|
|
|
|
Spanish Empire
|
| |
|
| |
The Spanish Empire was the second largest empire in history and one of the first global empires.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spain was in the vanguard of European global exploration and colonial expansion. Spain opened trade routes across the oceans, with trade flourishing across the Atlantic Ocean between Spain and America and across the Pacific Ocean between Asia-Pacific and Mexico via the Philippines. Conquistadors toppled the Aztec and Inca civilizations, and laid claim to vast stretches of land in North and South America. For a time, the Spanish Empire was the foremost global power, dominating the oceans with its experienced navy and ruling the European battlefield with its infantry (). Spain enjoyed a cultural golden age in the 16th and 17th centuries.
From the middle of the 16th century, silver and gold from American mines increasingly financed the military capability of Habsburg Spain in its long series of European and North African wars.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Spanish Empire' Start a new discussion about 'Spanish Empire' Answer questions from other users |
Timeline
Encyclopedia
The Spanish Empire was the second largest empire in history and one of the first global empires.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spain was in the vanguard of European global exploration and colonial expansion. Spain opened trade routes across the oceans, with trade flourishing across the Atlantic Ocean between Spain and America and across the Pacific Ocean between Asia-Pacific and Mexico via the Philippines. Conquistadors toppled the Aztec and Inca civilizations, and laid claim to vast stretches of land in North and South America. For a time, the Spanish Empire was the foremost global power, dominating the oceans with its experienced navy and ruling the European battlefield with its infantry (). Spain enjoyed a cultural golden age in the 16th and 17th centuries.
From the middle of the 16th century, silver and gold from American mines increasingly financed the military capability of Habsburg Spain in its long series of European and North African wars. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Spanish empire maintained the largest territory in the world, although it suffered fluctuating military and economic fortunes from the 1640s. Confronted by the new experiences, difficulties and suffering created by empire-building, Spanish thinkers formulated some of the first modern ideas on natural law, sovereignty, international law, war, and economics — even questioning the legitimacy of imperialism — in related schools of thought called the School of Salamanca.
Constant contention with rival powers caused territorial, commercial, and religious conflict that contributed to the slow decline of Spanish power from the mid-17th century. In the Mediterranean, Spain warred constantly with the Ottoman Empire; on the European continent, France became comparably strong. Overseas, Spain was initially rivaled by Portugal, and later by the English and Dutch. In addition, English-, French-, and Dutch-sponsored piracy, overextension of Spanish military commitments in its territories, increasing government corruption, and economic stagnation caused by military expenditures ultimately contributed to the empire's weakening.
Spain's European empire was finally undone by the Peace of Utrecht (1713), which stripped Spain of its remaining territories in the Italian Peninsula, Sicily and the Low Countries. A partial, though not directly ruled recovery of these territories took place in 1734, as the Bourbons were able to establish cadet branches with princes in the Duchy of Parma, and kings in Naples and Sicily. The latter two eventually became the Two Sicilies and only stopped being under House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies control with the advent of the Italian unification. Spain's fortunes went on to improve in the eighteenth century, with the Bourbon Reforms; still, it remained a second-tier power in continental European politics.
Spain maintained, and even enlarged, its vast American empire until the early 19th century, and maintained its Asia-Pacific territories until 1898. The shock of the Peninsular War in the 19th century sparked revolts seeking independence in Quito (1809), Colombia and Mexico (1810), Venezuela and Paraguay (1811) and other territories on the mainland of America. Spain retained significant parts of its empire in the Caribbean; Asia, and Oceania until the Spanish–American War of 1898.
Spanish participation in the Scramble for Africa was small: Spanish Morocco was held until 1956 and Spanish Guinea and the Spanish Sahara were held until 1968 and 1975 respectively. The Canary Islands, Ceuta, Melilla are administrative divisions that have remained part of Spain and, Isla de Alborán, Isla Perejil, Islas Chafarinas, Peñón de Alhucemas, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera are territories which have remained part of Spain. Also, according to the UN "Spanish Sahara/Western Sahara," annexed by Morocco in 1976, is still technically under Spanish Administration.
