History of Spain

The history of Spain dates to the Antiquity when the pre-Roman peoples of the Mediterranean coast

of the Iberian Peninsula made contact with the Greeks and Phoenicians and the first writing systems
known as Paleohispanic scripts were developed. In 1479, the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of
Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, unified Spain as a dynastic union of disparate predecessor
kingdoms (the Crown of Castile, the Crown of Aragon and smaller realms); its modern form of
a constitutional monarchy was introduced in 1813, and the current democratic constitution dates to
1978. After the completion of the Reconquista, the Crown of Castile began to explore across
the Atlantic Ocean in 1492, expanding into the New World and marking the beginning of the Golden
Age under the Spanish Empire. The kingdoms of Spain were brought in personal union under Habsburg
rule in 1516. Until the 1650s, Habsburg Spain was the one of most powerful states in Europe and the
world. The era of Bourbon Spain began in 1700. Spain continued to control a vast empire until the early
19th century.
During this period, Spain was involved in all major European wars, including the Italian Wars, the Eighty
Years' War, and the Thirty Years' War. Spanish power declined in the latter part of the 17th century.
In the early part of the 19th century, most of the former Spanish Empire overseas disintegrated with
the Spanish American wars of independence. Only Cuba and the Philippines and a number of small
islands left; they revolted near the end of what had been a century of great instability for Spain, and the
United States acquired ownership (or control, in the case of Cuba) after the Spanish–American War of
1898. A tenuous balance between liberal and conservative forces was struck in the establishment of a
constitutional monarchy in Spain during the Borbonic restoration; this period began in 1874 and ended
in 1931. The Liberal Party (Práxedes Mateo Sagasta) and Conservative Party (Antonio Cánovas del
Castillo) fought for and won short-lived control without any being sufficiently strong to bring about
lasting stability. They were alternately in power. The Restoration began with Alfonso XII and the
Regency of Maria Christina (1874–1898). Alfonso XII died aged 27 in 1885, and was succeeded by his
unborn son, who became Alfonso XIII (1902-1923). Then came the dictatorship of General Primo de
Rivera (1923-1930). Opposition to his regime was so great that Alfonso XIII stopped supporting him and
forced him to resign in January 1930.[1] In 1931, following a victory by the republicans, in municipal
elections, Alfonso XIII left Spain and the democratic republic was proclaimed in Spain. The
Conservative Party disappeared shortly after the proclamation of the Republic in 1931.[2] Five years
later the country descended into the Spanish Civil War between the Republican and
the Nationalist factions.
The nationalist victory in the conflict installed a dictatorship, led by Francisco Franco, that lasted until
1975. The country experienced rapid economic growth in the 1960s and early 1970s. With the death of
Franco in November 1975 Spain returned to the monarchy, this time headed by Juan Carlos I, and to
democracy. With a fresh Constitution voted in 1978, Spain entered the European Economic
Community in 1986 (transformed into the European Union with the Maastricht Treaty of 1992), and
the Eurozone in 1998.

Prehistory[edit]
Main article: Prehistoric Iberia
 Ethnology of the Iberian Peninsula c. 200 BC

The earliest record of hominids living in Western Europe has been found in the Spanish cave
of Atapuerca; a flint tool found there dates from 1.4 million years ago, and early human fossils date to
roughly 1.2 million years ago.[3] Modern humans in the form of Cro-Magnons began arriving in the
Iberian Peninsula from north of the Pyrenees some 35,000 years ago. The most conspicuous sign of
prehistoric human settlements are the famous paintings in the northern Spanish cave of Altamira, which
were done c. 15,000 BC and are regarded as paramount instances of cave art.[4]
Archeological evidence in places like Los Millares and El Argar, both in the province of Almería, and La
Almoloya near Murcia suggests developed cultures existed in the eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula
during the late Neolithic and the Bronze Age.[5]
Around 2500 BC, the nomadic shepherds known as the Yamna or Pit Grave culture conquered the
peninsula using new technologies and horses while killing all local males according to DNA studies.
[6] Spanish prehistory extends to the pre-Roman Iron Age cultures that controlled most of Iberia: those
of the Iberians, Celtiberians, Tartessians, Lusitanians, and Vascones and trading settlements
of Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Greeks on the Mediterranean coast.

