The pacification at the time of Philip III The road to Rocroi The Last Spanish Habsburgs Africa and the Mediterranean The New World Explorers and conquistadors Organization and administration Audiencias, the High Courts Cabildos or town councils The Spanish Empire reform and recovery – Bourbon Reforms th century prosperity Overseas expansion Twilight of the Global Empire – Spanish American independence Changes and Reaction Territories in Africa – Legacy References Notes Bibliography Further reading External links Definition edit Part of a series on the History of Spain Coat of arms of Spain Early history show Medieval show Early modern show Modern show Contemporary show By topic show Timeline Portal icon Spain portal v t e The land of the Iberian peninsula was commonly called Hispania since Roman times and during the Visigothic Kingdom The Reconquista resulted in the emergence of four Christian realms Castile, Aragon, Navarre and Portugal The dynastic union between the Crown of Castile which included the kingdom of Navarre after and the Crown of Aragon, by the Catholic Monarchs Spanish Reyes Católicos initiated a political authoritarian system in force until the beginning of the th century, which has become known as the Spanish monarchy During this period, the Spanish sovereign acted as monarch in a unitary manner over all his territories through a polisynodial system of Councils, although his power as king or lord varied from one territory to another, since each territory retained its own particular administration and juridical configuration The unity did not mean uniformity Since the Crown of Castile had funded the voyage of Christopher Columbus in , the empire in the Americas what was often termed The Indies , was a newly established dependency of that kingdom alone, so crown power was not impeded by any existing cortes i e parliament , administrative or ecclesiastical institution, or seigneurial group Under this political configuration, irrespective of the denominations given to the dynastic union existing from to , the Portuguese realm kept its own administration and jurisdiction over its territory as did the other kingdoms and realms ruled by the Spanish Habsburgs Nevertheless, some historians assert that Portugal was a kingdom which formed part of the Spanish Monarchy at that time while others draw a clear distinction between the Portuguese and the Spanish Empires The Spanish Empire included the dominions of the Spanish monarch in the Americas, Asia, Oceania and Africa,

but some disputes exist as to which European territories are to be counted For instance, normally the Habsburg Netherlands are included, as they were part of the possessions of the King of Spain, were governed by Spanish officials, and were defended by Spanish troops However, authors like the British historian Henry Kamen contend that these territories were not fully integrated into a Spanish state and instead formed part of the wider Habsburg possessions Some historians use Habsburg and Spanish almost interchangeably when referring to the dynastic inheritance of Charles V or Philip II Anachronous map of the Spanish Empire including territorial claims Origins edit Canary Islands edit Main article Conquest of the Canary Islands During the th century, Castile and Portugal became territorial and commercial rivals in the western Atlantic Portugal obtained several Papal bulls which acknowledged Portuguese control over the discovered territories, but Castile also obtained from the Pope the safeguard of its rights to the Canary Islands with the bulls Romani Pontifex dated November and Dominatur Dominus dated April The Conquest of the Canary Islands, inhabited by Guanche people, began in during the reign of Henry III of Castile, by Norman noblemen Jean de Béthencourt under a feudal agreement with the crown The conquest was completed with the campaigns of the armies of the Crown of Castille between and , when the islands of Gran Canaria – , La Palma – and Tenerife – were subjected Treaty of Alcáçovas and the first colonial war edit See also Battle of Guinea, Palos de la Frontera and Treaty of Alcáçovas The Portuguese tried vainly to keep secret their discovery of the Gold Coast in the Gulf of Guinea, but the news quickly caused a huge gold rush Chronicler Pulgar wrote that the fame of the treasures of Guinea spread around the ports of Andalusia in such way that everybody tried to go there Worthless trinkets, Moorish textiles, and above all, shells from the Canary and Cape Verde islands were exchanged for gold, slaves, ivory and Guinea pepper The War of the Castilian Succession – provided the Catholic Monarchs with the opportunity not only to attack the main source of the Portuguese power, but also to take possession of this lucrative commerce The Crown officially organized this trade with Guinea every caravel had to get a government license and to pay a tax on one fifth of their profits a receiver of the customs of Guinea was established in Seville in – the ancestor of the future and famous Casa de Contratación The Castilian fleets fought all over the Atlantic Ocean, occupying temporarily the Cape Verde islands , conquering the city of Ceuta in Tingitana Peninsula, in nevertheless it was retaken by the Portuguese , and even attacked the Azores islands, being defeated at Praia But the turning point of the war came in , when a Castilian fleet sent by Ferdinand to conquer Gran Canaria lost men and ships to the Portuguese who expelled it, and above all, a large Castilian armada—full of gold—was entirely captured in the decisive battle of Guinea The Treaty of Alcáçovas September , while assuring the Castilian throne to the Catholic Monarchs, reflected the Castilian naval and colonial defeat War with Castile broke out waged savagely in the Gulf of Guinea until the Castilian fleet of thirty five sail was defeated there in As a result of this naval victory, at the Treaty of Alcáçovas in Castile, while retaining her rights in the Canaries, recognized the Portuguese monopoly of fishing and navigation along the whole West Africa coast and Portugal's rights over the Madeira, Azores and Cape Verde islands plus the right to conquer the Kingdom of Fez The treaty delimited the spheres of influence of the two countries, establishing the principle of the Mare clausum It was confirmed in by the Pope Sixtus IV, in the papal bull Æterni regis dated on June However, this experience would prove to be profitable for the future Spanish overseas expansion, because as the Spaniards were excluded from the lands discovered or to be discovered from the Canaries southward —and consequently from the road to India around Africa— they sponsored the Columbus' voyage towards West in search of Asia and its spices Thus, the limitations imposed by Alcáçovas were overcome and a new and more balanced world's division would be reached at Tordesillas between both superpowers Treaty of Tordesillas edit Main article Treaty of Tordesillas Columbus and the Catholic Monarchs The return of Columbus to Spain Seven months before the treaty of Alcaçovas, King John II of Aragon died, and his son Ferdinand II of Aragon, married to the Queen of Castile, Isabella, inherited the thrones of the Crown of Aragon The two became known as the Catholic Monarchs, with their marriage a personal union that created a relationship between the Crown of Aragon and Castile, each with their own administrations, but ruled jointly by the two monarchs After a war of years, the Granada War, in , the Catholic Monarchs drove out the last Moorish king of Granada After their victory, the Catholic Monarchs negotiated with Christopher Columbus, a Genoese sailor attempting to reach Cipangu by sailing west Castile was already engaged in a race of exploration with Portugal to reach the Far East by sea when Columbus made his bold proposal to Isabella In the Capitulations of Santa Fe, dated on April , Christopher Columbus obtained from the Catholic Monarchs his appointment as viceroy and governor in the lands already discovered and that of he might discover thenceforth thereby, it was the first document to establish an administrative organization in the Indies Columbus' discoveries inaugurated the Spanish colonization of the Americas Spain's claim to these lands was solidified by the Inter caetera papal bull dated May , and Dudum siquidem on September , which vested the sovereignty of the territories discovered and to be discovered Since the Portuguese wanted to keep the line of demarcation of Alcaçovas running east and west along a latitude south of Cape Bojador, a compromise was worked out which was incorporated in the Treaty of Tordesillas dated on June , in which the globe was split into two hemispheres dividing Spanish and Portuguese claims These actions gave Spain exclusive rights to establish colonies in all of the New World from north to south except Brazil , as well as the easternmost parts of Asia The treaty of Tordesillas was confirmed by Pope Julius II in the bull Ea quae pro bono pacis on January Spain's expansion and colonization was driven by economic influences, a yearning to improve national prestige, and a desire to spread Catholicism into the New World On the other hand, the treaty of Tordesillas and the treaty of Cintra September established the limits of the Kingdom of Fez for Portugal, and outside of these limits the Castilian expansion was allowed, beginning with the conquest of Melilla in Struggles for Italy edit See also Italian Wars The death of French general Gaston de Foix at the Battle of Ravenna The Catholic Monarchs had developed a strategy of marriages for their children in order to isolate their long time enemy France The Spanish princes married the heirs of Portugal, England and the House of Habsburg Following the same strategy, the Catholic Monarchs decided to support the Catalan Aragonese house of Naples against Charles VIII of France in the Italian Wars from As King of Aragon, Ferdinand had been involved in the struggle against France and Venice for control of Italy these conflicts became the center of Ferdinand's foreign policy as king In these battles, which established the supremacy of the Spanish Tercios in European battlefields, the forces of the kings of Spain acquired a reputation for invincibility that would last until the mid th century After the death of Queen Isabella, Ferdinand, as