Exploring the Historical Evolution of the Iberian Peninsula
1. The Roots: Roman Hispania
1. The process of humanization in the Iberian Peninsula: new findings
The process of humanization in the Iberian Peninsula corresponds to the expansion process of the different evolutionary scale hominids from Africa, the place of origin of them all, to Asia and Europe. The new archaeological findings of the Sierra de Atapuerca have great significance because, until now, they contained the oldest remains of Western Europe. It is, according to archaeologists, a new species dubbed Oven Ancestor (browser), which dates back some 800,000 years, and that would correspond to the evolutionary stage of the genus H. Erectus. In the “Chasm of the Bones” of Atapuerca, these Preneanderthals (Homo heidelbergensis, 350,000 years) were also found, similar to those of other European regions. As in the rest of Europe, hominids are most abundant in the following evolutionary steps: Homo sapiens neanderthalensis (100,000 years) and, especially, Homo sapiens sapiens (40,000 years), the modern man and author of the magnificent representations of rock art in the Altamira cave, among others.
2. The colonization history: Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians
The story begins with the emergence of writing around 3000 BC in Egypt and Mesopotamia. In the early first millennium BC, major changes occurred on the Iberian Peninsula, brought by the settlers Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians, who, through the Mediterranean, reached the east coast attracted by the mineral wealth of the area (silver, gold, and copper) and for a wide Peninsula in the path of tin. Their purpose was commercial, and they founded coastal factories (Gades-Phoenician, Ampurias-Greek-Carthaginian Carthage). Their legacy to indigenous peoples was great: new crops (grapes and olives), pottery, minting of coins, urban life, iron metallurgy, and writing, with which the Iberian Peninsula entered the historical stage. Contact with these historical civilizations and mineral wealth made possible the emergence in the southwest peninsula of the mythical culture Tarshish, which was an indigenous culture of the written sources who speak Greek, but of which no more remains were found except for archaeological treasures like Carambolo (Seville) and La Aliseda (Cáceres). In the early first millennium BC, coinciding with the colonization history, several waves of Indo-European migrations also entered the Peninsula, in this case by the Pyrenees and, from Catalonia, spread across the plateau and the Cantabrian Mountains, where they introduced iron metallurgy. Mixed with the native substrate, this resulted in the pre-Roman Celts. The Indo-Europeans were not historical settlers because they did not know writing.
3. Pre-Roman Peoples
In the first millennium BC, the Iberian Peninsula was home to a wide range of people known as Roman peoples, which are the result of outside influence on the indigenous substrate. This diversity of people can be grouped into two distinct cultural areas: the Iberian peoples (Turdetani, Edetana, Laietans, Ilergets …) occupied the coasts of southern and eastern Spain. Thanks to the influence from Punic and Greek colonization, these towns were more developed economically and culturally (Mediterranean trilogy, iron metallurgy, coins, writing …). The Iberian art sculptures we have become like the Lady of Elche and the Lady of Baza (priestesses).
The Celts (Carpetani, Vetones, Galicians …) were at the center, north, and east of the peninsula. In all of these influences, Indo-European migration predominated. Their economy was poor (the plateau was based on grain and livestock in the mountain systems) and they had no writing. The coarseness of the so-called “Bulls of Guisando” contrasts with the manifestations of Iberian art. The most ancient peoples were in the North: Galicians, Asturians, Cantabrians, and Vascones. All these people were subjected to the domination of Rome.
4. The process of Romanization
The cultural heritage of the Iberian Peninsula conquered by Rome began at the end of BC in the context of its struggle with Carthage for control of the Mediterranean. After the conquest, 200 years later, Hispania became a province of the Roman Empire and was Romanized. Except in the north of the peninsula, the Romanization was very intense and endures today in many ways. The name Spain comes from the Latin word Hispania. Most of the Iberian languages derived from Latin. The legal system is based on Roman law. The Christian religion spread in Iberia and in other provinces of the Empire. Roman art was monumental works (aqueduct of Segovia, Mérida theater …). Hispania was exploited intensively by Rome, especially for its mineral resources, but also for agriculture and fishery. In agriculture, new mining techniques (plowing, irrigation, animal power …) and new crops (fruits and vegetables) were introduced. But the Roman economy was also urban and monetary. The city was the economic and administrative center, leading to the founding of many of the leading Hispanic cities (Zaragoza, Mérida, Tarragona, León …) and connecting them with a network of roads that became the communications backbone for many centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire (late V). Rome also implemented complex administrative and social structures. So intense was the Romanization that it produced various emperors (Trajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius) and intellectuals (Seneca, Martial, and Quintilian). The Romanization has decisive historical importance, not only for itself, for its cultural brilliance but also because it cohered the various Roman peoples, culturally integrating them and lasting throughout time.
5. The Visigothic Monarchy: Institutions
Rome fell in the V century due to the invasion of Germanic peoples, who shared half of the Western Roman Empire. One of these peoples, the Visigoths, settled in Hispania and founded an independent kingdom that survived until the invasion of the Muslims in 711. The state was organized as an elective monarchy of Germanic tradition, but often, by the will of the king, became hereditary. This led to countless disputes over succession to the throne and, consequently, a weakening of royal power. One of these disputes was used by Muslims to cross the Strait of Gibraltar on the pretext of helping one side. The king ruled with the support of two advisory institutions: the Aula Regia (made up of nobles and clergy) and the Council of Toledo (Assembly of bishops). The importance of the Council of Toledo in the Visigothic state structure is because the Church was the only institution that exercised real social control over the population through religion and because, after the debacle of the Roman institutions, it was the only depository of the brilliance of Roman culture against the backwardness of the Germanic peoples. The monarchy used this situation for mutual benefit for both institutions.
2. Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages: Al-Andalus
1. The Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages: The Muslim Conquest and Invaders
In the early eighth century, North Africa was already part of the vast Islamic Empire. In 711, Tariq crossed the Strait of Gibraltar with an Arab-Berber army that effortlessly defeated the Visigoth King Don Rodrigo at the Battle of Guadalete. Four years later, most of the Iberian Peninsula was under Muslim rule. The conquest was thus very fast, with little resistance. This was due to the weakness of the Visigothic monarchy, exhausted by internal dynastic conflicts, and the peaceful surrender of many Visigoth nobles, who signed pacts with the Arabs that allowed them to keep most of their properties. The conquering army was led by Arabs and Berbers and formed by other ethnic groups. The Muslims faced two barriers to their expansion: the Pyrenees, after their defeat against the Franks, and the Cantabrian Mountains. In the latter, they met with strong resistance from Cantabria, Asturias, and Basques, which, coupled with their lack of interest in these lands, made them abandon their conquest and settle on lands further south. South of the Cantabrian, the Douro Valley became a desert, a “no man’s land” between the Islamic territory (Al-Andalus) and the small Christian kingdoms that eventually formed in the north.
2. The Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages: The Emirate and the Caliphate of Córdoba
The political organization of Al-Andalus passed through several stages: After the conquest, Al-Andalus became an emirate under the Caliphate of Damascus, i.e., a province of the Islamic Empire, whose capital was Damascus and whose head was the caliph of the Umayyad dynasty. In the mid-eighth century, Abd al-Rahman, the only surviving member of the Umayyad dynasty in Damascus after the coup of the Abbasids, proclaimed Al-Andalus an independent emirate of the Caliphate in Baghdad (the new capital of the Abbasid Empire). This meant that Abd al-Rahman assumed all political power in Al-Andalus but still abided by the religious authority of the caliph of the empire. The Emirate of Córdoba lasted nearly 200 years. In the early X century, Abd al-Rahman III proclaimed the Caliphate of Córdoba, which meant a total break with the Caliphate of Baghdad. This was the brightest period in the history of Al-Andalus.
3. The Crisis of the Eleventh Century: The Taifa Kingdoms
In the eleventh century, internal tensions that existed between the various Muslim ethnic groups of Al-Andalus broke out. Berbers fought against the Arabs with the help of splinter groups, and Slavs sought support from the Catalan counts in their fight with the other groups in exchange for payment in currencies (the outcasts). This was followed by Christian intervention in the internal affairs of Al-Andalus. These infighting broke the political structure of Córdoba, which became a mosaic of Taifa kingdoms (independent states in the hands of Muslim ethnic groups). The weakening of Muslim rule produced by fragmentation and the continuing confrontation between the Taifa was used by the Christian kingdoms of the North to progress in their reconquest. Two invasions from North Africa, the Almoravids (XI century) and the Almohads (XII century), temporarily reunited Al-Andalus, but both were defeated by the strong push of Christians. Finally, only the Nazarite kingdom of Granada remained, which survived until the late fifteenth century (1492).
4. Al-Andalus: The Economic and Social
3. Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages: The Early Christian Groups of Resistance
1. The Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages: The Early Christian Resistance Groups
From the core of resistance to Muslim rule in the Cantabrian Mountains and Pyrenees, various Christian kingdoms were formed. The oldest was the Astur kingdom, created by Alfonso I (739-757) shortly after the victory over the Muslims achieved by Cantabria and Asturias led by Pelayo in Covadonga (722). By expanding the basin of the Duero (“no man’s land”), the kingdom of Asturias became the Astur-Leones kingdom, including the kingdom of Galicia and Castilla. It began as a county located in the east of the Astur-Leonese kingdom, especially for being a fortified border with the strong Muslim presence in the Ebro. Fernán González, Count of Castilla, proclaimed independence (tenth century), who years later became a kingdom (eleventh century). In the Pyrenees, several nuclei emerged: in the west, the kingdom of Pamplona, later Navarre. In the center, Aragon, first a county and then a kingdom (XI century). At this time, there was a patchwork of counties known as the Hispanic of the Carolingian Empire. Of these, the most important was that of Barcelona, which managed to bring together the others and become independent of the control of the Franks. This territory has been known since the twelfth century as Catalonia. In the west of the mainland, the kingdom of Portugal forged away from the Leonese kingdom and carried out its own enterprise of reconquest in the narrow margins that allowed the expansion of Castile.
2. Main Stages of the Reconquest
We can say that the relief will determine the evolution of the peninsular reconquest. Thus, from the 8th century, Christian centers of resistance formed in the mountains of the north (Asturias, Navarra, Aragon, and Catalonia). The kingdom of Asturias became Astur-Leones, going to occupy the “No Man’s Land” north of the Duero due to the strength of the migration of Mozarabic. The end of the Caliphate in the 11th century facilitated the advancement of the Christian kingdoms. A new power, Castilla y León, reached the Tagus with the conquest of Toledo (1085) by Alfonso VI. Now Navarro-Aragonese and Catalans expanded their territories, but not beyond the harsh Muslim resistance in the Ebro. This led to the conquest of Zaragoza by Alfonso the Battler in the 12th century. That’s when Aragon finally joined Navarra to Catalonia (Dona Petronilla married Ramón Berenguer IV). Castilla was involved in dynastic and social conflicts, along with the North African invasion, which put the brakes on its reconquest (coming to Sierra Morena), and Portugal became independent. In the 13th century, Las Navas de Tolosa opened the way to Andalusia for Castile (Ferdinand III), while the Catalan-Aragonese took Valencia and Mallorca (James I). Frictions arose between the two kingdoms in Murcia (Almizra Treaty). Now the Aragonese and Portuguese Reconquest finished, limited by the Castilian expansion. The Nazarite kingdom of Granada continued until 1492, mainly due to the severe economic and political crisis that crossed all the Christian kingdoms in the fourteenth century. The Christian kingdoms passed through several phases of consolidation/disaggregation, but from the late twelfth century until the unification carried out by Ferdinand and Isabella, the peninsula was divided into five kingdoms: four Christians and one Muslim: the Crown of Castilla, which includes all Western nuclei except for Portugal; the kingdoms of León, Galicia, and Castilla; the estate of Vizcaya and Guipuzcoa and Álava; and the Crown territories of Aragon, which includes the east, consisting of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Barcelona. In the thirteenth century, the reconquest joined the kingdom of Mallorca and Valencia. Between them, the kingdom of Navarre was soon closed by the expansion of Aragon and Castile.