Early history of the Iberian Peninsula[edit]

Before the Roman conquest the major cultures along the Mediterranean coast were the Iberians,
the Celts in the interior and north-west, the Lusitanians in the west, and the Tartessians in the
southwest. The seafaring Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Greeks successively established trading
settlements along the eastern and southern coast. The development of writing in the peninsula (the so-
called paleohispanic scripts) should have taken place after the arrival of early Phoenician settlers and
traders (tentatively dated 9th century BC or sometime later).[7]

Illustration depicting the (now lost) Luzaga's Bronze, an example of the Celtiberian script.

The south of the peninsula was rich in archaic Phoenician colonies, unmatched by any other region in
the central-western Mediterranean.[8] They were small and densely packed settlements.[9] The colony
of Gadir—which sustained strong links with its metropolis of Tyre—stood out from the rest of the
network of colonies, also featuring a more complex sociopolitical organization.[10] Archaic
Greeks arrived to the Peninsula by the late 7th century BC.[11] They founded Greek colonies such
as Emporion (570 BC).[12]
The Greeks are responsible for the name Iberia, apparently after the river Iber (Ebro). By the 6th
century BC, much of the territory of southern Iberia passed to Carthage's overarching influence
(featuring two centres of Punic influence in Gadir and Mastia); the latter grip strenghtened from the 4th
century BC on.[13] The Barcids, following their landing in Gadir in 237 BC, militarily conquered the
territories that had already belonged to the sphere of influence of Carthage.[14] Up until 219 BC, their
presence in the peninsula was underpinned by their control of places such as Carthago Nova and Akra
Leuké (both founded by Punics), as well as the network of old Phoenician settlements.[15]
The peninsula was one of the military theatres of the Second Punic War (218–201 BC) waged between
Carthage and the Roman Republic, the two powers vying for supremacy in the western mediterranean.
Romans expelled Carthaginians from the peninsula in 206 BC.[16]
The peoples whom the Romans met at the time of their invasion in what is now known as Spain were
the Iberians, inhabiting an area stretching from the northeast part of the Iberian Peninsula through the
southeast. The Celts mostly inhabited the inner and north-west part of the peninsula. To the east of
the Meseta Central, the Sistema Ibérico area was inhabited by the Celtiberians, reportedly rich
in precious metals (which were obtained by Romans in the form of tributes).[17] Celtiberians developed
a refined technique of iron-forging, displayed, for example, in their quality weapons.[18]
The Celtiberian Wars were fought between the advancing legions of the Roman Republic and the
Celtiberian tribes of Hispania Citerior from 181 to 133 BC.[19][20] The Roman conquest of the
peninsula was completed in 19 BC.

Roman Hispania (2nd century BC – 5th century AD)[edit]

Main article: Hispania
Further information: Roman conquest of Hispania
Further information: Romanization of Hispania

Roman Empire, 3rd century

Hispania was the name used for the Iberian Peninsula under Roman rule from the 2nd century BC. The
populations of the peninsula were gradually culturally Romanized,[21] and local leaders were admitted
into the Roman aristocratic class.[22]
The Romans improved existing cities, such as Tarragona (Tarraco), and established others
like Zaragoza (Caesaraugusta), Mérida (Augusta Emerita), Valencia (Valentia), León ("Legio
Septima"), Badajoz ("Pax Augusta"), and Palencia.[23] The peninsula's economy expanded under
Roman tutelage. Hispania supplied Rome with food, olive oil, wine and metal. The
emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius I, the philosopher Seneca, and the poets Martial, Quintilian,
and Lucan were born in Hispania. Hispanic bishops held the Council of Elvira around 306.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, parts of Hispania came under the control
of the Germanic tribes of Vandals, Suebi, and Visigoths.
The collapse of the Western Roman Empire did not lead to the same wholesale destruction of Western
classical society as happened in areas like Roman Britain, Gaul and Germania Inferior during the Early
Middle Ages, although the institutions and infrastructure did decline. Spain's present languages, its
religion, and the basis of its laws originate from this period. The centuries of uninterrupted Roman rule
and settlement left a deep and enduring imprint upon the culture of Spain.
Gothic Hispania (5th–8th centuries)[edit]
See also: Spain in the Middle Ages § Early medieval Spain
Further information: Visigothic Kingdom, Suebic Kingdom of Galicia, and Spania

