Spanish Empire

Spain was the center of one of the first Global Empires. During the 16th century and the next one, Spain established itself as a superpower with globe-spanning reach. Castille, along with Portugal, was in the vanguard of European global exploration and colonial expansion and the opening of trade routes across the oceans, with trade across the Atlantic between Spain and the Americas and across the Pacific between

The Golden Age of Spain: The Sun Never Sets (1521-1643)

The 16th and 17th centuries are sometimes called "the Golden Age of Spain" (in Spanish, Siglo de Oro) . During the sixteenth century, Spain had $1.5 trillion dollars (1990 terms) of gold and silver received from New Spain. It was said during Philip II's reign that in his domains, the sun never set. The unwieldy empire of this Golden Age was controlled, not from distant inland Madrid, but from Seville. The Habsburg dynasty squandered the American and Castilian riches in wars across Europe for Habsburg interests, defaulted on their debt several times, and left the Spanish people bankrupt. Their political goals were several:

Related Topics:
Spanish - Siglo de Oro - Philip II's - Seville - Habsburg

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Access to American (gold, silver, sugar) and Asian products (porcelain, spices, silk)
Undermining the power of France and containing it in its Eastern borders.
Maintaining Catholic Habsburg hegemony in Germany, defending Catholicism against the Reformation
Defending Europe against Islam, notably the Ottoman Empire.

As a result of the marriage politics of the Reyes Católicos, 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. This Empire was constituted by inherited territories, not conquered. After defeating Castilian rebels in the Castilian War of the Communities, Charles was the most powerful man in Europe, his rule stretching over an empire not to be rivaled in size until Napoleon. Charles attempted to quell the Protestant Reformation at the Diet of Worms but Luther refused to recant his "heresy." However, Charles's piety could not stop his mutinied troops from plundering the Holy See in the Sacco di Roma.

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After Columbus, the colonization of the New World was led by a series of warrior-explorers called the Conquistadors. Native tribes were usually at war with one another and some of them were only too willing to form alliances with the Spanish in order to defeat powerful enemies, such as the Aztecs or Incas. This task was greatly facilitated by the spread of diseases (e.g. smallpox) common in Europe but unknown in the New World, which decimated the native American population. (See Population history of American indigenous peoples).

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The most successful conquistador was Hernán Cortés, who in 1519-1521, with around two hundred thousand Amerindian allies, overran the mighty Aztec empire, thus making Mexico a part of the Spanish empire; this would be the basis of the colony of New Spain. Of comparable 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 (Cibola in North America, El Dorado in South America) 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.

Related Topics:
Hernán Cortés - 1519 - Amerindian - Aztec - Mexico - New Spain - Inca - Francisco Pizarro - Viceroyalty of Peru - Cibola - North America - El Dorado - South America

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In 1521, Francis I of France, who found himself surrounded by Habsburg territories, invaded the Spanish possessions in Italy 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.

Related Topics:
1521 - Francis I of France - Biccoca - Pavia - Landriano

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Battle of Pavia to the Peace of Augsburg (1525-1555)

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 perhaps sacked a second time. The Peace of Barcelona, signed between Charles and the Pope in 1529, established a more cordial relationship between the two leaders that effectively named Spain as the protector of the Catholic cause and recognized of Charles as king of Lombardy in return for Spanish intervention in overthrowing the rebellious Florentine Republic.

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Ferdinand Magellan and then Juan Sebastián Elcano commanded the first successful expedition to circumnavigate the globe in 1522.

Related Topics:
Ferdinand Magellan - Juan Sebastián Elcano - Circumnavigate - Globe - 1522

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In 1528, the great admiral Andrea Doria allied with the Emperor to oust the French and restore Genoa's independence, a renewed prospect opened: 1528 marks the first loan from Genoese banks to Charles (Braudel 1984).

Related Topics:
1528 - Genoa

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Spanish settlements were established in the New World: New Granada (modern Colombia) was colonized in the 1530s and Buenos Aires was established in 1536,

Related Topics:
New Granada - Colombia - 1530s - Buenos Aires - 1536

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Spain was relatively early in passing some laws for the protection of the natives of its American colonies, with the first such laws being passed in 1542; however, records suggest that the practice never matched the theory, in a pattern that was repeated by other European powers.