3. Models of Recruitment and Social Organization of the Christian Kingdoms
4. Medieval: The Crisis of the Ages XIV and XV
1. Political Organization and Institutions in the Middle Ages: The Kingdom of Castile
In all peninsular kingdoms (Aragon, Castile, Portugal, and Navarre), the political system in the late Middle Ages was the feudal monarchy. In this political system, the king had limited power by the feudal powers (judicial domains, jurisdictions, courts …). The basic political institutions are: Crown, courts, and municipalities. However, despite having a similar political structure, significant differences exist between the realms: the monarchy in Castile had less feudal power than in the Crown of Aragon, where the king had more power. Las Cortes is a medieval institution of stratified representation (it represents the nobility, the clergy, and the bourgeoisie). They have an advisory role that can file complaints and make requests to the king and also a fiscal basis, the approval of special taxes. But their political role was different for different realms. In Castile, they only met when summoned by the king, and he was not obliged to address their complaints and requests, so their only role was the adoption of special taxes at the request of the king. The councils were the bodies of local government and enjoyed a certain autonomy and jurisdiction of their own thanks to the charters. Originally, they had an open structure (all the neighbors involved in municipal government), but with urban growth (XIII century), it became closed, and ended up being controlled by the urban oligarchy (urban bourgeoisie and gentry). Government defended the autonomy of its charter, allowing them to cope with the pressures of the feudal nobility and the Crown. However, in Castilla, the monarchs were able to establish the figure of the mayor (representative of the real power in the municipalities).
2. Political Organization and Institutions in the Middle Ages: The Kingdom of Aragon
In all peninsular kingdoms (Aragon, Castile, Portugal, and Navarre), the political system in the late Middle Ages was the feudal monarchy. In this political system, the king had limited power by the feudal powers (judicial domains, jurisdictions, courts …). The basic political institutions are: Crown, courts, and municipalities. However, despite having a similar political structure, there are important differences between the realms. In the Crown of Aragon, limited feudal powers were more effectively than the real power in Castile, to the point that the monarchy was subject to a pact whereby the king agreed to respect the privileges and feudal rights of his kingdom before taking possession of the crown. The Crown of Aragon was composed of three states: the Kingdom of Aragon, Catalonia, and the Kingdom of Valencia, which had in common the same king, but in each there were different laws, institutions, customs, and languages. The king was represented in each state by a viceroy. Courts were also implanted in the Crown of Aragon, and their political power was higher than in Castile. Each kingdom had its own courts (Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia) that met separately at fixed dates and shared legislative power with the king, and that it should address their complaints and petitions before obtaining approval to levy special taxes. To monitor compliance with what was approved in Parliament, after they had disbanded, a permanent institution was created, the General or the Provincial Government of estates, which also came to have great power in every realm, especially in Catalonia. The councils were the bodies of local government and enjoyed a certain autonomy and jurisdiction of their own thanks to the charters. Originally, they had an open structure (all the neighbors involved in municipal government), but with urban growth (XIII century), it became closed, and ended up being controlled by the urban oligarchy (urban bourgeoisie and gentry). Unlike Castilla, in the Crown of Aragon, the figure of the mayor was introduced, for which the municipalities were beyond the jurisdiction of both noble and royal powers. The strongest council was the Council of One Hundred, in Barcelona.
3. Medieval: Crisis Demographic, Economic, and Political
The fourteenth century was in the Peninsula, as elsewhere in Western Europe, a century of widespread crisis. Large mortalities were due to famine caused by crop failure and the Black Plague. The demographic catastrophe was greater in the Crown of Aragon than in Castile. The sharp decline in the population worsened the situation of an already precarious agriculture. Depopulation was widespread and, consequently, reduced agricultural production and a fall in feudal dues. The gentlemen responded by demanding more concessions and territorial courts from the Crown and hardening the feudal system upon the servants, which caused numerous uprisings. The demographic and agricultural crisis in Castilla consolidated into an economy primarily based on cattle for the export of wool from merino sheep. The crown encouraged this process by granting extensive privileges (step and grass) to the Mesta to the detriment of agriculture. The big winners were the large flock owners (nobility, church, and military orders) and the Crown, which obtained substantial income from taxes on transhumance. This type of livestock economy damaged agriculture and textile manufacturing (for the export of wool). The Crown of Aragon, particularly Catalonia, suffered the collapse of their traditional activities and Mediterranean trade due to the demographic crisis and agriculture and to the progress of the Turks in the Mediterranean. Not lacking in these centuries was the political crisis, which is summarized in the ongoing struggle between the monarchy, which wanted to strengthen its authority, and the powerful nobility, who was reluctant to see their feudal powers reduced. Clashes between the Crown and the nobility had their most virulent moments in Castilla during the dynastic civil war that led to the establishment of the dynasty of the Trastámara and inaugurated a period of weakness of the right against a nobility reinforced by land, jurisdiction, and privileges (primogeniture) from the Crown. In the Crown of Aragon, the confrontation between the Crown and the feudal powers also led to a complex civil war.
