414756. «Reino de las Españas hasta la constitución de 1869, cuando finalmente pasó a denominarse Reino de España».
[21] ↑ Ricart Angulo, Joan (2016). Los sistemas políticos de España e Indonesia: Una perspectiva comparada. Editorial UOC. ISBN 9788490645680. «El Imperio español fue el primer imperio global, porque por primera vez un imperio abarcaba posesiones en todos los continentes, las cuales, a diferencia de lo que ocurría en el Imperio romano o en el carolingio, no se comunicaban por tierra las unas con las otras.».
[23] ↑ Álvaro Van den Brule (10 de octubre de 2020). «La Guerra de los 30 años y el hastío del pueblo españo». El Confidencial. Consultado el 20 de febrero de 2023. «Los territorios de los Habsburgo (Imperio Español y Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico) perderían influencia en beneficio de una Francia emergente [...] España perdió tras el Tratado de los Pirineos, un epílogo del de Westfalia, los territorios que aún poseía en los ultrapuertos de esa divisoria orográfica pirenaica (Rosellón y la Cerdaña)».: https://www.elconfidencial.com/alma-corazon-vida/2020-10-10/guerra-de-los-30-anos-historia-de-espana_2779448/
[25] ↑ Parker, Geoffrey. Felipe II. La biografía definitiva. Planeta. 2010. ISBN 978-84-08-09484-5:
[26] ↑ Thomas, Hugh. El señor del mundo. Felipe II y su imperio, 2013, Planeta, ISBN 978-84-08-11849-7: «El 13 de junio Felipe se dio cuenta de que tal vez fuera necesaria alguna acción militar para ganar la corona de Lisboa y movilizó un ejército de 20 000 soldados de infantería y 1500 de caballería bajo el mando del ahora cargado de años pero siempre dispuesto duque de Alba. En dos semanas ordenó a esta fuerza que entrara en Portugal. A pesar de su derrota en las Azores, Antonio de Crato se había proclamado rey y, si Felipe no hubiera intervenido, habría gobernado sin duda. Las ciudades principales de Setúbal, Santarém e incluso Lisboa habían tomado partido por él.
[27] ↑ Schneider, Reinhold. El rey de Dios, 2002, página 148, Edit. Cifra. ISBN 84-95894-04-1:
[28] ↑ Manuel Fernández Álvarez, "Felipe II y su tiempo" Edit. Espasa Calpe, 1998, pág. 537, ISBN 84-239-9736-7: «Definitivamente, bajo el reinado de Felipe II, Portugal se convertía en provincia».
[29] ↑ John Lynch, Los Austrias (1516-1598) (1993), Edit. CRITICA, ISBN 84-7423-565-0, pág. 370: «En los primeros meses de 1.580, y alentados por el gobierno, los nobles castellanos comenzaron a reclutar fuerzas costeando ellos mismos los gastos, mientras que las ciudades aportaban tropas, barcos y dinero en un esfuerzo nacional que hizo resaltar aún más la inacción portuguesa. […] Felipe II se jactó diciendo: "lo heredé, lo compré, lo conquisté"».
[30] ↑ Braudel, Fernand. El Mediterráneo y el mundo mediterráneo en la época de Felipe II, Tomo II, Edit. Fondo de Cultura Económica, segunda edición en español, 1976, ISBN 84-375-0097-4, págs. 713-716: «La guerra de Portugal, que no pasó de ser, por lo demás, un simple paseo militar, se desarrolló con arreglo a los planes previstos. […] Fue la rapidez con que obraron los españoles, y no el desfallecimiento que se atribuye por algunos al prior, lo que condujo al fracaso del pretendiente. Para que Portugal fuese enteramente ocupada por los españoles bastaron, pues, cuatro meses. Al recibir la noticia, las Indias portuguesas se sometieron a su vez, sin combate. Las únicas dificultades serias surgieron en las Azores. […] el asunto de las Azores en los años de 1582 y 1583, donde se salvó el archipiélago y donde, al mismo tiempo, con el desastre de Strozzi, se disipó el sueño de un Brasil francés; […]». La resistencia en las Azores fue sofocada por Álvaro de Bazán y su flota.
[31] ↑ González Jiménez, 2011, p. 25.
[32] ↑ Martorell, 2012, p. 62 y siguientes.
[33] ↑ Masià i de Ros, 1994, p. 34.
[34] ↑ a b Feijoo, 2005, p. 80 y siguientes.
[35] ↑ Morte, Concepción Villanueva (2020). Diplomacia y desarrollo del Estado en la Corona de Aragón: (siglos XIV-XVI). Trea. ISBN 978-84-18105-14-2. Consultado el 29 de junio de 2024.: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/libro?codigo=774965
[39] ↑ a b c d «Beziehungen zu Spanien (Mittelalter und Frühe Neuzeit) – Historisches Lexikon Bayerns». www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de. Consultado el 30 de junio de 2024. - [https://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/Lexikon/Beziehungen_zu_Spanien_(Mittelalter_und_Fr%C3%BChe_Neuzeit)](https://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/Lexikon/Beziehungen_zu_Spanien_(Mittelalter_und_Fr%C3%BChe_Neuzeit))
[40] ↑ Flags of the World (ed.). «Historical Flags 1506-1700 (Spain)» (en inglés). Consultado el 2 de agosto de 2012.
[41] ↑ Vaquero, Carmen (30 de octubre de 2014). «El mundo de Garcilaso» (audio). Ciclo: Garcilaso de la Vega: su vida, su obra, su tiempo. Madrid: Fundación Juan March. Consultado el 2 de noviembre de 2014. «1 hora - 1 minuto».: http://www.march.es/conferencias/anteriores/voz.aspx?p1=100118&l=1
[42] ↑ Toynbee, Arnold J. (2015). El cristianismo entre las religiones del mundo. RLull (edición digital). p. 51.
[47] ↑ Esparza, José Javier (2007). La gesta española: historia de España en 48 estampas, para quienes han olvidado cuál es su nación (1a. ed edición). Áltera. ISBN 9788496840140. OCLC 433927896.: https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/433927896
[48] ↑ a b González-Arnao, 2003, pp. 90 y siguientes.
[49] ↑ a b c Hillard von Thiessen, La cultura del mecenazgo en las relaciones exteriores en la época moderna temprana. Dependencia política, percepción exterior y base ética común de las relaciones sociales en las relaciones hispano-romanas a principios del siglo XVII, en: Themenportal Europäische Geschichte, 2012, <www.europa.clio-online.de/essay/id/fdae- 1561> .: https://www.europa.clio-online.de/essay/id/fdae-1561
[50] ↑ Sanchez, Magdalena S. (1994). «A House Divided: Spain, Austria, and the Bohemian and Hungarian Successions». The Sixteenth Century Journal 25 (4): 887-903. ISSN 0361-0160. doi:10.2307/2542261. Consultado el 30 de junio de 2024.: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2542261
[59] ↑ Elvira,, Roca Barea, María (2016). Imperiofobia y leyenda negra: Roma, Rusia, Estados Unidos y el Imperio español. Siruela. ISBN 9788416854233. OCLC 967731332.: https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/967731332
[60] ↑ Butrón, Gonzalo (2004). Trafalgar y el mundo Atlántico. Marcial Pons. p. 345.
[61] ↑ Molina et all (2014). La Constitución de 1812 en Hispanoamérica y España. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. p. 305. ISBN 9789587750683.
[63] ↑ Cortes y Constitución de Cádiz, 200 años. Espasa. 2011. p. 32.
[64] ↑ La Parra, Emilio (2018). Fernando VII un rey deseado y detestado. Tusquets.
[65] ↑ Moreno Gutiérrez, Rodrigo (2017). «Los realistas: historiografía, semántica y milicia». Historia Mexicana, Centro de Estudios Históricos. vol.66 no.3.
[66] ↑ Ruiz de Gordejuela Urquijo, Jesús (2006). La expulsión de los españoles de México y su destino incierto, 1821-1836. Sevilla: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos & Universidad de Sevilla.
[67] ↑ Tejerina, Marcela (2018). «“Dispersos, emigrados y errantes” La expulsión territorial en la década revolucionaria». Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina.: https://www.redalyc.org/journal/3794/379455938001/html/
[74] ↑ a b Lagos Carmona, Guillermo (1985). Los Títulos Históricos - Historia de las fronteras de Chile. Andrés Bello. «[...] Acotamos nosotros que el río Loa está en 22 grados y que Baleato, en 1793, indicó 21,5 grados para el comienzo del Reino de Chile, con el Loa en su desembocadura en el Pacífico (p 197) [...] de conformidad con el Mapa de Cano y Olmedilla, el límite del reino de Chile "[...] a través del desierto de Atacama [...] Desde aquí tuerce al S., SE., y S. conservando en general este último rumbo hasta las cercanías del paralelo 29°, desde donde toma dirección S.E., rodeando por el oriente la 'Provincia de Cuyo' que, por supuesto, aparece incluida en el territorio del Reino de Chile. En la latitud de 32°30' la línea tuerce al S.O. hasta alcanzar el río Quinto, que, como dice la leyenda 'se comunica por canales con el Saladillo en tiempo de inundaciones'. Sigue el río hacia abajo hasta el meridiano 316°, contando al E. de Tenerife, donde desvía un trecho hasta llegar al río Hueuque-Leuvu (o río Barrancas) en 371/2° de latitud. De aquí corre acompañando el río un trecho al S.E., para desviar en seguida al E. y caer en el mar Atlántico en las cercanías del paralelo 37° entre el cabo de Lobos y el cabo Corrientes", "poco al norte de Mar del Plata actual" (p 540) [...] En este documento se ve que los de la provincia de Cuyo terminan al Sur en el origen del río Diamante, y que de ese punto hacia el Este, parte la línea divisoria hasta aquel en que el río Quinto atraviesa el camino que se dirige de Santiago a Buenos Aires (p 543).».: https://books.google.cl/books/about/Los_t%C3%ADtulos_historicos.html?id=dlY7Lg5p9A4C&redir_esc=y
[93] ↑ Spain (1893). Colección de los tratados, convenios y documentos internacionales celebrados por nuestros gobiernos con los estados extranjeros desde el reinado de Doña Isabel II. hasta nuestros días. Acompañados de notas histórico-críticas sobre su negociación y cumplimiento y cotejados con los textos originales ... t. 1-13. Consultado el 28 de junio de 2024.: https://books.google.com/books?id=l0gMAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA120
[102] ↑ Francisco Mellén Blanco, Las expediciones maritimas del virrey Amat a la isla de Tahití 1772-1775.
[103] ↑ Morgado García, Arturo Jesús (1998-1999). «Las relaciones entre Cádiz y el norte de África en el siglo XVII». Trocadero: Revista de historia moderna y contemporánea. 10-11: 75. ISSN 0214-4212.: http://revistas.uca.es/index.php/trocadero/article/viewFile/777/643
[107] ↑ Unzué, José Luis Orella (1991). Las instituciones del reino de Navarra en la edad antigua y media: las instituciones de la baja Navarra (1530-1620). ISBN 978-84-87518-00-3. Consultado el 1 de mayo de 2022.: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/libro?codigo=198631
[108] ↑ Alcalá-Zamora, 2005, p. 137 y siguientes.
[109] ↑ Elliott, 2002, p. 70.
[110] ↑ Kamen, 2005, p. 46.
[111] ↑ Press, Volker (1991). Kriege und Krisen. Deutschland 1600-1715. Neue deutsche Geschichte (en alemán) 5. C.H.Beck. ISBN 3406308171.
[114] ↑ Die Großmacht Spanien im Rhein-Maas Raum von 1580 bis 1630. Niederländische und deutsche Perspektiven. Gregor Maximilian Weiermüller (2022).: https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/event-130982
[118] ↑ a b Fuchs, Barbara; Liang, Yuen-Gen (1 de septiembre de 2011). A FORGOTTEN EMPIRE: THE SPANISH-NORTH AFRICAN BORDERLANDS. ISSN 1463-6204. doi:10.1080/14636204.2011.658695. Consultado el 11 de enero de 2025.: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14636204.2011.658695
[119] ↑ Iglesias Rodríguez, Juan José (2013). «Las entradas de cristianos en Berbería (siglos XV-XVI). Relaciones pacíficas y violentas». Revista de historia de El Puerto (50): 9-34. ISSN 1130-4340. Consultado el 11 de enero de 2025.: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=5387561
[128] ↑ Lynch, John (1993). Los Austrias (1516-1598). Editorial Crítica. pp. 122 y 124.
[129] ↑ Vicens Vives, Jaime (1971). Historia de España y América III. Vicens Vives. p. 7. «Por lo que se refiere al proceso de la población hispánica durante la época de los tres primeros Austrias (1517-1621), parece ser que se verificó un notable incremento, que Hamilton ha evaluado en un 15 por 100».
[130] ↑ Elliot, John (1965). La España Imperial. Vicens Vives. «...hacia 1570, debía haber unos 118 000 colonos en el Nuevo Mundo».
[131] ↑ Elliot, John (2010). España, Europa y el Mundo de Ultramar (1500-1800). Taurus. p. 181. «probablemente se embarcaron por año hacia las Indias 1500 en el siglo XVI y 4000 en la primera mitad del siglo XVII».
[132] ↑ Arrambide, Victor. «›Factores que incidieron en el despoblamiento de América a raíz de la primera conquista europea (S. XV-XVI)». El Espejo de Clío. Consultado el 26 de marzo de 2019.: https://espejoclio.hypotheses.org/53
[134] ↑ a b c d Rosenblat, Ángel (1954). La población indígena y el mestizaje en América (OCLC314971216 edición). Buenos Aires :: Nova. |fechaacceso= requiere |url= (ayuda).
[135] ↑ a b Ventura, Jorge; Floría, Guillermo B; Bartolomé., Jesús (1976). Historia de España: Desde los reyes católicos hasta Carlos. Barcelona: Esplugues de Llobregat. ISBN 9788401605437. |fechaacceso= requiere |url= (ayuda).
[136] ↑ a b Espinosa Jaramillo, Gustavo (2005). Valle del Cauca: pobladores y fundadores : ciudades, pueblos y aldeas. Colombia: Universidad Santiago de Cali. ISBN 9789588119755. |fechaacceso= requiere |url= (ayuda).
[137] ↑ Dumont, Jean (2009). El amanecer de los derechos del hombre : la controversia de Valladolid. Encuentro. ISBN 9788474909982. OCLC 630519697.: https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/630519697
[139] ↑ R. Colburn, David; Jane., Landers,; Congress—, Jay I. Kislak Reference Collection —Library of (1995). The African American heritage of Florida. University Press of Florida. ISBN 0813014123. OCLC 31517969.: https://archive.org/details/africanamericanh0000unse_d1n0
[140] ↑ Jane, Landers (1999). Black society in Spanish Florida. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252067532. OCLC 39546437.: https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/39546437
[144] ↑ Mónica Quijada y Jesús Bustamante. «Las mujeres en Nueva España: orden establecido y márgenes de actuación». Historia de las mujeres, tomo III, Del Renacimiento a la Edad Moderna, pp. 648-668. Madrid, Santillana 2000. ISBN 84-306-0390-5.
[145] ↑ Salas, 2000, p. 567.
[146] ↑ Pastor, 2000, p. 555.
[147] ↑ Rodríguez Jiménez, Pablo (2008). «Sangre y mestizaje en la América hispánica». Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura (Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia) (35): 282-285. ISSN 0120-2456. Consultado el 27 de septiembre de 2016.: http://www.bdigital.unal.edu.co/12067/1/rodr%C3%ADguezjim%C3%A9nezpablo.2008.pdf
[151] ↑ Sánchez, Antonio (1 de enero de 2019). «The “empirical turn” in the historiography of the Iberian and Atlantic science in the early modern world: from cosmography and navigation to ethnography, natural history, and medicine». Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society 2 (1): 317-334. ISSN 2572-9861. doi:10.1080/25729861.2019.1631684. Consultado el 3 de febrero de 2023.: https://doi.org/10.1080/25729861.2019.1631684
[152] ↑ Science in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, 1500–1800 (1 edición). Stanford University Press. 2009. ISBN 978-0-8047-5358-6. Consultado el 3 de febrero de 2023.: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvqr1dp8
[153] ↑ BARRERA-OSORIO, ANTONIO (2006). Experiencing Nature: The Spanish American Empire and the Early Scientific Revolution. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-72594-2. doi:10.7560/709812. Consultado el 3 de febrero de 2023.: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7560/709812
[154] ↑ Brendecke, Arndt (2012). Imperio e información: funciones del saber en el dominio colonial español. ISBN 978-3-86527-730-5. Consultado el 3 de febrero de 2023.: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/libro?codigo=568999
[155] ↑ Schiebinger, Londa (2004). Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01487-9. Consultado el 3 de febrero de 2023.: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvk12qdh
[157] ↑ Crawford, Matthew James (2016). The Andean Wonder Drug: Cinchona Bark and Imperial Science in the Spanish Atlantic, 1630-1800. University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 978-0-8229-4452-2. Consultado el 3 de febrero de 2023.: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1f89t3p
[165] ↑ «General History of the Things of New Spain by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún: The Florentine Codex.». Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Consultado el 9 de febrero de 2023.: https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667837/
[169] ↑ Mundy, Barbara E. The Mapping of New Spain: Indigenous Cartography and the Maps of the Relaciones Geograficas (en inglés). University of Chicago Press. Consultado el 20 de febrero de 2023.: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3626921.html
[176] ↑ a b c d e f g Lucena Giraldo, Manuel (2006). «II». A los cuatro vientos. Madrid: Marcial Pons Historia. ISBN 978-84-15817-91-8.: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wpt3b
[177] ↑ Osorio, Alejandra (2017). El imperio de las Austrias españoles y el Atlántico. ciudad de México: FONDO DE CULTURA ECONÓMICA.
[178] ↑ Ots Capdequi, Jose Maria (1941). El estado español de indias. México: El Colegio de México. p. 15.
In Europe, the Empire included the Netherlands, territories in Italy (mainly Milanese and the kingdoms of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia) and other possessions such as Franche-Comté and Roussillon (in modern-day France).[10]
In Africa, apart from the Canary Islands integrated into the Crown of Castile since 1402 and Guinea since the end of 1700, until the century the Spanish territories were reduced to a series of strongholds and Guinea, which depended on the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata until 1821. As a result of the division of the continent between the European powers, Spain definitively began to administer territories in the Sahara, in the Gulf of Guinea and in Morocco.
The Spanish Empire reached between 14 million[11] and more than 24 million[1] square kilometers (almost one-seventh of the planet's land surface) by the end of the century, meaning that the Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in history (the second largest non-contiguous empire by area). However, some authors, such as the historian Raymond Carr, point out that one of its periods of maximum expansion is between the years 1580 and 1640, during the reigns of Philip II, Philip III and Philip IV, a period in which the dynastic union with Portugal took place (considered a Spanish conquest by a large number of historians).[12][13][14][15][16][17].
From its origins to the Catholic Monarchs
Medieval background
King Alfonso III of Asturias was one of the first kings in the Iberian Peninsula to adopt the imperial idea during the 19th century. In 867 it was titled Adefonsus totius Hispaniae imperator. Later, in 877, it appears as Adefonsus Hispaniae imperator, and in 906 as Adefonsus… Hispaniae rex. Several of his descendants also used the imperial title.[18].
At the beginning of the century, the different kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula pursued different objectives in their foreign policy. Navarra, soon confined by the expansion of Castile and Aragon, oriented its relations towards France.[19] On the other hand, the Treaty of Almizra delimited the territories for the reconquest of the crowns of Castile and Aragon,[20] which led them to develop similar foreign policies, although with differentiated interests. Castilla tried to complete the Reconquista and avoid new Muslim incursions by taking places and islands in North Africa, even before reconquering the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada.[21] At the same time, they were going through difficult times due to the civil war waged between supporters of the future Isabel la Católica and those of Juana la Beltraneja, in the fight to succeed Henry IV.
Aragon, for its part, oriented its expansionist policy to the central and eastern Mediterranean.[21] Thus, it came to dominate the Italian peninsula after claiming the inheritance of Constance II of the House of Hohenstaufen in Sicily during the Guelph and Ghibelline War, as well as receiving, through donations from the Pope, island kingdoms in Sardinia and Sicily. In turn, the Aragonese sphere of influence came to have a presence in the Balkans with the conquest of the Almogávares of Greek territories such as the Duchy of Athens and the Duchy of Neopatria (during the Francocracy), and even an eastern geopolitics was developed with Alfonso V the Magnanimous, who in 1451 managed to subjugate the Principality of Albania "Principality of Albania (medieval)") through Skanderbeg, and also briefly some fiefs of the Kingdom of Bosnia subordinated to Stjepan Vukčić Kosača (another vassal of Aragon until his fall).[22][23] However, conflicts with the Ottoman Empire and the Italian maritime Republics would cause it to lose its control in the Eastern Mediterranean.
This crown at the end of the Middle Ages also did not have a clear suitor to succeed Martin the Human (died in 1410), but it was resolved peacefully with the Compromise of Caspe. At the same time, this act laid the foundations for the future union with the Castilian Crown after Fernando de Antequera, a member of the Trastámara dynasty reigning in Castile, was elected, thus opening the door for the subsequent arrival of Fernando the Catholic and the subsequent unification of the two kingdoms.[24].
Portuguese expansionism
Finally, Portugal had finished its reconquest by defeating the Castilian king Alfonso Black.[25].
The unification of Spain and the end of Muslim power
The marriage of the Catholic Monarchs (Isabel I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon) produced the dynastic union of the two Crowns when, after defeating the supporters of Juana "la Beltraneja" in the War of Castilian Succession, Isabel ascended the throne. However, each kingdom maintained its own administration under the same monarchy. The formation of a unified state only materialized after centuries of union under the same rulers.[l] The new kings introduced the modern absolutist state into their domains, which they soon sought to expand.
Castile had intervened in the Atlantic, in what was the beginning of its extrapeninsular empire, competing with Portugal for its control since the end of the century, at which time several Andalusian and Biscayan expeditions were sent to the Canary Islands. The effective conquest of said archipelago had begun during the reign of Henry III of Castile, when in 1402 Jean de Béthencourt requested permission for such an undertaking from the Castilian king in exchange for vassalage; while, throughout the 20th century, Portuguese explorers such as Gonçalo Velho Cabral would colonize the Azores, Cape Verde and Madeira. The Treaty of Alcazobas of 1479, which brought about peace in the War of Castilian Succession, separated the zones of influence of each country in Africa and the Atlantic, granting Castile sovereignty over the Canary Islands and Portugal the islands it already owned, Guinea "Guinea (region)") and, in general, "everything that is found and is found, conquered or discovered in the said terms." The conquest of the Kingdom of Fez was also exclusively for the kingdom of Portugal. The treaty was confirmed by the pope in 1481, through the bull Aeterni regis. Meanwhile, the Catholic Monarchs began the last phase of the conquest of the Canary Islands, assuming this enterprise on their own due to the impossibility of the feudal lords to subjugate all the island indigenous people in a series of long and hard campaigns. Castilian armies seized Gran Canaria under Juan Rejón and Pedro de Vera (1478-1483), La Palma under Alonso Fernández de Lugo (1492-1493) and finally Tenerife, also conquered by Lugo (1494-1496).
As a continuation of the Castilian Reconquista, in 1492 the Catholic Monarchs conquered the Taifa kingdom of Granada, the last Muslim kingdom of al-Andalus, which had survived by paying tributes in gold "Parias (tribute)") to Castile, and its policy of alliances with Aragon and North Africa.
The expansionist policy of the Catholic Monarchs was also manifested in continental Africa. With the aim of ending the piracy that threatened the Andalusian coasts and Catalan and Valencian merchant communications, campaigns were carried out in North Africa: Melilla was taken in 1497, San Miguel de Saca (later abandoned) in 1500, Villa Cisneros in 1502, Mazalquivir in 1505, the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera in 1508, Oran "Oran (Algeria)") in 1509 "Conquest of Oran (1509)"), Algiers, Bejaia and Tripoli "Tripoli (Libya)") in 1510. The idea of Elizabeth I, expressed in her will, was that the reconquest would continue in North Africa, in what the Romans called Nova Hispania.
The European policy of the Catholic Monarchs
The Catholic Monarchs also inherited the Mediterranean policy of the Crown of Aragon, and supported the Aragonese House of Naples against Charles VIII of France and, after its extinction, demanded the reintegration of Naples to the Crown. As ruler of Aragon, Ferdinand II had become involved in the dispute with France and Venice for control of the Italian peninsula. These conflicts became the central axis of his foreign policy. In these battles, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (known as «The Great Captain») would create the colonelies (base of the future thirds), as the basic organization of the army, which meant a military revolution that would take the Spanish to their best moments.
After the death of Queen Isabella, Ferdinand, as the sole monarch, adopted a more aggressive policy than the one he had as Isabel's husband, using Castilian wealth to expand the area of Aragonese influence in Italy, against France, and fundamentally against the kingdom of Navarre, which he conquered in 1512.
The throne of Castile was assumed by his daughter Queen Juana I "the Mad", who was declared incapable of reigning, with her father maintaining the regency (although in all official documents Juana and Fernando appeared as kings, it was Fernando who exercised power).
King Ferdinand's first great challenge was in the war of the League of Cambrai against Venice, where Spanish soldiers distinguished themselves alongside their French allies in the battle of Agnadello (1509). Only a year later, Ferdinand became part of the Catholic League "Holy League (1511)") against France, seeing an opportunity to take Milan—a place over which he had a dynastic dispute—and Navarre. This war was not a success like the previous one against Venice and, in 1516, France accepted a truce that left Milan under its control and, in fact, ceded the Kingdom of Navarre to the Spanish monarch (which Ferdinand joined to the crown of Castile), since by withdrawing its support it left the Navarrese kings John III of Albret and Catherine of Foix isolated. This event was temporary since he would later return to support the struggle of the Navarrese in 1521.
With the aim of isolating France, a marriage policy was adopted that led to the marriage of the daughters of the Catholic Monarchs with the reigning dynasties in England, Burgundy and Austria. After the death of Ferdinand, the disqualification of Queen Juana I, made Charles of Austria, heir of Austria and Burgundy, also heir to the Spanish thrones.
Carlos had a political concept that was still medieval, and he developed it by using the riches of his peninsular kingdoms in the European policy of the Empire, instead of following what, with greater scope, his grandmother Isabel had marked in her will: continuing the Reconquista in North Africa. Although some Spanish advisors managed to get him to carry out some campaigns towards that objective (Oran, Tunisia, Algeria), however, he did not consider that goal as important as the endless religious-political disputes of his Central European heritage and, since, furthermore, a large part of the conquering impetus of the Castilians was directed towards the newly discovered lands of the West Indies, he did not collaborate decisively in the aggrandizement of his peninsular kingdoms, except in what was refers to the Italian campaigns. This abandonment of the policy of conquest of North Africa would cause headaches for Mediterranean Europe until the 20th century.
The discovery of the New World
However, the Atlantic expansion would be the one that would give the greatest successes. To reach the riches of the East, whose trade routes (especially spices from the Pacific Islands) were blocked by the Ottomans or monopolized by the Genoese and Venetians, the Portuguese and the Spanish competed to find a new route that was not the traditional one, by land, through the Near East. The Portuguese, who had finished their Reconquista long before the Spanish, had then begun their expeditions, first trying to access African riches and then to circumnavigate Africa, which would give them control of the islands and coasts of the continent, to open a new route to the East Indies, without depending on trade through the Ottoman Empire, monopolized by Genoa and Venice, laying the seed of the Portuguese Empire.
Later, when Castile finished its reconquest, the Catholic Monarchs supported Christopher Columbus who, apparently convinced that the circumference of the Earth was smaller than the real one, wanted to reach Cipango (Japan), Cathay (China), the Indies, the East by sailing to the West, with the same goal as the Portuguese: to become independent from the Italian cities to obtain the goods of the East, mainly spices and silk (finer than that produced in the kingdom of Murcia since Arab domination). Halfway there was America and, as is widely accepted, unknowingly discovered the continent for the rest of the world, which lived ignorant of its existence, initiating the Spanish colonization of those lands.
The new lands were claimed by the Catholic Monarchs, with the opposition of Portugal. Finally, Pope Alexander VI mediated, leading to the Treaty of Tordesillas, which divided the zones of Spanish and Portuguese influence 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands (the meridian located at 46° 37') west longitude, with the western zone corresponding to Spain and the eastern zone corresponding to Portugal. Thus, Spain theoretically became the owner of most of the continent with the exception of a small part, the eastern part - what is today the end of Brazil - which corresponded to Portugal. From then on, this papal transfer, together with the evangelizing responsibility over the discovered territories, was used by the Catholic Monarchs as legitimation in their imperial expansion. Shortly after, this "legitimation" was discussed by the Salamanca School.
In addition to the capture of Hispaniola, which was completed at the beginning of the century, the colonists began to look for new settlements. The conviction that there were large territories to colonize in the new discovered lands produced the desire to seek new conquests. From there, Juan Ponce de León conquered Puerto Rico and Diego Velázquez, Cuba. Alonso de Ojeda toured the Venezuelan and Central American coast, Diego de Nicuesa occupied what is now Nicaragua and Costa Rica, while Vasco Núñez de Balboa reached Panama and reached the South Sea (Pacific Ocean).
The Austrian Empire (1516-1700)
Contenido
El periodo comprendido entre la segunda mitad del siglo y la primera del es conocido como el Siglo de Oro por el florecimiento de las artes y las ciencias que se produjo.
Durante el siglo España llegó a tener una auténtica fortuna de oro y plata extraídos de «Las Indias». En el estudio económico realizado por Earl J.Hamilton (1975), «El tesoro americano y la Revolución de los precios en España, 1501-1659», esa fortuna tiene unas cifras concretas. Hamilton describe que en los siglos y , desde 1503 y durante los 160 años siguientes, durante la mayor actividad minera, arribaron desde la América española 16 900 toneladas de plata y 181 toneladas de oro. Sus cuentas son minuciosas: 16 886 815 303 gramos de plata y 181 333 180 gramos de oro.[m].