Spain's sole monarch, adopted a more aggressive policy than he had as Isabella's husband, enlarging Spain's sphere of influence in Italy and against France Ferdinand's first deployment of Spanish forces came in the War of the League of Cambrai against Venice, where the Spanish soldiers distinguished themselves on the field alongside their French allies at the Battle of Agnadello Only a year later, Ferdinand became part of the Holy League against France, seeing a chance at taking both Milan — to which he held a dynastic claim – and Navarre This war was less of a success than the war against Venice, and in , France agreed to a truce that left Milan in its control and recognized Spanish control of Upper Navarre Papal Bulls and the Indies edit Upon the death of Ferdinand the Catholic, the lordship of the Spanish Indies became Kingdoms of the Indies The Papal Bull Inter caetera of by Alexander VI, a Valencian known as Rodrigo Borgia prior to his election as pope, vested government and jurisdiction of newly found lands in the kings of Castile and León and their successors According to the Concord of Segovia of , Ferdinand was mentioned in the bulls as king of Castile and upon his death the title of the Indies was to be incorporated into the Crown of Castile The territories were incorporated by the Catholic Monarchs as jointly held assets In the Treaty of Villafáfila king Ferdinand the Catholic renounced not only the government of Castile in favour of his son in law Philip I of Castile but also the lordship of the Indies, withholding a half of the income of the kingdoms of the Indies Joanna of Castile and Philip immediately added to their titles the kingdoms of Indies, Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea But the Treaty of Villafáfila did not hold for long because of the death of Philip Ferdinand returned as regent of Castile and as lord the Indies According to the domain granted by Papal bulls and the wills of queen Isabella of Castile in and king Ferdinand of Aragon in , such property become definitely a property of the Crown of Castile This arrangement was ratified by successive monarchs, beginning with Charles I in in a decree that spelt out the juridical status of the new overseas territories The lordship of the discovery territories conveyed by papal bulls was private as public to kings of Castile and León The political condition of the Indias were to transform from Lordship of the Catholic monarchs to Kingdoms for the heirs of Castile Although the Alexandrine Bulls gave full, free and omnipotent power to Catholic Monarchs, they did not rule them as a private property but as a public property through the public bodies and authorities from Castile, and when those territories were incorporated into the Crown of Castile the royal power was subject to the laws of Castile First settlements in the Americas and Crown control edit See also Voyages of Christopher Columbus and Treaty of Tordesillas The Crown of Castile's Capitulations of Santa Fe granted expansive power to Christopher Columbus, including exploration, settlement, political power, and revenues, with sovereignty reserved to the Crown of Castile The first voyage established sovereignty for the crown and the crown acted on the assumption that Columbus's grandiose assessment of what he found was true, so that Spain negotiated the Treaty of Tordesillas with Portugal to protect their territory on the Spanish side of the line The crown fairly quickly reassessed its relationship to Columbus and moved to assert more direct crown control over the territory and extinguish his privileges With that lesson learned, the crown was far more prudent in the specifying the terms of exploration, conquest, and settlement in new areas The pattern in the Caribbean that played out over the larger Spanish Indies was exploration of an unknown area and claim of sovereignty for the crown conquest of indigenous peoples or assumption of control without direct violence settlement by Spaniards who were awarded the labour of indigenous people via the encomienda and the existing settlements becoming the launch point for further exploration, conquest, and settlement, followed by the establishment institutions with officials appointed by the crown The patterns set in the Caribbean were replicated throughout the expanding Spanish sphere, so although the importance of the Caribbean quickly faded after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire and the Spanish conquest of the Incas, many of those participating in those conquests had started their exploits in the Caribbean The first permanent European settlements in the New World were established in the Caribbean, initially on the island of Hispaniola, later Cuba and Puerto Rico As a Genoese with the connections to Portugal, Columbus considered settlement to be on the pattern of trading forts and factories, with salaried employees to trade with locals and to identify exploitable resources However, Spanish settlement in the New World was based on a pattern of a large, permanent settlements with the entire complex of institutions and material life to replicate Castilian life in a different venue Columbus's second voyage in had a large contingent of settlers and goods to accomplish that On Hispaniola, the city of Santo Domingo was founded in by Christopher Columbus's brother Bartholomew Columbus and became a stone built, permanent city The early history of the first settlements are deeply entwined with Christopher Columbus and his extended family and the crown's attempts to limit the expansive powers granted by the crown's first contract with Columbus, the Capitulations of Santa Fe Although Columbus staunchly asserted and believed that the lands he encountered were in Asia, the paucity of material wealth and the relative lack of complexity of indigenous society meant that the Crown of Castile initially was not concerned with the extensive powers granted Columbus However, as the Caribbean became a draw for Spanish settlement and as Columbus and his extended Genoese family failed to be recognized as officials worthy of the titles they held, there was unrest Catholic Monarchs reacted when Columbus encountered the mainland in They learned of his discovery in May , and, taking advantage of a revolt against Columbus in Hispaniola, they appointed Francisco de Bobadilla as governor


abby-lane abby-rode abigail-clayton ada-tauler addie-juniper addison-cain adele-wiesenthal adeline-lange adeline-pollicina adriana-amante adrianna-laurenti adrianna-russo agnes agnes-ardant agnes-zalontai aimee-addison aisha-sun aja aleena-ferari alessandra-schiavo aletta-ocean alexandra-nice alexandria-cass alexa-parks alex-dane alex-foxe alexia-knight alexis-devell alexis-firestone alexis-greco alexis-payne alexis-x alex-storm alex-white aliana-love alice-springs alicia-alighatti alicia-monet alicia-rio alicyn-sterling alighiera-olena ali-moore aline-santos alissa-ashley allysin-chaynes alysin-embers alyssa-love alyssa-reece amanda-addams amanda-blake amanda-blue amanda-jane-adams amanda-rae amanda-stone amanda-tyler amber-hunt amberlina-lynn amber-lynn amber-michaels amber-peach amber-wild amber-woods ambrosia-fox amia-miley ami-rodgers amy-allison amy-brooke amy-rose amy-starz anastasia-christ anastasia-sands andrea-adams andrea-brittian andrea-lange andrea-true andy angel 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danielle danielle-foxxx danielle-rodgers danny-ricci danyel-cheeks daphne daphne-rosen darby-lloyd-rains darla-crane darla-delovely davia-ardell dayton-rain debbie-northrup debbie-revenge debbie-van-gils debi-diamond debi-jointed debra-lynn deidra-hopkins deidre-holland delania-raffino delia-moore delphine-thail delta-force delta-white demi-moor denice-klarskov denise-derringer denise-dior denise-sloan desiree-cousteau desiree-foxx desiree-lane desiree-west deva-station devin-devasquez devinn-lane devon-shire dia diana-holt diana-kisabonyi diana-siefert diana-stevenson diane-dubois diane-richards diane-sloan diane-suresne dido-angel dillan-lauren dina-deville dina-jewel dina-pearl ditty-blue diva divinity-love djiana dolly-darkley dominique dominique-dewitt dominique-saint-claire donna-hart donna-marie dorle-buchner dorothy-lemay dorothy-onan drea drimla dru-berrymore dusty-rose dyanna-lauren ebony-ayes edina-blond edita-ungerova edwige-faillel eileen-wells elaine-southern elena-berkova elena-maria-ricci eleonore-melzer elisabeth-bure elis-black elise elise-di-medici elle-devyne elle-rio elodie-delage elsa-maroussia elza-brown emili-doll emily-evermoore emily-george emily-jewel emmanuelle-pareze envy-mi erica-boyer erica-eaton erica-havens erica-idol erica-lauren erika-bella erika-cool erika-heaven erika-lockett esme-monroe eva-allen eva-angel eva-dionisio eva-gross eva-kleber eva-lux eva-uettori eve-laurence evelyne-lang evie-delatosso fabiana-venturi faith-stevens fallon fanny-garreau fanny-steel faye-runaway flame flick-shagwell flore-soller flower france-lomay france-quenie francoise frankie-leigh gabriella gabriella-mirelba gabriella-vincze gail-force gail-palmer gail-sterling georgette-saunders georgia-peach georgina-spelvin gia-givanna gianna-lynn gili-sky gina-carrera gina-gianetti gina-janssen gina-lee gina-martell gina-valentino ginger-jay ginger-lee ginger-lynn ginny-noack giovanna gisela-schwarz giselle-monet gladys-laroche gloria-leonard gloria-todd golden-jade greta-carlson greta-milos guia-lauri-filzi gwenda-farnel hare-krane harley-raine hayley-jade hazel-young heather-deeley heather-ellis heather-hart heather-lere heather-lyn heather-manfield heather-thomas heather-torrance heather-wayne heather-young helen-madigan helen-thomas helga-sven helga-wild hillary-summers holly-hollywood holly-joy holly-page holly-ryder honey-winter hottie-hollie hyapatia-lee ida-fabry ildiko-smits illana-moor ines-ridere ingrid-choray isabella-dior isabella-soprano isabelle-allay isabelle-brell isabelle-marchall isobel-wren iveta ivette-blanche jackie-right jacqueline-lorians jacy-allen jada-stevens jade-east jade-hsu jade-marcela jade-summers jade-wong jahn-gold jamie-brooks jamie-james jamie-summers jana-irrova jana-mrazkova jane-baker jane-darling jane-iwanoff jane-lindsay jane-lixx janet-jacme janey-robbins jasmine-delatori jayden-simone jaylyn-rose jayna-woods jazella-moore jazmin-luna-gold jean-afrique