The greatest extent of the Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse, c. 500, showing Territory lost after Vouillé in light orange

The first Germanic tribes to invade Hispania arrived in the 5th century, as the Roman Empire decayed.
[24] The Visigoths, Suebi, Vandals and Alans arrived in Hispania by crossing the Pyrenees mountain
range, leading to the establishment of the Suebi Kingdom in Gallaecia, in the northwest, the Vandal
Kingdom of Vandalusia (Andalusia), and finally the Visigothic Kingdom in Toledo.
The Romanized Visigoths entered Hispania in 415. After the conversion of their monarchy to Roman
Catholicism and after conquering the disordered Suebic territories in the northwest
and Byzantine territories in the southeast, the Visigothic Kingdom eventually encompassed a great part
of the Iberian Peninsula.[22][25]
As the Roman Empire declined, Germanic tribes invaded the former empire. Some were foederati,
tribes enlisted to serve in Roman armies, and given land within the empire as payment, while others,
such as the Vandals, took advantage of the empire's weakening defenses to seek plunder within its
borders. Those tribes that survived took over existing Roman institutions, and created successor-
kingdoms to the Romans in various parts of Europe Hispania was taken over by the Visigoths after 410.
[26]

At the same time, there was a process of "Romanization" of the Germanic and Hunnic tribes settled on
both sides of the limes (the fortified frontier of the Empire along the Rhine and Danube rivers). The
Visigoths, for example, were converted to Arian Christianity around 360, even before they were pushed
into imperial territory by the expansion of the Huns.[27]
In the winter of 406, taking advantage of the frozen Rhine, refugees from
(Germanic) Vandals and Sueves, and the (Sarmatian) Alans, fleeing the advancing Huns, invaded the
empire in force.
The Visigoths, having sacked Rome two years earlier, arrived in Gaul in 412, founding the Visigothic
kingdom of Toulouse (in the south of modern France) and gradually expanded their influence into
Hispania after the battle of Vouillé (507) at the expense of the Vandals and Alans, who moved on into
North Africa without leaving much permanent mark on Hispanic culture. The Visigothic Kingdom shifted
its capital to Toledo and reached a high point during the reign of Leovigild.

Visigothic rule[edit]
Main article: Visigothic Kingdom
 Visigothic King Roderic haranguing his troops before the Battle of Guadalete