Definition The Spanish Empire includes Spain's overseas colonies in America, Asia-Pacific, and Africa, but some disputes exist as to which European territories are to be counted. For instance, traditionally, territories such as the Low Countries were included as they were part of the possessions of the King of Spain, governed by Spanish officials, and defended by Spanish troops. However, authors like the British historian Henry Kamen contend that these territories were never integrated into a "Spanish" state and instead formed part of the wider Habsburg estate. Because of this, many historians use "Habsburg" and "Spanish" almost interchangeably when referring to the dynastic inheritance of Charles V or Philip II.
Similarly, it seems to be a matter of preference whether one counts as "Spanish" the Bourbon Kingdom of Naples in the 18th century, which, while dynastically and military aligned with Spain, remained a constitutionally separate state. The problem is compounded by the evolving definition of "Spain" itself, which, though unified by the crown, was still in some sense a collection of separate kingdoms, namely Castile, Aragon, and Navarre.
Although Spain and Portugal were united in a "personal union" between 1580 and 1640, a period now referred to as the Iberian union, the crowns of Portugal and Spain were kept separate: Philip was Philip II of Spain and Philip I of Portugal. Portugal remained a separate state and the Portuguese empire was administered separately from the Spanish Empire.
The origins of the Empire (1402–1521)
Three instances of powers that were to play an important part in the Spanish empire are to be recognized in the Aragonese, the Burgundian and the Portuguese empires. Meanwhile, during the last 250 years of the Reconquista era, the Castilian monarchy, tolerated the small Moorish taifa client-kingdom of Granada in the south-east by exacting tributes of gold, the parias, and, in so doing, ensuring that gold from the Niger region of Africa entered Europe. Castile also intervened in Northern Africa itself, competing with the Portuguese Empire, when Henry III of Castile began the colonization of the Canary Islands in 1402, authorizing under feudal agreement to Norman noblemen Jean de Béthencourt. The conquest of Canary Islands, inhabited by Guanche people, was only finished when the own armies of the Crown of Castille won in long and bloody wars, the islands of Gran Canaria (1478-1483), La Palma (1492-1493) and Tenerife (1494-1496).
The marriage of the Reyes Católicos created a confederation of reigns, each with their own administrations, but ruled by a common monarchy. According to Henry Kamen, Spain was created by the Empire, rather than the Empire being created by Spain.
In 1492, Spain drove out the last Moorish king of Granada. After their victory, the Spanish monarchs negotiated with Christopher Columbus, a Genoese sailor attempting to reach Cipangu by sailing west. Castile was already engaged in a race of exploration with Portugal to reach the Far East by sea when Columbus made his bold proposal to Isabella. Columbus instead "inadvertently" discovered America, inaugurating the Spanish colonization of the continent. The Indies were reserved for Castile.
The claim of Spain to these lands was solidified by the Inter caetera papal bull of 1493, and by the immediately following Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, in which the globe was divided into two hemispheres between Spanish and Portuguese claims. These actions gave Spain exclusive rights to establish colonies in all of the New World from Alaska to Cape Horn (except Brazil), as well as the easternmost parts of Asia. The Castilian Empire was the result of a period of rapid colonial expansion into the New World, as well as the Philippines and colonies in Africa: Melilla was captured by Castile in 1497 and Oran in 1509.
The Catholic Monarchs decided to support the Aragonese house of Naples against Charles VIII of France in the Italian Wars from 1494. As king of Aragon, Ferdinand had been involved in the struggle against France and Venice for control of Italy; these conflicts became the center of Ferdinand's foreign policy as king. In these battles, which established the supremacy of the Spanish infantry against French knights, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba would forge the nearly invincible Spanish army of the 16th and early 17th centuries.