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In 1543, Francis I, king of France, announced his unprecedented alliance with the Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, by occupying the Spanish-controlled city of Nice in concert with Turkish forces. Henry VIII of England, who bore a greater grudge against France than he held against the Emperor for standing in the way of his divorce, joined Charles in his invasion of France. Although the Spanish army was soundly defeated at the Battle of Ceresole, in Savoy, Henry fared better, and France was forced to accept terms. The Austrians, led by Charles?s younger brother Ferdinand, continued to fight the Ottomans in the east. Charles went to take care of an older problem: the Schmalkaldic League.

Related Topics:
1543 - Suleiman the Magnificent - Nice - Battle of Ceresole - Savoy - Schmalkaldic League

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The League had allied itself to the French, and efforts in Germany to undermine the League had been rebuffed. Francis?s defeat in 1544 led to the annulment of the alliance with the Protestants, and Charles took advantage of the opportunity. He first tried the path of negotiation at the Council of Trent in 1545, but the Protestant leadership, feeling betrayed by the stance taken by the Catholics at the council, went to war, led by the Saxon elector Maurice. In response, Charles invaded Germany at the head of a mixed Dutch-Spanish army, hoping to restore the Imperial authority. The emperor personally inflicted a decisive defeat on the Protestants at the historic Battle of Mühlberg in 1547. In 1555, Charles signed the Peace of Augsburg with the Protestant states and restored stability in Germany on his principle of cuius regio, eius religio, a position unpopular with Spanish and Italian clergymen. Charles's involvement in Germany would establish a role for Spain as protector of the Catholic, Habsburg cause in the Holy Roman Empire; the precedent would lead, seven decades later, to involvement in the war that would decisively end Spain as Europe's leading power.

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Charles had preferred to suppress the Ottomans through a considerably more maritime strategy, hampering Ottoman landings on the Venetian territories in the Eastern Mediterranean. Only in response to raids on the eastern coast of Spain did Charles personally lead attacks against the African mainland (1545)..

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St. Quentin to Lepanto (1556–1571)

Charles V's only legitimate son, Philip II of Spain (r. 1556–1598) parted the Austrian possessions with his uncle Ferdinand. Philip treated Castile as the foundation of his empire, but the population of Castile (which was much less than that of France or England) was never great enough to provide the soldiers needed to support the Empire. When he married Mary Tudor, England was allied to Spain.

Related Topics:
Philip II of Spain - 1556 - 1598 - Ferdinand - Mary Tudor

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Spain was not yet at peace, as the aggressive Henry II of France came to the throne in 1547 and immediately renewed conflict with Spain. Charles? successor, Philip II, aggressively prosecuted the war against France, crushing a French army at the Battle of St. Quentin in Picardy in 1558 and defeating Henry again at the Battle of Gravelines. The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, signed in 1559, permanently recognized Spanish claims in Italy. In the celebrations that followed the treaty, Henry was killed by a stray splinter from a lance. France was stricken for the next thirty years by chronic civil war and unrest (see French Wars of Religion) and removed from effectively competing with Spain and the Habsburg family in European power games. Freed from effective French opposition, Spain saw the apogee of its might and territorial reach in the period 1559–1643.

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The opening for the Genoese banking consortium was the state bankruptcy of Philip II in 1557, which threw the German banking houses into chaos and ended the reign of the Fuggers as Spanish financiers. The Genoese bankers provided the unwieldy Habsburg system with fluid credit and a dependably regular income. In return the less dependable shipments of American silver were rapidly transferred from Seville to Genoa, to provide capital for further ventures.

Related Topics:
1557 - Fugger

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Florida was colonized in 1565 by Pedro Menendez de Aviles when he founded Saint Augustine, Florida and then promptly defeated an illegal attempt led by the French Captain Jean Ribault and 150 of his countrymen to establish a French foothold in Spanish Florida territory. Saint Augustine quickly became a strategic defensive base for the Spanish ships full of gold and silver being sent to Spain from its New World dominions. On April 27, 1565, the first permanent Spanish settlement in the Philippines was founded by Miguel López de Legaspi and the service of Manila Galleon was inaugurated. Manila was established in 1572.

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After Spain?s victory over France and the beginning of France?s religious wars, Philip?s ambitions grew. In 1565, the Spanish defeated an Ottoman landing on the strategic island of Malta, defended by the Knights of St. John. Suleiman the Magnificent?s death the following year and his succession by his less capable son Selim the Sot emboldened Philip, and he resolved to carry the war to the sultan himself. In 1571, Spanish and Venetian warships, joined by volunteers across Europe, led by Charles' illegitimate son Don John of Austria annihilated the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto, in one of the most decisive battles in naval history. The battle ended the Ottoman naval threat in the Western Mediterranean and initiated a long period of decline for the Ottoman Empire. This mission marked the height of the respectability of Spain and its sovereign abroad as Philip bore the burden of leading the Counter-Reformation.