The Visigothic Kingdom conquered all of Hispania and ruled it until the early 8th century, when the
peninsula fell to the Muslim conquests. The Muslim state in Hispania came to be known as Al-Andalus.
After a period of Muslim dominance, the medieval history of Spain is dominated by the long
Christian Reconquista or "reconquest" of the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim rule. The Reconquista
gathered momentum during the 12th century, leading to the establishment of the Christian kingdoms
of Portugal, Aragon, Castile and Navarre and by 1250, had reduced Muslim control to the Emirate of
Granada in the south-east of the peninsula. Muslim rule in Granada survived until 1492, when it fell to
the Catholic Monarchs.
Hispania never saw a decline in interest in classical culture to the degree observable in Britain, Gaul,
Lombardy and Germany. The Visigoths, having assimilated Roman culture and its language during their
tenure as foederati, tended to maintain more of the old Roman institutions, and they had a unique
respect for legal codes that resulted in continuous frameworks and historical records for most of the
period between 415, when Visigothic rule in Hispania began, and 711 when it is traditionally said to end.
[28] The Liber Iudiciorum or Lex Visigothorum (654), also known as the Book of Judges,
which Recceswinth promulgated, based on Roman law and Germanic customary laws, brought about
legal unification by applying it to the entire population both Goths and Hispano-Romans. According to
the historian Joseph F. O'Callaghan, at that time they already considered themselves one people, the
process of population unification had been completed, and together with the Hispano-Gothic nobility
they called themselves the gens Gothorum.[29] In the early Middle Ages, the Liber Iudiciorum was
known as the Visigothic Code and also as the Fuero Juzgo. Its influence on law extends to the present
day.
The proximity of the Visigothic kingdoms to the Mediterranean and the continuity of western
Mediterranean trade, though in reduced quantity, supported Visigothic culture. The Visigothic ruling
class looked to Constantinople for style and technology.
Spanish Catholic religion also coalesced during this time. The period of rule by the Visigothic
Kingdom saw the spread of Arianism briefly in Hispania.[30] The Councils of Toledo debated creed and
liturgy in orthodox Catholicism, and the Council of Lerida in 546 constrained the clergy and extended
the power of law over them with the approval of the Pope. In 587, the Visigothic king at
Toledo, Reccared, converted to Catholicism and launched a movement in Hispania to unify the various
religious doctrines that existed in the land. This put an end to dissension on the question of Arianism.
The Visigoths inherited from Late Antiquity a sort of prefeudal system in Hispania,[31] based in the south
on the Roman villa system and in the north drawing on their vassals to supply troops in exchange for
protection. The bulk of the Visigothic army was composed of slaves, raised from the countryside. The
loose council of nobles that advised Hispania's Visigothic kings and legitimized their rule was
responsible for raising the army, and only upon its consent was the king able to summon soldiers.
The economy of the Visgothic kingdom depended primarily on agriculture and animal husbandry; there
is little evidence of Visigothic commerce and industry.[32] The native Hispani maintained the cultural and
economic life of Hispania, such as it was, and they were responsible for the relatively prosperous times
in the 6th and 7th centuries. Administrative affairs in society were still based on Roman law, and only
gradually did Visigothic customs and Roman common law merge.[33] The Visigoths did not, until the
period of Muslim rule, intermarry with the Spanish population, preferring to remain separate, and the
Visigothic language left only the faintest mark on the modern languages of Iberia.[34] The historian
Joseph F. O'Callaghan says in his book, A History of Medieval Spain, that at the end of the Visigothic
era the assimilation of Hispano-Romans and Visigoths was occurring rapidly, and the leaders of society
were beginning to see themselves as one people. The old differences were disappearing, there was no
longer a separate people, nor a divided nobility.[29] Little literature in the Gothic language remains from
the period of Visigothic rule—only translations of parts of the Greek Bible and a few fragments of other
documents have survived.[35]
The Hispano-Romans found Visigothic rule and its early embrace of the Arian heresy more of a threat
than Islam, and shed their thralldom to the Visigoths only in the 8th century, with the aid of the Muslims
themselves.[36] The most visible effect of Visigothic rule was the depopulation of the cities as their
inhabitanats moved to the countryside. Even while the country enjoyed a degree of prosperity when
compared to France and Germany, where the people suffered famines during this period, the Visigoths
felt little reason to contribute to the welfare, permanency, and infrastructure of their people and state.
This contributed to their downfall, as they could not count on the loyalty of their subjects when
the Moors arrived in the 8th century.[34]

Goldsmithery in Visigothic Hispania[edit]

Detail of the votive crown of Recceswinth from the Treasure of Guarrazar, (Toledo-Spain) hanging in Madrid. The

hanging letters spell [R]ECCESVINTHVS REX OFFERET [King R. offers this].[a]

In Spain, an important collection of Visigothic metalwork was found in Guadamur, in the Province of

Toledo, known as the Treasure of Guarrazar. This archeological find is composed of twenty-six votive
crowns and gold crosses from the royal workshop in Toledo, with signs of Byzantine influence.
•Two important votive crowns are those of Recceswinth and of Suintila, displayed in the National
Archaeological Museum of Madrid; both are made of gold, encrusted with sapphires, pearls, and other
precious stones. Suintila's crown was stolen in 1921 and never recovered. There are several other
small crowns and many votive crosses in the treasure.
•The aquiliform (eagle-shaped) fibulae that have been discovered in necropolises such
as Duraton, Madrona or Castiltierra (cities of Segovia. These fibulae were used individually or in pairs,
as clasps or pins in gold, bronze and glass to join clothes.
•The Visigothic belt buckles, a symbol of rank and status characteristic of Visigothic women's clothing,
are also notable as works of goldsmithery. Some pieces contain exceptional Byzantine-style lapis
lazuli inlays and are generally rectangular in shape, with copper alloy, garnets and glass.[37][b]
The architecture of Visigothic Hispania[edit]
Main article: Visigothic art and architecture
 Visigothic church, San Pedro de la Nave. Zamora. Spain