4. Medieval: The Expansion of the Crown of Aragon in the Mediterranean
The economic and social situation was different in different realms of the Crown of Aragon. The Kingdom of Aragon was an agrarian society consolidated with great feudal lords and a hard feudal system on the peasantry. This same model was introduced by the Aragonese nobility within the Kingdom of Valencia. In Catalonia, the manorial estates reached less development than in Aragon, and agricultural activities were balanced with livestock. In addition, the cities and, with them, handicrafts and trade, met significant growth. A market economy oriented to urban markets and foreign trade developed. From the twelfth century, a large foreign trade to the Mediterranean was consolidated, supported by the territorial expansion of the Crown of Aragon. Catalan merchants, supported by the Crown, established trading colonies in many cities of the Byzantine Empire (Athens-Neo Fatherland) and Northern Africa. Barcelona became an important trading port, and in this city, a thriving textile crafts, metallurgy, and shipbuilding industry grew. This prosperity favored the development of a powerful bourgeoisie in Barcelona. The demographic crisis of the fourteenth century and, above all, the advance of the Turks in the Mediterranean, dealt a blow to Catalan trade and, in general, to the Mediterranean influence of Aragon’s foreign policy.
5. Catholic Kings: The Construction of the Modern State
1. The Catholic Monarchs: The dynastic union reign of Ferdinand and Isabella is of great importance in the history of Spain because it laid the foundations for the creation of the modern state, a process in which Spain pioneered along with France and England. The modern state settled on two pillars: territorial unification and authoritarian monarchy. The first was achieved through marriage (the dynastic union of Castile and Aragón and the attempted failed union with Portugal) and military conquest (Granada and Navarra). The creation of the authoritarian monarchy required two parallel processes: the subjugation of the forces that had undermined the Crown in the Middle Ages and the creation or strengthening of institutions of royal power (centralized management). The marriage of Isabel de Castilla and Fernando de Aragon in 1469 gave rise to a new political entity: the Hispanic monarchy. However, the different territories that comprised (Castile, Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia) had in common only the monarchy, since each kingdom kept its laws, institutions, and customs. The union of the two crowns, Castile and Aragon, was personal, not institutional, and there was never a political and administrative unit common to both, as the institutions of the Crown of Aragon remained almost entirely. The word Spain referred to the association of all the peoples of the Iberian Peninsula without a specific political meaning, so the Catholic Monarchs did not use the name of kings of Spain but of the different kingdoms that formed. Thus, the Spaniards were legally binding to Aragon and Castile, but not vice versa. The demographic and economic potential of Castile was far superior to that of the Crown of Aragon, which had not yet recovered from the crisis of the fourteenth century. The contrast was even greater after the discovery of America, a profitable enterprise for Castile. These circumstances made it the main source of human and financial resources of the new state and facilitated the gradual Castilianization of it: the court stayed in Castile, and the charges were occupied by Spaniards.
2. The Catholic Kings: The Conquest of the Nazari Kingdom
The reign of Ferdinand and Isabella is of great importance in the history of Spain because it laid the foundations for the creation of the modern state, a process in which Spain is a pioneer along with France and England. The modern state settled on two pillars: territorial unification and authoritarian monarchy. The first was achieved through marriage (the dynastic union of Castile and Aragón and the attempted failed union with Portugal) and military conquest (Granada and Navarra). The creation of the authoritarian monarchy required two parallel processes: the subjugation of the forces that had undermined the power of the Crown in the Middle Ages and the creation or strengthening of the institutions of royal power (centralized management).
The Kingdom of Granada was the last stronghold of the Muslim presence in the Peninsula. The conquest of Granada was raised as a crusade against the infidels and, as such, was blessed by the pope. The war lasted ten years and required an unprecedented economic and military effort. It took the newly created royal army, the thirds, which found in Granada an excellent testing ground for future campaigns abroad (Italy, Latin America …). On January 2, 1492, the capitulation of Granada was signed, which became part of the Crown of Castile because Castilian was the financing of the campaign. The terms of the capitulation of the Nazari Kingdom were very generous. Muslims (Moors) were guaranteed the maintenance of their property, religion, laws, and customs. But tolerance did not last long; seven years later, the process of religious uniformity began, which resulted in the decree of 1502 that required all Mudejar in Castilla to choose between baptism or expulsion, thus initiating the conflict that endures during the Moorish period in the sixteenth century.