Se decía durante el reinado de Felipe II que «el Sol no se ponía en el Imperio», ya que estaba lo suficientemente disperso como para tener siempre alguna zona con luz solar. Este imperio tenía su centro neurálgico en Madrid sede de la Corte con Felipe II, siendo Sevilla el punto fundamental desde el que se organizaban las posesiones ultramarinas.
Como consecuencia del matrimonio político de los Reyes Católicos y de los casamientos estratégicos de sus hijos, su nieto, Carlos I heredó la Corona de Castilla en la península ibérica y una incipiente expansión en América (herencia de su abuela Isabel); las posesiones de la Corona de Aragón en el Mediterráneo italiano e ibérico (de su abuelo Fernando); las tierras de los Habsburgo en Austria a las que él incorporó Bohemia y Silesia logrando convertirse tras una disputada elección con Francisco I de Francia en emperador del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico con el nombre de Carlos V de Alemania; además de los Países Bajos a los que añadió nuevas provincias y el Franco Condado, herencia de su abuela María de Borgoña; conquistó personalmente Túnez y en pugna con Francia la región de Lombardía. Era un imperio compuesto de un conglomerado de territorios heredados, anexionados o conquistados.
La dinastía Habsburgo gastaba las riquezas castellanas y ya desde los tiempos de Carlos V pero en mayor medida a partir de Felipe II, las americanas, en guerras en toda Europa con el objetivo fundamental de proteger los territorios adquiridos, los intereses de los mismos, la causa católica y a veces por intereses meramente dinásticos. Todo ello produjo el impago frecuente de deudas contraídas con los banqueros, primero alemanes y genoveses después, y dejó a España en bancarrota. Los objetivos políticos de la Corona eran varios:.
• - El acceso a los productos americanos (oro, plata, bienes colombinos), africanos (diamantes, comercio de esclavos) y asiáticos (porcelana, especias, seda).
• - Minar el poder de Francia y su sistema de alianzas con Europa Oriental, contenerla en sus fronteras orientales y detener su expansionismo sobre Italia, los Pirineos y los dominios del SIRG.
• - Contener en Europa y el Norte de África la expansión del Imperio otomano (gran potencia musulmana que aspiraba a un Imperio universal y además negaba la legitimidad romano-imperial del SIRG) y la amenaza del Islam ante un renovado califato. Además, se buscaba neutralizar la piratería berberisca que asolaba las posesiones mediterráneas españolas e italianas, así como al resto de la Cristiandad con la Esclavitud blanca de no-musulmanes.
• - Mantener la hegemonía católica de los Habsburgo en Europa central, buscando consolidar los Poderes universales de Dominium mundi del Emperador Romano Germánico y el Papa sobre toda la Res publica christiana. Desembocando en la defensa hispano-austríaca de los intereses de la Iglesia católica en Alemania y Europa del norte contra el cisma de la Reforma protestante, así como en fomentar el espíritu misionero para Evangelizar América y las Indias recientemente conquistadas, como el espíritu Cruzado contra los Emiratos islámicos y Señoriós paganos hostiles de Oriente.
Ante la posibilidad de que Carlos I decidiera apoyar la mayor parte de las cargas de su imperio en el más rico de sus reinos, el de Castilla, lo cual no gustaba a los castellanos que no deseaban contribuir con oro, plata o caballos a guerras europeas que sentían ajenas, y enfrentados a un creciente absolutismo por parte del rey comenzó una sublevación que aún se celebra cada año llamada de los Comuneros, en la cual los rebeldes fueron derrotados.
de España y luego se convertía en el hombre más poderoso de Europa, con un imperio europeo que solo sería comparable en tamaño al de Napoleón Bonaparte. El emperador intentó sofocar la Reforma protestante en la Dieta de Worms, pero Lutero renunció a retractarse de su herejía. Firme defensor de la Catolicidad, durante su reinado se produjo sin embargo lo que se llamó el Saco de Roma, cuando sus tropas fuera de control atacaron la Santa Sede después de que el papa se uniera a la Liga de Cognac contra él.
Pese a que Carlos I era flamenco y su lengua materna era el francés vivió un proceso de españolización o, más concretamente, de castellanización. Así, cuando se entrevistó con el papa, le habló en español y más tarde, cuando recibió al embajador de Francia, un obispo francés se quejó por no haber entendido el discurso, a lo que el emperador contestó: «Señor obispo, entiéndame si quiere y no espere de mí otras palabras que de mi lengua española, la cual es tan noble que merece ser sabida y entendida de toda la gente cristiana».[28] Esta frase ha calado bastante en los españoles y, siglos después, aún se utiliza el dicho «Que hable en cristiano» cuando un español (o casi todo otro hispanoparlante) quiere que se le traduzca lo dicho.
The conquest of America and expansion in Asia and Oceania
The conquest continued in continental America and expansion in Asia and Oceania. Hernán Cortés came to the Aztec Empire and Francisco Pizarro to the Inca Empire. Years later, under Philip II, the Spanish Empire became a new source of wealth for the Spanish kingdoms and their power in Europe, but it also contributed to raising inflation, which harmed peninsular industry. As always happens, the most powerful economy, the Spanish one, began to depend on raw materials and manufactures from poorer countries, with cheaper labor, which facilitated the economic and social revolution in France, England and other parts of Europe. The problems caused by the excess of precious metals were discussed by the Salamanca School, which created a new way of understanding the economy that other European countries took a long time to understand.
On the other hand, the enormous and fruitless expenses of the wars that the European policy of Charles I dragged into, inherited by his successor Philip II, led to them being financed with loans from bankers, both Spanish and from Genoa, Antwerp and southern Germany, which meant that the benefits that the Crown (the State, after all) could have were much smaller than those obtained later by other countries with imperial interests, such as the Netherlands and later England.
From the Battle of Pavia to the Peace of Augsburg (1521-1555)
From 1492, the colonization of the New World was led by a series of warrior-explorers known as conquistadors. For this enterprise, they took advantage of the fact that some native peoples were at war with others and many were willing to seal alliances with the Spanish to defeat more powerful enemies such as the Aztecs or the Incas. The conquest, in addition, was facilitated by technological superiority,[29] including logistics, and the spread in America of diseases common in Europe (e.g., smallpox), but unknown in the New World, which decimated the native peoples of America.
The main conquerors were Hernán Cortés, who between 1519 and 1521, with around 200,000 Amerindian allies, defeated the Aztec Empire, at a time when it was devastated by smallpox,[n. 1] and entered Mexico, which would be the base of the viceroyalty of New Spain, which would extend southward rapidly thanks to the conquests of Pedro de Alvarado, Cortés' lieutenant, who, between 1521 and 1525, incorporated the current republics of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador into Spanish dominions; and Francisco Pizarro who would undertake the conquest of Peru in 1531 when the Inca Empire was seriously disorganized due to the civil war and the smallpox epidemic of 1529. The fruit of this conquest was the establishment of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
After the conquest of Mexico, and during and after the conquest of Peru, legends about "golden" cities (Cíbola in North America, El Dorado in South America) gave rise to numerous expeditions, but many of them returned without finding anything, and those that did find something were much less valuable than expected. In any case, the extraction of gold and silver was an important economic activity of the Spanish Empire in America, estimated at 850,000 kilograms of gold and more than 100 times that amount in silver during the imperial period. No less important was the trade in other merchandise such as cochineal, vanilla, cocoa, and sugar (sugar cane was taken to America where it was produced better than in the south of the peninsula, where it had been introduced by the Arabs). The exploration of this New World, known as the West Indies, was intense, with feats such as the first circumnavigation of the globe in 1522 by Juan Sebastián Elcano (who replaced Ferdinand Magellan, promoter of the expedition and who died on the way).
In Europe, feeling surrounded by the Habsburg possessions, Francis I of France invaded the Spanish possessions in Italy in 1521 and began a new era of hostilities between France and Spain, supporting Henry II of Navarre to recover the kingdom "Conquest of Navarre") taken by the Spanish. An uprising of the Navarrese population together with the entry of 12,000 men under the command of General Asparrots, André de Foix, in a few days recovered the entire kingdom with few victims. However, the imperial army was quickly reconstituted, forming well-equipped troops of 30,000 men, including many of the community members who surrendered to redeem their sentence. General Asparrots, instead of consolidating the kingdom, went to besiege Logroño, with which the Navarrese-Gascons suffered a severe defeat in the bloody battle of Noáin, leaving control of Navarre in the hands of Spain.
From San Quentin to Lepanto (1556-1571)
Emperor Charles divided his possessions between his only legitimate son, Philip II, and his brother Ferdinand (to whom he left the Habsburg Empire). For Philip II, Castile was the base of his empire, but the population of Castile was never large enough to provide the soldiers necessary to sustain the Empire. After the king's marriage to Mary Tudor, England and Spain were allies.
Spain was unable to have peace when the aggressive Henry II of France came to the throne in 1547, who immediately resumed conflicts with Spain. Philip II continued the war against France, crushing the French army at the Battle of St. Quentin (1557) in Picardy in 1558 and defeating Henry again at the Battle of Gravelines. The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, signed in 1559, definitively recognized Spanish claims in Italy. In the celebrations that followed the Treaty, Henry II died from a wound caused by a piece of wood from a spear. France was hit during the following years by a civil war that deepened the differences between Catholics and Protestants, giving Spain the opportunity to intervene in favor of the Catholics and preventing it from competing with Spain and the House of Habsburg in European power games. Freed from French opposition, Spain saw the height of its power and territorial extension in the period between 1559 and 1643.
The bankruptcy of 1557 marked the inauguration of the consortium of Genoese banks, which led the German bankers to chaos and ended the preponderance of the Fúcares as financiers of the Spanish State. Genoese bankers provided the Habsburgs with fluid credit and regular income.
Meanwhile, overseas expansion continued: Florida was colonized in 1565 by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés by founding San Agustín "Saint Augustine (United States)"), and by quickly defeating an illegal attempt by French captain Jean Ribault and 150 men to establish a supply post in Spanish territory. San Agustín quickly became a strategic defense base for Spanish ships full of gold and silver returning from the Indies dominions.
In Asia, on April 27, 1565, the first settlement in the Philippines was established by Miguel López de Legazpi and the route of the Manila Galleons (Nao de la China) was launched. Manila was founded in 1572.
After Spain's triumph over France and the beginning of the French Wars of Religion, Philip II's ambition increased. In the Mediterranean, the Ottoman Empire had questioned Spanish hegemony, losing Tripoli "Tripoli (Libya)") (1531) and Bugia (1554) while Berber and Ottoman piracy intensified. In 1565, however, Spanish aid to the besieged Knights of St. John saved Malta "Siege of Malta (1565)"), inflicting a severe defeat on the Turks.
The death of Suleiman the Magnificent and his succession by the less capable Selim II emboldened Philip II and he declared war on the sultan himself. In 1571, the Holy League "Holy League (1571)"), formed by Philip II, Venice and Pope Pius V, faced the Ottoman Empire, with a joint fleet commanded by Don Juan of Austria, illegitimate son of Charles I, who annihilated the Turkish fleet in the decisive battle of Lepanto. The defeat ended the Turkish threat in the Mediterranean and began a period of decline for the Ottoman Empire. This battle increased respect for Spain and its sovereignty outside its borders and the king assumed the burden of leading the Counter-Reformation.
The Kingdom in difficulties (1571-1598)
The time of joy in Madrid was short-lived. In 1566 the Calvinists had started a series of revolts in the Netherlands that caused the king to send the Duke of Alba to the area. In 1568, William I of Orange-Nassau led an unsuccessful attempt to drive the Duke of Alba out of the country. These battles are considered the beginning of the Eighty Years' War, which ended with the independence of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. Philip II, who had received from his father the inheritance of the territories of the house of Burgundy (the Netherlands and Franche-Comté), so that powerful Spain could defend the Empire from France, was forced to restore order and maintain his dominion over these territories. In 1572 a group of rebellious Dutch ships known as the watergeuzen, took several coastal cities, proclaimed their support for William I and rejected the Spanish government.
For Spain the war became an endless affair. In 1574, the Tercios of Flanders, under the command of Francisco de Valdés, were defeated in the siege of Leiden after the Dutch broke the dikes, causing massive flooding.
In 1576, overwhelmed by the costs of maintaining an army of eighty thousand men in the Netherlands and the immense fleet that defeated Lepanto, together with the growing threat of piracy in the Atlantic and especially the shipwrecks that reduced the arrival of money from American possessions, Philip II was forced to declare a suspension of payments (which was interpreted as bankruptcy).
The army mutinied not long after, sacking Antwerp and the southern Netherlands, causing several cities, which had until then remained loyal, to join the rebellion. The Spanish chose the route of negotiation and managed to pacify most of the southern provinces with the Union of Arras in 1579.
This agreement required that all Spanish troops abandon those lands, which strengthened the position of Philip II when in 1580 the last member of the royal family of Portugal, Cardinal "Cardinal (Catholicism)"), King Henry I of Portugal, died without direct descendants. The king of Spain, son of Isabella of Portugal and therefore grandson of King Manuel I, asserted his claim to the Portuguese throne, and in June sent the Duke of Alba and his army to Lisbon to secure the succession. The other suitor, Don Antonio "Antonio (Prior of Crato)"), retreated to the Azores, where Philip's navy finished defeating him.
The temporary unification of the Iberian Peninsula put the Portuguese Empire in the hands of Philip II, that is, most of the explored territories of the New World in addition to the commercial colonies in Asia and Africa. In 1582, when the king returned the court to Madrid from Lisbon, where it was temporarily based to pacify his new kingdom, the decision was made to strengthen Spanish naval power.
Spain was still reeling from the bankruptcy of 1576. In 1584 William I of Orange-Nassau was assassinated by a French Catholic. It was hoped that the death of the popular resistance leader would mean the end of the war, but it did not.
"God is Spanish" (1598-1626)
Although we now know that the Spanish economy was undermined and its power was weakened, the Empire was still by far the strongest power. So much so that he could fight battles with England, France and the Netherlands at the same time. This power was confirmed by the rest of the European peoples; Thus the French Huguenot Duplessis-Mornay, for example, wrote after the assassination of William of Orange at the hands of Balthasar Gérard:
The burden caused by the continuous piracy against their ships in the Atlantic and the consequent decrease in gold income from the Indies has been shown in several literary works and especially in films. However, more in-depth investigations[35] indicate that this piracy actually consisted of several dozen ships and several hundred pirates, the first being of small tonnage, so they could not confront the Spanish galleons, having to settle for small ships or those that could separate themselves from the fleet. Secondly, there is the fact that, during the century, no pirate or privateer managed to sink any galleon; Likewise, of some six hundred fleets chartered by Spain (two per year for about three hundred years) only two fell into enemy hands and both by war navies, not by pirates or privateers.[35].
The corsair attacks, in any case, among which Francis Drake stood out, caused serious security problems for both the fleets and the ports, which forced the establishment of a convoy system as well as the exponential increase in defensive expenses destined for the training of militias and the construction of fortifications. However, it was the inclement weather that most seriously blocked all trade between America and Europe. More serious was the Mediterranean piracy, perpetrated by Berbers, which had a volume ten or more times greater than the Atlantic one and which devastated the entire Mediterranean coast as well as the Canary Islands, often blocking communications with this Archipelago and with the possessions in Italy.
Despite all the income coming from America, Spain was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1596.
Philip II's successor, Philip III, came to the throne in 1598. He was a man disinterested in politics, preferring to let others make decisions rather than take command. His supporter was the Duke of Lerma, who never had any interest in the affairs of his allied country, Austria.
The Spanish attempted to extricate themselves from the numerous conflicts in which they were involved, first by signing the Peace of Vervins with France in 1598, recognizing Henry IV (Catholic since 1593) as king of France, and reestablishing many of the conditions of the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis. With several consecutive defeats and an endless guerrilla war against the Catholics supported by Spain in Ireland, England agreed to negotiate in 1604, after the ascension to the throne of the Stuart James I.
Peace with France and England meant that Spain could focus its attention and energies on restoring its rule in the Dutch provinces. The Dutch, led by Maurice of Nassau, the son of William I, were successful in taking some border towns in 1590, including the fortress of Breda. Added to this were the Dutch overseas victories that occupied the Portuguese (and therefore Spanish) colonies in the East, taking Ceylon (1605), as well as other Spice Islands (between 1605 and 1619), establishing Batavia as the center of their empire in the East.
The beginning of the decline of the empire, the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648)
In 1617, the Spanish ambassador to Austria, Íñigo Vélez de Guevara y Tassis, preventing the end of the Twelve Years' Truce, would begin to develop rapprochements with the Habsburgs of Austria (who since 1612 had had tense relations with the Habsburgs of Spain due to agreeing to Ferdinand II of Habsburg, instead of the Infantes of Spain, to inherit the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Kingdom of Hungary and the Holy Empire), so he would manage to persuade the courts of Vienna and Madrid to agree to the Treaty of Oñate, by which the Spanish Royal Family renounced the succession of Hungary, Bohemia and the Holy Empire (unless the male succession of the Habsburgs of Austria was extinguished) in exchange for the Habsburg Monarchy agreeing to support Spain in its conflicts with the French and Dutch in Italy and the Netherlands, whose guarantee was the promise to cede the Austrian territories of Upper Alsace and Ortenau on the German-French border, as well as the delivery of the fiefs of Finale Ligure and Piombino in Italy through the authority of the Germanic Roman Emperor over the lords of the Kingdom of Italy "Kingdom of Italy (Holy Roman Empire)") (all these delivered territories allowed the Spanish Way to be strengthened).[37] The following year, in 1618, the king replaced Spínola with Baltasar de Zúñiga, veteran ambassador in Vienna. He thought that the key to stopping a resurgent France, and eliminating the Dutch, was to consolidate a close alliance with the Austrian Habsburgs. That same year, beginning with the Defenestration of Prague, Austria and Emperor Ferdinand II embarked on a campaign against Bohemia and the Protestant Union. Zúñiga encouraged Philip III to join the Austrian Habsburgs in the war, and Ambrosio Spínola was sent at the head of the Tercios of Flanders to intervene in the repression of the Bohemian Revolt (which occurred in present-day Czechia and its surroundings between 1618-1620). In this way, Spain entered the Thirty Years' War, which would soon attract all the other European powers of the time.
In Central Europe, the Bohemians were defeated at the Battle of the White Mountain in 1620, and later at Stadtlohn in 1623, clashes where the participation of the Spanish army allied to the Holy Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy (Austria, Hungary "Kingdom of Hungary (1526-1867)") and Croatia "Kingdom of Croatia (Habsburg)") and the Catholic League "Catholic League" were very relevant. (1609)") (led by Bavaria). However, the Bohemians in exile refused to surrender, as they had obtained the support of the Ottoman Empire through the Hungarian Protestant Gabriel Bethlen of Transylvania, and especially the Protestant German prince, Frederick V of the Palatinate (who had been crowned King of Bohemia previously and in his brief reign had managed to obtain allies from northern Europe), causing the Czech conflict to spread to the rest of the Holy Empire, moving the main area of the conflict to Germany until end in a general European religious war between Catholics and Protestants. Given this, Ambrosio Spínola and Maximilian I of Bavaria would invade the Electorate of the Palatinate (supported by England, the Netherlands, Transylvania and several Protestant German States), developing the Palatinate Campaign in which the Catholic side would triumph and the Spanish Empire would annex the Upper Palatinate for the Spanish Netherlands, which would be strategic to strengthen the Spanish Way.
The Empire with the last Habsburg (1665-1700)
At the death of Philip IV, his son Charles II was only four years old, so his mother Mariana of Austria ruled as regent. This ended up handing over the government tasks to a valid man, Father Nithard, an Austrian Jesuit. The reign of Charles II can be divided into two parts. The first would span from 1665 to 1679 and would be characterized by economic lethargy and power struggles between the king's loyalists, Father Nithard and Fernando de Valenzuela, with the illegitimate son of Philip IV, Don Juan José of Austria. The latter carried out a coup d'état in 1677 that forced the monarch to expel Nithard and Valenzuela from the government.
The image that has always been had of Charles II and his reign is that of total decline and stagnation in Spain; While the rest of Europe embarked on tremendous changes in governments and societies—the Revolution of 1688 in England and the reign of the Sun King in France—Spain continued to drift. The bureaucracy that had been established around Charles I and Philip II demanded a strong and hard-working monarch; The weakness and neglect of Philip III and Philip IV contributed to the Spanish decline. Charles II had few abilities, was impotent and died without an heir in 1700. However, modern historiography tends to be more condescending towards Charles II and his limitations, showing that the king, despite being on the limit of mental normality, was aware of the responsibility he had, the situation of greed that his empire was experiencing and the idea of majesty that he always tried to maintain. This was demonstrated in his will, which, according to popular song, was his best work; In it he declared:
The second part of his reign would begin in 1680 with the seizure of power of the Duke of Medinaceli as valid, who resumed the measures taken by Don Juan José of Austria to carry out the king's economic project to stabilize the economy. The valid one achieved one of the largest deflations in history, if not the largest, which damaged the monarchy's coffers, but meant a considerable increase in the purchasing power of citizens.[42].
In 1685, Manuel Joaquín Álvarez de Toledo, count of Oropesa, took office when the Count of Medinaceli resigned. Álvarez de Toledo proposed a fixed budget for Court expenses as a means to avoid new bankruptcies, reduce taxes, forgive debts to several municipalities, reform the cadastre and place experts instead of nobles in key positions.[42].
Throughout his reign, wars against France ended, especially after the Treaty of Ryswick, which partitioned the island of Hispaniola between France and Spain. After him, Charles II's project for his kingdoms was achieved: he kept the dominions of America and Europe under his power, in addition to enabling an economic recovery that his successor would later enjoy.[42].
The Bourbon Empire (1700-1833)
The change of dynasty
The new king was not excessively well received in Spain, apart from the delays in his entry into Madrid due to bad weather and the continuous receptions, the courtiers began to see that he was apathetic, chaste, pious, very follower of the wishes of his confessor and melancholic, writing him a verse:
But Philip V had no intention of monopolizing Spain for himself and those close to him as Philip the Fair intended to do. He wanted to be a good monarch despite the many differences he had with his new people. So much so that after the famous speech given by the Marquis of Castelldosrius, Spanish ambassador to France, Felipe did not understand anything, not even the famous phrase "There are no longer any Pyrenees"; because he did not know Spanish and it was his grandfather Louis XIV who had to intercede for him; but at the end of his reply to the ambassador, the Sun King told the future king "Be a good Spaniard." That seventeen-year-old young man fulfilled that mandate his entire life.[43].
The desire of the other powers for Spain and its possessions could not be settled with the royal will. So clashes were almost inevitable; Archduke Charles of Austria did not resign, which gave rise to the War of Succession (1702-1713).
This war and the negligence committed in it led to new defeats for Spanish weapons, even reaching the peninsular territory itself. Thus, Oran, Menorca and the most painful and prolonged loss: Gibraltar, where there were only fifty Spanish soldiers defending it against the Anglo-Dutch fleet.
Philip V was not prepared to lead the largest empire at that time and he knew it; but he also knew how to surround himself with the most prepared people of his time.[44] Thus the Bourbon monarchs and the men who came with them brought a project for the Spanish Empire and a desire to merge with it; For example, Alejandro Malaspina said that he felt like "an Italian in Spain and a Spaniard in Italy", Charles III of Spain had statues sculpted of all the Spanish kings and dignitaries since the Visigoths as the heir that he felt to be theirs, the Marquis of Esquilache was upset when the Spanish nobles did not address him as was customary or, in the afternoons, he drank chocolate, a tradition that differentiated the Spanish court from other European ones; but perhaps the clearest was Philip V in front of his grandfather Louis
In the Treaty of Utrecht (April 11, 1713), the European powers decided what the future of Spain was going to be in terms of the balance of power. The new king of the House of Bourbon, Philip V, maintained the overseas empire, but ceded Sicily and part of the Milanese to Savoy, Gibraltar and Menorca to Great Britain and the other continental territories to Austria (the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, Milan and Sardinia). It also meant the definitive separation of the crowns of France and Spain, and the renunciation of Philip V of his rights to the French throne. With this, the Empire turned its back on European territories. Likewise, Britain was guaranteed the slave trade for thirty years ("black seat").
The reform of the Empire
With the Bourbon monarch, the entire territorial organization of the State was modified with a series of decrees called New Plant Decrees, eliminating the jurisdictions and privileges of the old peninsular kingdoms and unifying the entire Spanish State by dividing it into provinces called General Captaincies under the charge of some official and almost all of them governed with the same laws; With this, the Spanish State was homogenized and centralized using the territorial model of France.
On the other hand, with Philip V came French mercantilist ideas based on a centralized monarchy, slowly put into operation in America. Their greatest concerns were to break the power of the Creole aristocracy and also to weaken the territorial control of the Society of Jesus: the Jesuits were expelled from Spanish America in 1767. In addition to the already established consulates of Mexico City and Lima, that of Vera Cruz was established.
Between 1717 and 1718 the institutions for the government of the Indies, the Council of the Indies and the Casa de la Contratación, were moved from Seville to Cádiz, which became the only port of trade with the Americas.
The executive bodies were reformed, creating state secretariats that would be the embryo of the ministries. The customs and tariff system and the contributory system were reformed, the cadastre was created (despite the contributory policy not being completely reformed), the Army was restructured into regiments instead of thirds...; but perhaps the great achievement was the unification of the different fleets and arsenals in the Navy. Men like José Patiño, José Campillo or Zenón de Somodevilla were dedicated to these reforms, who were examples of meritocracy and some of the best experts in naval material of their time.[45].
These reforms were followed by a new expansionist policy that sought to recover lost positions. Thus, in 1717 the Spanish fleet recovered Sardinia and Sicily, which it soon had to abandon before the coalition of Austria, France, Great Britain and the Netherlands, which won at Cape Pessaro. However, Spanish diplomacy, supported by Family Pacts with its French relatives, would ensure that the crown of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies fell to the second son of the Spanish king. The new dynastic branch would later be known as Bourbon-Two Sicilies.
Imperial wars during the 18th century
One of the most important Spanish victories of the entire imperial period in America, and without a doubt the most significant of the century, was that of the battle of Cartagena de Indias in 1741 (see War of the Asiento) in which a colossal fleet of one hundred and eighty-six English ships with twenty-three thousand six hundred men on board attacked the Spanish port of Cartagena de Indias (today Colombia). This naval action was the largest in the history of the English Navy, and the second largest of all time after the Battle of Normandy. After two months of intense cannon fire between the English ships and the defense batteries of Cartagena Bay and the San Felipe de Barajas Fort, the attackers retreated after losing fifty ships and eighteen thousand men. The successful strategy of the Spanish great admiral Blas de Lezo was decisive in containing the English attack and achieving a victory that extended Spanish naval supremacy until the beginning of the century.
After the defeat, the English prohibited the dissemination of the news and the censorship was so strict that few English history books contain references to this momentous naval conflict. Even today, little is known about this great battle, compared to the well-known episode of Trafalgar or even that of the Invincible Armada.
Spain also clashed with Portugal over the Colonia del Sacramento in present-day Uruguay, which was the base for British smuggling through the Río de la Plata. In 1750 Portugal ceded the colony to Spain in exchange for seven of the Jesuits' thirty Guaraní reductions on the border with Brazil. The Spanish had to expel the Jesuits, generating a conflict with the Guaraní that lasted eleven years.
The development of naval trade promoted by the Bourbons in America was interrupted by the British fleet during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) in which Spain and France faced Great Britain and Portugal over imperial conflicts. Spanish successes in northern Portugal were overshadowed by the English capture of Havana and Manila. Finally, the Treaty of Paris "Treaty of Paris (1763)") (1763) ended the war. With this peace, Spain recovered Manila and Havana, although it had to return Sacramento. In addition, France gave Spain Louisiana west of the Mississippi, including its capital, New Orleans, and Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain.
In any case, the century was a period of prosperity in the overseas empire thanks to the constant growth of trade, especially in the second half of the century due to the Bourbon reforms. Single ship routes at regular intervals were slowly replacing the old custom of sending the Indies fleets, and in the 1760s, there were regular routes between Cádiz, Havana and Puerto Rico, and at longer intervals with the Río de la Plata, where a new viceroyalty had been created in what until then was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, the so-called Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776. Contraband, which "was the cancer of the Habsburg empire, it declined when the registry ships were launched").
The end of the global empire
The Spanish Empire of the century was consolidated as a mid-level power on the geopolitical board, although far from its former superpower status. Its vast empire in the Indies gave it notable global relevance, although powers such as France, England and Austria predominated in Europe. Despite this, Spain maintained the most powerful fleet in the world, and its currency remained one of the strongest. Although the Spanish Empire had not recovered its former splendor, it managed to emerge from the difficulties of the beginning of the century, when it was vulnerable to other powers. The relative peace for much of the century under the new monarchy allowed reconstruction and the beginning of a long process of economic and institutional modernization. The demographic decline of the century had been reversed, although it was necessary to encourage immigration, mainly of Germans and Swiss. However, all these advances would be overshadowed by the tumult that would shake Europe at the end of the century: the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.
After the French Revolution of 1789, Spain joined the countries that allied themselves to combat the revolution. An army led by General Ricardos reconquered Roussillon, but just a few years later, in 1794, French troops expelled them and invaded Spanish territory. Godoy's rise to prime minister entailed a policy of appeasement with France: with the Peace of Basel "Treaty of Basel (July 22, 1795)") of 1795, French withdrawal was achieved in exchange for half of Hispaniola (what is today the Dominican Republic).
