Spanish Empire: Rise, Fall, and Bourbon Era

Rise and Fall of the Spanish Empire

1516: Upon the death of Ferdinand of Aragon, the Spanish Crown falls on Charles I of Spain and V of Germany, which brings together under one scepter the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, plus Italian and European domains of the Habsburgs.

1519: Charles was crowned Holy Roman Emperor (28 June), which involves Spain in endless wars. The monarch faces the Ottoman Empire, taking prisoner at Pavia Francis I of France, and tries to resolve the serious problem of the Reformation.

1556: Charles abdicates and enters the monastery of Yuste (where he died two years later), dividing his dominions between his son Philip II and his younger brother Ferdinand I. Most of the Empire remains in the hands of the Spanish branch of the House of Austria.

1571: Don Juan of Austria, brother of Philip II, defeats the Turks at the naval battle of Lepanto.

1588: Disaster of the Armada against England. The decline of Spain becomes more noticeable.

1700: With the death of Charles II, ending the dynasty of the Habsburgs, the Spanish Succession War explodes, involving France, England, and Austria.

1714: The war ends. France imposes Philip of Anjou (Philip V), grandson of Louis XIV, as king of Spain. Spain loses Belgium, Luxembourg, Milan, Naples, Sardinia, Minorca, and Gibraltar.

Charles II, last of the Spanish Habsburgs, left no direct descendants but named as his successor, the grandson of his sister Maria Teresa and Louis XIV of France, Philip of Anjou. Crowned King of Spain and the Indies, Philip V was the first Spanish Bourbon king. His reign inaugurated Spain in the Enlightenment, an era of harmonious foreign relations, internal reform, and development.

Philip V’s reign can be divided clearly into three distinct phases: first, the stage of tutelage by France, then independence, and finally, the stage of equilibrium with the great neighboring nation.

1759-1788: During the reign of Charles III, the policy of Prime Minister Floridablanca kept Spain away from conflict, despite the modest intervention in the American Revolutionary War. Charles III undertook a major reorganization of the nation, reformed its agriculture, and introduced the latest in urban design from his native Naples. It was the time when Madrid transformed from a population just over the Channel to become a modern city, full of elegant buildings in the style of Paris, Milan, and Naples. Piped water, sewerage, and street lighting were introduced with great style and splendor.

Although there was considerable resistance to the introduction of new ideas at lower levels, the nation’s intellectuals were receptive to the ideas of the Enlightenment and Diderot’s Encyclopedia. Spain began to produce architects, engineers, geographers, and naturalists. Later, democratic ideas engendered by the French Revolution were to reach Spain, but would not be embraced by political elites and leaders.

After a brief period of enforced alliance with France, which culminated in the British defeat against the Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar, Napoleon’s troops invaded Spain. The bloody war in the six years that followed – the Peninsular War, known in Spain as the War of Independence – which involved guerrilla tactics and vandalism, dealt a mortal blow to the Spanish economy.