After the death of Queen Isabella, Ferdinand as Spain's sole monarch adopted a more aggressive policy than he had as Isabella's husband, enlarging Spain's sphere of influence in Italy and against France. Ferdinand's first investment of Spanish forces came in the War of the League of Cambrai against Venice, where the Spanish soldiers distinguished themselves on the field alongside their French allies at the Battle of Agnadello (1509). Only a year later, Ferdinand became part of the Holy League against France, seeing a chance at taking both Milan — to which he held a dynastic claim — and Navarre. The war was less of a success than that against Venice, and in 1516, France agreed to a truce that left Milan in her control and recognized Spanish control of Upper Navarre.
Upon the settlement of Hispanola which was successful in the early 1500s, the colonists began searching elsewhere to begin new settlements. Those from the less prosperous Hispaniola were eager to search for new success in a new settlement. From there Juan Ponce de León conquered Puerto Rico and Diego Velázquez took Cuba. The first settlement on the mainland was Darién in Panama, settled by Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1512.
In 1513, Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, and led the first European expedition to see the Pacific Ocean from the west coast of the New World. In an action with enduring historical import, Balboa claimed the Pacific Ocean and all the lands adjoining it for the Spanish Crown.
The coastal villages and towns of Spain, Italy and Mediterranean islands were frequently attacked by Barbary pirates from North Africa, the Formentera was even temporarily left by its population and long stretches of the Spanish and Italian coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants. The most famous corsair was the Turkish Barbarossa ("Redbeard"). According to Robert Davis between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by North African pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa and Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 19th centuries.
The Sun Never Sets (1521–1643)
The 16th and 17th centuries are sometimes called "the Golden Age of Spain" (in Spanish, ). As a result of the marriage politics of the , their grandson Charles inherited the Castilian empire in America, the Aragonese Empire in the Mediterranean (including a large portion of modern Italy), as well as the crown of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Low Countries and Franche-Comté. Thus this Empire was constituted from the inheritance of territories, and not through conquest. After his defeat of the Castilian rebels in the Castilian War of the Communities, Charles became the most powerful man in Europe, his rule stretching over an empire in Europe unrivalled in extent until the Napoleonic era. It was often said during this time that it was the empire on which the sun never set. This sprawling empire of the Spanish Golden Age was controlled, not from distant inland Madrid, but from Seville.
Commercially this Castilian Empire abroad was initially a disappointment. It did stimulate some trade and industry. In the 1520s the large scale extraction of silver from the rich deposits of Mexico's Guanajuato began, but it was not until the opening of the silver mines in Mexico's Zacatecas and Peru's Potosi in 1546 that the large shipments of silver became the fabled source of wealth. During the sixteenth century, Spain held the equivalent of US$1.5 trillion (1990 terms) in gold and silver received from New Spain. Ultimately, however, these imports diverted investment away from other forms industry and contributed to inflation in Spain in the last decades of the 16th century. This situation was aggravated (but nothing like as much as popular myth asserts) by the loss of many from the commercial and artisan classes with the expulsions of the Jews and Moriscos. The vast imports of silver ultimately made Spain overly dependent on foreign sources of raw materials and manufactured goods.
The wealthy preferred to invest their fortunes in public debt (juros), which were backed by these silver imports, rather than in production of manufactures and the improvement of agriculture. This helped perpetuate the medieval aristocratic prejudice that saw manual work as dishonorable long after this attitude had started to decline in other west European countries. The silver and gold whose circulation helped facilitate the economic and social revolutions taking place in the Low Countries, France and England and other parts of Europe helped stifle them in Spain. The problems caused by inflation were discussed by scholars at the School of Salamanca and arbitristas but they had no impact on the Habsburg government.