In 1796 the Treaty of San Ildefonso "Treaty of San Ildefonso (1796)") marked the alliance with Napoleonic France against Great Britain, which marked the union of their respective armed forces. The naval combat at Cape San Vicente was a relative victory for the British, which they did not know how to take advantage of, although in Cádiz and Santa Cruz de Tenerife the British fleet suffered two failures. The most notable was the loss "Invasion of Trinidad (1797)") of Trinidad Island (Trinidad and Tobago) in 1797 and Menorca. In 1802, the Peace of Amiens was signed, a truce that allowed Spain to recover Menorca.
Hostilities soon resumed, and the Napoleonic project of a cross-Channel invasion was developed. However, the destruction of the allied Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) ruined the plan. The absolute domination of the sea by the British Royal Navy was sterile in the colonial struggle against Spain, reaping resounding failures during the English attempts to invade the Río de la Plata in 1806 and 1807 or Venezuela. However, the Napoleonic occupation of peninsular Spain gave way to liberal movements within Hispanicism, which, supported by the United Kingdom, broke the consensus within the Spanish Empire and allowed the passage of the British colonial intervention by sending tons of weapons, ships and thousands of combatants for the peninsular war and support for the revolutionaries.[47].
The Disaster of '98 and the loss of the Caribbean and Philippine islands
In what remained of the Empire, the War of Independence was followed by an absolute monarchy (ominous decade), dynastic conflicts, absolutist uprisings, liberal pronouncements and power struggles between liberal factions that only allowed certain periods stable enough for the development of an active foreign policy. Prominent among these is the government of Leopoldo O'Donnell (1856-1863), who, after a harsh repression of dissent, was able to actively intervene again on the international scene: a war was won against Morocco with the victories of Tetouan and Wad-Ras that allowed the expansion of Ceuta and the concession of the plaza of Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequena (identified with Sidi Ifni) on the Atlantic coast facing the Canary Islands.
An attempt was also made to pacify the Philippines, the emperor of Mexico was supported (supported by the colonial powers) and, together with the French, a punitive expedition was sent to Cochinchina, where several missionaries had been murdered. At the same time, Pedro Santana, at the head of a certain Dominican faction, returned what is now the Dominican Republic to an imperial status only for the vicissitudes of the island's internal politics and Haitian support to cause it to be definitively lost in 1865.
The economic crisis derived from the rise in the price of cotton due to the American Civil War, the poor harvests and the poor results of the attempts to modernize agriculture (confiscation), infrastructure (railway) put an end to the O'Donnell regime and its imperialist experience. Wars and disputes between progressives, liberals and conservatives, who refused to accept that the country had a low status on an international scale, became frequent. Growing discontent over instability and the perennial economic crisis led to the outbreak of a revolution that gave way to political experiments and the First Spanish Republic. The subsequent monarchical restoration of 1875 marked a new, more favorable period, when Alfonso XII and his ministers had some success in regaining the vigor of Spanish politics and prestige, in part by having accepted the reality of Spanish circumstances and working intelligently.
Despite these ups and downs, Spain had maintained control of the last fragments of its empire until the increase in the level of nationalism and anti-colonial uprisings in several areas, which broke out during the 1870s. This conflict would become international as a result of the involvement of the United States, leading to the Spanish-American War of 1898, when a weak Spain faced a much stronger United States that needed new markets to continue expanding its already strong economy.
The trigger for this war was the sinking of the Maine battleship "USS Maine (ACR-1)"), for which Spain was blamed (after an aggressive press campaign by William Randolph Hearst). The latest investigations have not proven anything conclusively: neither whether it was an accident or external sabotage, nor who would be responsible, even so there is a theory that it was the Americans themselves who caused the fire on the Maine with the purpose of sinking it, blaming Spain and provoking a war to seize the Spanish overseas provinces, defining themselves as defenders of the Cubans against Spanish tyranny. This war ended with a humiliating Spanish defeat and the independence of Cuba.
In the Philippines, the independence movement also had American support. Spain was forced to request an armistice, and the Treaty of Paris "Treaty of Paris (1898)") was signed, by which Cuba was definitively renounced and the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam were ceded to the United States. This series of events is known as the "disaster of '98." The last Spanish territories in Oceania were eventually sold to Germany in the German-Spanish Treaty of 1899 "German-Spanish Treaty (1899)").
The last territories, Africa (1885-1975)
Since 1778, with the Treaty of El Pardo "Treaty of El Pardo (1778)"), by which the Portuguese ceded to Spain in exchange for territories in South America on the island of Bioko and its nearby islets as well as the commercial rights of the territory between the Niger and Ogoué rivers, Spain maintained a presence in the Gulf of Guinea. In the 19th century, some explorers, such as Manuel Iradier, crossed this limit.
Meanwhile, fighting in the Mediterranean had continued, losing Spanish positions in North Africa. In 1848, however, Spanish troops conquered the Chafarinas Islands.
The loss of most of the American Empire led Spain to increasingly focus on its dominions in Africa, especially after the defeat against the United States in the Spanish-American War of 1898.
In 1860, after the war against Morocco, Spain obtained the territory of Sidi Ifni through the Treaty of Wad-Ras. At the Berlin Conference of 1884, Spain obtained recognition of sovereignty over the territories explored by Emilio Bonelli from Cape Bojador to Cabo Blanco "Cape Blanco (Mauritania)") as Spanish Sahara, whose northern limit was finally defined by the Treaty of Paris of 1900.
Regarding the territory of the coast of Guinea in western equatorial Africa, Spain had coastal possessions, called Spanish Guinea and claimed a coastal territory that diffusely extended between the mouth of the Niger River in the north to the Ogoué River in the south,[56] however such claims were restricted to the coasts and islands of current Equatorial Guinea, although even at the end of the century Spain maintained Transpaís claims until almost reaching the left banks of the Congo River.[57] Conflicting claims to Guinea were resolved in the Treaty of Paris of 1900, Río Muni became a protectorate in 1885 and a colony "Colony (administrative)") in 1900.
Within the disputes between the European powers over the division of Africa, in 1912 France obtained the French protectorate of Morocco through the Treaty of Fez with Morocco. On November 27, 1912, France promoted the Franco-Spanish treaty that granted Spain the Spanish protectorate of Morocco, with the aim of diluting its presence in Morocco in the face of the misgivings of Germany and the other powers over French colonial hegemony in North Africa. Its capital was Tetouan, its southern part "Cape Juby (territory of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco)") bordered the Spanish Sahara and one of its greatest economic assets were the mines of the Rif. Resistance to the Spanish occupation was manifested in the Rif War, when the Annual disaster occurred, the greatest defeat in the history of the Spanish army and the final victory in 1927.
Between 1926 and 1959, Bioko and Río Muni "Continental Region (Equatorial Guinea)") were united under the name of Spanish Guinea.
Spain lost interest in developing an extensive economic structure in the African colonies during the first part of the century. However, he developed extensive cocoa plantations, for which thousands of Nigerians were introduced as workers. The Spanish also helped Equatorial Guinea achieve one of the best literacy levels on the continent and develop a network of health facilities.
In 1956, Spain returned the northern territory of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco to Morocco, preserving the southern territory, called Cape Juby "Cape Juby (territory of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco)"), considering that, although it had been administered as a protectorate by Spain, Morocco lacked legal or historical arguments to claim it. In 1957 Mohamed V promoted the Ifni-Sahara war against Spain and France, resolved by the Cintra Agreement by which Spain ceded Cape Juby and most of Ifni to Morocco.
In 1959, the Spanish territory of the Gulf of Guinea was granted the status of a Spanish overseas province. As a Spanish Equatorial Region, it was governed by a governor general who exercised military and civil powers. The first local elections were held in 1960, and the first attorneys in Equatoguinean courts were elected. Through the Basic Law of December 1963, the two provinces were reunified as Equatorial Guinea and endowed with limited autonomy, with bodies common to the entire territory (including a legislative body) and bodies specific to each province. Although the commissioner general appointed by the Spanish government had broad powers, the General Assembly of Equatorial Guinea had considerable initiative in formulating laws and regulations.
In March 1968, under pressure from Equatoguinean nationalists and the United Nations, Spain announced that it would grant independence. Already independent in 1968, Equatorial Guinea had one of the highest per capita incomes in all of Africa.
As a result of the decolonization processes promoted by the UN, in 1969 the diplomatic process culminated in Spain handing over Sidi Ifni to Morocco. Finally, in 1976 the abandonment of the Spanish Sahara, with its fishing and mining wealth, was completed by the Madrid agreement. During the political instability of late Francoism, this was forced by the political decolonization urged by the UN and the pre-war climate of which the green march and the Polisario Front attacks were exponents.
Territories of the Spanish Empire
No existe una postura unánime entre los historiadores sobre los territorios concretos de España porque, en ocasiones, resulta difícil delimitar si determinado lugar era parte de España o formaba parte de las posesiones del rey de España, o si el territorio era una posesión efectiva o jurídica, en épocas que abarcan siglos, incorporados por heredados "Herencia (derecho)") o conquistados, y en las que no estaban igualmente definidas la diferencia entre las posesiones del rey y las de la nación, como tampoco lo estaba la hacienda o la herencia ni el derecho internacional. A pesar de todo, el que la Monarquía Hispánica fuera una monarquía autoritaria, casi absolutista, hace que la tesis más lógica sea la de que todas las posesiones del rey, eran posesiones de la nación. De hecho no se puede hablar de una separación de escudo nacional y escudo real hasta bien entrado el siglo , lo cual pone de manifiesto que el rey de España era prácticamente lo mismo que el Estado, atendiendo a las delimitaciones del régimen polisinodial por el que se regía el Imperio español.
America
Plus all the territories currently belonging to Latin America.
The Kingdoms of the Indies were subordinated to the Crown of Castile by order of Isabella the Catholic, which was evident in the fact that the Council of the Indies was initially an extension of the Council of Castile, and that the Indian Law began in the Seven Partidas of the Kingdom of Castile and not in the Fueros of Aragon. In turn, during the Iberian Union "Unión Ibérica (1580-1640)"), they would be in a different jurisdiction than that of the Council of Portugal.
• - Viceroyalty of the Indies (1492-1535): first territorial entity formed after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, it was made up of all the territories discovered, explored, claimed and controlled by the Spanish in the New World, mainly the Antilles and Castilla de Oro (Panama). Succeeded by the viceroyalty of New Spain after the conquest of the Aztec empire.
• - Viceroyalty of New Spain (1535-1821): composed of the current countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and the southwestern states of the United States (California, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Nevada, Florida, Utah, Louisiana and part of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma) and the Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Saint Martin Island, Anguilla "Anguilla (dependency)"), Bonaire, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada "Grenada (country)"), Curaçao, Aruba, Jamaica, Virgin Islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Guadeloupe "Guadeloupe (France")), Martinique, Saint Barthelemy "Saint Barthelemy (France")), Barbados, Turks and Caicos Islands, Saint Lucia and the Cayman Islands), Most of these were lost in the century with the exception of Trinidad (ceded to the United Kingdom in 1797), Hispaniola, Cuba and Puerto Rico, in addition to the Philippine Islands in Asia and the Mariana Islands and the Carolinas in Oceania. It also included claims to the east coast of the modern United States. Spain kept these territories under its control until 1821, the year it became independent, although in several of the states of the Great Plains and the Lesser Antilles there was no stable Spanish presence.
Captaincy General of Santo Domingo (1535-1795; 1809-1821; 1861-1865): it was the first Spanish province in the New World, and included the entire island of Hispaniola, the eastern part of which later became the Dominican Republic, while the western part became the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1697, which would eventually become independent as Haiti.
Captaincy General of Cuba (1777-1898): during the previous two centuries, a New Spain governorate was made up of the island of Cuba and adjacent areas, as well as Florida and Louisiana.
Governorate of Louisiana (1764-1803): ceded by France, it incorporated territories of the current states of the American Midwest (Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Minnesota and Iowa).
Captaincy General of Guatemala (1543-1821): also known as the Kingdom of Guatemala, it was made up of the territories of Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and the Mexican state of Chiapas. It declared its independence in 1821, to join the First Mexican Empire, from which it separated (except Chiapas) on July 1, 1823.
Captaincy General of Puerto Rico (1582-1898), later province: it covered the island of Puerto Rico and other minor islands adjacent to it.
Captaincy General of Yucatán (1565-1821): included the current Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo and eastern Tabasco. The inclusion of Belize and El Petén are a source of controversy by some historians.[58]
General Command of the Internal Provinces (1776-1821): it was created by King Charles III through a royal decree of August 22, 1776, giving the commanding general, over these previously established provinces, powers comparable to those of the viceroy of New Spain; It included the current territories of Sonora and Sinaloa, the Californias, Coahuila, Nuevo Reino de León, Nuevo Santander, Texas, Nueva Vizcaya, and New Mexico. Between 1787 and 1790 and between 1813 and 1821 it was divided into two General Commands: East and West.
Nutca Territory (1789-1795): although the effective presence was reduced to the forts of San Miguel de Nutca and Núñez Gaona "Neah Bay (Washington)"), the claimed territory included the current states of the American northwest (Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Washington "Washington (state)"), as well as the southwest of the Canadian province of British Columbia, the Yukon Territory and the current US state of Alaska up to parallel 61° N. Spanish settlements were evicted in 1795 as agreed by the Nutca Conventions and territorial claims were ceded to the United States by the Adams-Onís Treaty (1819).
• - Viceroyalty of Peru (1542-1824): Throughout its existence it covered the territory of the current countries of Peru, Panama, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Guyana, Suriname, Colombia (including the San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina Archipelago until 1544), Argentina (including the Malvinas Islands until 1760), Chile (including the Juan Fernández Archipelago, the Desventuradas, Sala y Gómez Island, Rapa Nui Island and adjacent to it), Ecuador (including the Galapagos Islands), as well as territories of the North, Central-West, Southeast, and South regions of Brazil (the entirety of the current states of Acre "Acre (Brazil)"), Amazonas "Amazonas (Brazil)"), Rondonia, Roraima, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Amapá, and Río Grande of the South, most of the present-day states of Pará, Goiás, Paraná, Santa Catarina, as well as minor parts of the present-day states of Tocantins, Minas Gerais, and Sao Paulo), as well as Venezuela (roughly the present-day states of Amazonas "Estado Amazonas (Venezuela)", and Bolívar), and of France (the present-day overseas department of French Guiana). These territories also include territorial claims in the regions of the Amazon, the Gran Chaco, and Patagonia, and in other continents such as Oceania and Antarctica. The territory of the viceroyalty was organized, in addition to the entities detailed below, through Royal Courts, namely: Panama, Lima, Santafé de Bogotá, Charcas, Quito, Chile, Buenos Aires, and Cuzco. In the 19th century, Peru suffered severe territorial dismemberments at the hands of the Bourbons "House of Bourbon (Spain)"), giving rise to two new viceroyalties: New Granada, and the Río de la Plata, thus leaving only the Royal Courts of Lima and Cuzco under its jurisdiction, until its independence.
Captaincy General of Chile (1541-1818): Also called the Kingdom of Chile, it was under the jurisdiction of the viceroyalty of Peru until 1798, the year in which it obtained independence from said entity. "Modern Chile" on the map of Cano and Olmedilla of 1775[60][61]), the Terra Australis[62][63][64] and the island of San Carlos[65] in Polynesia.
The territory of Tucumán, which had originally been part of this general captaincy, passed to the Government of Buenos Aires and, with the creation of the viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, the territories of the cities of San Juan and Mendoza (Cuyo) were transferred. Other territories were recovered by the Mapuche indigenous people or became in legal limbo with the viceroyalty of Peru, as is the case of Chiloé.
General Command of Maynas (1802-1822): Created by royal decree of 1802. It approximately covered the area of the current Peruvian departments of San Martín, Loreto and Ucayali. This region, whose governor reported directly to the viceroy of Peru, received special treatment for geopolitical and military reasons, mainly in order to prevent Portugal from taking over the territory in question.
Government of Guayaquil (1764-1820): Created from the territories that made up the Corregimiento of Guayaquil. It had its headquarters in the city of Santiago de Guayaquil, and since the creation of the viceroyalty of New Granada, its jurisdiction was modified several times, becoming alternately dependent on both said viceroyalty and the viceroyalty of Peru.
Government of Chiloé (1567-1826): Its creation dates back to the beginning of the Spanish conquest in 1567, and it depended on the Captaincy General of Chile until 1767, passing that year provisionally to the viceroyalty of Peru for the construction of defenses,[66] a situation that remained until its dissolution in 1824. On October 1, 1780, the king issued another royal order returning Chiloé to the dependence of the government of Chile, but the order was never carried out by the viceroy of Peru, which was among his powers since any royal order could not be executed until receiving the fulfillment of the viceroy. All official crown maps continued to show Chiloé and its district within Chile. The mayor's office depended on the religious matters of the bishopric of Concepción, while on the military level it had to commensurate its decisions with the commander of the Chilean Borders.[61]
Puerto de Nuestra Señora del Paposo (1803-1824): After receiving Andreu y Guerrero on June 27, 1803, King Carlos IV decided on October 1 of that year, through a royal order, the transfer of Paposo and its adjacent territory to the viceroyalty of Peru, without modifying the ecclesiastical jurisdictions that actually existed.
Governorate of Terra Australis (1539-1555): in the territories south of the Strait of Magellan (Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn) between the line of the treaty of Tordesillas and that of the treaty of Zaragoza, they limit
• - Viceroyalty of New Granada (1717-1723;1739-1822): created with territories of the northern portion of the viceroyalty of Peru, it included the current countries of Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, northern Brazil, western Guyana, and the Galapagos Islands.
Captaincy General of Venezuela (1777-1823): created by Charles III of Spain, civilly and militarily autonomous from the viceroyalty of New Granada. It corresponded to the current territory of Venezuela, western Guyana and the island of Trinidad.
• - Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (1776-1818): created with territories from the southern portion of the viceroyalty of Peru, it included the current countries of Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and part of central and northern Argentina, as well as southern Brazil. It included the Falkland Islands (until 1810) and territories in the Gulf of Guinea, Africa. The monarch commissioned the viceroys of Buenos Aires, starting in 1778, to found settlements on the coasts of Eastern Patagonia, arranging that they accidentally depended on the viceroyalty due to proximity issues, without this altering the political jurisdiction of the Atlantic Patagonian coastline, making it explicit as part of the kingdom of Chile in the royal decree of June 8, 1778.[60] In 1779, the fort and port of San José de la Candelaria, in the San José Gulf, northeast of the Chubut River. In 1775 the fort was incorporated into the Patagones Command, whose headquarters was the Carmen de Patagones fort. At the end of the century, attempts to incorporate Patagonia into the Spanish Empire were resumed, but were paralyzed with the Spanish-American independence of 1810.[75][76].
During the Iberian Union (1580-1640), the territories of the Portuguese Empire in America also came under the government of the House of Austria, and the Crown of Portugal would keep its traditions and particular laws intact (Fuero), being a different jurisdiction despite the political Union, and not a subdivision:
• - Estado do Brasil (1580-1608; 1612-1640): formed around the coast of Brazil. Between 1608 and 1612 it was divided into two General Governments, one with its capital in Bahia and the other in Rio de Janeiro.
• - Estado do Maranhão (1621-1640): formed by the Captaincies of Maranhão, Grão-Pará and Ceará when dividing the State of Brazil.
Asia and Oceania
• - Captaincy General of the Philippines (1565-1898): also known as the Spanish East Indies, it was part of the viceroyalty of New Spain until the independence of Mexico in 1821. It was made up of the archipelago of the Philippines, including the islands of Mindanao and Joló, although these were not subjugated until the 2nd century, and in Oceania by the Caroline and Mariana Islands (mainly Guam). It also included claims to Sabah, in northern Borneo until 1885. Multiple territories temporarily occupied by Spain (such as Brunei during the seventy-two-day "War of Castile (Borneo)") in 1578) were also part of the Captaincy General of the Philippines.
Spanish Protectorate of Cambodia
Protectorate over Cambodia (1597-1599): briefly held when a group of Spanish and Portuguese adventurers placed King Barom Reachea II on the throne and made him accept a Spanish protectorate, but both the monarch and his foreign supporters were assassinated by Malay Muslims two years later.
Protectorate over Brunei (1578): briefly controlled by Spain with the assistance of local nobles, such as Pengiran Seri Lela") and Pengiran Seri Ratna"), who offered subjugation in exchange for taking over the throne usurped by Saiful Rijal.[77]
Spanish Moluccas
Governorate of the Moluccas (1606-1663): consisting of a protectorate over the sultanate of Tidore (1526-1545; 1580-1663) and on half of the island of Ternate (1606-1663), in addition to some minor settlements (some of Portuguese origin) in the rest of the Moluccas islands and northern Sulawesi, in Indonesia.[78][79]
Spanish Formosa
Governorate of Formosa (1626-1642): located in the north of the island of Taiwan with the purpose of trading with China, it was part of the viceroyalty of New Spain for 16 years.
Protectorate over Joló (1851-1898): obtained after the Balanguingui Expedition, in which the Sultan's dependencies would continue under his government if they agreed to subjugate the Philippines under the sovereignty of Spain.[80] It would be ratified internationally by the Madrid Protocol of 1885 (although ceding northern Borneo to a British Protectorate that would be part of British Malaysia, while Spain would remain with the Joló Archipelago until the American Occupation of the Philippines).[81].
• - El Piñal "El Piñal (China)") (1598-1600): Brief trading post in China under Castilian administration by concession of the Ming.
Spanish expeditions to the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Africa
• - Canary Islands (since 1479/1496): first territory conquered by the crown of Castile overseas, currently a Spanish autonomous community.
• - North African presidios (1479-end of the century): settlements taken by Castile on the coast of North Africa to expand and try to control Barbary piracy. After the Capitulation of Cintra in 1509, the area of Spanish influence was delimited to include present-day Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, while Portugal received the Atlantic coast of Africa.
Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequena (1479-1524):, Melilla (since 1497, currently a Spanish autonomous city), Cazaza (1505-1532), Mazalquivir (1505-1708; 1732-1792), the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera (1508-1522; since 1564, currently a plaza of Spanish sovereignty), Orán "Orán (Algeria)") (1509-1708; 1732-1792), Bejaia (1510-1555), the Rock of Algiers (1510-1529), Tripoli "Tripoli (Libya)") (1510-1523), Djerba "Djerba (Tunisia)") (1521-1524; 1551-1560), Honaine (1531-1535), Bizerte (1535-1573), La Goleta (1535-1574), Tunis "Tunisia (city)") (1535-1574), Bona (1535-1540), Monastir "Monastir (Tunisia)") (1541-1550), Susa "Susa (Tunisia)") (1541-1550), Mahdía (1550-1553), the Al Hoceima Islands (since 1559, currently a place of Spanish sovereignty), La Mamora (1614-1681),[90] Larache (1610-1689)[n. 2], Ceuta (since 1640, previously Portuguese, currently a Spanish autonomous city) and the Chafarinas Islands (since 1848, currently a place of Spanish sovereignty).
Spanish Guinea and territorial claims (in dark red its territory for 1960).
• - Spanish Guinea (1777 de jure/1843 de facto-1968): officially ceded by Portugal by the treaties of San Ildefonso "Treaty of San Ildefonso (1777)") and El Pardo "Treaty of El Pardo (1778)"), initially consisted of the islands of Fernando Poo (present-day Bioko) and Annobón and was part of the viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, but would not be effectively occupied until the middle of the century, adding in 1885 the continental zone of the Río Muni.
Spanish colonial project in the Red Sea during the late 19th century to improve communication between peninsular Spain and the Philippines.[91].
• - Spanish Assab (1887-1890 de jure/not occupied de facto): brief cession by Italian Eritrea of a small piece of territory on the Eritrean coast of Danakil (between Buia and Mergabela/Margableh, near Alela, opposite the island of Um Ālbahār), located in the Bay of Assab with access to the Red Sea, as agreed in the Mediterranean Pacts of 1887 "in:Mediterranean Agreements (1887)"). The Spanish were tacitly expected to help in the defense of Italian Assab against conflicts with the Ethiopian Empire. However, the agreed delivery would not be completed due to British and German pressure.[92][93]
Europe
• - Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands:
Territories of the Crown of Castile: Formed by the elevation of the county of Castile to a kingdom and its subsequent union with the Kingdom of León. Its union of the Crown of Castile with Aragon would give way to peninsular Spain and the current Spanish Monarchy. They would be administered by the Council of Castile.
Kingdom of Galicia
Principality of Asturias
Kingdom of León
Kingdom of Castile
Kingdom of Toledo "Kingdom of Toledo (Crown of Castile)")
Kingdom of Murcia "Kingdom of Murcia (Crown of Castile)")
Kingdom of Jaén "Kingdom of Jaén (Crown of Castile)")
Kingdom of Córdoba "Kingdom of Córdoba (Crown of Castile)")
Kingdom of Seville "Kingdom of Seville (Crown of Castile)")
Gibraltar: stronghold located in the strait of the same name, ceded to Great Britain after the Peace of Utrecht (1713).
Kingdom of Granada "Kingdom of Granada (Crown of Castile)")
Molina Lordship
Lordship of Vizcaya
Kingdom of Navarra: Its annexation to the Union of Castile and Aragon would integrate it into peninsular Spain.
Lower Navarra: ultra-Pyrenean territory definitively abandoned in 1530 due to its difficult defense against the French.[94]
Territories of the Crown of Aragon: Its union with Castile would give way to peninsular Spain and the current Spanish Monarchy. They would be administered by the Council of Aragon
Kingdom of Aragon
Kingdom of Valencia
Principality of Catalonia: Composed of the Catalan Counties south of the Pyrenees.
Barcelona County
Urgell County
Principality of Andorra: Donated by Ferdinand the Catholic to Germana de Foix (vassal of the King of France) and integrated into the French Monarchy between 1607 and 1815.
Pallars County
Lordship of Tarragona")
Roussillon: ultra-Pyrenean territory ceded to France after the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659) and the Treaty of Llivia (1660). The town of Llivia remained under Spanish sovereignty.
Territories under the area of influence of the Empire
Estos eran regiones bajo la Esfera de influencia española en una relación de Estado cliente, Protectorado informal o bajo alguna forma de Dominación social "Dominación (sociología)") indirecta, pero que no necesariamente habían sido anexados formalmente a la Monarquía Española.
During the Pax Hispanica, the entire Italian peninsula (especially southern Italy) came to be within the area of influence of the Spanish Empire through the social and political power "Power (social and political)") that the territories of Spanish Italy had among their neighbors, first by the Crown of Aragon, then by the Council of Italy with the Habsburgs of Madrid aided by the control of the [SIRG in the Kingdom of Italy "Kingdom of Italy (Holy Roman Empire)") northern], and finally by the cadet branches of the Spanish Bourbons among the Italian monarchies. All Italian political entities that had little geopolitical power would become satellite states of the Hispanic Monarchy, forming part of a “Spanish system” of political, social and/or economic influence on the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean. Although some Italian nationalist authors have postulated that it was a form of Colonialism, several academic authors consider that it was rather a form of political clientelism.[36].
• - Republic of Genoa (1528-1682): Under Spanish protectorate from 1528, with the rise of Andrea Doria through military aid from Charles V (who rejected proposals to annex it directly to the Italian viceroyalty),[100] until the War of the Reunions when they renounced their alliance with Spain in favor of France. It was located in the Liguria region (blocking the access to the sea to the Spanish Milanese) and they were under pressure from the Hispanic Monarchy to integrate the Spanish Way. The Genoese, as bankers who financed a large part of the companies of the Spanish Empire, would be dependent on the economic results of the Spanish economy (having a golden age simultaneous with the Golden Age, and a decline simultaneous with the decline of peninsular Spain), and also closely linked to a de facto military dependence against its rivals (Venice and Savoy) under the French sphere of influence.
Corsica: annexed by Aragon during the Middle Ages until its annexation by the Genoese.
• - Papal States (1555-1815): Since the end of the Italian wars "Italian Wars (1494-1559)"), the States of the Church would be part of the Spanish system, with a relationship of military Protectorate that would extend until the Congress of Vienna (which recognized papal neutrality and independence in foreign relations). The Spanish Monarchy, in addition to constantly providing Rome with its military defense against French, Ottoman or Austro-German invasions; He had great influence over the College of Cardinals, usually preventing anti-Spanish candidates to succeed the See of Rome from being elected Pope. Furthermore, aristocratic families of the Pontifical Nobility would develop strong ties with the king of Spain, being dual vassals through acquiring properties in Spanish Italy (especially the Kingdom of Naples). Thus, they served as multipliers of their power and means for Spain to exercise it through its ambassadors at the Roman court.[36].
• - Duchy of Savoy (1555-1610): during the Golden Age with great Spanish influence through the military dependence of Charles III of Savoy and Manuel Filibert of Savoy on Spain to free their domains from French occupation and influence, until the Treaty of Bruzolo") of 1610 when it once again entered the French orbit.
During the Pax Hispanica, especially through the alliances between the Spanish Habsburgs with the Austrian Habsburgs (who had hegemony in the Kingdom of Germany as Emperors of the Holy Empire), as well as through the social and political power of the Spanish fiefdoms of the Council of Flanders or the Council of Italy in the SIRG, the Spanish Empire would achieve a sphere of influence among the German States that reached its peak with the personal union of Charles V of Germany and I of Spain, but would be weakened by the challenges of the Protestant Reformation and the hostility of the North German princes towards the Catholic Church (of which Spain was a close ally during the European Religious Wars, especially through the Jesuit Order, which had a large predominance of Spanish theologians close to the Spanish Court during the Counter-Reformation). For the most part it consisted of the German territories through which the Spanish Way crossed, predominantly the Catholic monarchies of Southern Germany, with more intensity in the Rhine-Meuse region.[101][102] The legacy of the influence of the Hispanic monarchy on the SIRG was the Spanish fashion among European courts.
• - The Principality of Liège (1555-1714): Being surrounded by the Spanish Netherlands, it would be within its sphere of political, economic and military influence during the entire period in which Spain had dominion over modern Belgium until the end of the War of Spanish Succession.