3. The Organization of the State under the Catholic Monarchs: Institutions of Government
The reign of Ferdinand and Isabella is of great importance in the history of Spain because it laid the foundations for the creation of the modern state, a process in which Spain is a pioneer along with France and England. The modern state settled on two pillars: territorial unification and authoritarian monarchy. The first was achieved through marriage (the dynastic union of Castile and Aragón and the attempted failed union with Portugal) and military conquest (Granada and Navarra). The creation of the authoritarian monarchy required two parallel processes: the subjugation of the forces that had undermined the power of the Crown in the Middle Ages and the creation or strengthening of the institutions of royal power (centralized management). The government institutions were as follows: The royal council: they were the most important instruments of rule of kings. Different specialized councils were established in different areas (Indian council, board of Aragon …), or on certain functions of government (council tax, council …). At the head of them all was the council of Castile. The offices were occupied by professional lawyers (sons of the bourgeoisie, petty nobility) that displaced the nobility for the administration of justice, strengthening royal courts at the expense of the palatial. The latter were not deleted, but the royal courts, Court, and Chancery became courts. In the Crown of Aragon, audiences were also created, but the jurisdictions of its rights and institutions remained. In local government, the magistrates created in the Middle Ages continued to represent the real power in the municipalities. A standing army, famous thirds, was created, which became the most powerful military force in Europe during this period. The Santa Hermandad was also created, with the mission of maintaining order in rural areas (banditry, rebellious nobility). The rise of the bureaucracy required a corresponding increase in revenue for the Crown. This board was created to dramatically improve the tax revenue administration and established an effective collection system. With these two measures, tax recovery dramatically increased without increasing the tax burden. The majority of revenue came from indirect taxes. This centralized government structure helped the royal authority to be increasingly respected.
4. Outreach under the Catholic Kings: Italian and North African Policy
The state created by the Catholic Kings, once organized internally, became a formidable power bloc that began to grow beyond its borders. The foreign policy of the Catholic Monarchs revolved around the confrontation with France and Islam in North Africa. France was the closest and most important enemy of the Crown of Aragon, the kingdom that had expansionist interests both in Italy and France, which also put pressure on the Pyrenean areas. Fernando conducted two parallel policies regarding France: diplomacy and war. Thanks to diplomatic action, he secured alliances with Germany, Portugal, and England, each endorsed with marriage alliances (the marriage of his daughter Jane to the Austrian Philip the Fair would later have unexpected results for the Hispanic monarchy). France was, well, diplomatically isolated, but it was still necessary to resort to war to stop French expansion to Naples. The victory of the thirds of Spaniards led by Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (Grand Master) allowed Naples to be incorporated into the Crown of Aragon. In North Africa, several strongholds (Melilla, Oran, Algeria …) were taken, thus opening a front against the Turks who dominated the Mediterranean and would be one of the main enemies of the monarchy, the first Hispanic Austrias. If Fernando put more effort into the foreign policy of the Mediterranean, the traditional center of interest for Aragon, Isabel set her sights on the Atlantic and decided to finance the journey that led Columbus to the New World.
5. The Discovery of America
Christopher Columbus’s travels in search of a route to reach India laid the foundation of the American Empire of the Hispanic Crown. At the end of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, he had traveled thousands of miles and confirmed the existence of a new continent. This work continued throughout the sixteenth century when the colonial administration was organized and the exploitation of their resources proceeded. The grounds on which the Catholic Monarchs supported the project of Christopher Columbus were, first, the desire to expand the Catholic religion and, second, economic interest, as the Genoese sailor’s approach was to find a shorter route to the Far East, west, in search of gold and spices. After many difficulties in obtaining financing, in 1492, three ships left Palos and reached land on October 12 of the same year, reaching the Caribbean islands. By 1511, he had virtually completed the conquest of the large islands, and the whole of the West Indies was under the control of the monarchy. The disagreement between Columbus and his companions on the sharing of discovery, which was added to the conflict he had with the Catholic Monarchs over the privileges that had been granted, and the scarcity of gold generated heavy fighting. The economic expectations of those who ventured across the Atlantic were dashed. The riches discovered were much lower than expected, the population was sparse, and the weather was unfavorable for the development of agriculture, as was practiced in Castile. However, they soon recognized the economic potential of the New World, whose discovery had economic, political, and cultural significance that extended beyond the borders of the Hispanic monarchy, becoming a historical event of universal importance.
6. The Sixteenth Century: Spain
1. The Empire of Charles V: Internal Conflict. Communities and Germanies
Carlos V of Germany and I of Spain was the first Austrian dynasty to reign in Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He inherited a vast empire from his maternal grandparents, Ferdinand and Isabella, and the paternal Habsburg of Austria, including the German Imperial Crown. The Hispanic monarchy reached its zenith of power with him and his son, Philip II.
As emperor, Charles V could not focus on a purely national policy like the Catholic Monarchs; he had to take an imperial policy in Europe. But he also had to deal with internal conflicts that occurred during his reign, the movement of the Communities of Castile and the Germanies in Valencia. The Communities Movement (1520-1521) broke out precisely against imperial policy because Castile had become the center of the empire, and it fell to the military and financial effort to keep it. The uprising was led by the cities (bourgeoisie and gentry) to expel the mayor and proclaim the community. In its beginnings, the movement had two grievances: the appointment of foreigners to fill top jobs, relegating the Castilians, and the use of taxes to finance the imperial foreign policy at the expense of Castile. But soon, they added to their requests that the courts be met without relying on fixed dates of the actual calls and to control the use of tax funds granted by the king. Therefore, the revolt that began in protest against imperial policy used the situation to try to limit the real power through the courts, something unprecedented in Castile. The villagers were defeated (Villalar), and their leaders executed (Padilla, Bravo, and Maldonado). From then on, Castile was entirely under real authoritarianism, which would no longer be resistant. The movement coincided with that of the commoner Germanies in Valencia and Mallorca, but the two did not connect, and their nature was different; the Communities were a political movement, while the Germanies were a social movement. The petty bourgeoisie faced the bourgeoisie for control of municipal government, and the peasants/serfs fought the lords for improved conditions. The agermanados did not oppose the king; however, they asked him to intervene to prevent abuses of the oligarchy. Carlos I intervened, but alongside the nobility to suppress the movement.
