Ferdinand and Isabella’s Reign and Bourbon Centralization
Character and Significance of the Monarchy of Ferdinand and Isabella
Territorial expansion completed in his reign. Dynastic union. Hispanic monarchy.
The personal or dynastic union of Castile and Aragon was the first step towards the establishment of the Spanish State. The monarchy’s political traffic meant a weak monarchy and feudal to a modern state held in the form of an authoritarian monarchy. Castile, whose potential was well above the population of Catalonia and Aragon, held the hegemony of the peninsula, but taking the idea to change the federal Crown of Aragon in the formation of the Spanish State. The authoritarian monarchy settled for a long time the basic structures of Spanish rule, maintaining the unitary trend as a whole, but while respecting the plurality that provided each of its kingdoms and its historical personality and the respective areas of influence as its outreach.
The monarchy is defined as a system of government where all the powers of the fragmented medieval feudal world (territorial, administrative, military, fiscal, judicial) are concentrated in the person of the king. This is achieved by providing the monarchy of four major powers (judicial, fiscal, diplomatic, and military) of the governing bodies to exercise their power (Royal Council, hearings, chancelleries, standing army, church patronage) and support social need to address it (nobility, bourgeoisie, peasantry, and clergy), on the basis that these groups understood to be favored by the change.
It also meant the union of the Iberian Peninsula, in the territorial aspects, racial, religious, or ideological, with the submission of social groups.
Overcoming the low medieval crisis, the closure of conflicts and civil wars, and the beginning of Spain’s expansion beyond its borders.
Annexations and Marriages
The new monarchy established as a priority the expansion of the kingdom. The media and political stage for achieving this were several.
- The war was not used widely and it highlighted the leadership of the kings, and innovation in tactics and organization, and what was the new Spanish standing army.
- The victory over the Nasrid kingdom of Granada (1492) allowed the incorporation of a rich country, secured the southern flank, and united all sides in a common enterprise.
- The Wars of Italy were due to both Aragon and France fighting over the western Mediterranean, and both claimed to be the head of Christendom. Within this context, the first stage of confrontation was Italy, a key to defending the interests of Aragon in the Mediterranean, and especially Milan, a strategic communications center in central Europe. The troops of the Great Captain defeated the French, who in spite of maintaining Milan had to give up the rest of the peninsula.
- The War in North Africa against the Muslims tried to cut the possibility of a mainland invasion and protect the Mediterranean trade routes.
- The policy of matrimonial alliances was the most widely used resource at the diplomatic level. The kings married their daughters in order that the children of such marriages were creating a web of alliances around Castile. Priority was England, Burgundy, and Portugal in the mood to isolate France. Also part of this policy was the approach to Navarre, which would allow peaceful incorporation into Castile in the sixteenth, approaching if the obsessive drive to the Peninsula.
- The need to find new trade routes to Asian markets, unable to access them by the Mediterranean route, cut by the Turks after the fall of Byzantium along with the growing suspicion on reasonable grounds that the earth was round, resulted in the exploration of new routes, and the search for new lands and mining areas. This will be facilitated by the development of new techniques (compasses, portolan charts, faster boats and ships, astrolabes to calculate positions) that enabled venture into the sea.
- Castile rivals Portugal in this way. The Treaty of Tordesillas divided the newly discovered world into two large areas. Two events marked the Castilian discovery: the conquest and colonization of the Canary Islands and the conquest of America.
The Decrees of Nueva Planta and Bourbon Centralization
Decrees of Nueva Planta
The takeover by Philip V of Spain brought an attempt to solve the problems of the country, according to the state characteristic formulas of Louis XIV.
This new model of state-building Bourbon monarchs was mainly characterized by two features: Strong absolutism, both theoretical (the king is above the law) and practical (the king is the center of all decisions). A high degree of centralization.
The absolutist implementation of this policy originated in Spain a very important series of transformations.
Due to the centralist policy of Philip V, the political autonomy (own laws) of countries that made up the Kingdom of Aragon was abolished by the Nueva Planta decrees (the pretext was the support of these countries for the Archduke of Austria during the War of Succession). In this way, except for the Basque Country and Navarre, the entire country was unified politically and administratively.
Administrative Reform
It was created as a complement to this political unification, a single model of territorial administration for all parts of the kingdom (except the Basque Country and Navarre), based on the division of the territory into provinces. The highest authority in each province was the Captain General that he was in military, law enforcement, and justice (originally was the head of the army, which had accumulated other political and administrative functions, so that all the administration relied on him).
Along with acting Captain General Audience, consisting of several members, who acted as a court of justice, both as an advisory body of the Captain General. There is now also a new office in the provincial administration: the Mayor with an economic function. The stewards conducted a double action: seeking information on economic aspects, and encouraged the development of productive activities.
This new organization negated the existence of any policy decision center outside Madrid, as all who hold authority in the provinces were as delegates of the King (who appointed them or kept them freely and clearly marked patterns their performance).
It also comes in a reorganization of central power. The most important change introduced was the gradual replacement of the Councils by the Office Secretaries (Ministers). This change is the practical realization of the theory that power rests with the king, who chooses freely to his aides, ministers, which only have authority as they enjoy their confidence. The ministers were busy, each one specialized aspect of government, and although their number and varied functions throughout the century, saying the trend was set in its number 6: Treasury, War, Navy, Justice, State, and Indian.
For their part, the courts have lost their political power. The different courts were reduced to a few, and their only function was the swearing of the heir to the throne.