• - The Catholic cantons of the Old Swiss Confederation (1587-1648): After Ludwig Pfyffer established himself as the most powerful Catholic in Switzerland at the end of the century, he would seek rapprochements with the Hispanic Monarchy through Carlos Borromeo (archbishop of Milan) to be a protector of the Swiss states of the Goldener Bund (an alliance of Catholic cantons to protect themselves from the Protestant cantons, the French and other enemies to its autonomy). Spanish influence would end with the independence of Switzerland from the SIRG, with recognition of its perpetual Neutrality, as well as French pressure to be the new protector of the Catholic cantons after the Peace of Westphalia.[103][104].
• - The Duchy of Bavaria (1559-1648): It would occur through the influence of the Spanish Jesuits from the middle of the government of Albert V of Bavaria, reaching its climax with the Colonial War in which the Wittelsbachs depended on Spanish support to emerge victorious. Spanish influence would end with the Thirty Years' War.[26].
• - The Electorate of Cologne (1586-1648): It would occur through the victory of the Bavarians in the Cologne War, in turn allowing Spanish military influence in the territory to integrate it into the Spanish Way during the rest of the Eighty Years' War.
• - The Duchy of Jülich (1542-1666): It would occur after the victory of Charles V over Duke William V (consolidated in the Treaty of Venlo) and reinforced after the Crisis of the Juliers-Cleveris succession with the Spanish occupation of important fortresses in the area. Ended with the Treaty of Cleves.
In Africa
During the Iberian Union (1580-1640), the Hispanic Monarchy was free to participate in Africa (which had been designated to the Portuguese Empire in exchange for it not interfering in Spanish America according to the Treaty of Tordesillas) through the Council of Portugal. Previously, the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon attempted to colonize the Maghreb in a broader Mediterranean imperial project against Muslim Expansion.
At the beginning of the century, the Spanish Empire managed to establish a Sphere of influence in North Africa that allowed it to intervene in the dynastic disputes of the regional emirs, reaching its climax with the subjugation of the Ziyanid Kingdom of Tlemcen (present-day Algeria) in 1510 and that of the Hafsida Kingdom of Ifriquia (present-day Tunisia and northwest Libya) in 1535.[105] However, There was immediately a proxy war against the sphere of influence of the Ottoman Empire, which would decline the projection of Spanish power in the North African region through Barbary Piracy.[106] On the other hand, the Republic of Sale established by the Moriscos, after becoming independent from the Saadi Sultanate of Morocco, occasionally served as a client state of Spain.[105]
Thus, during this period the Spanish Empire would hold the Protectorate of Portuguese Angola over the Kingdom of Congo (including its vassals such as Ngoyo, Kakongo, Loango, Ndongo, Matamba, etc.), granting a projection of informal power in Central Africa.[107] On the other hand, through the Jesuit Order, the Hispanic Monarchy would inherit the Sphere of military influence of the Crown of Portugal over the Ethiopian Empire against the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa, along with attempts to convert the Solomonic Dynasty to Catholicism (especially with Susenyos I of Ethiopia)[108] to achieve its full integration into the Res publica christiana through Spanish-Portuguese and papal protection.[109].
Administration of the Empire
El matrimonio de los Reyes Católicos (Isabel I de Castilla y Fernando II de Aragón) supuso una única dirección de ambos reinos bajo una administración superior única, el Consejo Real. Se unificó la hacienda (pero no los impuestos), la política interior y exterior, el ejército, las órdenes militares y la Inquisición y, en lo que no afectase a estos temas, cada reino mantuvo su propia administración, moneda, normas jurídicas, etc.
De esa forma, la formación de un estado unificado al estilo de las naciones-Estado nunca llegó a ser una realidad en España. Los Reyes Católicos introdujeron un estado moderno absolutista en sus dominios, restringiendo el poder de la nobleza, organizando su gobierno en torno a los Consejos y dividiendo el país en Reales Audiencias como órganos superiores de justicia, y manteniendo los fueros y tradiciones de sus pueblos.
La organización administrativa de las nuevas conquistas en América parte con la incorporación de las Indias a la Corona de Castilla a título de «descubrimiento» (res nullius), apoyados por la donación papal. Isabel la Católica, en su testamento, refuerza la pertenencia a esta corona. Sin embargo, será el Consejo de Indias y no el Consejo de Castilla el que asesore al rey sobre las nuevas tierras. Este Consejo se convirtió en el máximo órgano administrativo sobre las posesiones americanas. El comercio con América se centralizó a través de la Casa de Contratación, con sede en Sevilla, restringiéndose a esta los derechos comerciales sobre el Nuevo Mundo, lo que supuso un impulso demográfico para Sevilla, al obligar a los comerciantes españoles y extranjeros a establecerse en dicha ciudad.
A la muerte de los Reyes Católicos, Carlos I de España, manteniendo formalmente a su madre como reina, pasó a gobernar las nuevas tierras. Las Indias fueron incorporadas definitivamente a la Corona de Castilla en 1519.
La situación se mantuvo parecida durante el reinado de Felipe II, que hereda de su padre la Corona de España, pero no la del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico y las posesiones de los Habsburgo. Bajo su reinado, Portugal y su imperio fueron anexionados a la Monarquía Hispánica, aunque no así a la Corona de Castilla, manteniendo Portugal una posición semejante a la Corona de Aragón. Bajo los llamados Austrias Menores (Felipe III, Felipe IV y Carlos II) las Provincias Unidas alcanzaron una independencia de facto que les sería reconocida en 1648.
A la muerte de Carlos II, le sucede Felipe V. Dos años después de su toma de posesión, se presenta un nuevo pretendiente, Carlos de Austria, apoyado por Inglaterra y Austria, y esto provoca la guerra de sucesión española que supuso la pérdida de los reinos italianos y de lo que quedaba de los Países Bajos españoles.
Tras la derrota del pretendiente austriaco a la sucesión del trono, el nuevo rey, Felipe V de España va publicando los decretos de Nueva Planta, diferentes para Aragón y Valencia (1707), Aragón (1711), Baleares (1715), y Cataluña (1716). En ellos, como castigo por su rebelión, deroga parte de los fueros y derechos de los territorios de la Corona de Aragón sobre los que considera tener derecho de conquista. Los decretos tenían matices y efectos diferentes según el territorio histórico y no afectaron ni al Valle de Arán, ni a Navarra ni a las Provincias Vascongadas, los cuales mantienen todos sus fueros por haber sido leales a Felipe de Anjou. Por ejemplo, Cataluña mantiene su derecho civil y parte de sus fueros e instituciones, mientras que Valencia no.
America and the Philippines
In the Indies, given its distance from the metropolis, an administrative organization was gradually developed, which rested on a series of territorial bodies or authorities (viceroys, governors, royal audiences, magistrates, etc.), subject to the central bodies (king and the Council of the Indies).
The Council of the Indies, since its foundation in 1524, was the highest administrative body in relation to the Indies. Among its functions were:
• - In the Temporary Government: all government administration is the responsibility of the Council of the Indies:
Planning and proposal to the King of policies related to the New World (population, relationship with the aborigines, trade, etc.).
Administrative organization of the Indies, whether with the creation of new viceroyalties, new Governorates, etc., and their autonomy with respect to the metropolis.
Proposal to the King of the positions of great American authorities (viceroys, governors, oidores, etc.).
Protection of the proper functioning of the authorities, issuing administrative probity measures and appointing a Residency Judge to carry out the respective Residency Trial.
Daily review of correspondence coming from America and other possessions. Likewise, authorization of the export or import of books to America.
Since 1614, authorization of the application of Castilian legislation in the Indies.
Approval or rejection of legislation originating in America.
Preparation of the rules that would govern the Indies and that were dictated by the king as Royal Cédulas or Royal Provisions (similar to the Royal Cédulas but more solemn).
• - In Spiritual Government: concern for spiritual matters, analyzing the rights granted by the Holy See, for example:
Exercise of the Right of Presentation.
Division of the Bishoprics.
Review of papal bulls; accordingly, they are given Exequatur or Royal Pass; Without this the bulls are not fulfilled.
Examination of the provisions of the Church in America and the Synods; These are not fulfilled without the approval of the Council of the Indies.
• - In military matters:
In 1600, the Indian War Board was created within the Council, a committee of "cloak and dagger ministers" (military) in charge of coordinating military strategies with the Supreme War Council.
Crown of Aragon
The integration of the Crown territories into the new monarchy was marked by the hegemonic power of Castile. As in all the territories not incorporated into the Castilian structure (Flanders, Indies, Naples, Sicily, Navarra, Vizcaya, etc.), the Council of Aragon and the viceroy became the center of administration. The Supreme Council of Aragon was a consultative body of the crown created in 1494, following a reform in the royal chancellery carried out by Ferdinand the Catholic, which from 1522 would be made up of a vice-chancellor and six regents, two for the kingdom of Aragon, two for the kingdom of Valencia and two for Catalonia, Mallorca and Sardinia. For their part, the viceroys assumed military, administrative, judicial and financial functions.
Conflicts between local institutions and absolutist kings occurred throughout the modern centuries, until the War of Succession. In 1521, the Germanías took place, a movement that emerged in Valencia among the incipient bourgeoisie against its aristocracy, which lasted until 1523. In Mallorca, another similar movement took place in the same years, led by Joanot Colom. The final defeat of the Germans led to strong repression and the reaffirmation of lordly dominion. Likewise, in 1569, all the deputies of the Generalitat of Catalonia were imprisoned on charges of heresy, in the context of the dispute over the payment of the toilet tax.
In 1591, the "alterations of Aragon" took place, generated when the Justice of Aragon refused to hand over to Philip II the former secretary of the king, Antonio Pérez "Antonio Pérez (royal secretary)"), convicted for the death of the secretary of Don Juan of Austria, who had taken refuge in Aragon. The monarch transgressed all Aragonese privileges to arrest him and even had the Chief Justice of Aragon, Juan de Lanuza, executed.
During the century, tensions were much greater. The financial needs of the monarchs led them to try to increase by all means the fiscal pressure on the territories of the Crown of Aragon, trying to equalize taxes throughout Spain. But the charters guaranteed important protections against royal claims. The Olivares Arms Union projects, which sought for the other kingdoms to share the war burdens of Castile, are an example of this.
After the crown went to war with France in 1635, the deployment of the thirds over Catalonia generated serious conflicts, which triggered the Reapers' War "Uprising of Catalonia (1640)") in 1640. The Generalitat of Catalonia, trying to dominate the popular uprising, declared the formation of a Catalan Republic but, faced with the impossibility of maintaining it, named Louis XIII of France Count of Barcelona. The conflict ended with the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659), by which the county of Roussillon and the northern half of the county of Cerdanya passed forever under French rule and France returned Catalonia in the south of the Pyrenees to Spain. At the end of the century, in 1693, the Second Germanía would also break out in Valencia, a peasant and anti-lordly uprising around the division of the crops.
Population and legal system in America and the Philippines
La sociedad del Imperio español en América se rigió por estatutos completamente nuevos, pero inspirados en los cuerpos legales castellanos, que distinguían diversos tipos de súbditos y los asignaban a ordenamientos jurídicos diferentes: las Repúblicas de españoles y las Repúblicas de indios. La población de los nuevos territorios pertenecía a varias categorías raciales y jurídicas:.
Peninsular Spaniards
They were those subjects of European origin, born in America (creoles) or in the metropolis (peninsulares). The Spanish were never the majority in any of the territories of the empire, except in the metropolis and some others such as Cuba, Argentina, Chile, Puerto Rico and the New Kingdom of León (Northeast of Mexico).[111][112][113].
In the Viceroyalty of Peru, at the level of the entire entity, the peninsular Spaniards did not represent a majority of the population, however, by the year 1796, there were four cities, three of them very important, in which this group was the majority, outnumbering the Indians, mestizos, blacks, and all other human groups. The city of Lima, which in the population records appears as the Cercado district within the Municipality of Lima, was the first of them, in which the number of peninsular Spaniards was almost double the number of Indians, and almost quadruple the number of mestizos. Also, the city of Arequipa, corresponding to the Cercado district of the Municipality of Arequipa, had a number of peninsular Spaniards that quadrupled that of Indians, and mestizos. Likewise, in the city of Cuzco, belonging to the Cercado district of the Municipality of Cuzco, more peninsular Spaniards lived than indigenous and mestizos, although in this case the proportion between the first two was more even. Finally, in the city of Camaná, whose jurisdiction corresponds to the district of Camaná within the Municipality of Arequipa, citizens from peninsular Spain quadrupled the number of Indian citizens, and quintupled the number of mestizo citizens.[114].
The demographic cost for Spain, especially for the Crown of Castile, was irrelevant, so population growth was barely affected by emigration to America.[115][116][117][118].
indigenous
The indigenous population decreased dramatically after the arrival of the European colonizers, without there being a consensus on the initial figures or their decline. The causes are also debated, although they would be a combination of diseases spread by the colonizers (against which the Native Americans had no defenses), wars of conquest, deportations and forced labor.[119].
At first the Indians were taken as slaves and sent to the Peninsula.[120]
Starting in 1495, during the first years of the conquest, Indians were captured on the Caribbean islands and sent as slaves to be sold in Spain.[121][122].
The Crown authorized taking indigenous people on other islands and taking them to work, which multiplied these captures in the years 1509 and 1510 between San Juan Island and other islands in the Caribbean and the Antilles,[123] until King Ferdinand prohibited it with the promulgation of the Laws of Burgos.[121] Spain was the first empire to recognize the humanity and rights of the Indians and prohibit their slavery.[124] In 1542 Spain prohibited slavery. slavery of all Indians.[120] After the destruction of the seven cities in southern Chile, a Royal Decree of 1608 allowed the slavery of indigenous people living in rebel territory; The freedom of the enslaved indigenous people was declared in 1674, but its effects lasted until 1696.[125].
The defense of the rights of indigenous people had its greatest exponents in the School of Salamanca and in Bartolomé de las Casas. In the Junta de Valladolid of 1550, and despite the opposition of Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, it was ruled that the indigenous people had a soul. Previously, the will of Queen Isabella the Catholic had declared the Amerindians subjects of the Crown of Castile, and therefore, not susceptible to slavery, which led to the arrival of black slaves from Africa. However, this legal protection in many cases was more theoretical than practical. According to the American historian Jane Landers, the Spanish had already taken with them to what is now the United States of America the first Africans, who under Hispanic rule received much more humane treatment. In fact, although there were also slaves in Spanish Florida, this land became the promise of freedom for slaves subjected to the cruel exploitation of British plantations.[126].
It was in the oldest city in the United States, St. Augustine "St. Augustine (Florida)") (Florida), where the first settlement of free blacks was established; The Emancipation Proclamation was read, and civil rights activists demonstrated. In reality, the first men of African origin arrived even before the founding of Saint Augustine. The first contingent of slaves was brought to North America by Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón, who in 1526 founded San Miguel de Guadalupe in the present-day territory of Georgia, but this settlement ultimately failed. There were also African slaves, among other expeditions, in the unfortunate adventure of Pánfilo de Narváez in 1528. One of them, named Estevan, was among the four survivors led by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca who wandered for eight years through the inhospitable North American territories until they managed to return to New Spain (Mexico).
Jane Landers points out that those first slaves did not come directly from Africa, but from southern Spain. «Although most Africans in Spain were slaves, not all were. Spanish law and customs guaranteed slaves a moral and legal personality, as well as certain rights and protections that are not found in other slavery systems," he points out. As he explains, "they had the right to personal security and legal mechanisms by which to escape a cruel master," they were even allowed to own and transfer property and undertake legal proceedings, which would lead to the "right to self-purchase." "Social and religious values in Spanish society encouraged honor, charity and paternalism towards the 'miserable classes', which often ameliorated the hardships that slaves suffered and sometimes led their owners to manumit them." Landers points out that this does not mean that Spain or its overseas territories in the New World were free of racial prejudice, but "the emphasis on the humanity and rights of the slave and the lenient attitude toward manumission recognized in Spanish slave codes and social mores made possible the existence of a significant free black class."
Both free Africans and slaves also participated from the first decades in the conquest and subsequent military defense of the colony, creating units normally made up of free blacks who worked as artisans and other skilled workers.
Famous black Spanish conquistadors were, for example, Juan Garrido and Sebastián Toral, in Mexico, Juan Bardales in Honduras and Panama, Juan García in Peru, or Juan Valiente and Juan Beltrán in Chile.
Over time, Spanish Florida became the hope of freedom for slaves in the southern British colonies. In 1693, Charles II guaranteed all slaves that they would be free men if they converted to Catholicism. In exchange, those freed promised to shed every last drop of blood in defense of the Crown and the Faith.[127].
From then on, the number of blacks escaping slavery on British plantations to Florida began to increase. The growing flow of escapees led in 1738 to the creation by the governor, Manuel de Montiano, of the town of Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, the first self-managed community by free blacks and Native Americans with the support of the authorities in the territory of what is now the United States. In this community, located three kilometers from San Agustín and better known as Fort Mose, lived men, women and children of various ethnicities and all the men participated in the militia, which was led by a Mandinka African named Francisco Menéndez.[128].
The socioeconomic institution of the encomienda, which assumed the duty of the encomendero to protect and evangelize the indigenous people in exchange for receiving the taxes demanded from them, led to exploitation and forced labor (for example, through the mita system).[129].
In the 2nd century, the Jesuits established missions or "reductions" in the border area between Portuguese Brazil and Spanish America with the purpose of evangelizing the region. These reductions enjoyed great autonomy, inspired by the freedoms and privileges of the cities, although adapted to the indigenous way of life. Its existence was not viewed very favorably by the settlers, especially the Portuguese from Brazil, and was a cause of tension in the region. After the expulsion of the Jesuits with Charles III, they were dismantled.
Mestizos
Spanish American society had a strong mestizo component that was not found in the French or British colonies. The miscegenation was carried out almost mostly by Spanish men. From the first years of the conquest, marriage with baptized indigenous people was authorized by Spanish laws. Thus, by Royal Decree of Fernando the Catholic, dated January 14, 1514, marriages between Spaniards and Native Americans were authorized. One of those marriages was emblematic: that of Isabel Moctezuma (Tecuichpo Ixcazochtzin, before being baptized, daughter of Moctezuma II and last empress of the Aztecs) with Juan Cano from Extremadura, from whom 5 children would be born who would begin the genealogy of the Dukes of Miravalle, a title that still exists today.
The German historian Enrique Otte collects on page 61 of his book Private Letters of Emigrants to the Indies: 1540-1616 (FCE 1993) a letter from a colonizer named Andrés García, dated February 10, 1571, addressed to his nephew Pedro Guiñón, in Colmenar Viejo, in which he communicates his marriage to an indigenous American woman:
From the beginning of the conquest, the Crown restricted marriage permits so that its subjects did not marry Indian women or any ethnic group other than Europeans, but over time it had no choice but to tolerate, despite itself, free mixed interracial unions.[130] Legitimate marriage unions sanctioned by the Catholic creed were preferably carried out between people of the same ethnic group, so the substrate of illegitimacy will definitively mark to children born from interracial extramarital unions. In Lima, for example, during the 2nd centuries, 91.2% of legitimate marriages were between people of the same ethnic group.[130] In 1778, unions between members of different ethnic groups were prohibited unless they had parental consent.[130]
In fact, Spanish law even prohibited marriage between a serving peninsular Spanish official and a Creole woman; that is, a woman born in America even if she was white of Spanish descent. This did not prevent de facto unions from being carried out between Creole women and Spanish officials.[131].
It is interesting to see how this process of miscegenation was not limited to marriages between Spaniards and indigenous people, but was extended and approved so that Spanish women could also marry Indians. Although there are not many documented cases of Christian women marrying Indians, these unions existed, even among women from "well-known" families, such as the case of María Amarilla de Esquivel, from a distinguished Extremaduran family who married Carlos Inca Yupanqui, grandson of Huayna Cápac.
The children between Spaniards and Indian women were generally called young men of the land"), for not having a recognized father, as happened in the province of Paraguay in the century where a Spaniard, or any European admitted to the Spanish Empire, could have several indigenous concubines.[132].
Africans and others
Starting in 1495, during the first years of the conquest, Indians were captured on the Caribbean islands and sent as slaves to be sold in Spain.[120][121][122][123] Until Queen Isabel prohibited it.[120][121] The legal protection of the Amerindians (sponsored by Fray Bartolomé de las Casas) and the Laws of the Indies, It favored the importation of African slaves, who became the majority of the population in some territories of the Caribbean Sea basin and in Brazil.
Science in the Empire
In recent years, an academic literature has developed around the "Iberian turn" of the scientific revolution.[138][139] Various publications have shown interest in scientific developments in the Spanish Empire, especially the pioneering institutionalization of epistemological and empirical practices in the Casa de la Contratación de Indias in Seville[140] and the imperial reforms of Juan de Ovando that systematized the search for knowledge in the Indies.[141].
These empirical practices resulted in the advancement of various sciences in the early modern Hispanic Age: natural history,[142] medicine,[143][144][145] ethnology,[146] cosmography, astronomy, cartography and geography.[147][148] In the century, the Geographical Relations of the Indies were published in which, by order of Philip II and his minister Juan de Ovando, Viceregal officials were required to answer questionnaires about data, information and knowledge about all types of American phenomena (geographical, ethnographic, naturalistic, mineralogical, astronomical, health...).
In cartography, the monumental works of Juan de la Cosa stand out, with his Map in which America appeared for the first time; Alonso de Santa Cruz, creator of the World Atlas given to Charles V and the Atlas of All the Islands of the World; and the Royal Registry of the Casa de Contratación.[149] In medicine and botany, Nicolás Monardes stood out, describing for the first time various species of American flora such as holy thistle, cebadilla, jalapa "Jalapa (plant)"), sassafras, guaiac, pepper, Indian cinnamon, tobacco, or Tolú balsam. In natural history, the works of José de Acosta and his Natural and moral history of the Indies, in which he discovered the Humboldt Current and supported the theory of the arrival of the indigenous Americans from Asia were published;[150] and Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo and his General and natural history of the Indies, islands and the mainland of the ocean sea..
Bernardino de Sahagún, a Spanish missionary who arrived in Mexico in 1529, would publish his General History of the Things of New Spain[151]*,* a work of oceanic knowledge that has served as an indispensable study for the reconstruction of the pre-Hispanic history of Mexico. The book, written in Nahuatl, Spanish and Latin, is considered a pioneer of modern ethnography, and contains studies of various aspects of the life of the indigenous people: the worshiped gods (book 1), the festivals, the calendar, ceremonies, sacrifices and solemnities (book 2), the birth of those worshiped gods (book 3), the art of guessing which days were lucky and which were not (book 4), the predictions of divining the future (book 5), the religious, moral, social and philosophical concepts (book 6), astronomy and natural philosophy (book 7), emperors (tlatoani) and lords (tecuhtli) (book 8), merchants, luxury, offerings and artisans (book 9), Mexican medicine and a description of the indigenous peoples of ancient Mexico, which consists of a monumental ethnological work (book 10), a study of nature, properties of animals, birds, fish, trees, herbs, flowers, metals and stones, and colors (book 11), the conquest of Mexico (book 12).[152].
During the Enlightenment, the Spanish Empire focused its scientific efforts on the fields of botany and economic botany.[153] Dozens of scientific expeditions were carried out, under the patronage of the Spanish Crown, that toured the viceroyalties for the discovery and taxonomy of American flora.[154] The Royal Botanical Expedition to the viceroyalty of Peru led by Hipólito Ruiz López, the Royal Botanical Expedition of the New Kingdom of Granada by José Celestino Mutis and the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain directed by Martín Sessé y Lacasta were the most important.
• - Illustration of a hacienda benefiting from the Proaño mine in Zacatecas, (present-day Mexico), using the patio method, created by Bartolomé de Medina "Bartolomé de Medina (miner)") in the 19th century, which allowed silver to be separated from other metals using mercury "Mercury (element)") and various salts.
• - Imperial City of Potosí (1758), by Gaspar Miguel de Berrío. In Cerro Rico de Potosí (present-day Bolivia), the largest silver mine in the world was located over the centuries, attached to a large industrial complex intended for foundry and metallurgy.[155].
• - The map of Murillo Velarde. The World Digital Library describes it as the "first and most important scientific map of the Philippines."
• - Cover of Grammar and new art of the general language of all of Peru, called Qquichua language, or language of the Inca (1607). Written by Diego González Holguín, and published in the City of the Kings, it is one of the first Quechua dictionaries printed in the viceroyalty of Peru.
• - Illustration from 1794 of a specimen of Pouteria lucuma (lucuma), emblematic fruit of Peru, as part of the Royal Botanical Expedition to the viceroyalty of Peru, which lasted around 11 years after the arrival of the expedition members from Cádiz to the city of Lima in 1778.
• - Geographic relationship of Oaxtepec. The Geographical Relations are considered the first statistical study of the New World.[156].
• - Illustration of a Quiscalus palustris, Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain.
• - A copy of the scientific book Observaciones astronomicas y phisicas en los Reynos del Perú, published in 1748 by the illustrated scientist Jorge Juan y Santacilia. It details maps, plans and illustrations of the viceroyalty of Peru.
• - A page of the General History of the Things of New Spain.
• - Map of Juan de la Cosa.
Cultural legacy of the Spanish Empire
Due to the great extension of the Spanish Empire throughout the world, its cultural legacy is great and strong (this without counting the current migratory flows). From the current western and southern United States to even Patagonia in America, the Philippines in Asia or Equatorial Guinea in Africa, such a legacy of said viceregal and later colonial Empire can be found.
The Spanish language, after Mandarin Chinese, is the most spoken language in the world due to the number of speakers who have it as their mother tongue. It is also an official language in several of the main international political-economic organizations (UN, European Union, AU, OAS, NAFTA, MERCOSUR, FTAA, UNASUR, CAN and the Ibero-American General Secretariat, among others). It is spoken as a first and second language by between 450 and 500 million people, and it may be the third most spoken language considering those who speak it as a first and second language. On the other hand, Spanish is the second most studied language in the world after English, with at least 17,800,000 (seventeen million eight hundred thousand) students; Although other sources indicate that there are more than 46 million students distributed in 90 countries, the Association of Spanish Language Academies contributes to its regulation as a supranational entity.
Catholicism is the branch of Christianity with the most followers worldwide; Today, Catholicism is the majority throughout Latin America, the Philippines, Guam and other Pacific islands; or in territories where Spanish rule has been shorter, such as Equatorial Guinea.
Adding a large part of the American countries (including the United States, Canada and several Caribbean islands) and the Philippines, there are 52 historical complexes and monuments (not including natural sites) built during the viceregal period that are today World Heritage Sites.[157].
In terms of gastronomy, there has been an exchange and reciprocal influence between the peninsular Mediterranean gastronomy and that of the different Hispanic possessions (Creole Gastronomy). Products such as tobacco or foods such as potatoes, tomatoes or chocolate were introduced in the Iberian Peninsula, which later spread throughout Europe and were incorporated into the gastronomy of many countries.
Role of the city in the conquest
El papel de la ciudad en la América colonial no se limitó al espacio ocupado por los conquistadores o su expresión cultural, sino que fue un pilar vital en la apropiación del territorio y la integración de sus medios de gobernanza, así como la hibridación cultural de la expresión indígena y española. Es realmente relevante para comprender la metodología de la conquista española y sus posteriores consecuencias, como la consolidación de mentalidades de autosuficiencia de los poderes locales.[163].
Francisco López de Gómora, cronista y capellán de Hernán Cortes escribió en su crónica Hispania victrix en 1552 refiriéndose directamente a la importancia de la fundación de ciudades:[163].
Tan importante era la ciudad que se convertía en un elemento indispensable en la conversión de los pueblos indígenas y por tanto de la colonización y de la hibridación cultural. Los centros de poder solían hacerse en los mismos espacios que gobernaban a las poblaciones indígenas, como por ejemplo en la conquista de Tenochtitlan, era importante que todos los habitantes conocieran el nuevo orden y la ubicación de la ciudad era esencial para ese fin y de la misma manera la cultura hispana y la local se hibridaba.[164].
La ciudad se erigió a partir de expediciones conformadas mayoritariamente por individuos de clases sociales bajas, ya que las clases altas no participaron activamente en el proceso de colonización. La regulación de estas ciudades estaba a cargo del rey, quien establecía normativas mediante ordenanzas. Como contrapartida a recibir los recursos necesarios para la fundación y vida en estos asentamientos, los conquistadores comprometían tributos a la corona y su poder central.[163].
La ciudad se construyó a partir de expediciones populares que fueron regularizadas por el rey a través de ordenanzas. A cambio de recibir los recursos para fundar y vivir ahí, los conquistadores entregaban tributos y negociaban con los poderes locales para hacer lo mismo.[165].
España tenía un sistema administrativo policéntrico lo que significaba que existían muchos centros de poder distribuidos por todo el imperio y la ciudad en sí misma se distribuía con una lógica similar donde existía una relación vertical de poder y esto se veía reflejado en la organización misma de la ciudad, que empezaba en el centro donde estaba la iglesia, la plaza y los edificios administrativos y conforme se alejaba más del centro menos era la influencia que tenían los habitantes sobre las decisiones y así mismo, menos acceso al conocimiento. Así la ciudad se convirtió en una parte esencial de la trasmisión del orden jerárquico español en América.[163].
Ordinances of 1573
The Ordinances of 1573, promulgated by Juan de Ovando with the support of the Crown, constituted a crucial legal framework for Spanish colonization in America. The first part of these ordinances focused on establishing absolute control of the discoveries, with the objective of carrying out these companies "with more ease and as appropriate to the service of God and ours and the good of the natives."[163].