jeanette-littledove 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kapri-styles kara-nox karen-summer kari-foxx karine-gambier karin-schubert karli-sweet karmen-kennedy karol-castro kascha kassi-nova kat kate-frost kate-jones kathia-nobili kathleen-gentry kathleen-white kathy-divan kathy-harcourt kathy-heart kathy-kash katie-cummings katja-love kat-langer katrina-isis katrina-kraven katy-borman katy-caro kaycee-dean kayla-kupcakes kay-parker k-c-valentine keama-kim keira-moon keisha keli-richards kelli-tyler kelly-adams kelly-blue kelly-broox kelly-hearn kelly-kay kelly-kline kelly-nichols kelly-royce kelly-skyline kendra-kay kenzi-marie keri-windsor ketthy-divan kianna-dior kiley-heart kim-alexis kimber-blake kimberly-carson kimberly-kane kimberly-kyle kim-de-place kim-holland kimi-gee kimkim-de kim-kitaine kimmie-lee kimmy-nipples kina-kara kira-eggers kira-red kirsty-waay kitty-langdon kitty-lynxxx kitty-marie kitty-shayne kitty-yung kora-cummings kris-lara krista-lane krista-maze kristara-barrington kristarah-knight kristi-klenot kristina-blonde 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lise-pinson little-oral-annie liza-dwyer liza-harper lizzy-borden logan-labrent lois-ayres lola-cait long-jean-silver loni-bunny loni-sanders loona-luxx lorelei-lee lorelei-rand lorena-sanchez lori-alexia lori-blue lorrie-lovett luci-diamond lucie-doll lucie-theodorova lucy-van-dam lydia-baum lynn-franciss lynn-lemay lynn-ray lynn-stevens lynx-canon lysa-thatcher madelina-ray madison-parker magdalena-lynn maggie-randall mai-lin mandi-wine mandy-bright mandy-malone mandy-may mandy-mistery mandy-starr marcia-minor maren margit-ojetz margitta-hofer margo-stevens margot-mahler mariah-cherry marianne-aubert maria-tortuga marie-anne marie-christine-chireix marie-christine-veroda marie-claude-moreau marie-dominique-cabannes marie-france-morel marie-luise-lusewitz marie-sharp marilyn-chambers marilyne-leroy marilyn-gee marilyn-jess marilyn-martyn marilyn-star marina-hedman marion-webb marita-ekberg marita-kemper marlena marlene-willoughby marry-queen martine-grimaud martine-schultz maryanne-fisher mary-hubay mary-ramunno mary-stuart mascha-mouton maud-kennedy mauvais-denoir maxine-tyler maya-black maya-france megan-leigh megan-martinez megan-reece mei-ling melanie-hotlips melanie-scott melba-cruz melinda-russell melissa-bonsardo melissa-del-prado melissa-golden melissa-martinez melissa-melendez melissa-monet mercedes-dragon mercedes-lynn merle-michaels mesha-lynn mia-beck mia-lina mia-smiles michele-raven michelle-aston michelle-ferrari michelle-greco michelle-maren michelle-maylene michelle-monroe micki-lynn mika-barthel mika-tan mikki-taylor mimi-morgan mindy-rae ming-toy miranda-stevens miss-bunny miss-meadow miss-pomodoro missy missy-graham missy-stone missy-vega misti-jane mistress-candice misty-anderson misty-dawn misty-rain misty-regan mona-lisa mona-page moni monica-baal monica-swinn monika-peta monika-sandmayr monika-unco monique-bruno monique-cardin monique-charell monique-demoan monique-gabrielle monique-la-belle morgan-fairlane morrigan-hel moxxie-maddron mulani-rivera mysti-may nadege-arnaud nadia-styles nadine-bronx nadine-proutnal nadine-roussial nadi-phuket nanci-suiter nancy-hoffman nancy-vee natacha-delyro natalia-wood natalli-diangelo natascha-throat natasha-skyler naudia-nyce nessa-devil nessy-grant nesty nicki-hunter nicky-reed nicole-berg nicole-bernard nicole-black nicole-grey nicole-london nicole-parks nicole-scott nicole-taylor nicolette-fauludi nicole-west nika-blond nika-mamic niki-cole nikita-love nikita-rush nikki-charm nikki-grand nikki-king nikki-knight nikki-randall nikki-rhodes nikki-santana nikki-steele nikki-wilde niko nina-cherry nina-deponca nina-hartley nina-preta oana-efria obaya-roberts olesja-derevko olga-cabaeva olga-conti olga-pechova olga-petrova olivia-alize olivia-del-rio olivia-flores olivia-la-roche olivia-outre ophelia-tozzi orchidea-keresztes orsolya-blonde paige-turner paisley-hunter pamela-bocchi pamela-jennings pamela-mann pamela-stanford pamela-stealt pandora paola-albini pascale-vital pat-manning pat-rhea patricia-dale patricia-diamond patricia-kennedy patricia-rhomberg patrizia-predan patti-cakes patti-petite paula-brasile paula-harlow paula-morton paula-price paula-winters pauline-teutscher penelope-pumpkins penelope-valentin petra-hermanova petra-lamas peyton-lafferty phaedra-grant pia-snow piper-fawn pipi-anderson porsche-lynn porsha-carrera precious-silver priscillia-lenn purple-passion queeny-love rachel-ashley rachel-love rachel-luv rachel-roxxx rachel-ryan rachel-ryder racquel-darrian rane-revere raven reagan-maddux rebecca-bardoux regan-anthony regine-bardot regula-mertens reina-leone reka-gabor renae-cruz renee-foxx renee-lovins renee-morgan renee-perez renee-summers renee-tiffany rhonda-jo-petty rikki-blake riley-ray rio-mariah rita-ricardo roberta-gemma roberta-pedon robin-byrd robin-cannes robin-everett robin-sane rochell-starr rosa-lee-kimball rosemarie roxanne-blaze roxanne-hall roxanne-rollan ruby-richards sabina-k sabre 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shyla-foxxx shy-love sierra-sinn sierra-skye sigrun-theil silver-starr silvia-bella silvia-saint silvie-de-lux silvy-taylor simone-west sindee-coxx sindy-lange sindy-shy siobhan-hunter skylar-knight skylar-price skyler-dupree smokie-flame smoking-mary-jane solange-shannon sonya-summers sophia-santi sophie-call sophie-duflot sophie-evans sophie-guers stacey-donovan stacy-lords stacy-moran stacy-nichols stacy-silver stacy-thorn starla-fox starr-wood stefania-bruni stella-virgin stephanie-duvalle stephanie-rage stephanie-renee stevie-taylor summer-knight summer-rose sunny-day sunset-thomas sunshine-seiber susan-hart susanne-brend susan-nero susi-hotkiss suzanne-mcbain suzan-nielsen suzie-bartlett suzie-carina suzi-sparks sweet-nice sweety-pie sybille-rossani sylvia-benedict sylvia-bourdon sylvia-brand sylvia-engelmann syreeta-taylor syren-de-mer syvette szabina-black szilvia-lauren tai-ellis taija-rae taisa-banx talia-james tamara-lee tamara-longley tamara-n-joy tamara-west tami-white tammy tammy-lee tammy-reynolds tania-lorenzo tantala-ray tanya-danielle tanya-fox tanya-foxx tanya-lawson tanya-valis tara-aire tasha-voux tatjana-belousova tatjana-skomorokhova tawnee-lee tawny-pearl tayla-rox taylor-wane teddi-austin teddi-barrett tera-bond tera-heart tera-joy teresa-may teresa-orlowski teri-diver teri-weigel terri-dolan terri-hall tess-ferre tess-newheart thais-vieira tia-cherry tianna tiara tiffany-blake tiffany-clark tiffany-duponte tiffany-rayne tiffany-rousso tiffany-storm tiffany-towers tiffany-tyler tiger-lily tigr timea-vagvoelgyi tina-blair tina-burner tina-evil tina-gabriel tina-loren tina-marie tina-russell tish-ambrose tommi-rose tonisha-mills topsy-curvey tori-secrets tori-sinclair tori-welles tracey-adams traci-lords traci-topps traci-winn tracy-duzit tracy-love tracy-williams tricia-devereaux tricia-yen trinity-loren trisha-rey trista-post trixie-tyler ultramax ursula-gaussmann ursula-moore uschi-karnat valentina valerie-leveau valery-hilton vanessa-chase vanessa-del-rio vanessa-michaels vanessa-ozdanic vanilla-deville velvet-summers veri-knotty veronica-dol veronica-hart veronica-hill veronica-rayne veronica-sage veronika-vanoza via-paxton vicky-lindsay vicky-vicci victoria-evans victoria-gold victoria-knight victoria-luna victoria-paris victoria-slick victoria-zdrok viper virginie-caprice vivian-valentine vivien-martines wendi-white wendy-divine whitney-banks whitney-fears whitney-wonders wonder-tracey wow-nikki xanthia-berstein yasmine-fitzgerald yelena-shieffer yvonne-green zara-whites zsanett-egerhazi zuzie-boobies

of the Indies with civil and criminal jurisdiction over the lands discovered by Columbus He, however, was soon replaced by Nicolás de Ovando in September Henceforth, the Crown would authorize to individuals voyages to discover territories in the Indies only with previous royal license, and since , the monopoly of the Crown was assured by the establishment of Casa de Contratación House of Trade at Seville But the successors of Columbus litigated against the Crown until for the fulfillment of the Capitulations of Santa Fe in the pleitos colombinos Spanish territories in the New World around In metropolitan Spain, the direction of the issues of the Indies was taken over by the Bishop Fonseca between and , and again between and , after a brief period of Jean le Sauvage After the figure of the secretary was added, so then between and Gaspar de Gricio took charge, between and Lope de Conchillos followed him, and since , Francisco de los Cobos In , the Junta of The Indies was constituted as a standing committee belonging to the Council of Castile to address issues of the Indies, and this junta constituted the origin of the Council of the Indies in Following the settlement of Hispaniola which was successful towards the end of the s, the settlers began searching elsewhere to begin new settlements, since there was little apparent wealth and the numbers of indigenous were declining Those from the less prosperous Hispaniola were eager to search for new success in a new settlement From there Juan Ponce de León conquered Puerto Rico and Diego Velázquez took Cuba In , the Board of Navigators met in Burgos concurred the need to establish settlements on the mainland, a project entrusted to Alonso de Ojeda and Diego de Nicuesa as governors, subordinated to the governor of Hispaniola, who was the newly appointed Diego Columbus, with the same legal authority that Ovando The first settlement on the mainland was Santa María la Antigua del Darién in Castilla de Oro now Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia , settled by Vasco Núñez de Balboa in In , Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, and led the first European expedition to see the Pacific Ocean from the West coast of the New World In an action with enduring historical import, Balboa claimed the Pacific Ocean and all the lands adjoining it for the Spanish Crown The judgment of Seville of May recognized the viceregal title to Diego Columbus, but limited it to Hispaniola and to the islands discovered by his father, Christopher Columbus, nevertheless his power was limited by royal officers and magistrates constituting a dual regime of government Therefore, the king Ferdinand II of Aragon as