The Habsburg dynasty squandered the American and Castilian riches in wars across Europe for Habsburg interests, defaulted on their debt several times, and left Spain bankrupt (with the tensions between the Empire and the people of Castile exploding in the popular rebellion of the Castilian War of the Communities (1520–22). The Habsburg political goals were several:
Siege of Tenochtitlan, conquest of the Inca Empire and the discovery of the Philippines (1519–1541)After Columbus, the colonization of America was led by a series of warrior-explorers called the Conquistadors. The Spanish forces exploited the rivalries between competing local peoples and states, some of which were only too willing to form alliances with the Spanish in order to defeat their more-powerful enemies, such as the Aztecs or Incas - a tactic that would be extensively used by later European colonial powers. The Spanish conquest was also greatly facilitated by the spread of diseases (e.g. smallpox) common in Europe but unknown in the New World, which decimated the native American populations. This caused a labour shortage and so the colonists informally and gradually, at first, initiated the Atlantic slave trade. (see Population history of American indigenous peoples)
The Laws of Burgos, 1512-1513 were the first codified set of laws governing the behavior of Spanish settlers in America, particularly with regards to native Indians. They forbade the maltreatment of natives, and endorsed their conversion to Catholicism.
One of the most successful conquistadors was Hernán Cortés, who with a relatively small Spanish force but also crucially the support of around two hundred thousand Amerindian allies, overran the mighty Aztec empire in the campaigns of 1519–21 to bring Mexico into the Spanish empire as the basis for the colony of New Spain. Of equal importance was the conquest of the Inca empire by Francisco Pizarro, which would become the Viceroyalty of Peru. After the conquest of Mexico, rumours of golden cities caused several more expeditions to be sent out, but many of those returned without having found their goal, or having found it, finding it much less valuable than was hoped. Indeed, the American colonies only began to yield a substantial part of the crown's revenues with the establishment of mines such as that of Potosí (1546). By the late 16th century American silver accounted for one-fifth of Spain's total budget. In the 16th century perhaps 240,000 Europeans entered American ports.
The Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan died while in the Philippines commanding a Castilian expedition to circumnavigate the globe in 1522. Juan Sebastián Elcano would lead the expedition to success.
Meanwhile, in Europe, Francis I of France, who found himself surrounded by Habsburg territories, invaded the Spanish possessions in Italy in 1521,and inaugurated a second round of Franco-Spanish conflict. The war was a disaster for France, which suffered defeat at Biccoca (1522), Pavia (1525, at which Francis was captured), and Landriano (1529) before Francis relented and abandoned Milan to Spain once more.
Charles's victory at the Battle of Pavia, 1525, surprised many Italians and Germans and elicited concerns that Charles would endeavor to gain ever greater power. Pope Clement VII switched sides and now joined forces with France and prominent Italian states against the Habsburg Emperor, in the War of the League of Cognac. In 1527, Charles grew exhausted with the pope's meddling in what he viewed as purely secular affairs, and sacked Rome itself, embarrassing the papacy sufficiently enough that Clement, and succeeding popes, were considerably more circumspect in their dealings with secular authorities. In 1533, Clement's refusal to annul Henry VIII of England's marriage was a direct consequence of his unwillingness to offend the emperor and have his capital sacked for perhaps a second time. The Peace of Barcelona, signed between Charles and the Pope in 1529, established a more cordial relationship between the two leaders. Spain was effectively named the protector of the Catholic cause and Charles was crowned as King of Italy in return for Spanish intervention in overthrowing the rebellious Florentine Republic.
In 1528, the great admiral Andrea Doria allied with the Emperor to oust the French and restore Genoa's independence, opening the prospect for financial renewal: 1528 marks the first loan from Genoese banks to Charles (Braudel 1984).
Further Spanish settlements were progressively established in the New World: New Granada (modern Colombia)
in the 1530s, Lima in 1535 the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru, Buenos Aires in 1536 and Santiago in 1541.
New Laws to the Peace of Augsburg (1542–1555)Spain passed some laws for the protection of the indigenous peoples of its American colonies, the first such in 1542; the legal thought behind them was the basis of modern international law. Taking advantage of their extreme remoteness, the European colonists revolted when they saw their power being reduced, forcing a partial revoking of these New Laws. Later, weaker laws were introduced to protect the indigenous peoples but records show their effect was limited. The restored increasingly used native Indian workforce.
In 1543, the king of France | |