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The troubled kingdom (1571-1598)

The time for rejoicing in Madrid was short-lived. In 1566, Calvinist-led riots in the Netherlands prompted the Duke of Alva to march into the country and restore order. In 1568, William the Silent led a failed attempt to drive the tyrannical Alva from the Netherlands. These battles are generally considered to signal the start of the Eighty Years' War that ended with the independence of the United Provinces. The Spanish, who derived a great deal of wealth from the Netherlands and particularly from the vital port of Antwerp, were committed to restoring order and maintaining their hold on the provinces. In 1572, a band of rebel Dutch privateers known as the watergeuzen ("Sea Beggars") seized a number of Dutch coastal towns, proclaimed their support for William and denounced the Spanish leadership.

Related Topics:
1566 - Calvinist - Duke of Alva - 1568 - William the Silent - Eighty Years' War - United Provinces - Antwerp - 1572 - Watergeuzen

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For Spain, the war became an endless quagmire, sometimes literally. In 1574, the Spanish army under Luis de Requeséns was repulsed from the Siege of Leiden after the Dutch broke the dykes, thus causing extensive flooding. In 1576, faced with the bills from his 80,000-man army of occupation in the Netherlands, the cost of his massive fleet that had won at Lepanto, together with the growing threat of piracy in the open seas reducing his income from his American colonies Philip was forced to accept bankruptcy. The army in the Netherlands mutinied not long after, seizing Antwerp and looting the southern Netherlands, prompting several cities in the previously peaceful southern provinces to join the rebellion. The Spanish chose the route of negotiation, and pacified most of the southern provinces again with the Union of Arras in 1579.

Related Topics:
1574 - Luis de Requeséns - Siege of Leiden - 1576 - Bankruptcy - Antwerp - Union of Arras - 1579

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The Arras agreement required all Spanish troops to leave these lands. In 1580, this gave King Philip the opportunity to strengthen his position when the last member of the Portuguese royal family, Cardinal Henry of Portugal, died. Philip asserted a weak claim to the Portuguese throne and in June sent the Duke of Alba with an army to Lisbon to assure his succession. Though the Duke of Alba and the Spanish occupation, however, was little more popular in Lisbon than in Rotterdam, the combined Spanish and Portuguese empires placed into Philip?s hands almost the entirety of the explored New World along with a vast trading empire in Africa and Asia. In 1582, when Philip II moved his court back to Madrid from the Atlantic port of Lisbon where he had temporarily settled to pacify his new Portuguese kingdom, the pattern was sealed, in spite of what every observant commentator privately noted: "Sea power is more important to the ruler of Spain than any other prince" wrote a commentator, "for it is only by sea power that a single community can be created out of so many so far apart." A writer on tactics in 1638 observed, "The might most suited to the arms of Spain is that which is placed on the seas, but this matter of state is so well known that I should not discuss it, even if I thought it opportune to do so." (quoted by Braudel 1984)

Related Topics:
1580 - Portuguese royal family - Cardinal Henry of Portugal - Lisbon - Rotterdam - Philip II

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Portugal required an extensive occupation force to keep it under control, and Spain was still reeling from the 1576 bankruptcy. In 1584, William the Silent was assassinated by a half-deranged Catholic, and the death of the popular Dutch resistance leader was hoped to bring an end to the war. It did not. In 1586, Queen Elizabeth I of England, sent support to the Protestant causes in the Netherlands and France, and Sir Francis Drake launched attacks against Spanish merchants in the Caribbean and the Pacific, along with a particularly aggressive attack on the port of Cadiz. In 1588, hoping to put a stop to Elizabeth?s meddling, Philip sent the Spanish Armada to attack England. A series of bad storms and the fact that England had been warned by their spies in Netherland and were ready for the attack resulted in defeat for the mighty Armada. Nevertheless the defeat of the massive military attack, The Drake-Norris Expedition, 1589 marked a turning point in the 1585-1604 Anglo-Spanish War in Spain's favour, and few can doubt that the Spanish fleet was the strongest in Europe until the Dutch fleet inflicted the defeat of the Battle of the Downs in 1639, when an increasingly exhausted Spain began to visibly weaken.