2. The Hispanic Monarchy of Philip II
Philip II succeeded his father but did not inherit the Imperial Crown or possessions that passed to the Austrian branch of Habsburg Austria. Carlos V wanted to rid the Spanish monarchy of the German nest. However, Philip II’s territorial possessions of the Hispanic Monarchy extraordinarily magnified because he inherited the throne of Portugal and its colonies, which allowed the Spanish monarchy to reach its peak and consolidate its position as the first European power. Free from the Imperial Crown, Philip II was able to focus solely on defending the interests of the Hispanic monarchy, which they identified in the defense of hegemony in Europe and the defense of Catholicism against Protestant countries. This forced him to maintain continuous foreign wars. In Europe, he tried to quell the revolt of the Netherlands. He sent the Armada against England, which led the anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic front and harassed, through piracy, the Spanish fleets in the Atlantic. In the Mediterranean, he fought the Turks, who threatened the east coast of the peninsula. However, unlike his father, he practically never left the peninsula, sought a permanent seat for the court, establishing the capital in Madrid (the geographical center of the peninsula), and personally directed all government affairs of the vast empire. His enormous power and religious intransigence in a context of religious wars, radicalism tinged by both sides, won him many enemies in Europe who wove and diffused the “Black Legend.”
3. The Sixteenth-Century Spain: The Most Spectacular Iberian Unity
The reign of Philip II was marked by the union with Portugal, which largely offset the Spanish monarchy’s loss of possessions in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The union with Portugal meant not only the unity of the peninsula but also of colonial empires, African and American, thus consolidating the Spanish monarchy as the most powerful in Europe. The union with Portugal had already been a policy objective of the territorial unity of the Catholic Kings. They had tried through successive and unsuccessful marriages. Finally, Philip II inherited the throne of Portugal to claim, when it became vacant, the inheritance of his mother (Elizabeth of Portugal), thus fulfilling a long-pursued dream of Iberian unity. The kingdom of Portugal joined the Hispanic monarchy and preserved the autonomy of its institutions, but always suspicious of Castilian hegemony. They feared that the Crown would not put enough effort into defending their colonial interests or the interests they subjected to Castilians. It was thus a weak union that lasted just over half a century and ended up breaking when centralizing attempts of the Spanish Crown threatened the independence of Portugal. The revolt of Portugal, which began in 1640, ended twelve years later with independence, definitively breaking the Iberian union.
4. The Political Model of the Habsburg
The Monarchy of Austria was not a unitary state but a group of diverse realms, from the Catholic Monarchs, just sharing the same crown. It was a whole of Spain, which only appeared to the outside world as a unified whole. The Hispanic monarchy consisted of the Crown of Castile, Aragon, and, fleetingly, the kingdom of Portugal. The prominence of Castilla always had on her fell the burden of maintaining the empire, and it introduced the Habsburg monarchy’s authoritarian political model that had begun with the Catholic Monarchs, consolidated and perfected by the Austrians over the 16th century. The Crown of Aragon, however, protected its rights and managed, not without conflicts, to preserve its autonomy from the authoritarian and centralizing policy of the monarchy in the 16th century. The administrative organization of the state had been created by the Catholic Monarchs and perfected now. The central government bodies resided in the court, based in Madrid, set by Felipe II. At the center of administration was the monarch, with his assistants and secretaries. The main organs of government were the councils, through which they controlled the entire empire. They acted as viceroys of the king in each of the territories of the monarchy. The justice system remained in charge of the hearings, and in local government, councils or town meetings were held with the mayor in front. The army, the mightiest in Europe in the 16th century, was composed of the Thirds and the Square. This bureaucratic and military apparatus required an unbearable financial effort. The state farm was characterized by a persistent deficit, despite the American metals, and an intolerable tax burden that stifled the growth of Castile. Courts estates continued to be held separately in each kingdom, but in Castilla had little political importance. However, in the Crown of Aragon, they retained all their functions as defenders of legal traditions that limited the king’s power. The same happened in Navarre and the territories of Álava and Guipúzcoa, Vizcaya, and the kingdom retained its charter. The Habsburg monarchy was therefore almost exclusively an authoritarian monarchy in Castile.
5. The Renaissance
The Renaissance is a cultural and artistic movement that emerged in the late 14th century and reflects a new mindset of the modern world. Rooted in humanism, literary and religious power affirmed the value of man (anthropocentric) and the importance of earthly life against the medieval Christian principles (Theocentricism and eternal life). Humanists found their reference in classical antiquity. The new ideas spread from Italy to Western Europe, also in the Spain of the Catholic Monarchs, although this was a society still very rooted in the medieval spirit. However, outstanding figures such as Cardinal Cisneros, Antonio de Nebrija, or Luis Vives emerged. The highlight was the literary and printing of “La Celestina,” which allowed the diffusion of new ideas.
7. The Spain of the Baroque
1. The Minor Habsburg Spain: The valid after the death of Philip II (1598) was succeeded by three kingdoms whose monarchs are called Austrias compared with their predecessors, the older Austrians (Charles V and Philip II). The latter took charge personally of the government of their kingdoms in front of a complex administration, while the seventeenth century turned to private valid for governing. The valid character was generally a high nobility exercising the functions of government with the King’s confidence, but it was not an institutional position. The valid stage is initiated by Philip III, the first of the Austrias, but was favored by Philip IV, the Count Duke of Olivares, the figure of greater political stature, despite the repeated failures of government action. The Habsburg dynasty ended with Charles II, a weak and sickly king who died childless. During his long reign, he succeeded the favorites, but this figure was extinguished at the same time as the dynasty.