According to article 1 of the Ordinances, no one had the right to undertake and dominate a new discovery by sea or land, new town or ranch in the territory without the proper license or provision. The penalty for violating this rule was severe, including the death penalty and the loss of property. To ensure compliance with these provisions, local authorities had to be informed of the border situation. In this context, it was specified that from a neighboring town "vassal Indians would be sent to discover the land and religious people and Spaniards with ransoms".[163]
When discoveries were made by sea, the Ordinances established detailed requirements. At least two small ships with crew, pilots, clergy and goods of little value for rescue were to participate in the expedition. Once in the discovered territory, explorers were expected to take possession, document their actions, and assign names to mountains, rivers, and towns. Interaction with natives required a peaceful approach, prohibiting participation in wars or conflicts between them. Furthermore, returning with natives, even if they had been acquired as slaves, carried the death penalty for the discoverers.
Although the colonists were allowed to dominate the discovered territories, the crown maintained very detailed information about the spaces and the inhabitants with whom the conquerors lived and their goods for tribute, despite the long journey that was undertaken from the Iberian Peninsula to America, the crown had power over what they did in these territories thanks to mechanisms such as the Indian Council or through inspecting officials who kept records of their actions.[163].
General
Other recommended readings
de la Fuente Merás, Manuel (2018). Political Philosophy in Imperial Spain. KDP. 386 pages. ISBN 978-1730871139.
• - Wikimedia Commons hosts a multimedia category on Spanish Empire.
• - Spanish Fortresses of America.
• - Stanley G. Payne's online Iberian information library, History of Spain and Portugal, Vol. 1, Chap. 13: «The Spanish Empire» .
• - Extension of the empires of history.
• - The Iberian empire, "where the sun never set" (video).
• - Illustrated map of the territories that once belonged to the Spanish Crown.
References
[1] ↑ En 1402 comenzó la conquista de las islas Canarias, primera expansión territorial castellana en ultramar y antecedente de las exploraciones atlánticas españolas. Con el descubrimiento de América en 1492 se iniciará el proceso de conquista de estos nuevos territorios. 1898 es el año de la secesión de las últimas provincias de ultramar del Imperio español en América (Cuba y Puerto Rico) y Asia (Filipinas). Sin embargo, España conservaría varios archipiélagos en Oceanía (islas Marianas, Carolinas y Palaos) hasta su venta a Alemania en 1899. También mantuvo e incorporó varios dominios coloniales en África, los cuales conservó hasta la segunda mitad del siglo XX: el protectorado español de Marruecos (independizado en 1956), la Guinea española (emancipada en 1968), Ifni (entregado al Marruecos independiente en 1969) y el Sahara español (anexionado por Marruecos en 1976).
[2] ↑ en el virreinato de Nueva España.
[3] ↑ en el virreinato del Perú.
[4] ↑ en la gobernación del Paraguay.
[5] ↑ en la capitanía general de Filipinas.
[6] ↑ Tras los Decretos de Nueva Planta el Imperio se centralizó, eliminando el régimen polisinodial con la excepción del Consejo de Indias y el Consejo de Castilla.
[7] ↑ En Navarra y en las provincias vascongadas los fueros no fueron abolidos y subsistieron hasta poco después de la muerte de Fernando VII en 1833. Tampoco se puede calificar a la monarquía borbónica de absoluta pese a su despotismo ilustrado, pues el rey seguía restringido en sus capacidades por una serie de instituciones, como claro legado del modelo tradicional de monarquía en España.
[8] ↑ Brevemente ya había sido practicada en 1812-1814 con la Constitución de Cádiz, y luego en 1820-1823 con el Trienio Liberal.
[9] ↑ Entre 1873 y 1874, el régimen político vigente fue una república, al igual que entre 1931 y 1936.
[10] ↑ Un régimen de transición basado en la carta otorgada por el jefe de estado. Primeramente se dio, tras la victoria liberal en la primera guerra carlista, con el Estatuto Real de 1834 según la soberanía absoluta hasta la promulgación de la Constitución española de 1837 según la soberanía popular. Posteriormente, entre 1939 y 1975, la forma de gobierno tuvo una variación dictatorial según sus Leyes Fundamentales del Reino con corte fascistizado.
[11] ↑ Según Ruiz Martín (2003, p. 466), también se le llama Monarquía universal española para diferenciarla del Sacro Imperio.
[12] ↑ Henry Kamen comentaría después, España fue creada por el Imperio, y no el Imperio por España.[cita requerida].
[13] ↑ Actualmente son cifras equivalentes a la extracción industrial de plata de poco más de dos años (26 meses) y la aurífera de medio año. Y aunque el estudio de Hamilton no abarca los casi 150 años hasta que en 1808, bajo un mismo ritmo, desde la Conquista hasta el año 1808 no se alcanza a superar el equivalente a cuatro años de extracción de Plata y un año de Oro. El contrabando estimado por Hamilton, pudo estar más cerca del 10 % que de un imposible 50 %. Los cálculos equivalentes se basan en datos actuales de extracción tomados de Gold Fields Mineral Services Ltd (GFMS) y el International Copper Study Group, y reproducidos por publicaciones mineras, y que describen como la República del Perú solamente durante el año 2007 tuvo una extracción industrial de 170 toneladas de oro, respecto de la producción mundial de oro (2008) [1] Archivado el 1 de febrero de 2009 en Wayback Machine.: http://www.dani2989.com/gold/worldgold08es.htm
[18] ↑ a b Álvarez Junco, José; Fuente, Gregorio de la (2017). El relato nacional Historia de la historia de España. Penguin Random House. p. 624. ISBN 9788430617661. «La «monarquía católica», según su nombre oficial, o «española», según el lenguaje diario de la diplomacia internacional, no se limitaba ya a la península, sino que era mucho más, un imperio europeo e incluso planetario.».
[19] ↑ a b Rodríguez de la Peña, Manuel Alejandro (2022). Imperios de crueldad: La Antigüedad clásica y la inhumanidad. Encuentro. p. 608. ISBN 9788413394350. «El Imperio español, cuyo nombre oficial fue siempre el de Monarquía Católica (esto es, Universal)».
[20] ↑ a b Jarabo Jordán, Cesáreo (2023). El fin del Imperio de España en América. El Imperio inglés contra el español. Sekotia. p. 419. ISBN 9788418414756. «Reino de las Españas hasta la constitución de 1869, cuando finalmente pasó a denominarse Reino de España».
[21] ↑ Ricart Angulo, Joan (2016). Los sistemas políticos de España e Indonesia: Una perspectiva comparada. Editorial UOC. ISBN 9788490645680. «El Imperio español fue el primer imperio global, porque por primera vez un imperio abarcaba posesiones en todos los continentes, las cuales, a diferencia de lo que ocurría en el Imperio romano o en el carolingio, no se comunicaban por tierra las unas con las otras.».
[23] ↑ Álvaro Van den Brule (10 de octubre de 2020). «La Guerra de los 30 años y el hastío del pueblo españo». El Confidencial. Consultado el 20 de febrero de 2023. «Los territorios de los Habsburgo (Imperio Español y Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico) perderían influencia en beneficio de una Francia emergente [...] España perdió tras el Tratado de los Pirineos, un epílogo del de Westfalia, los territorios que aún poseía en los ultrapuertos de esa divisoria orográfica pirenaica (Rosellón y la Cerdaña)».: https://www.elconfidencial.com/alma-corazon-vida/2020-10-10/guerra-de-los-30-anos-historia-de-espana_2779448/
[25] ↑ Parker, Geoffrey. Felipe II. La biografía definitiva. Planeta. 2010. ISBN 978-84-08-09484-5:
[26] ↑ Thomas, Hugh. El señor del mundo. Felipe II y su imperio, 2013, Planeta, ISBN 978-84-08-11849-7: «El 13 de junio Felipe se dio cuenta de que tal vez fuera necesaria alguna acción militar para ganar la corona de Lisboa y movilizó un ejército de 20 000 soldados de infantería y 1500 de caballería bajo el mando del ahora cargado de años pero siempre dispuesto duque de Alba. En dos semanas ordenó a esta fuerza que entrara en Portugal. A pesar de su derrota en las Azores, Antonio de Crato se había proclamado rey y, si Felipe no hubiera intervenido, habría gobernado sin duda. Las ciudades principales de Setúbal, Santarém e incluso Lisboa habían tomado partido por él.
[27] ↑ Schneider, Reinhold. El rey de Dios, 2002, página 148, Edit. Cifra. ISBN 84-95894-04-1:
[28] ↑ Manuel Fernández Álvarez, "Felipe II y su tiempo" Edit. Espasa Calpe, 1998, pág. 537, ISBN 84-239-9736-7: «Definitivamente, bajo el reinado de Felipe II, Portugal se convertía en provincia».
[29] ↑ John Lynch, Los Austrias (1516-1598) (1993), Edit. CRITICA, ISBN 84-7423-565-0, pág. 370: «En los primeros meses de 1.580, y alentados por el gobierno, los nobles castellanos comenzaron a reclutar fuerzas costeando ellos mismos los gastos, mientras que las ciudades aportaban tropas, barcos y dinero en un esfuerzo nacional que hizo resaltar aún más la inacción portuguesa. […] Felipe II se jactó diciendo: "lo heredé, lo compré, lo conquisté"».
[30] ↑ Braudel, Fernand. El Mediterráneo y el mundo mediterráneo en la época de Felipe II, Tomo II, Edit. Fondo de Cultura Económica, segunda edición en español, 1976, ISBN 84-375-0097-4, págs. 713-716: «La guerra de Portugal, que no pasó de ser, por lo demás, un simple paseo militar, se desarrolló con arreglo a los planes previstos. […] Fue la rapidez con que obraron los españoles, y no el desfallecimiento que se atribuye por algunos al prior, lo que condujo al fracaso del pretendiente. Para que Portugal fuese enteramente ocupada por los españoles bastaron, pues, cuatro meses. Al recibir la noticia, las Indias portuguesas se sometieron a su vez, sin combate. Las únicas dificultades serias surgieron en las Azores. […] el asunto de las Azores en los años de 1582 y 1583, donde se salvó el archipiélago y donde, al mismo tiempo, con el desastre de Strozzi, se disipó el sueño de un Brasil francés; […]». La resistencia en las Azores fue sofocada por Álvaro de Bazán y su flota.
[31] ↑ González Jiménez, 2011, p. 25.
[32] ↑ Martorell, 2012, p. 62 y siguientes.
[33] ↑ Masià i de Ros, 1994, p. 34.
[34] ↑ a b Feijoo, 2005, p. 80 y siguientes.
[35] ↑ Morte, Concepción Villanueva (2020). Diplomacia y desarrollo del Estado en la Corona de Aragón: (siglos XIV-XVI). Trea. ISBN 978-84-18105-14-2. Consultado el 29 de junio de 2024.: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/libro?codigo=774965
[39] ↑ a b c d «Beziehungen zu Spanien (Mittelalter und Frühe Neuzeit) – Historisches Lexikon Bayerns». www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de. Consultado el 30 de junio de 2024. - [https://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/Lexikon/Beziehungen_zu_Spanien_(Mittelalter_und_Fr%C3%BChe_Neuzeit)](https://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/Lexikon/Beziehungen_zu_Spanien_(Mittelalter_und_Fr%C3%BChe_Neuzeit))
[40] ↑ Flags of the World (ed.). «Historical Flags 1506-1700 (Spain)» (en inglés). Consultado el 2 de agosto de 2012.
[41] ↑ Vaquero, Carmen (30 de octubre de 2014). «El mundo de Garcilaso» (audio). Ciclo: Garcilaso de la Vega: su vida, su obra, su tiempo. Madrid: Fundación Juan March. Consultado el 2 de noviembre de 2014. «1 hora - 1 minuto».: http://www.march.es/conferencias/anteriores/voz.aspx?p1=100118&l=1
[42] ↑ Toynbee, Arnold J. (2015). El cristianismo entre las religiones del mundo. RLull (edición digital). p. 51.
[47] ↑ Esparza, José Javier (2007). La gesta española: historia de España en 48 estampas, para quienes han olvidado cuál es su nación (1a. ed edición). Áltera. ISBN 9788496840140. OCLC 433927896.: https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/433927896
[48] ↑ a b González-Arnao, 2003, pp. 90 y siguientes.
[49] ↑ a b c Hillard von Thiessen, La cultura del mecenazgo en las relaciones exteriores en la época moderna temprana. Dependencia política, percepción exterior y base ética común de las relaciones sociales en las relaciones hispano-romanas a principios del siglo XVII, en: Themenportal Europäische Geschichte, 2012, <www.europa.clio-online.de/essay/id/fdae- 1561> .: https://www.europa.clio-online.de/essay/id/fdae-1561
[50] ↑ Sanchez, Magdalena S. (1994). «A House Divided: Spain, Austria, and the Bohemian and Hungarian Successions». The Sixteenth Century Journal 25 (4): 887-903. ISSN 0361-0160. doi:10.2307/2542261. Consultado el 30 de junio de 2024.: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2542261
[59] ↑ Elvira,, Roca Barea, María (2016). Imperiofobia y leyenda negra: Roma, Rusia, Estados Unidos y el Imperio español. Siruela. ISBN 9788416854233. OCLC 967731332.: https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/967731332
[60] ↑ Butrón, Gonzalo (2004). Trafalgar y el mundo Atlántico. Marcial Pons. p. 345.
[61] ↑ Molina et all (2014). La Constitución de 1812 en Hispanoamérica y España. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. p. 305. ISBN 9789587750683.
[63] ↑ Cortes y Constitución de Cádiz, 200 años. Espasa. 2011. p. 32.
[64] ↑ La Parra, Emilio (2018). Fernando VII un rey deseado y detestado. Tusquets.
[65] ↑ Moreno Gutiérrez, Rodrigo (2017). «Los realistas: historiografía, semántica y milicia». Historia Mexicana, Centro de Estudios Históricos. vol.66 no.3.
[66] ↑ Ruiz de Gordejuela Urquijo, Jesús (2006). La expulsión de los españoles de México y su destino incierto, 1821-1836. Sevilla: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos & Universidad de Sevilla.
[67] ↑ Tejerina, Marcela (2018). «“Dispersos, emigrados y errantes” La expulsión territorial en la década revolucionaria». Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina.: https://www.redalyc.org/journal/3794/379455938001/html/
[74] ↑ a b Lagos Carmona, Guillermo (1985). Los Títulos Históricos - Historia de las fronteras de Chile. Andrés Bello. «[...] Acotamos nosotros que el río Loa está en 22 grados y que Baleato, en 1793, indicó 21,5 grados para el comienzo del Reino de Chile, con el Loa en su desembocadura en el Pacífico (p 197) [...] de conformidad con el Mapa de Cano y Olmedilla, el límite del reino de Chile "[...] a través del desierto de Atacama [...] Desde aquí tuerce al S., SE., y S. conservando en general este último rumbo hasta las cercanías del paralelo 29°, desde donde toma dirección S.E., rodeando por el oriente la 'Provincia de Cuyo' que, por supuesto, aparece incluida en el territorio del Reino de Chile. En la latitud de 32°30' la línea tuerce al S.O. hasta alcanzar el río Quinto, que, como dice la leyenda 'se comunica por canales con el Saladillo en tiempo de inundaciones'. Sigue el río hacia abajo hasta el meridiano 316°, contando al E. de Tenerife, donde desvía un trecho hasta llegar al río Hueuque-Leuvu (o río Barrancas) en 371/2° de latitud. De aquí corre acompañando el río un trecho al S.E., para desviar en seguida al E. y caer en el mar Atlántico en las cercanías del paralelo 37° entre el cabo de Lobos y el cabo Corrientes", "poco al norte de Mar del Plata actual" (p 540) [...] En este documento se ve que los de la provincia de Cuyo terminan al Sur en el origen del río Diamante, y que de ese punto hacia el Este, parte la línea divisoria hasta aquel en que el río Quinto atraviesa el camino que se dirige de Santiago a Buenos Aires (p 543).».: https://books.google.cl/books/about/Los_t%C3%ADtulos_historicos.html?id=dlY7Lg5p9A4C&redir_esc=y
[93] ↑ Spain (1893). Colección de los tratados, convenios y documentos internacionales celebrados por nuestros gobiernos con los estados extranjeros desde el reinado de Doña Isabel II. hasta nuestros días. Acompañados de notas histórico-críticas sobre su negociación y cumplimiento y cotejados con los textos originales ... t. 1-13. Consultado el 28 de junio de 2024.: https://books.google.com/books?id=l0gMAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA120
[102] ↑ Francisco Mellén Blanco, Las expediciones maritimas del virrey Amat a la isla de Tahití 1772-1775.
[103] ↑ Morgado García, Arturo Jesús (1998-1999). «Las relaciones entre Cádiz y el norte de África en el siglo XVII». Trocadero: Revista de historia moderna y contemporánea. 10-11: 75. ISSN 0214-4212.: http://revistas.uca.es/index.php/trocadero/article/viewFile/777/643
[107] ↑ Unzué, José Luis Orella (1991). Las instituciones del reino de Navarra en la edad antigua y media: las instituciones de la baja Navarra (1530-1620). ISBN 978-84-87518-00-3. Consultado el 1 de mayo de 2022.: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/libro?codigo=198631
[108] ↑ Alcalá-Zamora, 2005, p. 137 y siguientes.
[109] ↑ Elliott, 2002, p. 70.
[110] ↑ Kamen, 2005, p. 46.
[111] ↑ Press, Volker (1991). Kriege und Krisen. Deutschland 1600-1715. Neue deutsche Geschichte (en alemán) 5. C.H.Beck. ISBN 3406308171.
[114] ↑ Die Großmacht Spanien im Rhein-Maas Raum von 1580 bis 1630. Niederländische und deutsche Perspektiven. Gregor Maximilian Weiermüller (2022).: https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/event-130982
[118] ↑ a b Fuchs, Barbara; Liang, Yuen-Gen (1 de septiembre de 2011). A FORGOTTEN EMPIRE: THE SPANISH-NORTH AFRICAN BORDERLANDS. ISSN 1463-6204. doi:10.1080/14636204.2011.658695. Consultado el 11 de enero de 2025.: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14636204.2011.658695
[119] ↑ Iglesias Rodríguez, Juan José (2013). «Las entradas de cristianos en Berbería (siglos XV-XVI). Relaciones pacíficas y violentas». Revista de historia de El Puerto (50): 9-34. ISSN 1130-4340. Consultado el 11 de enero de 2025.: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=5387561
[128] ↑ Lynch, John (1993). Los Austrias (1516-1598). Editorial Crítica. pp. 122 y 124.
[129] ↑ Vicens Vives, Jaime (1971). Historia de España y América III. Vicens Vives. p. 7. «Por lo que se refiere al proceso de la población hispánica durante la época de los tres primeros Austrias (1517-1621), parece ser que se verificó un notable incremento, que Hamilton ha evaluado en un 15 por 100».
[130] ↑ Elliot, John (1965). La España Imperial. Vicens Vives. «...hacia 1570, debía haber unos 118 000 colonos en el Nuevo Mundo».
[131] ↑ Elliot, John (2010). España, Europa y el Mundo de Ultramar (1500-1800). Taurus. p. 181. «probablemente se embarcaron por año hacia las Indias 1500 en el siglo XVI y 4000 en la primera mitad del siglo XVII».
[132] ↑ Arrambide, Victor. «›Factores que incidieron en el despoblamiento de América a raíz de la primera conquista europea (S. XV-XVI)». El Espejo de Clío. Consultado el 26 de marzo de 2019.: https://espejoclio.hypotheses.org/53
[134] ↑ a b c d Rosenblat, Ángel (1954). La población indígena y el mestizaje en América (OCLC314971216 edición). Buenos Aires :: Nova. |fechaacceso= requiere |url= (ayuda).
[135] ↑ a b Ventura, Jorge; Floría, Guillermo B; Bartolomé., Jesús (1976). Historia de España: Desde los reyes católicos hasta Carlos. Barcelona: Esplugues de Llobregat. ISBN 9788401605437. |fechaacceso= requiere |url= (ayuda).
[136] ↑ a b Espinosa Jaramillo, Gustavo (2005). Valle del Cauca: pobladores y fundadores : ciudades, pueblos y aldeas. Colombia: Universidad Santiago de Cali. ISBN 9789588119755. |fechaacceso= requiere |url= (ayuda).
[137] ↑ Dumont, Jean (2009). El amanecer de los derechos del hombre : la controversia de Valladolid. Encuentro. ISBN 9788474909982. OCLC 630519697.: https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/630519697
[139] ↑ R. Colburn, David; Jane., Landers,; Congress—, Jay I. Kislak Reference Collection —Library of (1995). The African American heritage of Florida. University Press of Florida. ISBN 0813014123. OCLC 31517969.: https://archive.org/details/africanamericanh0000unse_d1n0
[140] ↑ Jane, Landers (1999). Black society in Spanish Florida. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252067532. OCLC 39546437.: https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/39546437
[144] ↑ Mónica Quijada y Jesús Bustamante. «Las mujeres en Nueva España: orden establecido y márgenes de actuación». Historia de las mujeres, tomo III, Del Renacimiento a la Edad Moderna, pp. 648-668. Madrid, Santillana 2000. ISBN 84-306-0390-5.
[145] ↑ Salas, 2000, p. 567.
[146] ↑ Pastor, 2000, p. 555.
[147] ↑ Rodríguez Jiménez, Pablo (2008). «Sangre y mestizaje en la América hispánica». Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura (Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia) (35): 282-285. ISSN 0120-2456. Consultado el 27 de septiembre de 2016.: http://www.bdigital.unal.edu.co/12067/1/rodr%C3%ADguezjim%C3%A9nezpablo.2008.pdf
[151] ↑ Sánchez, Antonio (1 de enero de 2019). «The “empirical turn” in the historiography of the Iberian and Atlantic science in the early modern world: from cosmography and navigation to ethnography, natural history, and medicine». Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society 2 (1): 317-334. ISSN 2572-9861. doi:10.1080/25729861.2019.1631684. Consultado el 3 de febrero de 2023.: https://doi.org/10.1080/25729861.2019.1631684
[152] ↑ Science in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, 1500–1800 (1 edición). Stanford University Press. 2009. ISBN 978-0-8047-5358-6. Consultado el 3 de febrero de 2023.: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvqr1dp8
[153] ↑ BARRERA-OSORIO, ANTONIO (2006). Experiencing Nature: The Spanish American Empire and the Early Scientific Revolution. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-72594-2. doi:10.7560/709812. Consultado el 3 de febrero de 2023.: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7560/709812
[154] ↑ Brendecke, Arndt (2012). Imperio e información: funciones del saber en el dominio colonial español. ISBN 978-3-86527-730-5. Consultado el 3 de febrero de 2023.: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/libro?codigo=568999
[155] ↑ Schiebinger, Londa (2004). Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01487-9. Consultado el 3 de febrero de 2023.: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvk12qdh
[157] ↑ Crawford, Matthew James (2016). The Andean Wonder Drug: Cinchona Bark and Imperial Science in the Spanish Atlantic, 1630-1800. University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 978-0-8229-4452-2. Consultado el 3 de febrero de 2023.: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1f89t3p
[165] ↑ «General History of the Things of New Spain by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún: The Florentine Codex.». Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Consultado el 9 de febrero de 2023.: https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667837/
[169] ↑ Mundy, Barbara E. The Mapping of New Spain: Indigenous Cartography and the Maps of the Relaciones Geograficas (en inglés). University of Chicago Press. Consultado el 20 de febrero de 2023.: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3626921.html
[176] ↑ a b c d e f g Lucena Giraldo, Manuel (2006). «II». A los cuatro vientos. Madrid: Marcial Pons Historia. ISBN 978-84-15817-91-8.: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wpt3b
[177] ↑ Osorio, Alejandra (2017). El imperio de las Austrias españoles y el Atlántico. ciudad de México: FONDO DE CULTURA ECONÓMICA.
[178] ↑ Ots Capdequi, Jose Maria (1941). El estado español de indias. México: El Colegio de México. p. 15.
During these times in which Spain was a European Power "Power (international relations)"), scientific-geographical exchanges began to develop with figures such as Hieronymus Münzer, Martin Behaim and the humanists of Nuremberg. In addition, it would begin to be a commercial attraction for German and Italian banking families, and also an environment of prestige among Europeans for the study of Catholic theology in the face of the challenges of the Protestant Reformation.[26].
On the other hand, on the Italian war front, it was a disaster for France, which suffered major defeats at Bicoca (1522), Pavia (1525)—in which Francis I and Henry II were captured—and Landriano (1529) before Francis I surrendered and left Milan in Spanish hands once again. The victory of Charles I in the Battle of Pavia, 1525, surprised many Italians and Germans, by demonstrating his determination to achieve the maximum possible power. Pope Clement VII switched sides and joined forces with France and the emerging Italian states against the emperor in the War of the Cognac League. The Peace of Barcelona, signed between Charles I and the pope in 1529, established a more cordial relationship between the two rulers and in fact named Spain as a defender of the Catholic cause and recognized Charles as king of Lombardy in reward for the Spanish intervention against the rebellious Republic of Florence.
In 1528, Grand Admiral Andrea Doria allied with the Emperor to dislodge France and restore Genoese independence. This opened a new perspective: this year the first loan from the Genoese banks to Charles I took place.
During this time of personal Union between the Holy Roman Empire and the Hispanic Monarchy in the person of Charles, Relations between Germany and Spain would flourish. Several German sovereigns, such as the Electors of the Palatinate (Ottheinrich or Frederick II), would travel to Spain to strengthen diplomatic ties; while through the Court of Charles, great figures of the Spanish Nobility (such as Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel or Garcilaso de la Vega) would have prominence in the decisions of the Holy Empire, with Spanish representatives in the Reichstag "Reichstag (Holy Roman Empire)"). In addition, the commercial houses of the Welser Dynasty and the Fugger Dynasty would be the bankers who would sponsor Carlos' companies, at the same time they entered Spain and Portugal by expanding their commercial branches (the Welsers would even reach the New World through the Klein-Venedig concession, while the Fuggers would rent the most productive mercury mine in the world in Almadén), which promoted the economic development of Europe and accelerated the Exchange Columbian.[26].
American colonization continued unstoppable. After the conquest of Peru, the first originally Spanish city founded was Santiago de Quito (later and in another location Santiago de Guayaquil) by Sebastián de Belalcázar and Diego de Almagro on the orders of Francisco Pizarro on the plains of Tapi "Riobamba (canton)"), Ecuador, while, further north, Santafé de Bogotá was founded in 1538 by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada and Pedro de Mendoza founded Buenos Aires in 1536. In the 1540s, Francisco de Orellana was exploring the jungle and reached the Amazon. In 1541, Pedro de Valdivia continued the explorations of Diego de Almagro, founding on February 12 of that year, the city of Santiago de Nueva Extremadura, establishing the Government of Chile and starting the Arauco War. That same year, the Muisca Confederation, which occupied central Colombia, was conquered and the New Kingdom of Granada was established.
As a consequence of the defense that the School of Salamanca and Bartolomé de las Casas made of the natives, the Spanish Crown was relatively quick to enact laws to protect them in their American possessions. The Laws of Burgos of 1512 were replaced by the New Laws of the Indies of 1542.
In 1543, Francis I of France announced an unprecedented alliance with the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, to occupy the city of Nice, under Spanish control. Henry VIII of England, who held more grudges against France than against the emperor, despite the latter's opposition to Henry's divorce from his aunt, joined the latter in his invasion of France. Although the imperial troops suffered some defeats such as that at Cerisoles, the emperor managed to get France to accept his conditions. The Austrians, led by Emperor Charles's younger brother, continued to fight the Ottoman Empire to the east. Meanwhile, Charles I worried about solving an old problem: the Schmalkaldic League.
The League had the French as allies, and efforts to undermine its influence in Germany were rejected. The French defeat in 1544 broke their alliance with the Protestants and Charles I took advantage of this opportunity. He first attempted the path of negotiation at the Council of Trent in 1545, but the Protestant leaders, feeling betrayed by the Catholic stance at the Council, went to war led by Maurice of Saxony. In response, Charles I invaded Germany at the head of a Spanish-Dutch army, thus beginning the Schmalkaldic War. He hoped to restore imperial authority. The troops, commanded by the emperor himself, inflicted a decisive defeat on the Protestants at the historic Battle of Mühlberg in 1547. In 1555 he signed the Peace of Augsburg with the Protestant states, restoring stability to Germany under the principle of Cuius regio, eius religio ("Whoever holds the region imposes religion"), an unpopular position among the Italian and Spanish clergy.
Charles' involvement in Germany gave Spain the role of protector of the Habsburg Catholic cause in the Holy Roman Empire, thus, Charles's Spanish advisors would become the champions of the Counter-Reformation, seeking a reform of the Roman curia without having to tolerate the considered theological errors of Lutheranism. This work would be intensified even more with the emergence of the Society of Jesus, founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola (Spanish-Basque), since a large part of the Spanish clergy would have social, cultural, economic and even political influence in the regions of the Holy Empire that remained Catholic (prominently Southern Germany and Italy), promoting intellectual co-operation between scholastic theologians to respond to the Protestant Reformation, and even military when European religious wars arose, in which The Hispanic Monarchy used to intervene on behalf of Catholic states throughout Europe. An example of this Spanish sphere of influence in Central Europe was the integration of the Duchy of Bavaria into the network of alliances of Spain during the government of Albert V of Bavaria through large diplomatic networks and exchanges (which would be of great importance for Charles's heirs), at the same time the entire education system of its territories was entrusted to the Jesuits (highlighting figures such as Alfonso Salmerón or Gregorio de Valencia in the Bavarian court).[26]
Meanwhile, the Mediterranean became a battlefield against the Turks, who encouraged pirates like the Algerian Barbarossa. Charles I preferred to eliminate the Ottomans through maritime strategy, through attacks on their settlements in the Venetian territories in the eastern Mediterranean. Only in response to attacks on the Spanish Levantine coast did the emperor personally become involved in offensives on the African continent with expeditions to Tunisia, Bona (1535) and Algiers (1541).