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Spain had invested itself in the religious warfare in France after Henry II?s death. In 1589, Henry III, the last of the Valois lineage, died at the walls of Paris. His successor, Henry IV of Navarre, the first Bourbon king of France, was a man of great ability, winning key victories against the Catholic League at Arques (1589) and Ivry (1590). Committed to stopping Henry of Navarre from becoming King of France, the Spanish divided their army in the Netherlands and invaded France in 1590.

Related Topics:
1589 - Henry III - Valois - Henry IV of Navarre - Bourbon - Catholic League - Arques - Ivry - 1590

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"God is Spanish" (1596-1626)

Faced with wars against England, France, and the Netherlands, each led by extraordinarily capable leaders, already-bankrupted Spain was outmatched. Faced with continuing piracy against its shipping in the Atlantic and the disruption of its vital gold shipments from the New World, Spain was forced to admit bankruptcy again in 1596. The Spanish attempted to extricate themselves from the several conflicts they were involved in, first signing the Treaty of Vervins with France in 1598, recognizing Henry IV (since 1593 a Catholic) as king of France, and restoring many of the stipulations of the previous Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis. With a series of defeats at sea and an endless guerrilla war against Catholics in Ireland supported by Spain, an impoverished and exhausted England agreed to a treaty 1604, following the accession of the more tractable Stuart King James I.

Related Topics:
Atlantic - 1596 - Treaty of Vervins - 1598 - 1593 - Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis - 1604 - Stuart - James I

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Peace with England and France implied that Spain could focus her energies on restoring her rule to the Dutch provinces. The Dutch, led by Maurice of Nassau, the son of William the Silent and perhaps the greatest strategist of his time, had succeeded in taking a number of border cities since 1590, including the fortress of Breda. Following the peace with England, the new Spanish commander Ambrosio Spinola pressed hard against the Dutch. Spinola, a general of abilities to match Maurice, was prevented from conquering the Netherlands only by Spain?s renewed bankruptcy in 1607. Faced with ruined finances, in 1609, the Twelve Years' Truce was signed between Spain and the United Provinces. Spain was at peace.

Related Topics:
Maurice of Nassau - 1590 - Breda - Ambrosio Spinola - 1607 - 1609 - Twelve Years' Truce - United Provinces

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Spain made a fair recovery during the truce, ordering her finances and doing much to restore her prestige and stability in the run-up to the last truly great war in which she would play as a leading power. Philip II?s successor, Philip III, was a man of limited ability uninterested in politics, preferring to allow others to take care of the details. His chief minister was the capable Duke of Lerma. The Duke of Lerma (and to a large extent Philip II) had been uninterested in the affairs of their ally, Austria.

Related Topics:
Philip III - Duke of Lerma

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In 1618, the king replaced him with Don Balthasar de Zúñiga, a veteran ambassador to Vienna. He believed that the key to restraining the resurgent French and eliminating the Dutch was a closer alliance with Habsburg Austria. In 1618, beginning with the Defenestration of Prague, Austria and the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II, embarked on a campaign against the Protestant Union and Bohemia. Zúñiga encouraged Philip to join the Austrian Habsburgs in the war, and Ambrogio Spinola, the rising star of the Spanish army, was sent at the head of the Army of Flanders to intervene. Thus, Spain entered into the Thirty Years? War.

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In 1621, the inoffensive and ineffective Philip III was replaced by the considerably more religious Philip IV. The following year, Zúñiga was replaced by Gaspar de Guzman, Count-Duke of Olivares, a reasonably honest and able man who believed that the center of all Spain?s woes rested in Holland. After certain initial setbacks, the Bohemians were defeated at White Mountain in 1621, and again at Stadtlohn in 1623. The war with the Netherlands was renewed in 1621 with Spinola taking the fortress of Breda in 1625. The intervention of Christian IV of Denmark in the war worried some (Christian was one of Europe?s few monarchs who had no worries over his finances) but the victory of the Imperial general Albert of Wallenstein over the Danes at Dessau Bridge and again at Lutter, both in 1626, eliminated that threat. There was hope in Madrid that the Netherlands might finally be reincorporated into the Empire, and after the defeat of Denmark the Protestants in Germany seemed crushed. Perfidious France was once again involved in her own instabilities (the famous Siege of La Rochelle began in 1627), and Spain's eminence seemed irrefutable. The Count-Duke Olivares stridently affirmed ?God is Spanish and fights for our nation these days,? (Brown and Elliott, 1980, p. 190) and many of Spain?s opponents may have grudgingly agreed.