2. The Minor Habsburg Spain: The Internal Conflicts
The seventeenth century was a century of widespread crisis in Europe, but it was more so for the Hispanic monarchy. Throughout the century, the Hispanic monarchy gradually lost its hegemony in Europe. The military and financial effort to avoid it produced serious internal conflicts (economic, social, and political). The monarchy used all the resources at its disposal to finance the costly foreign policy: taxes, loans, debt, currency devaluation (copper) … All this ended up plunging the Castilian economy, already affected by a deep economic crisis. Exhausted Castilla, the monarchy (Olivares) tried to help other kingdoms maintain the state, causing the worst internal political crisis for the entire period of the Habsburgs: the revolts of Catalonia and Portugal. The policy of the monarchy, especially in times of Olivares, caused or exacerbated internal conflicts. Finally, it failed in its purpose.
3. The Crisis of 1640
The most serious domestic political crisis for the entire period of the Habsburgs was the revolts of Catalonia and Portugal, caused both by the policy of the Count Duke of Olivares. Participation in the Thirty Years War demanded large financial resources that the monarchy could not obtain from Castile and exhaustion. Therefore, the Union of Arms was declared, which required all the kingdoms of the monarchy to contribute men and money to support foreign policy. To require this contribution, Olivares proposed ending the statutory immunity and applying the laws of Castile throughout the kingdom, which never put a brake on real power. This policy caused the crisis in 1640. The rebellion began in Barcelona, called “Corpus de Sangre” (07/06/1640), when the reapers killed the Viceroy. The riots were widespread throughout Catalonia, whose institutions (Government) requested French assistance and integration of the Principality into the Kingdom of France. The twelve years after the conflict ended with the surrender of Barcelona to the troops of Felipe IV. Catalonia, though beaten, held its charter. Portugal’s rebellion broke out the same year as that of Catalonia. The Portuguese had always been reluctant to union with the Hispanic monarchy, but while their autonomy was respected, they had no conflicts. Centralizing purposes of Olivares led to the revolt that ended with the independence of Portugal.
4. The Minor Habsburg Spain: The Foreign Policy. The Decline of Habsburg Hegemony
The seventeenth century is the century of the loss of Habsburg hegemony in Europe. Foreign policy during the reign of Philip III was the signing of peace with countries vying for hegemony in the Hispanic monarchy. The Count Duke of Olivares, favored by Philip IV, compared to the passivity of the previous reign, attempted a political and military offensive to try to halt the decline of Spanish power. This explains the participation in the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), whose general war in Europe appeared to have religious reasons, but it was really settled by the role of hegemonic power. The opposing sides were the countries with Protestant and Catholic France against the Habsburgs of Madrid and Vienna. The treaties of Westphalia ended the war and the Habsburg hegemony. Spain then had to recognize the independence of Holland. But the Peace of Westphalia was not for Spain, as the Count-Duke decided to continue the war with France. The French victory was sealed in the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659), as ultrapyrenean Spain lost territories of Roussillon and Cerdaña. During the reign of Charles II, Spanish possessions were maintained, despite the monarchy no longer having the strength to defend them. In 1700, Charles II died, and with it, the Habsburg dynasty. The dynastic change resulted in a war of succession that will result in the loss of all possessions in Europe.
5. Economic and Social Developments in the Seventeenth Century
The seventeenth century is a century of crisis across Europe, but especially in Castile, exhausted by the weight of the Empire. The periphery, which had been kept out of the benefits, but also the cost of imperial policy, did not experience depression as much as Castilla. The population declined, and one of the main causes was the subsistence crisis, the shortage of agricultural production. The craft and its most important branch, textile, with very fragile production structures, were affected by the contraction of demand and strong competition from foreign textiles. Finally, the Crown, always in bankruptcy, appealed to all sorts of mechanisms for income (tax burden, coins), which contributed to the economic collapse of Castile. In this situation, the seventeenth-century society maintained its rigid structure and polarized estates: the distance increased at the level of the privileged classes compared to the State level because, although all social groups met a decline in their incomes, the economic crisis most affected the poorest. A huge mass of impoverished peasants and artisans was created, adding to the group of beggars and vagrants.
6. Mentality and Culture in the Golden Age
In the seventeenth-century society, strongly polarized between a privileged minority (nobility and clergy) and an impoverished majority due to the economic crisis, a social mentality rooted that valued the nobility (idleness, living without working) and despised manual labor. This created a society of gentlemen and rogues, an anti-bourgeois society as productive activities were despised. This social mentality is formalized in the picaresque novel. Paradoxically, in this age of widespread crisis, Spanish culture was at the height of its splendor, as the seventeenth century is known as the Golden Age. One of its most accused features against other European cultures was the defense of Catholicism, the Counter-Reformation that permeated art and culture in general. The Golden Age in literature meant the final demarcation of Castilian as a universal language. Poetry flourished (Garcilaso, Góngora, Quevedo), drama (Lope de Vega, Calderón, Tirso de Molina), and the novel, especially with the typically Spanish genre of picaresque and, above all, the great universal model of the modern novel, “Don Quixote.” The philosophical, theological, and political development was closely linked to the defense of Catholic values, but also noted a group of intellectuals concerned about the decline of Spain (the referee). The seventeenth-century Spanish art is made in the context of European Baroque art, but also has the peculiarity of being essentially religious, reaching the summit of artistic creativity in architecture, sculpture, and, above all, in painting, with Velázquez as the maximum exponent. However, in general, this splendor was accompanied by the absence of Spanish science. Spain did not join the great scientific revolution that developed in Europe, and this will have serious consequences in the future.