regent of his daughter the queen Joanna separated the territories of mainland, designated as Castilla de Oro, from the viceroy of Hispaniola, establishing as General Lieutenant to Pedrarias Dávila in with functions similar to those of a viceroy, remaining Balboa subordinated as governing of Panama and Coiba on the Pacific Coast, and that after his death returned to Castilla de Oro The territory of Castilla de Oro did not include either Veragua which was comprised approximately between the river Chagres and cape Gracias a Dios , due to this territory was subject to a lawsuit between the Crown and Diego Columbus, or the region farther north, towards the Yucatán peninsula, explored by Yáñez Pinzón and Solís in – , due to its remoteness The conflicts of the viceroy Columbus with the royal officers and with the Audiencia, created in Santo Domingo in , caused his return to the Peninsula in Campaigns in Africa edit After the conquest of Melilla in , the Spanish expansionist policy in North Africa was developed during the regency of Ferdinand the Catholic in Castile, stimulated by the Cardinal Cisneros, once the Reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula was finished That way, several towns and outposts in the North African coast were conquered and occupied by Castile Mazalquivir , Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera , Oran , Algiers , Bugia , and Tripoli In the Atlantic coast, Spain took possession of the outpost of Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña with support from the Canary Islands, and it was retained until with the consent of the treaty of Cintra The Spanish Habsburgs The Sun Never Sets – edit Further information Habsburg Spain, Spanish Habsburgs and Iberian Union The period of the th to the mid th century is known as the Golden Age of Spain in Spanish, Siglo de Oro As a result of the marriage politics of the Catholic Monarchs in Spanish, Reyes Católicos , their Habsburg grandson Charles inherited the Castilian empire in America, the Possessions of the Crown of Aragon in the Mediterranean including a large portion of modern Italy , lands in Germany, the Low Countries, Franche Comté, and Austria this one, along with the rest of hereditary Habsburg domains was almost immediately transferred to Ferdinand, the Emperor's brother While not directly an inheritance, Charles was elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire after the death of his grandfather Emperor Maximilian thanks to prodigious bribes paid the prince electors Charles became the most powerful man in Europe, his rule stretching over an empire in Europe unrivaled in extent until the Napoleonic era It was often said during this time that it was the empire on which the sun never set This sprawling overseas empire of the Spanish Golden Age was controlled, not from inland Valladolid, but from Seville, citation needed where the Casa de Contratación House of Trade regulated commerce with the Indies, as well as licenses for emigration The supreme body for administering the Indies was the Council of the Indies, established in The Castilian Empire abroad was initially a disappointment It did stimulate some trade and industry, but the trading opportunities encountered were limited Matters began to change in the s with the large scale extraction of silver from the rich deposits of Mexico's Guanajuato region, but it was the opening of the silver mines in Mexico's Zacatecas and Potosí in Upper Peru modern day Bolivia in that became legendary During the th century, Spain held the equivalent of US$ trillion terms in gold and silver received from New Spain Ultimately, however, these imports diverted investment away from other forms of industry and contributed to inflation in Spain in the last decades of the th century I learnt a proverb here , said a French traveler in Everything is dear in Spain except silver This situation was aggravated by the loss of much of the commercial and artisan classes with the expulsions of the Jews and Moriscos The vast imports of silver ultimately made Spain overly dependent on foreign sources of raw materials and manufactured goods citation needed The wealthy preferred to invest their fortunes in public debt juros , which were backed by these silver imports, rather than in production of manufactures and the improvement of agriculture This helped perpetuate the medieval aristocratic prejudice that saw manual work as dishonorable long after this attitude had started to decline in other west European countries The silver and gold whose circulation helped facilitate the economic and social revolutions in the Low Countries, France and England and other parts of Europe helped stifle them in Spain The problems caused by inflation were discussed by scholars at the School of Salamanca and arbitristas but they had no impact on the Habsburg government citation needed The Habsburg dynasty spent the Castilian and American riches in wars across Europe on behalf of Habsburg interests, defaulted on their debt several times, and left Spain bankrupt several times These problems led to a number of revolts across his empire, notably that of Castilian rebels in the Revolt of the Comuneros, but these rebellions were put down The Habsburgs' political goals were several Access to the resources of the Americas gold, silver, sugar and products of Asia 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 Protestant Reformation Charles attempted to quell the Reformation at the Diet of Worms but Martin Luther refused to recant his 'heresy ' However, Charles's piety could not stop his mutinying troops from plundering the Holy See in the Sacco di Roma Defending Europe against Islam, notably the Ottoman Empire To spread religion to the unconverted souls of the new world With conflict between Catholics and Protestants raging in Europe, the new world was an ideal place for more Catholics to be recruited The Pillars of Hercules with the motto Plus Ultra as symbol of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in the Town Hall of Seville th century Spanish intervention in Europe edit Struggles of Charles V for Italy edit See also Italian Wars With the ascent of the king Charles I in and his election as sovereign of the Holy Roman Empire in , Francis I of France found himself surrounded by Habsburg territories, invaded the Spanish possessions in Italy in , and inaugurated the second war of Franco Spanish conflict The war was a disaster for France, which suffered defeat at the Battle of Biccoca , the Battle of Pavia , at which Francis was captured , and the Battle of Landriano before Francis relented and abandoned Milan to Spain The Battle of Pavia King Charles I Charles V Holy Roman Emperor achieved victory at the Battle of Pavia in and surprised many Italians and Germans and elicited concerns that Charles would endeavor to gain ever greater power citation needed Pope Clement VII switched sides and now joined forces with France and prominent Italian states against the Habsburg Emperor, resulting in the War of the League of Cognac Charles grew exhausted with the pope's meddling in what he viewed as purely secular affairs In , Charles' army of mercenaries in northern Italy, underpaid and desiring to plunder the city of Rome, mutinied, advanced southward toward Rome, and sacked the city The sack of Rome, while unintended by Charles, embarrassed the papacy sufficiently enough that Clement, and succeeding popes, were considerably more circumspect in their dealings with secular authorities citation needed In , Clement's refusal to annul the first marriage of King Henry VIII of England to Catherine of Aragon may have been partly or entirely motivated by his unwillingness to offend the emperor and have his capital sacked for perhaps a second time The Peace of Barcelona, signed between Charles V and the Pope in , established a more cordial relationship between the two leaders Spain was effectively named the protector of the Catholic cause and Charles was crowned as King of Italy Lombardy in return for Spanish intervention in overthrowing the rebellious Florentine Republic In , the great admiral Andrea Doria allied with the Emperor to oust the French and restore Genoa's independence, opening the prospect for financial renewal marks the first loan from Genoese banks to Charles In , the king of France Francis I announced his unprecedented alliance with the Islamic sultan of the Ottoman, Suleiman the Magnificent, by occupying the Spanish controlled city of Nice in concert with Ottoman 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 V in his invasion of France Although the Spanish were defeated at the Battle of Ceresole in Savoy the French army was unable to seriously threaten Spanish controlled Milan, whilst suffering defeat in the north at the hands of Henry, thereby being forced to accept unfavourable 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 Religious conflicts in the Holy Empire edit A map of the dominion of the Habsburgs following the abdication of Charles V as depicted in The Cambridge Modern History Atlas Habsburg lands are shaded green From the lands in a line from the Netherlands, through to the east of France, to the south of Italy and the islands were retained by the Spanish Habsburgs The Schmalkaldic League had allied itself to the French, and efforts in Germany to undermine the League had been rebuffed Francis's defeat in 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 , 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 In , 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 Defeat of France edit Charles V's only legitimate son, Philip II of Spain r – parted the Austrian possessions with his uncle Ferdinand Philip treated Castile as the foundation of his empire, but the population of Castile was never great enough to provide the soldiers needed to support the Empire When he married Mary Tudor, England was allied to Spain The celebrations following the Peace of Cateau Cambrésis between Spain and France Spain was not yet at peace, as Henry II of France came to the throne in and immediately renewed conflict with Spain Charles's successor, Philip II, aggressively prosecuted the war against France, crushing a French army at the Battle of St Quentin in Picardy in and defeating Henry again at the Battle of Gravelines The Peace of Cateau Cambrésis, signed in , 