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

Twilight in the Global Empire (1808 – 1898)

The first major territory Spain was to lose in the nineteenth century was the vast and wild Louisiana Territory which stretched north to Canada, which the French, under Napoleon, took back possession as part of the peace treaty in 1800 and sold to the United States (Louisiana Purchase, 1803).

Related Topics:
Louisiana Territory - Louisiana Purchase

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The destruction of the main Spanish fleet, under French command, at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) undermined Spain's ability to defend and hold onto its empire. The later intrusion of Napoleonic forces into Spain in 1808 (see Peninsular War) cut off effective connection with the empire.

Related Topics:
Battle of Trafalgar - Peninsular War

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Napoleon's sale in 1803 of the Louisiana Territory to the United States was to cause border disputes between the United States and Spain that, with rebellions in West Florida (1810) and in the remainder of Louisiana at the mouth of the Mississippi, led to their eventually being ceded to the United States, along with all of Florida, in the Adam-Onis Treaty (1819).

Related Topics:
Louisiana Territory - West Florida - Florida - Adam-Onis Treaty

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In 1808 the Spanish king was tricked and Spain was taken over by Napoleon without firing a shot, but the unpopular French provoked a popular uprising from the Spanish people and the grinding guerrilla warfare, which Napoleon dubbed his "ulcer" , the Peninsular War(brilliantly depicted by the painter, Goya) ensued, followed by a power vacuum lasting up to a decade and turmoil for several decades, civil wars on succession disputes, a republic, and finally a corrupt liberal democracy. Spain lost all the colonial possessions in the first third of the century, except for the swaths of desert given to it by the European powers when they partitioned Africa, and Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, isolated on the far side of the globe.

Related Topics:
Peninsular War - Goya

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The wars of idependence in the Americas were triggered by another failed British attempt to sieze Spanish American territory, this time in the Viceroyalty of the River Plate in 1806. The viceroy retreated hastily and disgracefully to the hills when defeated by a small British force. However when the criollos (locally born colonials of European descent) thrashed the now reinforced British force in 1809, and with the example of the North American revolutionaries fresh in their minds, they quickly set about the business of winning their own independence and inspiring independence movements elsewhere in the Americas. A long period of independence wars began which concluded with the formal independence of Argentina (1816), Urugauy (1825), Bolivia (1825). Further north Simon Bolivar led forces that won independence for the area that is currently Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador and Peru by 1825. In 1810 a free thinking priest, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, declared Mexican independence which was won by 1821.

Related Topics:
Viceroyalty of the River Plate - Criollos - Simon Bolivar - Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla

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In Spain the post Napoleonic era unleashed wars and disputes between progressives, liberals and the reactionaries, the last in particular being unable to accept the reality of the country's greatly reduced status internationally. The result was constant instability that slowed Spain's development that had started fitfully gathering pace in the previous century. A brief period of improvement occurred in the 1870s when the capable Alfonso XII of Spain and his thoughtful ministers succeeded in restoring some vigour to Spanish politics and prestige, in part by accepting and working intelligently within the reality of the country's reduced circumstances. In the 19th Century, the Romantic travellers saw in a backward Spain an exotic country. Spain was now a favourite cheap but relatively comfortable destination of adventure for the pompous elite of France and England.

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Nevertheless, Spain held onto significant fragments of its empire until an increasing level of nationalist, anti-colonial uprisings in various parts of the Empire culminated with the Spanish-American War of 1898 when a weak Spain and a much stronger U.S. were both rather unwittingly thrust into conflict by a series of events, and a combination of factors, surrounding the Spanish colony of Cuba, these being:

Related Topics:
Nationalist - Spanish-American War - Colony - Cuba

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1. Cuban anti-Spanish insurgencies, which like the Philippines had been fighting for several decades. This led to a ruthless campaign of total war on both sides, and the creation of concentration camps by Spain.

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2. Faced with defeat, and a lack of money and resources to continue fighting Spanish occupation, Cuban revolutionary and future president Tomás Estrada Palma secured $150 million dollars from a US banker to purchase Cuba's independence, but Spain refused. He then deftly negotiated and propagandized his cause in the U.S. Congress.

Related Topics:
Tomás Estrada Palma - U.S. Congress

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3. The real, documented atrocities in Cuba by the Spanish government coincided with the newspaper war between American media moguls Hearst and Pulitzer. This led to the exploitation of Cuban events as sensationalist stories, Yellow journalism.

Related Topics:
Hearst - Pulitzer - Yellow journalism

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4. Finally, the destruction of the of the Battleship USS Maine was originally blamed on Spain, but, with the benefit of modern forensic science, it is now widely believed to have been an accident caused by the spontaneous combustion of gunpowder magazines situated too close to heat sources.

Related Topics:
Battleship - USS Maine

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The loss of Spanish Cuba to the United States was followed by the loss of Puerto Rico and the Philippines as a result of that war.

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Ultimately, civil unrest throughout the Spanish Empire proved to be a dangerous political powder keg that finally led to foreign intervention/dismantling/appropriation of all remaining Spanish possessions in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

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Spain's coastal toeholds in Africa lasted even longer. In the late 19th century, Spain colonized the islands of Palau. The Marshall Islands were claimed by Spain in 1874.

Related Topics:
Palau - Marshall Islands - 1874

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At the end of the century most of the remaining Spanish Empire ( Cuba, Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam ) was lost in the Spanish American War in 1898.

Related Topics:
Cuba - Philippines - Puerto Rico - Guam - Spanish American War - 1898

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