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The road to Rocroi (1626-1643)

Olivares was a man sadly out of time; he realized that Spain needed to reform, and to reform it needed peace. The destruction of the United Provinces of the Netherlands was added to his list of necessities because behind every anti-Habsburg coalition there was Dutch money: Dutch bankers stood behind the East India merchants of Seville, and everywhere in the world Dutch entrepreneurship and colonists undermined Spanish and Portuguese hegemony. Spinola and the Spanish army were focused on the Netherlands, and the war seemed to be going in Spain's favor.

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1627 saw the collapse of the Castilian economy. The Spanish had been debasing their currency to pay for the war and prices exploded in Spain just as they had in previous years in Austria. Until 1631, parts of Castile operated on a barter economy as a result of the currency crisis, and the government was unable to collect any meaningful taxes from the peasantry, depending on its colonies. The Spanish armies in Germany resorted to "paying themselves" on the land. Olivares, who had backed certain tax measures in Spain pending the completion of the war, was further blamed for an embarrassing and fruitless war in Italy (see War of the Mantuan Succession) The Dutch, who during the Twelve Years? Truce had made their navy a priority, had devastated Spanish maritime trade, on which Spain was wholly dependent after the economic collapse. Even with a seemingly endless roll call of victories Spanish resources were now fully stretched across Europe and also at sea protecting their vital shipping against the greatly improved Dutch fleet. The Spanish were simply no longer able to cope with naval threats.

Related Topics:
Debasing - Prices exploded - Barter - War of the Mantuan Succession

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In 1630, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, one of history?s most noted commanders, landed in Germany and relieved the port of Stralsund that was the last stronghold on the continent held by German forces belligerent to the Emperor. Gustavus then marched south winning notable victories at Breitenfeld and Lutzen, attracting greater support for the Protestant cause the further he went. The situation for the Catholics improved with Gustavus's death at Lutzen in 1632 and a key victory at Nordlingen in 1634. From a position of strength, the Emperor approached the war-weary German states with a peace in 1635; many accepted, including the two most powerful, Brandenburg and Saxony. Then France entered.

Related Topics:
1630 - Gustavus Adolphus - Stralsund - Breitenfeld - Lutzen - 1632 - Nordlingen - 1634 - 1635 - Brandenburg - Saxony

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Cardinal Richelieu had been a strong supporter of the Dutch and Protestants since the beginning of the war, sending funds and equipment in an attempt to stem Habsburg strength in Europe. Richelieu decided that the recently-signed Peace of Prague was contrary to French designs and declared war on the Holy Roman Emperor and Spain within months of the peace being signed. The more experienced Spanish forces scored initial successes; Olivares ordered a lightning campaign into northern France from the Spanish Netherlands, hoping to shatter the resolve of King Louis XIII's ministers and topple Richelieu. In the "année de Corbie", 1636, Spanish forces advanced as far south as Corbie, threatening Paris and quite nearly ending the war on their terms. After 1636, however, Olivares was fearful of provoking another bankruptcy, and the Spanish army never again penetrated so far. At the Battle of the Downs in 1639 a Spanish fleet was decimated by the Dutch navy, and the Spanish found themselves unable to supply their forces in the Netherlands. The Spanish Army of Flanders, which represented the finest of Spanish soldiery and leadership, faced a French invasion led by Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé in the Spanish Netherlands at Rocroi in 1643. The Spanish, led by Francisco de Melo, were devastated, with most of the Spanish infantry slaughtered or captured by French cavalry. The high reputation of the Army of Flanders was broken at Rocroi, and with it, the grandeur of Spain.

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◄ Spanish Empire: The beginnings of the empire (1402-1521)

Spanish Empire: The Empire of the last Spanish Habsburgs (1643 – 1713) ►

~ Table of Content ~

►	Introduction
►	The beginnings of the empire (1402-1521)
►	The Golden Age of Spain: The Sun Never Sets (1521-1643)
►	The Empire of the last Spanish Habsburgs (1643 – 1713)
►	The Bourbon Spanish Empire: Reform and Recovery (1713 – 1806)
►	Twilight in the Global Empire (1808 – 1898)
►	The last territories in Africa (1898-1975)
►	References
►	See also

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