Furthermore, in Southeast Asia, Spanish rule was consolidated in the archipelago of the Philippines (named in honor of Philip II) and adjacent islands (Borneo, Moluccas - fortress of Tidore -, forts on the island of Formosa and annexes in the already oceanic Palaos, Marianas, Carolinas and Ralicratac, etc.), founding the Captaincy General of the Philippines as the center of the Spanish Empire in Asia and Oceania, seeking both developing China-Spain Relations for commercial benefits, and mainly evangelizing Catholicism to the populations of several nearby Muslim sultanates of the Malay Archipelago and starting the Moorish Conflict. The latter, together with the development of the Portuguese Empire in the Indonesian archipelago, attracted the attention of the Turkish Caliphate, which sent the Ottoman Expedition to Aceh in the 1560s to help the Sultanate of Aceh (which was formally subjugated to the Ottoman Empire), Malacca, Johor, Patani, Gujarat, Ahmednagar, Bijapur, Joló, Maguindánao, Tidore, Ternate, the Empire of Brunei, etc. from Indo-Pacific Muslim states potentially hostile to Spain and Portugal, in addition to bringing the Habsburg-Ottoman Wars to the Iberian colonial territories in the East Indies and threatening their dominance of the Spice Trade.[30] [31][32][33].
In 1585, Queen Elizabeth I of England sent support to Protestant causes in the Netherlands and France, and Francis Drake launched attacks on Spanish ports and merchant ships in the Caribbean (region) and the Pacific, as well as an especially aggressive attack on the port of Cádiz. In 1588, hoping to put an end to the meddling of Elizabeth I, Philip II sent the "Invincible Army" to attack England. Contrary to what is commonly believed, the Spanish Navy was not defeated by the English ships[34] but by a series of strong storms, coordination problems between the armies involved and important logistical failures in the supplies that the fleet had to make in the Netherlands caused the defeat of the Spanish Navy.
However, the defeat of the English counterattack against Spain, led by Drake and Norris in 1589, marked a turning point in the Anglo-Spanish War "Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604)") in favor of Spain. Despite the failure of the Spanish navy, the Spanish fleet remained the strongest in the seas of Europe until the 2nd century, although in 1639, it was defeated by the Dutch in the naval battle of the Dunes "Battle of the Dunes (1639)"), when a visibly exhausted Spain began to weaken. The treaty of London "Treaty of London (1604)") was favorable to Spain and the disaster of the English contra armada left the Kingdom of England bankrupt, which had gathered a fleet of two hundred ships and twenty thousand men (even larger than the Spanish Great Armada of 1588) with the intention of revolting Portugal and establishing a state hostile to Spain, an objective that it did not achieve, and also with the desire to threaten the overseas territories of the Spanish monarchy.
Spain became involved in the French Wars of Religion after the death of Henry II of France. In 1589 Henry III of France, the last of the Valois line, died at the gates of Paris. His successor, Henry IV of France and III of Navarre, the first Bourbon king of France, was a very skilled man, achieving key victories against the Catholic League at Arques "Battle of Arques (1589)") (1589) and at Ivry (1590). Committed to preventing Henry IV from taking possession of the French throne, the Spanish divided their army in the Netherlands and invaded France in 1590. Involved on multiple fronts, the Spanish power was unable to impose its policy in the French country and an agreement was finally reached in the Peace of Vervins.
After peace with England, Ambrosio Spínola, as the new general in command of the Spanish forces, fought tenaciously against the Dutch. Spínola was a strategist of similar ability to that of Mauritius, and only the new bankruptcy of 1607 prevented him from conquering the Netherlands. Plagued by ruinous finances, in 1609 the Twelve Years' Truce was signed between Spain and the United Provinces. The Pax Hispanica was a fact.
Spain made a notable recovery during the truce, organizing its economy and striving to recover its prestige and stability before participating in the last war in which it would act as the main power. These advances were overshadowed by the expulsion of the Moors between 1611 and 1614, which seriously damaged the Crown of Aragon, depriving the empire of an important source of wealth. Although in return for the expulsion, a group that supported Spain's main piracy problem, Berber piracy, which devastated the eastern coasts, was exiled, producing Moorish rebellions, and with the danger that support for Ottoman piracy would become support for an invasion of the Ottoman Empire of the peninsula, the latter being the reason for the expulsion of the Moors.
However, also during these years of recovery and peace at the beginning of the century, it would be noted that Spain had made itself a creditor to several enemies throughout Europe, who were dissatisfied with its sphere of influence that it had built during the last century; which would be a preamble to the anti-Spanish and anti-Habsburg coalition that was about to develop. An example of this reality full of hostility was expressed by different international representatives at the Court of the Papal States in 1609.[36].
Currently, the opinion of historians is almost unanimous regarding the error of getting involved in European wars for the sole reason that the inherited kingdoms had to be transmitted in their entirety. However, this position also existed in those years. Thus a court attorney wrote:
On the other hand, in the Alpine region, the Catholic population of Valtellina (in northern Italy) began a rebellion against their lords of the Three Leagues (a member of the Swiss Confederation), thus initiating the Valtellina War between 1620 and 1626, in which Spain intervened in favor of the Catholics. This local religious conflict revived the Franco-Spanish rivalry, due to the strategic importance of controlling the territory for the operation of the Spanish Way. Thus, France allied with Venice and Savoy (both hostile to Spanish hegemony in Italy) to defend the Three Leagues, while the Holy Empire, Genoa and the Papal States allied with Spain to defend the rebels. The Spanish Duchy of Milan annexed the territory, although it was later arranged that the territory would be occupied by papal troops until an agreement was reached with the Swiss Canton, France and its allies, which would later launch two military expeditions in 1625, one directed at Genoa to cut communications between Spain and Milan (which resulted in failure) and another against Valtellina to cut off the papal occupation of the territory (which resulted in success and thus Spain no longer had control of the region). Finally, it was signed and temporarily ended the Italian conflict with the Treaty of Monsoon of 1626, which returned the territory to the Three Leagues in exchange for allowing the transit of both French and Spanish troops, and giving more freedoms and rights to Catholics. France's allies were dissatisfied, but it was a preamble to the anti-Habsburg coalition that Cardinal Richelieu was developing.
In 1621, the harmless and ineffective Philip III died and his son Philip IV took the throne. The following year, Zúñiga was replaced by Gaspar de Guzmán, better known by his title of Count-Duke of Olivares, an honest and capable man, who believed that the center of all Spain's misfortunes was the United Provinces. That same year, the war with the Netherlands resumed. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, Spinola took the fortress of Breda in 1625. The intervention of Christian IV of Denmark in the war worried many - Christian IV was one of the few European monarchs who did not have financial problems - but the victories of the imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein over the Danes at the Battle of Dessau Bridge and again at Lutter, both in 1626, eliminated such a threat on Earth, but they would still remain a naval threat due to the non-existence of a Holy Empire navy at the service of the Catholics (given that the German Protestants had control of the German coast in the north). Furthermore, French diplomacy secretly achieved an alliance agreement between the Netherlands, England, Denmark-Norway, Sweden, Transylvania, Venice and Savoy in the Treaty of The Hague of 1625 "en:Treaty of The Hague (1625)"). Thus, Spain would begin to be isolated by the controversial alliance of Protestants with an anti-Habsburg Catholic bloc led by France, which is why it would begin to seek rapprochements with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a country allied with the Austrian Habsburgs and which also had a fleet that had been formidable in the Polish-Swedish wars, developing plans to unite the Flemish Navy with the Polish-Lithuanian Navy to confront the Danes, Dutch and the Swedes in the Baltic Sea (who had been invited by France to support the Protestants in rebellion to the authority of the Germanic Roman emperor).[38].
There was hope in Madrid that the Netherlands could be reincorporated into the Empire, and after the initial defeat of the Danes, the Protestants in Germany seemed finished. France was once again involved in its own instabilities (the siege of La Rochelle began in 1627, being the climax of the Huguenot rebellions), England would withdraw from the conflict with the Anglo-French War of 1627-1629 "Anglo-French War (1627-1629)") and the Turks would be more concerned with tending to their borders in Asia than in expansionist campaigns in Europe (as they were dealing with an Iranian invasion in the Ottoman-Safavid War of 1623-1639 "Ottoman-Safavid War (1623-1639")). Thus Spain's superiority seemed irrefutable in the late 1620s. The Count-Duke of Olivares stated "God is Spanish and is on the nation's side these days," and many of Spain's rivals seemed to unhappily agree.
Olivares was a man advanced for his time and realized that Spain needed reform which in turn needed peace. The destruction of the United Provinces was added to their needs, since behind any attack on the Habsburgs there was Dutch money. Spínola and the Spanish army concentrated in the Netherlands and the war seemed to go in favor of Spain, retaking Breda. Overseas, the Dutch fleet was also fought, which threatened Spanish possessions. Thus, the Dutch presence in Taiwan and its threat to the Philippines led to the occupation of the north of the island, with the city of Santísima Trinidad (present-day Keelung) being founded in 1626 and Castillo (present-day Tamsui) in 1629.
Thus, the Count-Duke of Olivares would begin to skillfully develop a northern maritime plan that involved the Spanish Empire developing a Trade War against the Dutch through isolating it from vital trading partners (by allying itself with the Holy Empire or Poland-Lithuania) and the development of a Spanish fleet in the Baltic Sea (with the support of the Austrian Habsburgs and the Polish-Swedish Vasa) to open a second war front that could counter the blockade. Anglo-French to the North Sea and challenge the dominance of Denmark-Norway, Sweden and the Hanseatic League in the region (Dominium maris baltici), thus favoring Spanish-Portuguese commercial interests over the Dutch, while restoring Catholic control over Protestant predominance in the region.[38] There were even ambitious plans to develop a Hanseatic-Iberian company, under the protection of Spanish warships of the Admiralty, to strengthen Spanish economic power in the region and thus decline Dutch and English power in the North; as well as conquering Swedish, Danish and German territories (preferably Gothia, Jutland or Pomerania) for the Council of Flanders with the purpose of having a Spanish base in the Baltic Sea with a permanent presence in order to have complete control of trade in the North. Although the Hanseatic League was in favor of increasing trade with the Spanish Monarchy, it would reject developing a Spanish-Hanseatic company that would be an intermediary and that could even strengthen the power of the Germanic Roman emperor; while the Holy Empire wanted to quell the Emperor's internal enemies, and Poland-Lithuania an invasion of Sweden above all else, as a condition of associating with Spanish forces.[39][40].
These plans of Olivares, which were the essence of the Spanish intervention in the 30 Years' War, would be manifest in the Prague Meetings of January 22, 1628 between Wallenstein, Juan Andreas de Eggenberg") and Rombaldo Collalto with Spanish ambassadors (Francisco de Moncada on behalf of Spain, Octavio de Visconti-Sforza") and Jacques Bruneau") on behalf of Spanish Flanders, and Firmin de Lodosa") on behalf of the Flanders Navy")). At this meeting, the joint action strategies of Spain and Austria in Northern Europe were deliberated, where Spanish financing of the military campaigns of the Holy Empire was requested in exchange for Philip IV receiving Jutland conquered from the Danes (but Spain was more interested in the promises of an intervention by the Catholic Germans in the Netherlands or at least Italy against the French and Dutch), in addition to obtaining the promise of Wallenstein to allow the Spanish navy to operate from the territories occupied by imperial troops (Pomerania, Mecklenburg, Holstein, Schleswig and Jutland) once his project for a Roman-Germanic imperial fleet in the Baltic was completed, something of great symbolic value given that it was a sign of support for the promotion of Iberian trade in an area where it was insignificant. They would again be manifested in the Baltic Sea Board of 1628 (in which they participated. Ambrosio Spínola, Diego de Guzmán y Haro, Juan de Mendoza, Fernando Girón, Jean de Croy, Juan de Villela, etc.) with instructions to Carlos de Bonniéres"), Spanish ambassador to Poland, to persuade them to develop a Spanish-Polish fleet, which was attractive to Sigismund III Vasa (who wanted his son Władysław IV to lead the fleet, or at least Philip of Mansfeld") or another admiral alien to Wallenstein), and others for Gabriel de Roy"), Spanish ambassador to Germany, to persuade Wallenstein to invade East Frisia or even Paris. All these great ambitions to expand the Spanish sphere of influence to Northern Europe would suffer a blow of reality before the first signs of Spanish decline with the bankruptcy of 1627, and also the disagreements of interests between Wallenstein (who was not trusted by either the Spanish or Austrian Habsburgs, nor by the Catholic League, for having his own seigneurial ambitions and wishing to subordinate the Spanish fleet under his command), Austria (which wanted Spanish financing rather than opening new war fronts, due to to its own economic crisis) and the Catholic League (which gave priority to achieving peace with the emperor's enemies and withdrawing from other European conflicts, something that clashed with Spain's desire to continue the war and obtain military support against the Dutch), in addition to the reluctance of Poland-Lithuania to intervene more directly, of the Hanseatic League in not lending its resources to the Spanish to maintain neutrality and not to harass the Dutch, Danes and Swedes (of whom were economically dependent and had religious sympathies) and of the dangers expressed by Alonso de la Cueva and Benavides that the Spanish Netherlands would be left unprotected against a Dutch, English or Danish invasion if the Spanish Navy headed to the Baltic. Despite everything, Spain would continue to be a great power in Northern Europe, much requested by the Germans loyal to the Roman Germanic emperor to provide financial and technological assistance for their naval projects, and even the Polish-Lithuanians handed over their fleet to the Spanish in Wismar and Mecklenburg on December 22, 1628 (carrying out joint skirmishes against the Swedes and Danes until 1632), which shows that until 1629 the The Spanish Empire was still a dominant power in the remote Baltic Sea region.[39][38][40].
However, the year 1627 brought about the collapse of the Hispanic economy with devastating effects that negatively affected a large part of Spanish imperial projects. The Spanish had devalued their currency to pay for the war and inflation exploded in Spain as it had before in Austria. Until 1631, some parts of Castile traded by barter, due to the currency crisis, and the government was unable to collect taxes from the peasantry of its overseas provinces. The Spanish armies in Germany chose to pay themselves. Olivares was blamed for a shameful and unsuccessful war in Italy. The Dutch had made their fleet a priority during the Twelve Years' Truce and threatened Spanish maritime trade, on which Spain was totally dependent after the economic crisis; In 1628, the Dutch cornered the Indies Fleet, causing the Matanzas Disaster. The shipment of precious metals that was essential to sustain the Empire's war effort was captured and the fleet that transported it was completely destroyed. With part of the wealth obtained, the Dutch began a successful invasion of Brazil.
The Thirty Years' War also worsened when, in 1630, Gustav II Adolf of Sweden landed in Germany to help the port of Stralsund, the last continental stronghold of the Germans belligerent against the emperor. Gustav II Adolf marched south and won notable victories at Breitenfeld "Battle of Breitenfeld (1631)") and Lützen "Battle of Lützen (1632)"), attracting widespread support for Protestants wherever he went. The situation for Catholics improved with the death of Gustav II Adolf precisely in Lützen in 1632 and the victory at the Battle of Nördlingen in 1634. From a position of strength, the emperor tried to make peace with the war-weary states in 1635. Many accepted, including the two most powerful: Brandenburg and Saxony. France then emerged as the biggest problem. At the same time, the War of the Mantuan Succession, in Italy, gave a new victory to Spain, consolidating its presence in Italy.
Cardinal Richelieu had been a strong ally of the Dutch and Protestants since the beginning of the war, sending funds and equipment to try to fragment the Habsburg force in Europe. Richelieu decided that the recently signed Peace of Prague was contrary to the interests of France and declared war on the Holy Roman Empire and Spain within the established period of peace. The more experienced Spanish forces had initial successes: Olivares ordered a lightning campaign into northern France from the Spanish Netherlands, hoping to defeat King Louis XIII's purpose and overthrow Richelieu.
In 1636 the Spanish forces advanced south until they reached Corbie, threatening Paris and coming very close to ending the war in their favor. After 1636, Olivares was afraid of causing another bankruptcy and the Spanish army did not advance further. In the naval defeat of the Dunes in 1639, the Spanish fleet was annihilated by the Dutch navy, and the Spanish found themselves unable to supply their troops in the Netherlands.
In 1643 the Army of Flanders, which constituted the best of the Spanish infantry, faced a French counterattack at Rocroi led by Louis II of Bourbon, Prince of Condé. Although nineteenth-century French sources, and especially the original sources, always reported that the Spanish, led by Francisco de Melo, were far from devastated, Gallic propaganda achieved notable success by exaggerating that victory.[41] The Spanish infantry was seriously damaged but not destroyed: one thousand dead and two thousand wounded out of a total of six thousand soldiers of the Thirds; The thirds withstood up to six joint attacks by French infantry, artillery and cavalry without losing integrity. With both sides exhausted, the surrender was negotiated and the siege was lifted. The battle had few short-term repercussions, but a tremendous impact on a propaganda level.
Cardinal Mazarin's great ability to handle that victory managed to damage the reputation of the Tercios of Flanders, creating false propaganda that still remains; that of a victory in which, to know the number of enemies they faced, the French only had to "count the dead." Traditionally, historians point to the Battle of Rocroi as the end of Spanish rule in Europe and the turning of the course of the Thirty Years' War in favor of France.
During the reign of Philip IV and specifically from 1640 onwards, there were multiple secessions and uprisings in the different territories that were under his scepter. Among them, the War of Separation from Portugal, the rebellion of Catalonia "Uprising of Catalonia (1640)") (both conflicts started in 1640), the conspiracy of Andalusia (1641) and the various incidents that occurred in Navarre, Naples and Sicily at the end of the 1640s. Added to these events were the different extrapeninsular fronts: the war in the Netherlands (resumed in 1621 after the expiration of the Twelve Years' Truce) and the Thirty Years' War. In turn, the confrontation with France in the latter (since 1635) was connected to the Catalan problem.
Portugal had rebelled in 1640 under the leadership of Juan de Braganza, claimant to the throne. This had received general support from the Portuguese people, and the Spanish, who had multiple open fronts, were unable to respond. The Spanish and Portuguese maintained a de facto state of peace between 1641 and 1657. When John IV died, the Spanish attempted to fight for Portugal against his son Alfonso VI of Portugal, but were defeated at the Battle of Ameixial (1663), at the Battle of Castelo Rodrigo (1664) and at the Battle of Montes Claros "Battle of Villaviciosa (1665)") (1665), which which led Spain to recognize Portuguese independence in 1668.
In 1648, the Spanish signed peace with the Dutch and recognized the independence of the United Provinces in the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Eighty Years' War and the Thirty Years' War at the same time. This was followed by the expulsion of Taiwan and the loss of Tobago, Curaçao and other islands in the Caribbean Sea.
The war with France continued for eleven more years, since France wanted to completely destroy Spain and not give it a chance to recover. The Spanish economy was so weakened that the Empire was unable to cope. The uprising of Naples was put down in 1648 and that of Catalonia in 1652 and a victory was also obtained against the French in the battle of Valenciennes "Battle of Valenciennes (1656)") (1656, last of the Spanish victories), but the effective end of the war came in the battle of the Dunes "Battle of the Dunes (1658)") (or Dunkirk) in 1658, in which the French army under the command of Viscount Turenne and with the help of a large English army, defeated the remnants of the Flanders Tercios. Spain agreed to sign the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659, in which it ceded Roussillon, Cerdanya and some places in the Netherlands such as Artois to France. In addition, the marriage of a Spanish princess with Louis XIV was agreed.
In the last years of Philip IV's reign, once the great conflicts were over, Philip IV was able to concentrate on the Portuguese front. However, it was too late. Months before his death (which occurred in Madrid, on September 17, 1665), the defeat in the battle of Villaviciosa "Battle of Villaviciosa (1665)") (June 17) made it possible to predict the loss of Portugal. The situation in Spain was not more promising, and the human, material and social crisis deeply affected the interior regions.
Spain had an immense overseas empire (now reduced by the separation of Portugal and its empire as well as by French and English attacks), but France was now the leading power in Europe.
In 1777 a new war with Portugal ended with the treaty of San Ildefonso "Treaty of San Ildefonso (1777)"), by which Spain recovered Sacramento and gained the islands of Annobon and Fernando Poo, in the waters of Guinea, in exchange for withdrawing from its new conquests in Brazil.
Subsequently, two events of minor importance occurred in Spanish America and at the same time demonstrated the elasticity and resistance of the new reformed system: the uprising of Túpac Amaru in Peru in 1780 and the rebellion in Venezuela. Both, in part, were reactions to the greater centralism of the Bourbon administration. In general, the three centuries of the Spanish Empire in America were very peaceful.[46].
In the 1780s internal trade in the Empire grew again and its fleet became much larger and more profitable. The end of Cádiz's monopoly on American trade marked the rebirth of Spanish manufacturing. Most notable was the rapid growth of the textile industry in Catalonia, which at the end of the century showed signs of industrialization with a surprising and rapid adoption of mechanical spinning machines, becoming the most important textile industry in the Mediterranean. This led to the appearance of a small but politically active bourgeoisie in Barcelona. Agricultural productivity remained low despite efforts to introduce new machinery for a highly exploited and landless peasant class.
The gradual recovery of the wars was again interrupted by Spanish participation in the American War of Independence (1779-1783), in support of the rebellious States and the subsequent confrontations with Great Britain. The Treaty of Versailles of 1783 "Treaty of Versailles (1783)") once again brought about peace and the recovery of Florida and Menorca (consolidating the situation, since they had previously been recovered by Spain) as well as the British abandonment of Campeche and the Mosquito Coast in the Caribbean. However, Spain failed to recover Gibraltar after a long and persistent siege, and had to recognize British sovereignty over the Bahamas, where numerous supporters of the English king or loyalists "Loyalist (American War of Independence)") had settled from the lost colonies, and the archipelago of San Andrés y Providencia, claimed by Spain but which it had not been able to control.
Meanwhile, with the Nutca convention (1791), the dispute between Spain and Great Britain over the British and Spanish settlements on the Pacific coast was resolved, thus delimiting the border between both countries. Also in that year the king of Spain ordered Alejandro Malaspina to search for the Northwest Passage (Malaspina Expedition).
While successive coalitions were defeated again and again by Napoleon Bonaparte on the continent, Spain fought a minor war against Portugal (Orange War) that allowed it to annex Olivenza. In 1800 France regained Louisiana. When Napoleon decreed the Continental Blockade, Spain collaborated with France in the occupation of Portugal, a country that disobeyed the blockade. Thus, French troops entered the country, garrisoning units on the border.
In 1808 Spain was occupied by Napoleon and he took advantage of the disputes between the Spanish king Charles IV and his son, the future, and got them to give him the throne and named his brother Joseph I of Spain king. Then the popular uprising of May 2, 1808 occurred. The patriotic Spaniards moved to southern Spain and began what was known as the Spanish War of Independence, which would defeat the French armies for the first time in Europe in the Battle of Bailén. In response to the vacuum of authority, the Cortes of Cádiz were established in 1810. In the Constitution of Cádiz the Catholic Monarchy was renamed Kingdom of Spain, and then Kingdom of Spain after the constitution of 1869.[5][6][7] These courts proclaimed themselves sovereign, recognized Ferdinand VII as the legitimate king of Spain, and annulled his resignation from the Crown and established the Spanish Constitution of 1812. Napoleon counterattacked and his Grande Armée reestablished his brother's authority. The clashes continued, now with the appearance of the "guerrilla war" with the French armies suffering a considerable and constant number of casualties. The English intervention in peninsular Spain together with the Portuguese and Spanish armies contributed to the expulsion of the French and Ferdinand VII recovered the throne, dissolved the Spanish Cortes, repressed liberalism and had to face the independence of the viceroyalties.
This event is one of the most important in the formation of the contemporary world: the dismemberment of the kingdoms and provinces that made up American Spain, belonging to the Catholic Monarchy, and their transformation into twenty new independent states, as a result of a long and destructive civil war.[48][49].
At the end of the century and the beginning of the 19th century, the Spanish Empire had undergone the dynastic change from the Habsburgs to the Bourbons without great territorial loss. In the context of the Atlantic Revolutions, Spanish projects for the independence of America were proposed by the monarchy itself. However, Spanish-American independence took place after the imposition of the Bonaparte house to replace the Bourbons, in the midst of the collapse of the Ancien Regime and the French occupation of Spain. In 1808, Napoleon Bonaparte, within the framework of his Continental Blockade strategy against the British Empire, kidnapped the Spanish royal family and imposed the "Bayonne abdications", by which the Bourbons renounced the throne in favor of Napoleon, who promised to respect the integrity of the monarchy. Charles IV was deposed and his son Ferdinand VII was taken prisoner. Napoleon appointed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as king of Spain and implemented the Statute of Bayonne. But the French occupation triggered a popular Spanish uprising, known as the Spanish War of Independence (1808-1814). Napoleon's emissaries were rejected in America, and viceregal officials suspected of sympathizing with Napoleonic Spain were deposed. The United Kingdom, through the Apodaca-Canning Treaty, supported the rebellion against the Napoleonic occupation in Spain and recognized Ferdinand VII as legitimate king in absentia. However, the power vacuum generated by the dynastic crisis was taken advantage of by other rival empires to expand their borders or their diplomatic and political influence. Both the British Empire and the United States and the Portuguese Empire benefited from the weakening of Spanish power in America.
The Napoleonic occupation forced the Spanish government to exhaust all its military resources in the Iberian Peninsula, including its own royal navy, essential to the preservation of a vast transatlantic Empire. Ferdinand VII was proclaimed king in absentia, but subordinated to the sovereignty of the new emerging powers. The Spanish junta, which resisted Bonaparte, established a liberal State by convening the Cortes Generales. On the other side of the Atlantic, before the captivity of Ferdinand VII, the American junta had its own liberal revolutions led mostly by Creoles, challenging the old and new authorities of Europe. The final break came in 1810, when the Central Supreme Junta, still supported by the Americans, was defeated and took refuge in Cádiz, where, besieged by the Napoleonic troops that already dominated the entire peninsula, it was dissolved, giving way to the creation of a Regency and, subsequently, the Cortes of Cádiz, of peninsular hegemony. This was the breaking point with the American Juntas, which led to the first declarations of independence. The Spanish Cortes denied the legitimacy of the American junta and began sending military expeditions to quell the rebellions. The Cádiz liberals, like the American junta, did not recognize any other power as superior and considered Fernando VII as a king subordinate to their national interests. The French military defeat throughout Europe and the Treaty of Valençay with Napoleon allowed Ferdinand VII to return to Spain in 1814 as king with full powers. The king, after rejecting the Constitution of 1812 because he considered it republican, declared his decrees null and void. Both Ferdinand VII and the Cortes of Cádiz denied all legitimacy of the American junta, declaring them in rebellion.[50][51] However, with the disappearance of the liberal Spanish government, the United Kingdom blocked European support for Spain, while providing men, ships and military supplies in support of the American insurgencies.
The insurrections, which sought to preserve their independent states, finally led to mostly republican regimes, which openly faced off against the absolutist restoration in a secession war of continental scope. Viceroy Félix Calleja in New Spain, Fernando de Abascal in Peru and Pablo Morillo, head of the Costa Firme peacekeeping expedition, were the main organizers of the defense of the Spanish monarchy in America. However, government advisors warned about the weakening of the Spanish military after the war with France and the impossibility of sustaining a military effort in the short term. The continuous uprisings of liberal soldiers in Spain itself announced the rebellion of the Overseas Army that occurred in 1820 and led by Rafael del Riego, which established the short-lived Liberal Triennium. This new government, recognized only by the United Kingdom, accelerated Spain's loss of political, military, and diplomatic power. The Triennium broke the Spanish military position in America, suspended the sending of peninsular troops and limited itself to negotiating truces without agreeing to any definitive peace. Starting in 1820, Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín, the so-called Libertadores in South America, and Agustín Iturbide in North America, led the final campaigns of the armies of the Homeland or Patriotas, identified with America and Sovereignty. They managed to prevail over the troops of the Spanish monarchy, called Royalists, a term popularized when the absolutist regime of Ferdinand VII recovered the Spanish throne in 1823, supported by French troops of the Holy Alliance who occupied Spain until 1828.[52] The last strongholds that resisted in coastal fortifications until 1826, the surviving guerrillas from the interior, and the naval war in the Caribbean, encouraged utopian Spanish projects of reconquest of Mexico that had its end with the death of King Ferdinand VII in 1833.
Finally, in 1836, a decade after the fall of the last bastions, the Cortes of Spain authorized the Government to renounce all territorial or sovereignty rights and recognize independence in successive treaties of peace and friendship. The American independence caused the forced migration of Spaniards, first by war and then by their expulsion through laws intended to consolidate independence.[53][54] Later, throughout the century, after complex political processes, the former Spanish possessions in America formed the current Hispanic American states and recognition treaties were signed with Spain. In South America, the Portuguese-Brazilian Invasion took place on the former disputed Spanish territories of the Banda Oriental annexed by the Portuguese as the Cisplatina province. In North America, American expansionism was imposed on the new American countries through economic pressure, political domination, and a military occupation that culminated in the annexation of Texas and northern Mexico. He also appropriated the last remnants of the Spanish Empire, forcing the purchase of Florida for five million dollars in 1821,[55] and later, the rights to Spanish claims in Oregon. At the end of the century, the United States would culminate its expansion with the military occupation of the last overseas vestiges of the Spanish Empire.
• - Santa Cruz (1595): only short-lived settlement in the Solomon Islands.[82][83][84][85][86].
• - New Jerusalem "Espiritu Santo Island (Vanuatu)") (1606): brief establishment of a colony in Vanuatu, which started from the port of Callao, viceroyalty of Peru.
• - Rapa Nui Island (1770-1775): brief occupation of Easter Island by the Viceroyalty of Peru.
• - Amat Island (1772-1775): brief occupation of Tahiti by the Viceroyalty of Peru.[87][88][89].
During the Iberian Union (1580-1640), Spain also came to encompass the settlements of the Portuguese empire in Asia:.
• - Estado da Índia (1580-1640): despite its name and the fact that its capital was the Indian city of Goa, it was made up of all the Portuguese possessions in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific from Mozambique to Japan and Indonesia.