8. The Eighteenth Century: The First Bourbons
1. The Succession War and the System of Utrecht
In 1700, Charles II, the last king of the house of Austria, died without heirs. In his will, he left the French Spanish throne to Felipe de Borbón, Duke of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV, who took possession of the crown as Philip V. This was a strengthening of the power of the Bourbons in Europe, the power of France’s “Sun King,” so they immediately set up a grand alliance of England, Portugal, Holland, and Austria, who did not accept the will of Charles II and supported the candidacy to the throne of Spain of the Archduke Charles of Austria. This situation led to the War of Succession. Within Spain, Castilla accepted the new king, Felipe V, while the Crown of Aragon supported the Austrian for fear of Bourbon centralism. By the Peace of Utrecht (1713), which ended the war, King Philip V of Spain was recognized, but instead, the Spanish empire in Europe was going on, mostly at the hands of Austria, while Gibraltar and Menorca remained under British rule. Likewise, England obtained various privileges in trade with America.
2. The Eighteenth-Century Dynastic Change: The Internal Reforms
The new dynasty of the Bourbons, the French model, introduced in Spain a political system of absolute monarchy that replaced the authoritarian monarchy of the Habsburgs. Absolutism implies administrative centralization and uniformity. The reforms began centralizing and standardizing Philip V with the Nueva Planta decrees, which were applied to almost all the territories, including the hitherto Crown of Aragon. These decrees abolished all privileges and institutions, including the courts. From now on, there will be only the Cortes. The New Plant decrees were followed by a reorganization of the administration. In central government, councils were replaced by secretariats, similar to existing ministries. Territorial administration in the viceroys was deleted, and the whole territory was divided into provinces, each with a Captain General at the front. In local government, the figure of the mayor was extended to all municipalities in the state. Finally, the Bourbons introduced in Spain the French figure of the Mayor, the official who reported directly to the king and whose main function was to manage everything related to the militia and the hacienda. There was one province. The new state was centralist and uniform, with one exception: the Basque provinces and Navarre, which maintained their traditional privileges.
3. The Practice of Enlightened Despotism: Carlos III
The political system of enlightened despotism, whose practice was widespread throughout Europe from the French source, is based on a kind of pact between absolute monarchy and the bourgeoisie, whose interests are represented by the Enlightenment. The absolute monarch agrees to implement those reforms illustrated that do not decrease its power or demolish the structures of the ancien regime. With these premises, the possibilities for change were limited. In Spain, the practice of enlightened despotism is for Carlos III and his illustrated ministers (Campomanes, Jovellanos, Aranda, Floridablanca). The policy reform focused on three areas: economic policy reforms did not elaborate on, was limited to colonizing some areas semidespobladas (Sierra Morena), to create real articles to declare honorable manual labor and American trade show to all Spanish ports. But he failed in the most ambitious project of enlightened despotism, ending the tax exemption of the nobility and clergy. Education policy was reduced to the foundation of some very minority educational institutions and specialized. The religious policy intended to end the social influence of the Church and subjecting it to state power, but his biggest success was the expulsion of the Jesuits. The reformist projects, despite their restraint, found strong hostility from the privileged classes that, especially the clergy, were able to manipulate their behalf to popular groups. The low social support found in the urban bourgeois reformism was channeled through the Economic Societies of Friends of the Country.
4. The Evolution of Spanish Foreign Policy in Europe during the Eighteenth Century
After the War of Succession, Spain lost all its possessions in Europe and stopped counting as a power in international relations, but it allowed him to get rid of the huge military and financial weight required by the maintenance of these possessions, maintaining that he had pillaged the Castilian economy. However, Spain participated in several wars during the eighteenth century. With Felipe V, there were several attempts to regain influence in Italy, which led to confrontation with Austria. The result was that Philip V in Italy managed to install two of his sons, Prince Charles (future Charles III) as king of Naples-Sicily and Prince Philip as the Duke of Parma. The second line of the foreign policy of Philip V was the alliance with France (Family Pacts) against a common enemy, England, which competed with the French fleet for dominance of the North Atlantic routes and broke through smuggling, the monopoly of Spain’s trade in its American colonies. The alliance with France that started Felipe V was maintained until the end of the century with Family Covenants, successive foreign policies that would bind the two countries. The reign of Fernando VI (eldest son of Felipe V and his first wife) was a period of neutrality that was broken shortly afterwards. With Carlos III on the throne, Spain, faithful to its alliance with France, participated in various international conflicts in order to regain Gibraltar and Minorca and defend their territories in the Americas. The defeat in the Seven Years War led to the loss of Florida. Shortly afterwards, in the Treaty that ended the War of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies of North America, Spain regained Minorca and Florida but not Gibraltar.
5. The Enlightenment in Spain
The Enlightenment, a philosophical movement that was born in France, based on the principles of rationality and material progress, made a devastating criticism of all structures of the ancien regime and proposed a new political, social, and economic development that favored the interests of the bourgeoisie. In Spain, the dissemination of new ideas was delayed for numerous reasons: lack of a powerful bourgeoisie, the enormous weight of the Church, the stiffness of the Spanish universities, and the ignorance of the vast majority of the population. In the second half of the eighteenth century, writings of Feijoo, Campomanes, Floridablanca, Jovellanos … collected and spread ideas of the Enlightenment, but their spread was extremely limited in a society dominated by the nobility and the clergy that very easily manipulated the ignorance of popular groups. The learned Spanish, unlike the French, were not revolutionary and did not criticize religion. Its proposals focused on two areas: the introduction of compulsory primary education to collect new scientific knowledge and concern for the country’s economic backwardness in relation to others. Words like “patriotism” and “nation” were now released, and would find full development in the nineteenth century. Some enlightened Spaniards were ministers during the period of enlightened despotism of Charles III and tried to implement their reformist ideas, but very limited.