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, during this period, 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 – The opening for the Genoese banking consortium was the state bankruptcy of Philip II in , 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 European conflicts at the time of Philip II edit The time for rejoicing in Madrid was short lived In , Calvinist led riots in the Netherlands prompted the Duke of Alba to march into the country to restore order In , William of Orange, better known as William the Silent, led a failed attempt to drive Alba 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 According to Luc Normand Tellier, It is estimated that the port of Antwerp was earning the Spanish crown seven times more revenues than the Americas In , 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 Otto van Veen The Relief of Leiden after the Dutch had broken their dykes in the Eighty Years' War For Spain, the war became an endless quagmire, sometimes literally In , 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 , faced with the bills from his , man army of occupation in the Netherlands, the cost of his 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 to negotiate, and pacified most of the southern provinces again with the Union of Arras in In response, the Netherlands created the Union of Utrecht, as an alliance between the northern provinces, later that month They officially deposed Philip in when they enacted the Act of Abjuration Under the Arras agreement the southern states of the Spanish Netherlands, today in Belgium and the Nord Pas de Calais and Picardy régions in France, expressed their loyalty to the Spanish king Philip II and recognized his Governor General, Don Juan of Austria In , 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 his 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 , 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 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 The defense of Cádiz, by Zurbarán Portugal required an extensive occupation force to keep it under control, and Spain was still reeling from the bankruptcy In , 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 , 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 , hoping to put a stop to Elizabeth's intervention, Philip sent the Spanish Armada to attack England Unfavourable weather, plus heavily armed and manœuvrable English ships, and the fact that the English had been warned by their spies in the Netherlands and were ready for the attack resulted in defeat for the Armada However, the failure of the Drake–Norris Expedition to Portugal and the Azores in marked a turning point in the on off – Anglo–Spanish War The Spanish fleets became more effective in transporting greatly increased quantities of silver and gold from the Americas, while English attacks suffered costly failures The Spanish Armada leaving the Bay of Ferrol Spain had invested itself in the religious warfare in France after Henry II's death In , 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 and Ivry Committed to stopping Henry of Navarre from becoming King of France, the Spanish divided their army in the Netherlands and invaded France in This proved a disaster The pacification at the time of Philip III edit Faced with wars against France, England and the Netherlands, each led by capable leaders, the bankrupted empire found itself competing against two strong adversaries Continuing piracy against its shipping in the Atlantic and the costly colonial enterprises forced Spain to renegotiate its debts in The crown attempted to reduce its exposure to the different conflicts, first signing the Treaty of Vervins with France in , recognizing Henry IV since a Catholic as king of France, and restoring many of the stipulations of the previous Peace of Cateau Cambrésis The Kingdom of England, suffering from a series of repulses at sea and from an endless guerrilla war by Catholics in Ireland, who were supported by Spain, agreed to the Treaty of London, , following the accession of the more tractable Stuart King James I Castile provided the Spanish crown with most of its revenues and its best troops The plague devastated Castilian lands between and , causing the deaths of some , people A great number of Castilians went to America or died in battle In , the great majority of the Morisco population of Spain was expelled It is estimated that Castile lost about % of its population between and Such a dramatic drop in the population meant the basis for the Crown's revenues was dangerously weakened in a time when it was engaged in continuous conflict in Europe Peace with England and France gave Spain an opportunity to focus its energies on restoring its 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 , including the fortress of Breda Following the peace with England, the new Spanish commander Ambrogio Spinola, a general with the ability to match Maurice, pressed hard against the Dutch and was prevented from conquering the Netherlands only by Spain's latest bankruptcy in In , the Twelve Years' Truce was signed between Spain and the United Provinces At last, Spain was at peace – the Pax Hispanica Spain made a fair recovery during the truce, putting its finances in order and doing much to restore its prestige and stability in the run up to the last truly great war in which she would play a leading part Philip II's successor, Philip III, was a man of limited ability, uninterested in politics and preferring to delegate management of the empire to others citation needed His chief minister was the capable Duke of Lerma The Surrender of Breda to Ambrogio Spinola, by Velázquez This victory came to symbolize the renewed period of Spanish military vigour in the Thirty Years' War The Duke of Lerma and to a large extent Philip II had been uninterested in the affairs of their ally, Austria In , the king replaced him with Don Baltasar de Zúñiga, a veteran ambassador to Vienna Don Balthasar believed that the key to restraining the resurgent French and eliminating the Dutch was a closer alliance with Habsburg Austria In , beginning with the Defenestration of Prague, Austria and the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II, embarked on a campaign against the Protestant Union and Bohemia Don Balthasar encouraged Philip to join the Austrian Habsburgs in the war, and Spinola, the rising star of the Spanish army in the Netherlands, was sent at the head of the Army of Flanders to intervene Thus, Spain entered into the Thirty Years' War The road to Rocroi edit In , Philip III was succeeded by the considerably more religious Philip IV The following year, Don Balthasar was replaced by Gaspar de Guzmán, Count Duke of Olivares, a reasonably honest and able man After certain initial setbacks, the Bohemians were defeated at White Mountain in , and again at Stadtlohn in The war with the Netherlands was renewed in with Spinola taking the fortress of Breda in The intervention of Christian IV of Denmark in the war threatened the Spanish position, but the victory of the Imperial general Albert of Wallenstein over the Danes at Dessau Bridge and again at Lutter both in , 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 France was once again involved in its own instabilities the famous Siege of La Rochelle began in , and Spain's eminence seemed clear The Count Duke Olivares stridently affirmed, God is Spanish and fights for our nation these days Olivares realized that Spain needed to reform, and to reform it needed peace, first and foremost with the United Provinces However, Olivares aimed for peace with honour which meant in practice a peace settlement which would have restored to Spain something of its predominant position in the Netherlands This was unacceptable to the United Provinces and the inevitable consequence of that was the constant hope that one more victory would after all lead to peace with honour – perpetuating the ruinous war which Olivare had wanted to avoid to begin with To illustrate the precarious economic situation of Spain at the time, it is sufficient to recall that it was actually Dutch bankers who financed the East India merchants of Seville during the truce, presumably At the same time, everywhere in the world Dutch entrepreneurship and colonists were undermining Spanish and Portuguese hegemony Spain badly needed time and peace to repair its finances and to rebuild its economy While Spinola and the Spanish army were focused on the Netherlands, the war seemed to go in Spain's favor But saw the collapse of the Castilian economy The Habsburgs had been debasing their currency to pay for the war and prices exploded, just as they had in previous years in Austria Until , parts of Castile operated on a barter economy owing to the currency crisis, and the government was unable to collect any meaningful taxes from the peasantry and had to depend on revenue from its colonies The Spanish armies, like others in German territories, resorted to paying themselves on the land Battle of Nördlingen Decisive victory for the Catholic Imperial army and Spain over the Swedes Olivares had backed certain taxation reforms in Spain pending the end of the war, but was blamed for another embarrassing and fruitless war in Italy The Dutch, who during the Twelve Years' Truce had made increasing their navy a priority, which showed its maturing potency at the Battle of Gibraltar , managed to strike a great blow against Spanish maritime trade with the capture by captain Piet Hein of the Spanish treasure fleet on which Spain had become dependent after the economic collapse Spanish military resources were stretched across Europe and also at sea as they sought to protect maritime trade against the greatly improved Dutch and French fleets, while still occupied with the Ottoman and associated Barbary pirate threat in the Mediterranean In the meantime the aim of choking Dutch shipping was carried out by the Dunkirkers with considerable success In a Spanish Portuguese fleet, under Admiral Fradique de Toledo, regained the strategically vital Brazilian city of Salvador da Bahia from the Dutch Elsewhere, the isolated and undermanned Portuguese forts in Africa and the Asia proved vulnerable to Dutch and English raids and takeovers or simply being bypassed as important trading posts In , Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, one