Persian Gulf and Red Sea: several fortresses, ports and cities occupied by the Portuguese from which they controlled trade in the Middle East. Furthermore, the island kingdoms of Hormuz "Hormuz (island)") and Queshm were vassals of Portugal.
Muscat (1580-1640), Ormus "Ormuz (city)") (1580-1622), Queixome (1580-1622) and Comorão (1580-1615).
India: Portugal established and conquered multiple cities and trading posts in the modern states of India and Bangladesh.
Ceilão (1580-1640): Most of the island of Sri Lanka came under Portuguese control.
Sirião") (1603-1613): coastal city in Burma conquered by the Portuguese mercenary Filipe de Brito e Nicote, who offered it to the colonial authorities of India in exchange for being named ruler of the city, which was reconquered by the Burmese ten years later.
Macau (1581-1640): trading post in China open to foreign trade. It took him a year to accept Spanish rule, until the continuation of his commercial monopoly was confirmed. Its captain-major was in charge of the Portuguese fleets and emporiums from Malacca to Japan.
Malacca (1580-1640): strategic commercial city in the strait of the same name.
Nagasaki (1580-1587) and Dejima (1634-1639): trading posts in Japan open to European trade.
Spice Islands: Portugal kept under its control several small islands from which to control the spice trade, in present-day Indonesia.
Spanish colonial territories and possessions in North Africa throughout history.
• - Spanish Sahara (1884-1975 de facto/currently de jure): Spanish presence in several coastal factories starting in 1885. The Polisario Front proclaimed independence in 1975, being invaded by Morocco. The UN considers that Spain continues to administer de jure the territory. It was made up of the provinces of Río de Oro and Saguía el Hamra, in current Western Sahara.
• - Spanish Protectorate of Morocco (1912-1956/1958): established in the Mediterranean coastal area of northern Morocco, mainly in the Rif region, but also the desert area of Cape Juby "Cape Juby (territory of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco)") in the south of the country after negotiations with France. The northern area would not be effectively occupied until 1927 due to native resistance and would achieve independence in 1956, three months after French Morocco, while Cape Juby was occupied in 1916 and returned to Morocco in 1958.
• - Ifni (1860 de jure/1934 de facto-1969): territory formed by the city of Sidi Ifni and its hinterland. Ceded by Morocco in 1860 by the Treaty of Wad-Ras, effectively occupied in 1934 and returned to Morocco in 1969.
• - Tangier International Zone (1923-1940; 1945-1956): condominium "Condominium (international law)") of the city of Tangier; (1940-1945): annexed "Spanish occupation of Tangier (1940-1945)") for four years to Spanish Morocco during World War II.
Portugal controlled multiple colonies on the African coast, usually little more than fortified trading posts or feitories dedicated to the trade of slaves or other luxury goods, which came under the control of the House of Austria.
• - Madeira (1580-1640): archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean populated by Portuguese settlers in the same way as the Azores. It was the first colony of Portugal.
• - Algarve do Além (1580-1640): after the end of its reconquest, Portugal began to expand along the African Atlantic coast, taking multiple cities in what is now Morocco. After the Capitulation of Cintra in 1509, the area of Spanish influence was delimited to include present-day Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, while Portugal's dominion over the Atlantic coast of Africa was confirmed.
Ceuta (1580-1640, would remain faithful to Philip IV during the Portuguese Restoration War, currently an autonomous Spanish city), Casablanca (1580-1640), Mazagan (1580-1640), Tangier (1580-1640), Anguim (1580-1633) and Asila (1580-1589).
• - Cacheu (1588-1640): Portuguese trading post for the slave trade on the banks of the homonymous river, in Guinea-Bissau.
• - Cape Verde (1580-1640): Atlantic archipelago off the coast of modern Senegal colonized by Portugal and which served as one of the main bases of the African slave trade.
• - Costa do Ouro (1580-1640): several forts on the Gold Coast, in the modern country of Ghana, from which ivory, gold and slaves were traded.
• - Saõ Tomé, Príncipe, Ano Bón and Fernando Poo (1580-1640): islands in the Gulf of Guinea that formed several of the main bases of the Portuguese African slave trade.
• - Captaincy of Angola (1580-1640): composed of small settlements and territories under Portuguese control on the coast and along the Cuanza River (mainly Luanda and later also Benguela) in modern Angola.
• - Mozambique (1580-1640): it was part of the State of India and was made up of Portuguese posts on the coast of modern Mozambique, as well as territories in the interior of the country, in the region of Zambezia, and several forts in eastern Zimbabwe. In 1609 it became an independent Captaincy of the Viceroy of Goa.
Kingdom of Mallorca: Conquered by the Aragonese between 1229 to 1287.
Menorca: one of the Balearic Islands, part of the United Kingdom after the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) until it was reconquered by a Franco-Spanish expedition in 1782 to be lost again to the British in 1798 and definitively retaken in 1802.
Territories of the Crown of Portugal (1580-1640): formed by current Portugal (with the exception of the municipalities of Olivienza and Hermisende) and by all the territories of the Portuguese Empire (although the Azores islands were not subjugated until 1583). It became part of the Hispanic Monarchy during the time of the Iberian Union. Its separation from the Spanish Monarchy would put an end to any attempt at a "Spain" based on the medieval idea of re-unifying Hispania (Imperator totius Hispaniae).
• - Western Europe
Burgundy Circle, where the majority of Spanish territories in north-western Europe were located.
Netherlands "Netherlands (region)") and Burgundy "Burgundy (disambiguation)"): The region corresponding to the Burgundian Heritage of the Crown of Castile
Map of the Spanish Netherlands during the Eighty Years' War
Spanish Netherlands (until 1714): Being the current countries of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and part of the territories of present-day northern France, such as Artois, Ardennes, Moselle "Moselle (department)"), Nord-Pas de Calais, and western part of Germany such as Bitburg-Prüm. During their integration into the Hispanic Monarchy, they were governed by the Council of Flanders and were part of the Burgundy Circle in the Holy Roman Empire. The Netherlands is traditionally considered part of the Spanish Empire[95][96] (majority thesis in Spain and the Netherlands among others); But there are authors like Henry Kamen[97] for whom those territories were never integrated into the Spanish Empire, but rather into the personal possessions of the Austrians. In 1581 the Protestant northern half of the Netherlands annulled their vassalage relationship with Philip II and proclaimed independence as the United Provinces, while the Catholic south remained in Spanish hands until 1714.
Union of Arras: Fiefdoms south of the Spanish Netherlands that withdrew from the United Provinces (today they are part of northern France).
Hainaut County.
Artois County.
Douai, Lille and Orchies
Franche-Comté (until 1678): territory located in the central-eastern area of France, ceded to it after the Peace of Nijmegen.
Charolais (until 1684): territory located in the central-eastern area of France, embargoed in favor of the prince of Condé.
Duchy of Alsace (1617-1648): territory of the Habsburgs of Austria that was handed over to the Habsburgs of Spain in the Treaty of Oñate in exchange for consolidating the Spanish-Austrian alliance in the face of intra-family conflicts, Philip III of Spain renouncing his rights of succession in the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Kingdom of Hungary or to be a candidate for emperor of the Holy Empire, in favor of his relative Ferdinand II of Habsburg, in exchange for territorial cessions strategic positions on the Spanish Road and mutual military support against the Dutch rebels, the Protestant German princes, France and its allies (on the eve of the 30 Years' War). Ceded to France during the Peace of Westphalia.[98]
Lower Palatinate (1620-1648): territory composed of fiefs scattered throughout the Rhineland region (in Germany) that were conquered by the Spanish during the Thirty Years' War to strengthen the dominion of the Spanish Way, and returned to the Electorate of the Palatinate in the Peace of Westphalia.
Italian Peninsula
The Italian Peninsula in the 19th century, a time when it was under the sphere of influence of the Spanish Empire, predominantly in the region of northern Italy and Lombardy.
Spanish Italy (until the century): Region under Spanish sovereignty and administration, corresponding to the inheritance of the Crown of Aragon through its conquests in the Italian Peninsula to compete against the maritime Republics for control of the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages. During their integration into the Hispanic Monarchy, they were governed by the Council of Italy.
Kingdom of Naples (until 1714): located in southern Italy.
Kingdom of Sicily (until 1714): made up of the islands of Sicily and Malta (the latter donated to the Knights Hospitaller in 1530).
Kingdom of Sardinia (until 1714; 1717-1718 de facto): formed by the island of Sardinia.
State of the Presidios (1557-1707): on the northwest coast of Italy, it depended directly on the viceroy of Naples.
Duchy of Milan (1535 de facto/1559 de jure-1715): also known as the Milanese, it was located in northern Italy, in the region of Lombardy.
Marquisate of Montferrato (1533-1536): in northwest Italy, under Spanish military occupation.
Marquisate of Finale (1602-1707): located in Liguria, northern Italy. Philip II acquired the feudal rights of the territory.
Canton of Graubünden (1620-1626 de jure/1639 de facto): located in the south-east of Switzerland and northern Italy. Conquered from the Three Leagues and lost intermittently during the Valtellina War, until its final return to the Old Swiss Confederation in the Treaty of Monsoon of 1626 (sovereignty only, but not administration) and the Treaty of Milan of 1639 (but maintaining a Habsburg protectorate in the canton of the Three Leagues).[99]
Duchy of Parma (1731-1735, 1748-1801): the territory would be annexed by Spain during the War of Polish Succession to assert the hereditary rights of Parma.
• - In Treasury:
Examination of the accounts of royal officials.
• - In Justice:
It was the highest court in America and for the purposes of administering justice, the council met in a courtroom, made up of learned ministers. In this matter, the Council was absolutely independent, even from the king.
Knowledge of certain criminal matters (crimes committed in the "Indian race", tax evasion, confiscation crimes for smuggling).
Knowledge of civil appeals, which the Contracting House would have known when the disputed amount was greater than 40,000 maravedíes.
Knowledge of appeals from residency trials.
Knowledge of the Resource for second supplication.
Exceptionally in the government room: knowledge of the Appeal of Egregious Injustice.
She became responsible for the economic use of the American provinces. Among his responsibilities was the collection of taxes on trade with America (among them, the famous Quinto Real), and he had powers in matters of population policy.
Established first in Seville and then in Cádiz, these were the obligatory ports of exit and entry for the Indies trade. The ban on trading with America imposed on other Spanish ports was the basis of the growth and prosperity first of Seville and then of Cádiz, by forcing Spanish and foreign merchants to establish themselves in the base port of the Casa de Contratación if they wanted to trade with America. This made foreign colonies (Castilians, Basques, Catalans, Galicians, Valencians, etc.) and foreign colonies (Genoese, French, etc.) important in Seville and Cádiz.[110].
After the reign of Charles II, the War of the Spanish Succession divided the country. The old Crown of Aragon was a supporter of Archduke Charles of Austria, whose defeat would lead to the suppression of a large part of its institutions and jurisdictions and the unification of the administrative organization under the model of the kingdom of Castile by the New Plant Decrees.
The scarcity of European women during the first years of the conquest caused the Spanish conquistadors to generate, with the native Indian women of each area, through abduction, rape or courtship, a new mestizo population.[133][134] Although there were cases in which the Spaniards married Indian women, in most cases a custom present since the Middle Ages in Spain was put into practice: barraganía. The man was responsible for the barragana and the children born with her, but the woman could not enjoy the rights of a wife (such as inheritance).[135][136].
Customs were more relaxed than in Europe, polygamy was tolerated and each Spaniard could have several concubines (barraganas). The writer and chronicler of the Indies Bernal Díaz del Castillo tells about a certain Álvarez who had had thirty children in just three years.[137].
The mestizos, a minority in the early days of the empire, were called to form the majority of the population in almost all of its territories. The variety of mestizajes developed a new society of hierarchical castes in which there were whites, blacks, mulattoes, mestizos, and other mixtures.
At the top of the social hierarchy was the European and only by submitting to him could the Indian woman escape from the gold mines or other forms of forced labor.[137]
During these times in which Spain was a European Power "Power (international relations)"), scientific-geographical exchanges began to develop with figures such as Hieronymus Münzer, Martin Behaim and the humanists of Nuremberg. In addition, it would begin to be a commercial attraction for German and Italian banking families, and also an environment of prestige among Europeans for the study of Catholic theology in the face of the challenges of the Protestant Reformation.[26].
On the other hand, on the Italian war front, it was a disaster for France, which suffered major defeats at Bicoca (1522), Pavia (1525)—in which Francis I and Henry II were captured—and Landriano (1529) before Francis I surrendered and left Milan in Spanish hands once again. The victory of Charles I in the Battle of Pavia, 1525, surprised many Italians and Germans, by demonstrating his determination to achieve the maximum possible power. Pope Clement VII switched sides and joined forces with France and the emerging Italian states against the emperor in the War of the Cognac League. The Peace of Barcelona, signed between Charles I and the pope in 1529, established a more cordial relationship between the two rulers and in fact named Spain as a defender of the Catholic cause and recognized Charles as king of Lombardy in reward for the Spanish intervention against the rebellious Republic of Florence.
In 1528, Grand Admiral Andrea Doria allied with the Emperor to dislodge France and restore Genoese independence. This opened a new perspective: this year the first loan from the Genoese banks to Charles I took place.
During this time of personal Union between the Holy Roman Empire and the Hispanic Monarchy in the person of Charles, Relations between Germany and Spain would flourish. Several German sovereigns, such as the Electors of the Palatinate (Ottheinrich or Frederick II), would travel to Spain to strengthen diplomatic ties; while through the Court of Charles, great figures of the Spanish Nobility (such as Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel or Garcilaso de la Vega) would have prominence in the decisions of the Holy Empire, with Spanish representatives in the Reichstag "Reichstag (Holy Roman Empire)"). In addition, the commercial houses of the Welser Dynasty and the Fugger Dynasty would be the bankers who would sponsor Carlos' companies, at the same time they entered Spain and Portugal by expanding their commercial branches (the Welsers would even reach the New World through the Klein-Venedig concession, while the Fuggers would rent the most productive mercury mine in the world in Almadén), which promoted the economic development of Europe and accelerated the Exchange Columbian.[26].
American colonization continued unstoppable. After the conquest of Peru, the first originally Spanish city founded was Santiago de Quito (later and in another location Santiago de Guayaquil) by Sebastián de Belalcázar and Diego de Almagro on the orders of Francisco Pizarro on the plains of Tapi "Riobamba (canton)"), Ecuador, while, further north, Santafé de Bogotá was founded in 1538 by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada and Pedro de Mendoza founded Buenos Aires in 1536. In the 1540s, Francisco de Orellana was exploring the jungle and reached the Amazon. In 1541, Pedro de Valdivia continued the explorations of Diego de Almagro, founding on February 12 of that year, the city of Santiago de Nueva Extremadura, establishing the Government of Chile and starting the Arauco War. That same year, the Muisca Confederation, which occupied central Colombia, was conquered and the New Kingdom of Granada was established.
As a consequence of the defense that the School of Salamanca and Bartolomé de las Casas made of the natives, the Spanish Crown was relatively quick to enact laws to protect them in their American possessions. The Laws of Burgos of 1512 were replaced by the New Laws of the Indies of 1542.
In 1543, Francis I of France announced an unprecedented alliance with the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, to occupy the city of Nice, under Spanish control. Henry VIII of England, who held more grudges against France than against the emperor, despite the latter's opposition to Henry's divorce from his aunt, joined the latter in his invasion of France. Although the imperial troops suffered some defeats such as that at Cerisoles, the emperor managed to get France to accept his conditions. The Austrians, led by Emperor Charles's younger brother, continued to fight the Ottoman Empire to the east. Meanwhile, Charles I worried about solving an old problem: the Schmalkaldic League.
The League had the French as allies, and efforts to undermine its influence in Germany were rejected. The French defeat in 1544 broke their alliance with the Protestants and Charles I took advantage of this opportunity. He first attempted the path of negotiation at the Council of Trent in 1545, but the Protestant leaders, feeling betrayed by the Catholic stance at the Council, went to war led by Maurice of Saxony. In response, Charles I invaded Germany at the head of a Spanish-Dutch army, thus beginning the Schmalkaldic War. He hoped to restore imperial authority. The troops, commanded by the emperor himself, inflicted a decisive defeat on the Protestants at the historic Battle of Mühlberg in 1547. In 1555 he signed the Peace of Augsburg with the Protestant states, restoring stability to Germany under the principle of Cuius regio, eius religio ("Whoever holds the region imposes religion"), an unpopular position among the Italian and Spanish clergy.
Charles' involvement in Germany gave Spain the role of protector of the Habsburg Catholic cause in the Holy Roman Empire, thus, Charles's Spanish advisors would become the champions of the Counter-Reformation, seeking a reform of the Roman curia without having to tolerate the considered theological errors of Lutheranism. This work would be intensified even more with the emergence of the Society of Jesus, founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola (Spanish-Basque), since a large part of the Spanish clergy would have social, cultural, economic and even political influence in the regions of the Holy Empire that remained Catholic (prominently Southern Germany and Italy), promoting intellectual co-operation between scholastic theologians to respond to the Protestant Reformation, and even military when European religious wars arose, in which The Hispanic Monarchy used to intervene on behalf of Catholic states throughout Europe. An example of this Spanish sphere of influence in Central Europe was the integration of the Duchy of Bavaria into the network of alliances of Spain during the government of Albert V of Bavaria through large diplomatic networks and exchanges (which would be of great importance for Charles's heirs), at the same time the entire education system of its territories was entrusted to the Jesuits (highlighting figures such as Alfonso Salmerón or Gregorio de Valencia in the Bavarian court).[26]
Meanwhile, the Mediterranean became a battlefield against the Turks, who encouraged pirates like the Algerian Barbarossa. Charles I preferred to eliminate the Ottomans through maritime strategy, through attacks on their settlements in the Venetian territories in the eastern Mediterranean. Only in response to attacks on the Spanish Levantine coast did the emperor personally become involved in offensives on the African continent with expeditions to Tunisia, Bona (1535) and Algiers (1541).
Furthermore, in Southeast Asia, Spanish rule was consolidated in the archipelago of the Philippines (named in honor of Philip II) and adjacent islands (Borneo, Moluccas - fortress of Tidore -, forts on the island of Formosa and annexes in the already oceanic Palaos, Marianas, Carolinas and Ralicratac, etc.), founding the Captaincy General of the Philippines as the center of the Spanish Empire in Asia and Oceania, seeking both developing China-Spain Relations for commercial benefits, and mainly evangelizing Catholicism to the populations of several nearby Muslim sultanates of the Malay Archipelago and starting the Moorish Conflict. The latter, together with the development of the Portuguese Empire in the Indonesian archipelago, attracted the attention of the Turkish Caliphate, which sent the Ottoman Expedition to Aceh in the 1560s to help the Sultanate of Aceh (which was formally subjugated to the Ottoman Empire), Malacca, Johor, Patani, Gujarat, Ahmednagar, Bijapur, Joló, Maguindánao, Tidore, Ternate, the Empire of Brunei, etc. from Indo-Pacific Muslim states potentially hostile to Spain and Portugal, in addition to bringing the Habsburg-Ottoman Wars to the Iberian colonial territories in the East Indies and threatening their dominance of the Spice Trade.[30] [31][32][33].
In 1585, Queen Elizabeth I of England sent support to Protestant causes in the Netherlands and France, and Francis Drake launched attacks on Spanish ports and merchant ships in the Caribbean (region) and the Pacific, as well as an especially aggressive attack on the port of Cádiz. In 1588, hoping to put an end to the meddling of Elizabeth I, Philip II sent the "Invincible Army" to attack England. Contrary to what is commonly believed, the Spanish Navy was not defeated by the English ships[34] but by a series of strong storms, coordination problems between the armies involved and important logistical failures in the supplies that the fleet had to make in the Netherlands caused the defeat of the Spanish Navy.
However, the defeat of the English counterattack against Spain, led by Drake and Norris in 1589, marked a turning point in the Anglo-Spanish War "Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604)") in favor of Spain. Despite the failure of the Spanish navy, the Spanish fleet remained the strongest in the seas of Europe until the 2nd century, although in 1639, it was defeated by the Dutch in the naval battle of the Dunes "Battle of the Dunes (1639)"), when a visibly exhausted Spain began to weaken. The treaty of London "Treaty of London (1604)") was favorable to Spain and the disaster of the English contra armada left the Kingdom of England bankrupt, which had gathered a fleet of two hundred ships and twenty thousand men (even larger than the Spanish Great Armada of 1588) with the intention of revolting Portugal and establishing a state hostile to Spain, an objective that it did not achieve, and also with the desire to threaten the overseas territories of the Spanish monarchy.
Spain became involved in the French Wars of Religion after the death of Henry II of France. In 1589 Henry III of France, the last of the Valois line, died at the gates of Paris. His successor, Henry IV of France and III of Navarre, the first Bourbon king of France, was a very skilled man, achieving key victories against the Catholic League at Arques "Battle of Arques (1589)") (1589) and at Ivry (1590). Committed to preventing Henry IV from taking possession of the French throne, the Spanish divided their army in the Netherlands and invaded France in 1590. Involved on multiple fronts, the Spanish power was unable to impose its policy in the French country and an agreement was finally reached in the Peace of Vervins.
After peace with England, Ambrosio Spínola, as the new general in command of the Spanish forces, fought tenaciously against the Dutch. Spínola was a strategist of similar ability to that of Mauritius, and only the new bankruptcy of 1607 prevented him from conquering the Netherlands. Plagued by ruinous finances, in 1609 the Twelve Years' Truce was signed between Spain and the United Provinces. The Pax Hispanica was a fact.
Spain made a notable recovery during the truce, organizing its economy and striving to recover its prestige and stability before participating in the last war in which it would act as the main power. These advances were overshadowed by the expulsion of the Moors between 1611 and 1614, which seriously damaged the Crown of Aragon, depriving the empire of an important source of wealth. Although in return for the expulsion, a group that supported Spain's main piracy problem, Berber piracy, which devastated the eastern coasts, was exiled, producing Moorish rebellions, and with the danger that support for Ottoman piracy would become support for an invasion of the Ottoman Empire of the peninsula, the latter being the reason for the expulsion of the Moors.
However, also during these years of recovery and peace at the beginning of the century, it would be noted that Spain had made itself a creditor to several enemies throughout Europe, who were dissatisfied with its sphere of influence that it had built during the last century; which would be a preamble to the anti-Spanish and anti-Habsburg coalition that was about to develop. An example of this reality full of hostility was expressed by different international representatives at the Court of the Papal States in 1609.[36].
Currently, the opinion of historians is almost unanimous regarding the error of getting involved in European wars for the sole reason that the inherited kingdoms had to be transmitted in their entirety. However, this position also existed in those years. Thus a court attorney wrote:
On the other hand, in the Alpine region, the Catholic population of Valtellina (in northern Italy) began a rebellion against their lords of the Three Leagues (a member of the Swiss Confederation), thus initiating the Valtellina War between 1620 and 1626, in which Spain intervened in favor of the Catholics. This local religious conflict revived the Franco-Spanish rivalry, due to the strategic importance of controlling the territory for the operation of the Spanish Way. Thus, France allied with Venice and Savoy (both hostile to Spanish hegemony in Italy) to defend the Three Leagues, while the Holy Empire, Genoa and the Papal States allied with Spain to defend the rebels. The Spanish Duchy of Milan annexed the territory, although it was later arranged that the territory would be occupied by papal troops until an agreement was reached with the Swiss Canton, France and its allies, which would later launch two military expeditions in 1625, one directed at Genoa to cut communications between Spain and Milan (which resulted in failure) and another against Valtellina to cut off the papal occupation of the territory (which resulted in success and thus Spain no longer had control of the region). Finally, it was signed and temporarily ended the Italian conflict with the Treaty of Monsoon of 1626, which returned the territory to the Three Leagues in exchange for allowing the transit of both French and Spanish troops, and giving more freedoms and rights to Catholics. France's allies were dissatisfied, but it was a preamble to the anti-Habsburg coalition that Cardinal Richelieu was developing.
In 1621, the harmless and ineffective Philip III died and his son Philip IV took the throne. The following year, Zúñiga was replaced by Gaspar de Guzmán, better known by his title of Count-Duke of Olivares, an honest and capable man, who believed that the center of all Spain's misfortunes was the United Provinces. That same year, the war with the Netherlands resumed. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, Spinola took the fortress of Breda in 1625. The intervention of Christian IV of Denmark in the war worried many - Christian IV was one of the few European monarchs who did not have financial problems - but the victories of the imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein over the Danes at the Battle of Dessau Bridge and again at Lutter, both in 1626, eliminated such a threat on Earth, but they would still remain a naval threat due to the non-existence of a Holy Empire navy at the service of the Catholics (given that the German Protestants had control of the German coast in the north). Furthermore, French diplomacy secretly achieved an alliance agreement between the Netherlands, England, Denmark-Norway, Sweden, Transylvania, Venice and Savoy in the Treaty of The Hague of 1625 "en:Treaty of The Hague (1625)"). Thus, Spain would begin to be isolated by the controversial alliance of Protestants with an anti-Habsburg Catholic bloc led by France, which is why it would begin to seek rapprochements with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a country allied with the Austrian Habsburgs and which also had a fleet that had been formidable in the Polish-Swedish wars, developing plans to unite the Flemish Navy with the Polish-Lithuanian Navy to confront the Danes, Dutch and the Swedes in the Baltic Sea (who had been invited by France to support the Protestants in rebellion to the authority of the Germanic Roman emperor).[38].
There was hope in Madrid that the Netherlands could be reincorporated into the Empire, and after the initial defeat of the Danes, the Protestants in Germany seemed finished. France was once again involved in its own instabilities (the siege of La Rochelle began in 1627, being the climax of the Huguenot rebellions), England would withdraw from the conflict with the Anglo-French War of 1627-1629 "Anglo-French War (1627-1629)") and the Turks would be more concerned with tending to their borders in Asia than in expansionist campaigns in Europe (as they were dealing with an Iranian invasion in the Ottoman-Safavid War of 1623-1639 "Ottoman-Safavid War (1623-1639")). Thus Spain's superiority seemed irrefutable in the late 1620s. The Count-Duke of Olivares stated "God is Spanish and is on the nation's side these days," and many of Spain's rivals seemed to unhappily agree.
Olivares was a man advanced for his time and realized that Spain needed reform which in turn needed peace. The destruction of the United Provinces was added to their needs, since behind any attack on the Habsburgs there was Dutch money. Spínola and the Spanish army concentrated in the Netherlands and the war seemed to go in favor of Spain, retaking Breda. Overseas, the Dutch fleet was also fought, which threatened Spanish possessions. Thus, the Dutch presence in Taiwan and its threat to the Philippines led to the occupation of the north of the island, with the city of Santísima Trinidad (present-day Keelung) being founded in 1626 and Castillo (present-day Tamsui) in 1629.
Thus, the Count-Duke of Olivares would begin to skillfully develop a northern maritime plan that involved the Spanish Empire developing a Trade War against the Dutch through isolating it from vital trading partners (by allying itself with the Holy Empire or Poland-Lithuania) and the development of a Spanish fleet in the Baltic Sea (with the support of the Austrian Habsburgs and the Polish-Swedish Vasa) to open a second war front that could counter the blockade. Anglo-French to the North Sea and challenge the dominance of Denmark-Norway, Sweden and the Hanseatic League in the region (Dominium maris baltici), thus favoring Spanish-Portuguese commercial interests over the Dutch, while restoring Catholic control over Protestant predominance in the region.[38] There were even ambitious plans to develop a Hanseatic-Iberian company, under the protection of Spanish warships of the Admiralty, to strengthen Spanish economic power in the region and thus decline Dutch and English power in the North; as well as conquering Swedish, Danish and German territories (preferably Gothia, Jutland or Pomerania) for the Council of Flanders with the purpose of having a Spanish base in the Baltic Sea with a permanent presence in order to have complete control of trade in the North. Although the Hanseatic League was in favor of increasing trade with the Spanish Monarchy, it would reject developing a Spanish-Hanseatic company that would be an intermediary and that could even strengthen the power of the Germanic Roman emperor; while the Holy Empire wanted to quell the Emperor's internal enemies, and Poland-Lithuania an invasion of Sweden above all else, as a condition of associating with Spanish forces.[39][40].
These plans of Olivares, which were the essence of the Spanish intervention in the 30 Years' War, would be manifest in the Prague Meetings of January 22, 1628 between Wallenstein, Juan Andreas de Eggenberg") and Rombaldo Collalto with Spanish ambassadors (Francisco de Moncada on behalf of Spain, Octavio de Visconti-Sforza") and Jacques Bruneau") on behalf of Spanish Flanders, and Firmin de Lodosa") on behalf of the Flanders Navy")). At this meeting, the joint action strategies of Spain and Austria in Northern Europe were deliberated, where Spanish financing of the military campaigns of the Holy Empire was requested in exchange for Philip IV receiving Jutland conquered from the Danes (but Spain was more interested in the promises of an intervention by the Catholic Germans in the Netherlands or at least Italy against the French and Dutch), in addition to obtaining the promise of Wallenstein to allow the Spanish navy to operate from the territories occupied by imperial troops (Pomerania, Mecklenburg, Holstein, Schleswig and Jutland) once his project for a Roman-Germanic imperial fleet in the Baltic was completed, something of great symbolic value given that it was a sign of support for the promotion of Iberian trade in an area where it was insignificant. They would again be manifested in the Baltic Sea Board of 1628 (in which they participated. Ambrosio Spínola, Diego de Guzmán y Haro, Juan de Mendoza, Fernando Girón, Jean de Croy, Juan de Villela, etc.) with instructions to Carlos de Bonniéres"), Spanish ambassador to Poland, to persuade them to develop a Spanish-Polish fleet, which was attractive to Sigismund III Vasa (who wanted his son Władysław IV to lead the fleet, or at least Philip of Mansfeld") or another admiral alien to Wallenstein), and others for Gabriel de Roy"), Spanish ambassador to Germany, to persuade Wallenstein to invade East Frisia or even Paris. All these great ambitions to expand the Spanish sphere of influence to Northern Europe would suffer a blow of reality before the first signs of Spanish decline with the bankruptcy of 1627, and also the disagreements of interests between Wallenstein (who was not trusted by either the Spanish or Austrian Habsburgs, nor by the Catholic League, for having his own seigneurial ambitions and wishing to subordinate the Spanish fleet under his command), Austria (which wanted Spanish financing rather than opening new war fronts, due to to its own economic crisis) and the Catholic League (which gave priority to achieving peace with the emperor's enemies and withdrawing from other European conflicts, something that clashed with Spain's desire to continue the war and obtain military support against the Dutch), in addition to the reluctance of Poland-Lithuania to intervene more directly, of the Hanseatic League in not lending its resources to the Spanish to maintain neutrality and not to harass the Dutch, Danes and Swedes (of whom were economically dependent and had religious sympathies) and of the dangers expressed by Alonso de la Cueva and Benavides that the Spanish Netherlands would be left unprotected against a Dutch, English or Danish invasion if the Spanish Navy headed to the Baltic. Despite everything, Spain would continue to be a great power in Northern Europe, much requested by the Germans loyal to the Roman Germanic emperor to provide financial and technological assistance for their naval projects, and even the Polish-Lithuanians handed over their fleet to the Spanish in Wismar and Mecklenburg on December 22, 1628 (carrying out joint skirmishes against the Swedes and Danes until 1632), which shows that until 1629 the The Spanish Empire was still a dominant power in the remote Baltic Sea region.[39][38][40].