of history's most noted commanders, landed in Germany and relieved the port of Stralsund, the last continental stronghold of German forces belligerent to the Emperor Gustavus then marched south and won notable victories at Breitenfeld and Lützen, attracting more Protestant support with every step he took The situation for the Catholics improved with Gustavus's death at Lutzen in , and a key victory at Nordlingen was won in From a position of strength, the Emperor approached the war weary German states with a peace offering in many accepted, including the two most powerful, Brandenburg and Saxony But then France entered the war, and diplomatic calculations were once again thrown into confusion The Battle of Rocroi , the symbolic end of Spain's grandeur Cardinal Richelieu of France 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 interests and declared war on the Holy Roman Emperor and Spain within months of the peace being signed In the war that followed, 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 , , Spanish forces advanced as far south as Corbie, and such was the threat to Paris that the war came close to a conclusion on Spanish terms After , however, Olivares halted the advance, fearful of provoking another crown bankruptcy The hesitation in pressing home the advantage proved fateful French forces regrouped and pushed the Spanish back towards the border The Spanish army would never again penetrate so far At the Battle of the Downs in a Spanish fleet carrying troops was destroyed by the Dutch navy, and the Spanish found themselves unable to supply and reinforce their forces adequately in the Netherlands The Army of Flanders, which represented the finest of Spanish soldiery and leadership, faced a French assault led by Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé in northern France at Rocroi in The Spanish, led by Francisco de Melo, were beaten by the French After a closely fought battle the Spanish were forced to surrender on honorable terms As a result, while the defeat was not a rout, the high status of the Army of Flanders was ended at Rocroi The defeat at Rocroi

also led to the dismissal of the embattled Olivares, who was confined to his estates by the king's order and died two years later, broken and mad The Last Spanish Habsburgs edit Main article Habsburg Spain in the seventeenth century Traditionally, historians mark the Battle of Rocroi as the end of Spanish dominance in Europe but the war was not finished and after a severe setback, more Spanish victories followed Supported by the French, the Catalans, Neapolitans, and Portuguese rose up in revolt against the Spanish in the s With the Spanish Netherlands caught between the tightening grip of French and Dutch forces after the Battle of Lens in , the Spanish made peace with the Dutch and recognized the independent United Provinces in the Peace of Westphalia that ended both the Eighty Years' War and the Thirty Years' War The meeting of Philip IV of Spain and Louis XIV of France on July at Pheasant Island War with France continued for eleven more years Although France suffered from a civil war from to see Wars of the Fronde , Spain had been exhausted by the Thirty Years' War and the ongoing revolts of Portugal, Catalonia and Naples With the war against the United Provinces at an end in , the Spanish drove the French out of Naples that year and Catalonia in , recaptured Dunkirk and occupied several northern French forts that they held until peace was made but the war came to an end soon after the Battle of the Dunes where the French army under Viscount Turenne retook Dunkirk Spain agreed to the Peace of the Pyrenees in that ceded to France the Spanish Netherlands territory of Artois and the northern Catalan county of Roussillon Portugal had rebelled in under the leadership of John of Braganza, a pretender to the throne He had received widespread support from the Portuguese people, and Spain—which had to deal with rebellions elsewhere, along with the war against France – was unable to respond adequately John mounted the throne as King John IV of Portugal and the Spanish and Portuguese co existed in a de facto state of peace from to When John died in , the Spanish attempted to wrest Portugal from his son Alfonso VI of Portugal but were defeated at Ameixial and Montes Claros , leading to Spain's recognition of Portugal's independence in Spain still had a huge overseas empire, but France was now the dominant power in Europe and the United Provinces were in the Atlantic The Great Plague of Seville – killed up to % of Seville's population citation needed Sevilla, and indeed the economy of Andalucía, would never recover from so complete a devastation Altogether Spain was thought to have lost , people, out of a population of slightly fewer than , , , or nearly % of its entire population Historians reckon the total cost in human lives due to these plagues throughout Spain, throughout the entire th century, to be a minimum of nearly million The regency of the young Spanish king Charles II was incompetent in dealing with the War of Devolution that Louis XIV of France prosecuted against the Spanish Netherlands in – , losing considerable prestige and territory, including the cities of Lille and Charleroi In the Franco Dutch War of – , Spain lost still more territory when it came to the assistance of its former Dutch enemies, most notably Franche Comté In the Nine Years' War – Louis once again invaded the Spanish Netherlands French forces led by the Duke of Luxembourg defeated the Spanish at Fleurus , and subsequently defeated Dutch forces under William III of Orange, who fought on Spain's side The war ended with most of the Spanish Netherlands under French occupation, including the important cities of Ghent and Luxembourg The war revealed to Europe how vulnerable the Spanish defenses and bureaucracy were Also, the ineffective Spanish Habsburg government took no action to improve them The final decades of the th century saw utter decay and stagnation in Spain while the rest of Western Europe went through exciting changes in government and society – the Glorious Revolution in England and the reign of the Sun King in France – Spain remained adrift The Spanish bureaucracy that had built up around the charismatic, industrious, and intelligent Charles I and Philip II demanded a strong and hardworking monarch the weakness and lack of interest of Philip III and Philip IV contributed to Spain's decay Charles II was mentally retarded and impotent He was therefore childless, and in his final will he left his throne to a French prince, the Bourbon Philip of Anjou, rather than to a fellow Habsburg, albeit from Austria This resulted in the War of the Spanish Succession Africa and the Mediterranean edit By the th century, the Ottomans had become an existential threat to Europe Ottoman conquests in Europe made significant gains with a decisive victory at Mohács Charles had preferred to suppress the Ottomans through a considerably more maritime strategy, hampering Ottoman landings on the Venetian territories in the Eastern Mediterranean The coastal villages and towns of Spain, Italy and the Mediterranean islands were frequently attacked by Barbary pirates from North Africa the Formentera was even temporarily left by its population and long stretches of the Spanish and Italian coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants The most famous corsair was the Turkish Barbarossa Redbeard According to Robert C Davis, between million and million Europeans were captured by North African pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa and Ottoman Empire between the th and th centuries The reign of Charles V saw a decline in the presence of Spain in the North of Africa, even if Tunis and its port, La Goleta, were taken in One after the other, most of the Spanish possessions were lost Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera , Santa Cruz de Mar Pequeña , Algiers , Tripoli , Bujia , and La Goleta and Tunis Only in response to Barbary pirates' raids on the eastern coast of Spain did Charles lead attacks against Tunis and Algiers The Battle of Lepanto , marked the end of the Ottoman naval supremacy in the Mediterranean Sea In , 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 , Spanish and Venetian warships, joined by volunteers across Europe, led by Charles's illegitimate son Don John of Austria annihilated the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto, in what is perhaps the most decisive battle in modern naval history citation needed The battle ended the threat of Ottoman naval hegemony in the Mediterranean This mission marked the height of the respectability of Spain and its sovereign abroad as Philip bore the burden of leading the Counter Reformation The Ottomans recovered soon They reconquered Tunis in , and they helped to restore an ally, Abu Marwan Abd al Malik I Saadi, in the throne of Morocco, in The death of the Persian shah, Tahmasp I was an opportunity for the Ottoman sultan to intervene in that country, so, in was agreed a truce in the Mediterranean with Philip II Nonetheless, the Spanish at Lepanto eliminated the best sailors of the Ottoman fleet, and the Ottoman Empire would never recover in quality what they could in numbers Lepanto was the decisive turning point in control of the Mediterranean away from centuries of Muslim control to European control, initiated by the Spanish Empire and its allies In the first half of the th century, Spanish ships attacked the Anatolian coast, defeating larger Ottoman fleets at the Battle of Cape Celidonia and the Battle of Cape Corvo Larache and La Mamora, in the Moroccan Atlantic coast, and the island of Alhucemas, in the Mediterranean, were taken, but during the second half of the th century, Larache and La Mamora were also lost The New World edit Explorers and conquistadors edit After Columbus, the Spanish colonization of the Americas was led by a series of warrior explorers called conquistadors The Spanish forces, in addition to significant armament and equestrian advantages, exploited the rivalries between competing indigenous peoples, tribes, and nations, some of which were willing to form alliances with the Spanish in order to defeat their more powerful enemies, such as the Aztecs or Incas—a tactic that would be extensively used by later European colonial powers The Spanish conquest was also facilitated by the spread of diseases e g smallpox , common in Europe but never present in the New World, which reduced the indigenous populations in the Americas This sometimes caused a labour shortage for plantations and public works and so the colonists informally and gradually, at first, initiated the Atlantic slave trade see Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas Emperor Atahualpa is shown surrounded on his palanquin at the Battle of Cajamarca One of the most accomplished conquistadors was Hernán Cortés, who leading a relatively small Spanish force but with local translators and the crucial support of thousands of native allies, achieved the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in the campaigns of – This territory later became the Viceroyalty of New Spain, present day Mexico Of equal importance was the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire by Francisco Pizarro, which would become the Viceroyalty of Peru After the conquest of Mexico, rumours of golden cities Quivira and Cíbola in North America and El Dorado in South America motivated several other expeditions Many of those returned without having found their goal, or finding it much less valuable than was hoped Indeed, the New World colonies only began to yield a substantial part of the Crown's revenues with the establishment of mines such as that of Potosí Bolivia and Zacatecas Mexico both started in By the late th century, silver from the Americas accounted for one fifth of Spain's total budget Eventually the world's stock of precious metal was doubled or even tripled by silver from the Americas Official records indicate that at least % of the silver was taken across the Atlantic to Spain and no more than % across the Pacific to China Some modern researchers argue that due to rampant smuggling about % went to China In the th century perhaps , Europeans entered American ports Further Spanish settlements were progressively established in the New World New Granada in the s later in the Viceroyalty of New Granada in and present day Colombia , Lima in as the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru, Buenos Aires in later in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in , and Santiago in Cristóbal de Olid leads Spanish soldiers with Tlaxcalan allies in the conquests of Jalisco, From Lienzo de Tlaxcala Spanish settlements in Chile before the Destruction of the Seven Cities in , all settlements south Biobío River except those in Chiloé had fallen Florida was colonized in by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés when he founded Saint Augustine and then promptly defeated an attempt led by the French Captain Jean Ribault and 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 The Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan died while in the Philippines commanding a Castilian expedition in which was the first to circumnavigate the globe The Basque commander Juan Sebastián Elcano would lead the expedition to success Therefore, Spain sought to enforce their rights in the Moluccan islands, which led a conflict with the Portuguese, but the issue was resolved with the Treaty of Zaragoza , settling the location of the antimeridian of Tordesillas, which would divide the world into two equal hemispheres Thenceforth, maritime expeditions led to the discovery of several archipelagos in the South Pacific as the Pitcairn Islands, the Marquesas, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands or New Guinea On April , the first permanent Spanish settlement in the Philippines was founded by Miguel López de Legazpi and the service of Manila Galleons was inaugurated The Manilla Galleons shipped goods from all over Asia across the Pacific to Acapulco on the coast of Mexico From there, the goods were transshipped across Mexico to the Spanish treasure fleets, for shipment to Spain The Spanish trading post of Manila was established to facilitate this trade in The control of Guam, Mariana Islands, Caroline Islands, and Palau was later, from the end of the th century, and remained under Spanish control until Organization and administration edit From the beginning of the exploration and conquest of the Indies, the Crown assumed the control of the venture turning away the Columbus family In the Casa de Contratación House of Trade was founded to control migration to the New World, which was restricted to old Christians especially families and women In addition, the Casa de Contratación took charge of the fiscal organization, and of the organization and judicial control of the trade with the Indies The system of government in Spain was constituted by a polisynodial system of Councils which advised the monarch and made decisions on his behalf about specific matters of government In it was established the Council of the Indies, based in Castile, with the assignment of the governance of the Indies, thus it was responsible for drafting legislation, proposing the appointments to the King and pronouncing judicial sentences as maximum authority in the ultramarine territories, the Council of The Indies took over both the institutions in the Indies as the defense of the interests of the Crown and of the aborigens The Laws of the Indies resulted in the Laws of Burgos, – , which were the first codified set of laws governing the behavior of Spanish settlers in the Americas, particularly with regards to treatment of native Indians They forbade the maltreatment of natives, and endorsed the Indian Reductions with attempts of conversion to Catholicism Upon their failure, they were replaced by the New Laws founding of Santiago de Chile Spain passed some laws for the protection of the indigenous peoples of its New World colonies, the first such in the legal thought behind them was the basis of modern international law citation needed Taking advantage of their extreme remoteness, the European colonists revolted when they saw their power being reduced, forcing a partial revoking of these New Laws Later, weaker laws were introduced to protect the indigenous peoples but records show their effect was limited citation needed The restored Encomenderos increasingly used native Indian workforce The politics of implantation of the royal authority opposite to Columbus caused the suppression of the unit of government of the Indies and the appearance of governorates under royal authority These governorates, also called as provinces, were the basic circumscriptions of the territorial government of the Indies, and arose as the territories were conquered and colonized To carry out the expedition entrada , which entailed exploration, conquest, and initial settlement of the territory, the king, as owner of the Indies, agreed capitulación an itemized contract with the specifics of the conditions of the expedition in a particular territory The individual leaders of expeditions adelantados assumed the expenses of the venture and in return received as reward the grant from the government of the conquered territories and in addition, they received instructions about treating the aborigens After the end of the period of conquests, it was necessary to manage extensive and different territories with a strong bureaucracy In the face of the impossibility of the Castilian institutions to take care of the New World affairs, other new institutions were created As the basic political entity it was the governorate, the governors exercised judicial ordinary functions of first instance, and prerogatives of government legislating by ordinances To these political functions of the governor, it could be joined the military ones, according to military requirements, with the rank of Captain general The office of captain general involved to be the supreme military chief of the whole territory and he was responsible for recruiting and providing troops, the fortification of the territory, the supply and the shipbuilding Beginning in in the newly conquered Mexico, government units in the Spanish Empire, from viceroyalties down to governorships provinces , had a royal treasury controlled by a set of officiales reales royal officials There were also sub treasuries at important ports and mining districts The officials of the royal treasury at each level of government typically included two to four positions a tesorero treasurer , the senior official who guarded money on hand and made payments a contador accountant or comptroller , who recorded income and payments, maintained records, and interpreted royal instructions a factor, who guarded weapons and supplies belonging to the king, and disposed of tribute collected in the province and a veedor overseer , who was responsible for contacts with native inhabitants of the province, and collected the king's share of any war booty The veedor, or overseer, position quickly disappeared in most jurisdictions, subsumed into the position of factor Depending on the conditions in a jurisdiction, the position of factor veedor was often eliminated, as well The treasury officials were appointed by the king, and were largely independent of the authority of the viceroy, audencia president or governor On the death, unauthorized absence, retirement or removal of a governor, the treasury officials would jointly govern the province until a new governor appointed by the king could take up his duties Treasury officials were supposed to be paid out of the income from the province, and were normally prohibited from engaging in income producing activities The impossibility of the physical presence of the monarch was replaced by viceroys, the post of viceroy the direct representation of the monarch The functions of the viceroy were governor, captain general, president of the Audiencia, superintendent of the Royal Treasury and vicepatronage of the Church Thus, the territories of the viceroyalties emerged to affirm the authority of the king in a specific territory The territory which comprised the viceroyalty was divided in provinces —also called governorates— headed by the governor In the th century the Spanish overseas territories were divided in two viceroyalties New Spain for North America, Antilles, the Philippines and Venezuela, and Peru for South America, which was divided in the th century Audiencias, the High Courts edit On the other hand, the Audiencias were constituted