However, the year 1627 brought about the collapse of the Hispanic economy with devastating effects that negatively affected a large part of Spanish imperial projects. The Spanish had devalued their currency to pay for the war and inflation exploded in Spain as it had before in Austria. Until 1631, some parts of Castile traded by barter, due to the currency crisis, and the government was unable to collect taxes from the peasantry of its overseas provinces. The Spanish armies in Germany chose to pay themselves. Olivares was blamed for a shameful and unsuccessful war in Italy. The Dutch had made their fleet a priority during the Twelve Years' Truce and threatened Spanish maritime trade, on which Spain was totally dependent after the economic crisis; In 1628, the Dutch cornered the Indies Fleet, causing the Matanzas Disaster. The shipment of precious metals that was essential to sustain the Empire's war effort was captured and the fleet that transported it was completely destroyed. With part of the wealth obtained, the Dutch began a successful invasion of Brazil.
The Thirty Years' War also worsened when, in 1630, Gustav II Adolf of Sweden landed in Germany to help the port of Stralsund, the last continental stronghold of the Germans belligerent against the emperor. Gustav II Adolf marched south and won notable victories at Breitenfeld "Battle of Breitenfeld (1631)") and Lützen "Battle of Lützen (1632)"), attracting widespread support for Protestants wherever he went. The situation for Catholics improved with the death of Gustav II Adolf precisely in Lützen in 1632 and the victory at the Battle of Nördlingen in 1634. From a position of strength, the emperor tried to make peace with the war-weary states in 1635. Many accepted, including the two most powerful: Brandenburg and Saxony. France then emerged as the biggest problem. At the same time, the War of the Mantuan Succession, in Italy, gave a new victory to Spain, consolidating its presence in Italy.
Cardinal Richelieu had been a strong ally of the Dutch and Protestants since the beginning of the war, sending funds and equipment to try to fragment the Habsburg force in Europe. Richelieu decided that the recently signed Peace of Prague was contrary to the interests of France and declared war on the Holy Roman Empire and Spain within the established period of peace. The more experienced Spanish forces had initial successes: Olivares ordered a lightning campaign into northern France from the Spanish Netherlands, hoping to defeat King Louis XIII's purpose and overthrow Richelieu.
In 1636 the Spanish forces advanced south until they reached Corbie, threatening Paris and coming very close to ending the war in their favor. After 1636, Olivares was afraid of causing another bankruptcy and the Spanish army did not advance further. In the naval defeat of the Dunes in 1639, the Spanish fleet was annihilated by the Dutch navy, and the Spanish found themselves unable to supply their troops in the Netherlands.
In 1643 the Army of Flanders, which constituted the best of the Spanish infantry, faced a French counterattack at Rocroi led by Louis II of Bourbon, Prince of Condé. Although nineteenth-century French sources, and especially the original sources, always reported that the Spanish, led by Francisco de Melo, were far from devastated, Gallic propaganda achieved notable success by exaggerating that victory.[41] The Spanish infantry was seriously damaged but not destroyed: one thousand dead and two thousand wounded out of a total of six thousand soldiers of the Thirds; The thirds withstood up to six joint attacks by French infantry, artillery and cavalry without losing integrity. With both sides exhausted, the surrender was negotiated and the siege was lifted. The battle had few short-term repercussions, but a tremendous impact on a propaganda level.
Cardinal Mazarin's great ability to handle that victory managed to damage the reputation of the Tercios of Flanders, creating false propaganda that still remains; that of a victory in which, to know the number of enemies they faced, the French only had to "count the dead." Traditionally, historians point to the Battle of Rocroi as the end of Spanish rule in Europe and the turning of the course of the Thirty Years' War in favor of France.
During the reign of Philip IV and specifically from 1640 onwards, there were multiple secessions and uprisings in the different territories that were under his scepter. Among them, the War of Separation from Portugal, the rebellion of Catalonia "Uprising of Catalonia (1640)") (both conflicts started in 1640), the conspiracy of Andalusia (1641) and the various incidents that occurred in Navarre, Naples and Sicily at the end of the 1640s. Added to these events were the different extrapeninsular fronts: the war in the Netherlands (resumed in 1621 after the expiration of the Twelve Years' Truce) and the Thirty Years' War. In turn, the confrontation with France in the latter (since 1635) was connected to the Catalan problem.
Portugal had rebelled in 1640 under the leadership of Juan de Braganza, claimant to the throne. This had received general support from the Portuguese people, and the Spanish, who had multiple open fronts, were unable to respond. The Spanish and Portuguese maintained a de facto state of peace between 1641 and 1657. When John IV died, the Spanish attempted to fight for Portugal against his son Alfonso VI of Portugal, but were defeated at the Battle of Ameixial (1663), at the Battle of Castelo Rodrigo (1664) and at the Battle of Montes Claros "Battle of Villaviciosa (1665)") (1665), which which led Spain to recognize Portuguese independence in 1668.
In 1648, the Spanish signed peace with the Dutch and recognized the independence of the United Provinces in the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Eighty Years' War and the Thirty Years' War at the same time. This was followed by the expulsion of Taiwan and the loss of Tobago, Curaçao and other islands in the Caribbean Sea.
The war with France continued for eleven more years, since France wanted to completely destroy Spain and not give it a chance to recover. The Spanish economy was so weakened that the Empire was unable to cope. The uprising of Naples was put down in 1648 and that of Catalonia in 1652 and a victory was also obtained against the French in the battle of Valenciennes "Battle of Valenciennes (1656)") (1656, last of the Spanish victories), but the effective end of the war came in the battle of the Dunes "Battle of the Dunes (1658)") (or Dunkirk) in 1658, in which the French army under the command of Viscount Turenne and with the help of a large English army, defeated the remnants of the Flanders Tercios. Spain agreed to sign the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659, in which it ceded Roussillon, Cerdanya and some places in the Netherlands such as Artois to France. In addition, the marriage of a Spanish princess with Louis XIV was agreed.
In the last years of Philip IV's reign, once the great conflicts were over, Philip IV was able to concentrate on the Portuguese front. However, it was too late. Months before his death (which occurred in Madrid, on September 17, 1665), the defeat in the battle of Villaviciosa "Battle of Villaviciosa (1665)") (June 17) made it possible to predict the loss of Portugal. The situation in Spain was not more promising, and the human, material and social crisis deeply affected the interior regions.
Spain had an immense overseas empire (now reduced by the separation of Portugal and its empire as well as by French and English attacks), but France was now the leading power in Europe.
In 1777 a new war with Portugal ended with the treaty of San Ildefonso "Treaty of San Ildefonso (1777)"), by which Spain recovered Sacramento and gained the islands of Annobon and Fernando Poo, in the waters of Guinea, in exchange for withdrawing from its new conquests in Brazil.
Subsequently, two events of minor importance occurred in Spanish America and at the same time demonstrated the elasticity and resistance of the new reformed system: the uprising of Túpac Amaru in Peru in 1780 and the rebellion in Venezuela. Both, in part, were reactions to the greater centralism of the Bourbon administration. In general, the three centuries of the Spanish Empire in America were very peaceful.[46].
In the 1780s internal trade in the Empire grew again and its fleet became much larger and more profitable. The end of Cádiz's monopoly on American trade marked the rebirth of Spanish manufacturing. Most notable was the rapid growth of the textile industry in Catalonia, which at the end of the century showed signs of industrialization with a surprising and rapid adoption of mechanical spinning machines, becoming the most important textile industry in the Mediterranean. This led to the appearance of a small but politically active bourgeoisie in Barcelona. Agricultural productivity remained low despite efforts to introduce new machinery for a highly exploited and landless peasant class.
The gradual recovery of the wars was again interrupted by Spanish participation in the American War of Independence (1779-1783), in support of the rebellious States and the subsequent confrontations with Great Britain. The Treaty of Versailles of 1783 "Treaty of Versailles (1783)") once again brought about peace and the recovery of Florida and Menorca (consolidating the situation, since they had previously been recovered by Spain) as well as the British abandonment of Campeche and the Mosquito Coast in the Caribbean. However, Spain failed to recover Gibraltar after a long and persistent siege, and had to recognize British sovereignty over the Bahamas, where numerous supporters of the English king or loyalists "Loyalist (American War of Independence)") had settled from the lost colonies, and the archipelago of San Andrés y Providencia, claimed by Spain but which it had not been able to control.
Meanwhile, with the Nutca convention (1791), the dispute between Spain and Great Britain over the British and Spanish settlements on the Pacific coast was resolved, thus delimiting the border between both countries. Also in that year the king of Spain ordered Alejandro Malaspina to search for the Northwest Passage (Malaspina Expedition).
While successive coalitions were defeated again and again by Napoleon Bonaparte on the continent, Spain fought a minor war against Portugal (Orange War) that allowed it to annex Olivenza. In 1800 France regained Louisiana. When Napoleon decreed the Continental Blockade, Spain collaborated with France in the occupation of Portugal, a country that disobeyed the blockade. Thus, French troops entered the country, garrisoning units on the border.
In 1808 Spain was occupied by Napoleon and he took advantage of the disputes between the Spanish king Charles IV and his son, the future, and got them to give him the throne and named his brother Joseph I of Spain king. Then the popular uprising of May 2, 1808 occurred. The patriotic Spaniards moved to southern Spain and began what was known as the Spanish War of Independence, which would defeat the French armies for the first time in Europe in the Battle of Bailén. In response to the vacuum of authority, the Cortes of Cádiz were established in 1810. In the Constitution of Cádiz the Catholic Monarchy was renamed Kingdom of Spain, and then Kingdom of Spain after the constitution of 1869.[5][6][7] These courts proclaimed themselves sovereign, recognized Ferdinand VII as the legitimate king of Spain, and annulled his resignation from the Crown and established the Spanish Constitution of 1812. Napoleon counterattacked and his Grande Armée reestablished his brother's authority. The clashes continued, now with the appearance of the "guerrilla war" with the French armies suffering a considerable and constant number of casualties. The English intervention in peninsular Spain together with the Portuguese and Spanish armies contributed to the expulsion of the French and Ferdinand VII recovered the throne, dissolved the Spanish Cortes, repressed liberalism and had to face the independence of the viceroyalties.
This event is one of the most important in the formation of the contemporary world: the dismemberment of the kingdoms and provinces that made up American Spain, belonging to the Catholic Monarchy, and their transformation into twenty new independent states, as a result of a long and destructive civil war.[48][49].
At the end of the century and the beginning of the 19th century, the Spanish Empire had undergone the dynastic change from the Habsburgs to the Bourbons without great territorial loss. In the context of the Atlantic Revolutions, Spanish projects for the independence of America were proposed by the monarchy itself. However, Spanish-American independence took place after the imposition of the Bonaparte house to replace the Bourbons, in the midst of the collapse of the Ancien Regime and the French occupation of Spain. In 1808, Napoleon Bonaparte, within the framework of his Continental Blockade strategy against the British Empire, kidnapped the Spanish royal family and imposed the "Bayonne abdications", by which the Bourbons renounced the throne in favor of Napoleon, who promised to respect the integrity of the monarchy. Charles IV was deposed and his son Ferdinand VII was taken prisoner. Napoleon appointed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as king of Spain and implemented the Statute of Bayonne. But the French occupation triggered a popular Spanish uprising, known as the Spanish War of Independence (1808-1814). Napoleon's emissaries were rejected in America, and viceregal officials suspected of sympathizing with Napoleonic Spain were deposed. The United Kingdom, through the Apodaca-Canning Treaty, supported the rebellion against the Napoleonic occupation in Spain and recognized Ferdinand VII as legitimate king in absentia. However, the power vacuum generated by the dynastic crisis was taken advantage of by other rival empires to expand their borders or their diplomatic and political influence. Both the British Empire and the United States and the Portuguese Empire benefited from the weakening of Spanish power in America.
The Napoleonic occupation forced the Spanish government to exhaust all its military resources in the Iberian Peninsula, including its own royal navy, essential to the preservation of a vast transatlantic Empire. Ferdinand VII was proclaimed king in absentia, but subordinated to the sovereignty of the new emerging powers. The Spanish junta, which resisted Bonaparte, established a liberal State by convening the Cortes Generales. On the other side of the Atlantic, before the captivity of Ferdinand VII, the American junta had its own liberal revolutions led mostly by Creoles, challenging the old and new authorities of Europe. The final break came in 1810, when the Central Supreme Junta, still supported by the Americans, was defeated and took refuge in Cádiz, where, besieged by the Napoleonic troops that already dominated the entire peninsula, it was dissolved, giving way to the creation of a Regency and, subsequently, the Cortes of Cádiz, of peninsular hegemony. This was the breaking point with the American Juntas, which led to the first declarations of independence. The Spanish Cortes denied the legitimacy of the American junta and began sending military expeditions to quell the rebellions. The Cádiz liberals, like the American junta, did not recognize any other power as superior and considered Fernando VII as a king subordinate to their national interests. The French military defeat throughout Europe and the Treaty of Valençay with Napoleon allowed Ferdinand VII to return to Spain in 1814 as king with full powers. The king, after rejecting the Constitution of 1812 because he considered it republican, declared his decrees null and void. Both Ferdinand VII and the Cortes of Cádiz denied all legitimacy of the American junta, declaring them in rebellion.[50][51] However, with the disappearance of the liberal Spanish government, the United Kingdom blocked European support for Spain, while providing men, ships and military supplies in support of the American insurgencies.
The insurrections, which sought to preserve their independent states, finally led to mostly republican regimes, which openly faced off against the absolutist restoration in a secession war of continental scope. Viceroy Félix Calleja in New Spain, Fernando de Abascal in Peru and Pablo Morillo, head of the Costa Firme peacekeeping expedition, were the main organizers of the defense of the Spanish monarchy in America. However, government advisors warned about the weakening of the Spanish military after the war with France and the impossibility of sustaining a military effort in the short term. The continuous uprisings of liberal soldiers in Spain itself announced the rebellion of the Overseas Army that occurred in 1820 and led by Rafael del Riego, which established the short-lived Liberal Triennium. This new government, recognized only by the United Kingdom, accelerated Spain's loss of political, military, and diplomatic power. The Triennium broke the Spanish military position in America, suspended the sending of peninsular troops and limited itself to negotiating truces without agreeing to any definitive peace. Starting in 1820, Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín, the so-called Libertadores in South America, and Agustín Iturbide in North America, led the final campaigns of the armies of the Homeland or Patriotas, identified with America and Sovereignty. They managed to prevail over the troops of the Spanish monarchy, called Royalists, a term popularized when the absolutist regime of Ferdinand VII recovered the Spanish throne in 1823, supported by French troops of the Holy Alliance who occupied Spain until 1828.[52] The last strongholds that resisted in coastal fortifications until 1826, the surviving guerrillas from the interior, and the naval war in the Caribbean, encouraged utopian Spanish projects of reconquest of Mexico that had its end with the death of King Ferdinand VII in 1833.
Finally, in 1836, a decade after the fall of the last bastions, the Cortes of Spain authorized the Government to renounce all territorial or sovereignty rights and recognize independence in successive treaties of peace and friendship. The American independence caused the forced migration of Spaniards, first by war and then by their expulsion through laws intended to consolidate independence.[53][54] Later, throughout the century, after complex political processes, the former Spanish possessions in America formed the current Hispanic American states and recognition treaties were signed with Spain. In South America, the Portuguese-Brazilian Invasion took place on the former disputed Spanish territories of the Banda Oriental annexed by the Portuguese as the Cisplatina province. In North America, American expansionism was imposed on the new American countries through economic pressure, political domination, and a military occupation that culminated in the annexation of Texas and northern Mexico. He also appropriated the last remnants of the Spanish Empire, forcing the purchase of Florida for five million dollars in 1821,[55] and later, the rights to Spanish claims in Oregon. At the end of the century, the United States would culminate its expansion with the military occupation of the last overseas vestiges of the Spanish Empire.
• - Santa Cruz (1595): only short-lived settlement in the Solomon Islands.[82][83][84][85][86].
• - New Jerusalem "Espiritu Santo Island (Vanuatu)") (1606): brief establishment of a colony in Vanuatu, which started from the port of Callao, viceroyalty of Peru.
• - Rapa Nui Island (1770-1775): brief occupation of Easter Island by the Viceroyalty of Peru.
• - Amat Island (1772-1775): brief occupation of Tahiti by the Viceroyalty of Peru.[87][88][89].
During the Iberian Union (1580-1640), Spain also came to encompass the settlements of the Portuguese empire in Asia:.
• - Estado da Índia (1580-1640): despite its name and the fact that its capital was the Indian city of Goa, it was made up of all the Portuguese possessions in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific from Mozambique to Japan and Indonesia.
Persian Gulf and Red Sea: several fortresses, ports and cities occupied by the Portuguese from which they controlled trade in the Middle East. Furthermore, the island kingdoms of Hormuz "Hormuz (island)") and Queshm were vassals of Portugal.
Muscat (1580-1640), Ormus "Ormuz (city)") (1580-1622), Queixome (1580-1622) and Comorão (1580-1615).
India: Portugal established and conquered multiple cities and trading posts in the modern states of India and Bangladesh.
Ceilão (1580-1640): Most of the island of Sri Lanka came under Portuguese control.
Sirião") (1603-1613): coastal city in Burma conquered by the Portuguese mercenary Filipe de Brito e Nicote, who offered it to the colonial authorities of India in exchange for being named ruler of the city, which was reconquered by the Burmese ten years later.
Macau (1581-1640): trading post in China open to foreign trade. It took him a year to accept Spanish rule, until the continuation of his commercial monopoly was confirmed. Its captain-major was in charge of the Portuguese fleets and emporiums from Malacca to Japan.
Malacca (1580-1640): strategic commercial city in the strait of the same name.
Nagasaki (1580-1587) and Dejima (1634-1639): trading posts in Japan open to European trade.
Spice Islands: Portugal kept under its control several small islands from which to control the spice trade, in present-day Indonesia.
Spanish colonial territories and possessions in North Africa throughout history.
• - Spanish Sahara (1884-1975 de facto/currently de jure): Spanish presence in several coastal factories starting in 1885. The Polisario Front proclaimed independence in 1975, being invaded by Morocco. The UN considers that Spain continues to administer de jure the territory. It was made up of the provinces of Río de Oro and Saguía el Hamra, in current Western Sahara.
• - Spanish Protectorate of Morocco (1912-1956/1958): established in the Mediterranean coastal area of northern Morocco, mainly in the Rif region, but also the desert area of Cape Juby "Cape Juby (territory of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco)") in the south of the country after negotiations with France. The northern area would not be effectively occupied until 1927 due to native resistance and would achieve independence in 1956, three months after French Morocco, while Cape Juby was occupied in 1916 and returned to Morocco in 1958.
• - Ifni (1860 de jure/1934 de facto-1969): territory formed by the city of Sidi Ifni and its hinterland. Ceded by Morocco in 1860 by the Treaty of Wad-Ras, effectively occupied in 1934 and returned to Morocco in 1969.
• - Tangier International Zone (1923-1940; 1945-1956): condominium "Condominium (international law)") of the city of Tangier; (1940-1945): annexed "Spanish occupation of Tangier (1940-1945)") for four years to Spanish Morocco during World War II.
Portugal controlled multiple colonies on the African coast, usually little more than fortified trading posts or feitories dedicated to the trade of slaves or other luxury goods, which came under the control of the House of Austria.
• - Madeira (1580-1640): archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean populated by Portuguese settlers in the same way as the Azores. It was the first colony of Portugal.
• - Algarve do Além (1580-1640): after the end of its reconquest, Portugal began to expand along the African Atlantic coast, taking multiple cities in what is now Morocco. After the Capitulation of Cintra in 1509, the area of Spanish influence was delimited to include present-day Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, while Portugal's dominion over the Atlantic coast of Africa was confirmed.
Ceuta (1580-1640, would remain faithful to Philip IV during the Portuguese Restoration War, currently an autonomous Spanish city), Casablanca (1580-1640), Mazagan (1580-1640), Tangier (1580-1640), Anguim (1580-1633) and Asila (1580-1589).
• - Cacheu (1588-1640): Portuguese trading post for the slave trade on the banks of the homonymous river, in Guinea-Bissau.
• - Cape Verde (1580-1640): Atlantic archipelago off the coast of modern Senegal colonized by Portugal and which served as one of the main bases of the African slave trade.
• - Costa do Ouro (1580-1640): several forts on the Gold Coast, in the modern country of Ghana, from which ivory, gold and slaves were traded.
• - Saõ Tomé, Príncipe, Ano Bón and Fernando Poo (1580-1640): islands in the Gulf of Guinea that formed several of the main bases of the Portuguese African slave trade.
• - Captaincy of Angola (1580-1640): composed of small settlements and territories under Portuguese control on the coast and along the Cuanza River (mainly Luanda and later also Benguela) in modern Angola.
• - Mozambique (1580-1640): it was part of the State of India and was made up of Portuguese posts on the coast of modern Mozambique, as well as territories in the interior of the country, in the region of Zambezia, and several forts in eastern Zimbabwe. In 1609 it became an independent Captaincy of the Viceroy of Goa.
Kingdom of Mallorca: Conquered by the Aragonese between 1229 to 1287.
Menorca: one of the Balearic Islands, part of the United Kingdom after the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) until it was reconquered by a Franco-Spanish expedition in 1782 to be lost again to the British in 1798 and definitively retaken in 1802.
Territories of the Crown of Portugal (1580-1640): formed by current Portugal (with the exception of the municipalities of Olivienza and Hermisende) and by all the territories of the Portuguese Empire (although the Azores islands were not subjugated until 1583). It became part of the Hispanic Monarchy during the time of the Iberian Union. Its separation from the Spanish Monarchy would put an end to any attempt at a "Spain" based on the medieval idea of re-unifying Hispania (Imperator totius Hispaniae).
• - Western Europe
Burgundy Circle, where the majority of Spanish territories in north-western Europe were located.
Netherlands "Netherlands (region)") and Burgundy "Burgundy (disambiguation)"): The region corresponding to the Burgundian Heritage of the Crown of Castile
Map of the Spanish Netherlands during the Eighty Years' War
Spanish Netherlands (until 1714): Being the current countries of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and part of the territories of present-day northern France, such as Artois, Ardennes, Moselle "Moselle (department)"), Nord-Pas de Calais, and western part of Germany such as Bitburg-Prüm. During their integration into the Hispanic Monarchy, they were governed by the Council of Flanders and were part of the Burgundy Circle in the Holy Roman Empire. The Netherlands is traditionally considered part of the Spanish Empire[95][96] (majority thesis in Spain and the Netherlands among others); But there are authors like Henry Kamen[97] for whom those territories were never integrated into the Spanish Empire, but rather into the personal possessions of the Austrians. In 1581 the Protestant northern half of the Netherlands annulled their vassalage relationship with Philip II and proclaimed independence as the United Provinces, while the Catholic south remained in Spanish hands until 1714.
Union of Arras: Fiefdoms south of the Spanish Netherlands that withdrew from the United Provinces (today they are part of northern France).
Hainaut County.
Artois County.
Douai, Lille and Orchies
Franche-Comté (until 1678): territory located in the central-eastern area of France, ceded to it after the Peace of Nijmegen.
Charolais (until 1684): territory located in the central-eastern area of France, embargoed in favor of the prince of Condé.
Duchy of Alsace (1617-1648): territory of the Habsburgs of Austria that was handed over to the Habsburgs of Spain in the Treaty of Oñate in exchange for consolidating the Spanish-Austrian alliance in the face of intra-family conflicts, Philip III of Spain renouncing his rights of succession in the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Kingdom of Hungary or to be a candidate for emperor of the Holy Empire, in favor of his relative Ferdinand II of Habsburg, in exchange for territorial cessions strategic positions on the Spanish Road and mutual military support against the Dutch rebels, the Protestant German princes, France and its allies (on the eve of the 30 Years' War). Ceded to France during the Peace of Westphalia.[98]
Lower Palatinate (1620-1648): territory composed of fiefs scattered throughout the Rhineland region (in Germany) that were conquered by the Spanish during the Thirty Years' War to strengthen the dominion of the Spanish Way, and returned to the Electorate of the Palatinate in the Peace of Westphalia.
Italian Peninsula
The Italian Peninsula in the 19th century, a time when it was under the sphere of influence of the Spanish Empire, predominantly in the region of northern Italy and Lombardy.
Spanish Italy (until the century): Region under Spanish sovereignty and administration, corresponding to the inheritance of the Crown of Aragon through its conquests in the Italian Peninsula to compete against the maritime Republics for control of the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages. During their integration into the Hispanic Monarchy, they were governed by the Council of Italy.
Kingdom of Naples (until 1714): located in southern Italy.
Kingdom of Sicily (until 1714): made up of the islands of Sicily and Malta (the latter donated to the Knights Hospitaller in 1530).
Kingdom of Sardinia (until 1714; 1717-1718 de facto): formed by the island of Sardinia.
State of the Presidios (1557-1707): on the northwest coast of Italy, it depended directly on the viceroy of Naples.
Duchy of Milan (1535 de facto/1559 de jure-1715): also known as the Milanese, it was located in northern Italy, in the region of Lombardy.
Marquisate of Montferrato (1533-1536): in northwest Italy, under Spanish military occupation.
Marquisate of Finale (1602-1707): located in Liguria, northern Italy. Philip II acquired the feudal rights of the territory.
Canton of Graubünden (1620-1626 de jure/1639 de facto): located in the south-east of Switzerland and northern Italy. Conquered from the Three Leagues and lost intermittently during the Valtellina War, until its final return to the Old Swiss Confederation in the Treaty of Monsoon of 1626 (sovereignty only, but not administration) and the Treaty of Milan of 1639 (but maintaining a Habsburg protectorate in the canton of the Three Leagues).[99]
Duchy of Parma (1731-1735, 1748-1801): the territory would be annexed by Spain during the War of Polish Succession to assert the hereditary rights of Parma.
• - In Treasury:
Examination of the accounts of royal officials.
• - In Justice:
It was the highest court in America and for the purposes of administering justice, the council met in a courtroom, made up of learned ministers. In this matter, the Council was absolutely independent, even from the king.
Knowledge of certain criminal matters (crimes committed in the "Indian race", tax evasion, confiscation crimes for smuggling).
Knowledge of civil appeals, which the Contracting House would have known when the disputed amount was greater than 40,000 maravedíes.
Knowledge of appeals from residency trials.
Knowledge of the Resource for second supplication.
Exceptionally in the government room: knowledge of the Appeal of Egregious Injustice.
She became responsible for the economic use of the American provinces. Among his responsibilities was the collection of taxes on trade with America (among them, the famous Quinto Real), and he had powers in matters of population policy.
Established first in Seville and then in Cádiz, these were the obligatory ports of exit and entry for the Indies trade. The ban on trading with America imposed on other Spanish ports was the basis of the growth and prosperity first of Seville and then of Cádiz, by forcing Spanish and foreign merchants to establish themselves in the base port of the Casa de Contratación if they wanted to trade with America. This made foreign colonies (Castilians, Basques, Catalans, Galicians, Valencians, etc.) and foreign colonies (Genoese, French, etc.) important in Seville and Cádiz.[110].
After the reign of Charles II, the War of the Spanish Succession divided the country. The old Crown of Aragon was a supporter of Archduke Charles of Austria, whose defeat would lead to the suppression of a large part of its institutions and jurisdictions and the unification of the administrative organization under the model of the kingdom of Castile by the New Plant Decrees.
The scarcity of European women during the first years of the conquest caused the Spanish conquistadors to generate, with the native Indian women of each area, through abduction, rape or courtship, a new mestizo population.[133][134] Although there were cases in which the Spaniards married Indian women, in most cases a custom present since the Middle Ages in Spain was put into practice: barraganía. The man was responsible for the barragana and the children born with her, but the woman could not enjoy the rights of a wife (such as inheritance).[135][136].
Customs were more relaxed than in Europe, polygamy was tolerated and each Spaniard could have several concubines (barraganas). The writer and chronicler of the Indies Bernal Díaz del Castillo tells about a certain Álvarez who had had thirty children in just three years.[137].
The mestizos, a minority in the early days of the empire, were called to form the majority of the population in almost all of its territories. The variety of mestizajes developed a new society of hierarchical castes in which there were whites, blacks, mulattoes, mestizos, and other mixtures.
At the top of the social hierarchy was the European and only by submitting to him could the Indian woman escape from the gold mines or other forms of forced labor.[137]