as a key administrative institution due to receive the confidence of the Crown as depositaries of an impartial authority opposite to conquerors and settlers Their main function was that of being a court of justice of second instance —court of appeal— in penal and civil matters, but also the Audiencias were courts the first instance in the city where it had its headquarters, and also in the cases involving the Royal Treasury Besides court of justice, the Audiencias had functions of government as counterweight the authority of the viceroys, since they could communicate with both the Council of the Indies and the king without the requirement of requesting authorization from the viceroy This direct correspondence of the Audiencia with the Council of The Indies made possible that the Council gave to the Audiencia all kinds of orientations about general aspects of government The fact that the presidents were not habitually either magistrates or lawyers, but men clad in sword and cape, caused that they did not have any vote in court cases, and the court did not submit to their authority, but in representation that of the king Thus, the authority of the president, when he was not a magistrate, was void in judicial matter and merely signed the verdicts The Audiencias chaired by the viceroy were called viceregal Audiencias, and the chaired ones by a governor captain general were the pretorial Audiencias As the pretorial Audiencias were chaired by a governor captain general, this situation caused to appear the post of president governor of major districts, with direct rule over a province and superior control of other provinces included inside the territorial district of the Audiencia, so that they exercised functions similar to the viceroys Thus, another administrative division appeared while the territories in charge of a governor were the minor provinces, the juridisdiccional scope of the Audiencias constituted the major provinces Former Viceregal Palace and seat of the Audiencia of Mexico, nowadays, the National Palace The members oidores of the Audiencia met with the president in a committee called royal agreement real acuerdo , to take measurements for the government concerning the review of bylaws, appointments of commissioners jueces pesquisidores , or retention of bulls, but the advice did not correspond to the Audiencia as institution but to its members as reputable people The decisions of the royal agreement were established in the concerted writs autos acordados , nevertheless, there were matters as dispatching the issues of government, in which the Audiencia could not interfere either with the viceroy or the president governor This way, the control of the Audiencias over the viceroys enabled to the Crown to control the functions of government of the viceroys While the viceregal and pretorial Audiencias were chaired by men clad in sword and cape, the presidents of the subordinated Audiencias were magistrates, so that, in the juridisdiccional scope of the subordinated Audiencias, the functions of government, Treasury and war belonged to the viceroy Therefore, in these sections of the viceroyalties there were no governors captains general but Audiencias, and the presidency gave them the name, for example in Charcas and Quito Although there were accumulated in the same person the offices of viceroy, governor, captain general and president of the Audiencia, each of them had different jurisdictional areas The jurisdiction of the viceregal Audiencia, whose president was the viceroy, ended face up to the jurisdiction of other Audiencias inside the same viceroyalty as the pretorial Audiencias chaired by a governor captain general, who had administrative, political and military authority, as the subordinated Audiencias, whose president did not have this administrative, political and military authority Therefore, as governor, the direct administration of the province where was placed the viceregal capital belonged to the viceroy nevertheless, with respect to the other governorates of the viceroyalty, his function was mere oversight or general inspection over the management of political affairs The imprecision in defining the powers of the viceroy and those of the provincial governors allowed the Crown to control their officials In the viceroyalty of New Spain, the Audiencia of Mexico, chaired by the viceroy, ended its jurisdiction face up to the jurisdiction of other Audiencias of Guatemala – , of Manila – , of Guadalajara established in Compostela in and transferred in to Guadalajara and that of Santo Domingo The viceroy of New Spain as governor only had jurisdiction over a more reduced governorate of New Spain, and as captain general his authority did not comprise either the captaincies of Yucatán or the New Kingdom of León, but it comprised the military command over the governorate of Nueva Galicia, which was a territory under the jurisdiction of the Audiencia of Guadalajara, until in the captaincy general was attached to the governor of this province of Nueva Galicia In the viceroyalty of Peru, the viceroy presided the Audiencia of Lima , and the jurisdiction of this Audiencia ended face up to the jurisdictions of the pretorial Audiencias of Panama – – , of Santa Fe de Bogotá , of Santiago de Chile in Concepción between and , and in Santiago de Chile since , and that of Buenos Aires – , whose presidents were also both governors and captains general, and in addition to these Audiencias, the viceroyalty comprised the subordinated Audiencias of Charcas La Plata and Quito Cabildos or town councils edit The settlers came from Spain had to settle in towns, where the local government belonged to the Cabildo The Cabildo was composed by a variable number of aldermen regidores , around a dozen, depending on the size of the town, also two municipal judges alcaldes menores , who were judges of first instance, and also other officials as police chief, inspector of supplies, court clerk, and a public herald They were in charge of distributing land to the neighbors, establishing local taxes, dealing with the public order, inspecting jails and hospitals, preserving the roads and public works such as irrigation ditchs and bridges, supervising the public health, regulating the festive activities, monitoring market prices, or the protection of Indians Since the end of the reign of Philip II, the municipal offices, including the aldermen, were auctioned to alleviate the need for money of the Crown, even the offices could also be sold, which became hereditary, so that the government of the cities went on to hands of urban oligarchies In order to control the municipal life, the Crown ordered the appointment of corregidores and alcaldes mayores to exert greater political control and judicial functions in minor districts Their functions were governing the respective municipalities, administering of justice and being appellate judges in the alcaldes menores?' judgments, but only the corregidor could preside over the cabildo However, both charges were also put up for sale freely since the late th century The Spanish Empire reform and recovery – edit Under the Treaties of Utrecht April , the European powers decided what the fate of Spain would be, in terms of the continental balance of power The French prince Philippe of Anjou, grandchild of Louis XIV of France, became the new Bourbon king Philip V He retained the Spanish overseas empire, but ceded the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, Milan, and Sardinia to Austria Sicily and parts of Milan to the Duchy of Savoy and Gibraltar and Minorca to the Kingdom of Great Britain Moreover, Philip V granted the British the exclusive right to slave trading in Spanish America for thirty years, the so called asiento, as well as licensed voyages to ports in Spanish colonial dominions, openings, as Fernand Braudel remarked, for both licit and illicit smuggling Brudel p The Battle of Cape Passaro, August Spain's economic and demographic recovery had begun slowly in the last decades of the Habsburg reign, as was evident from the growth of its trading convoys and much more rapid growth of illicit trade during the period, though this growth was slower than in its northern rivals who had gained increasing illicit access to its empire's markets Critically, this recovery was not translated into institutional improvement because of the incompetent leadership of the unfortunate last Habsburg This legacy of neglect was reflected in the early years of Bourbon rule in which the military was ill advisedly pitched into battle against the Quadruple Alliance – Following the war, the new Bourbon monarchy would take a much more cautious approach to international relations, built upon a family alliance with Bourbon France, and continuing to follow a program of institutional renewal Bourbon Reforms edit Main article Bourbon Reforms At the beginning of his reign, due to French influence and the War of the Spanish Succession, king Philip V, initiated organizational reforms headed for a government more executive, giving priority to the direct decision of the monarch, opposite to the deliberative way of the polisynodial system of Councils The 'so called Spanish Bourbons' broadest intentions were to break the power of the entrenched aristocracy of the Criollos in America locally born colonials of European descent , and, eventually, loosen the territorial control of the Society of Jesus over the virtually independent theocracies citation needed of Guarani Misiones the Jesuits were expelled from Spanish America in In addition to the established consulados of Mexico City and Lima, firmly in the control of local landowners, a new rival consulado was set up at Vera Cruz Immediately, Philip's government set up a ministry of the Navy and the Indies and created first a Honduras Company , a Caracas company, the Guipuzcoana Company and—the most successful one—a Havana Company In – , the structures for governing the Indies, the Consejo de Indias and the Casa de Contratación that governed investments in the cumbersome escorted fleets were transferred from Seville to Cádiz, which became the one port for all Indies trading see flota system Individual sailings at regular intervals were slow to displace the old habit of armed convoys, but by the s there were regular packet ships plying the Atlantic between Cádiz and