•During their governance of Hispania, the Visigoths built several churches in

the basilical or cruciform style that survive, including the churches of San Pedro de la Nave in El
Campillo, Santa María de Melque in San Martín de Montalbán, Santa Lucía del Trampal in Alcuéscar,
Santa Comba in Bande, and Santa María de Lara in Quintanilla de las Viñas.[citation needed] The
Visigothic crypt (the Crypt of San Antolín) in the Palencia Cathedral is a Visigothic chapel from the mid
7th century, built during the reign of Wamba to preserve the remains of the martyr Saint Antoninus of
Pamiers, a Visigothic-Gallic nobleman brought from Narbonne to Visigothic Hispania in 672 or 673 by
Wamba himself. These are the only remains of the Visigothic cathedral of Palencia.[38]
•Reccopolis, located near the tiny modern village of Zorita de los Canes in the province of Guadalajara,
Castile-La Mancha, Spain, is an archaeological site of one of at least four cities founded in Hispania by
the Visigoths. It is the only city in Western Europe to have been founded between the fifth and eighth
centuries.[c] The city's construction was ordered by the Visigothic king Liuvigild to honor his
son Reccared and to serve as Reccared's seat as co-king in the Visigothic province of Celtiberia, to the
west of Carpetania, where the main capital, Toledo, lay.[39]
Religion[edit]
Further information: History of Roman Catholicism in Spain § Visigoths
At the beginning of the Visigothic Kingdom, Arianism was the official religion in Hispania, but only for a
brief time, according to historian Rhea Marsh Smith (1905-1991).[30] In 587, Reccared, the Visigothic
king at Toledo, converted to Catholicism and launched a movement to unify the various religious
doctrines that existed in the Iberian Peninsula. The Councils of Toledo debated the creed and liturgy of
orthodox Catholicism, and the Council of Lerida in 546 constrained the clergy and extended the power
of law over them with the approval of the pope.
While the Visigoths clung to their Arian faith, the Jews were well-tolerated. Previous Roman and
Byzantine law determined their status, and already sharply discriminated against them.[40] Historian
Jane Gerber relates that some of the Jews "held ranking posts in the government or the army; others
were recruited and organized for garrison service; still others continued to hold senatorial rank".[41] In
general, then, they were well-respected and well-treated by the Visigothic kings, that is, until their
transition from Arianism to Catholicism.[42] Conversion to Catholicism across Visigothic society reduced
the friction between the Visigoths and the Hispano-Roman population.[43] However, the Visigothic
conversion negatively impacted the Jews, who came under scrutiny for their religious practices.[44]

Islamic al-Andalus and the Christian Reconquest (8th–15th

centuries)[edit]
Main articles: Umayyad conquest of Hispania, Al-Andalus, Spain in the Middle Ages, and Reconquista
 Visigothic Hispania and its regional divisions in 700, prior to the Muslim conquest

al-Andalus at its greatest extent, 720

The Arab Islamic conquest dominated most of North Africa by 710 AD. In 711 an

Islamic Berber conquering party, led by Tariq ibn Ziyad, was sent to Hispania to intervene in a civil war
in the Visigothic Kingdom. Tariq's army contained about 7,000 Berber horsemen, and Musa bin
Nusayr is said to have sent an additional 5,000 reinforcements after the conquest.[45] Crossing
the Strait of Gibraltar, they won a decisive victory in the summer of 711 when the Visigothic
King Roderic was defeated and killed on July 19 at the Battle of Guadalete. Tariq's commander, Musa,
quickly crossed with Arab reinforcements, and by 718 the Muslims were in control of nearly the
whole Iberian Peninsula. The advance into Western Europe was only stopped in what is now north-
central France by the West Germanic Franks under Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732.
The Muslim conquerors (also known as "Moors") were Arabs and Berbers; following the conquest,
conversion and arabization of the Hispano-Roman population took
place, [46] (muwalladum or Muwallad).[47][48] After a long process, spurred on in the 9th and 10th
centuries, the majority of the population in Al-Andalus eventually converted to Islam.[49] The Muslim
population was divided per ethnicity (Arabs, Berbers, Muwallad), and the supremacy of Arabs over the
rest of group was a recurrent causal for strife, rivalry and hatred, particularly between Arabs and
Berbers.[50] Arab elites could be further divided in the Yemenites (first wave) and the Syrians (second
wave).[51] Male Muslim rulers were often the offspring of female Christian slaves.[52] Christians and
Jews were allowed to live as subordinate groups of a stratified society under the dhimmah system,
[53] although Jews became very important in certain fields.[54] Some Christians migrated to the Northern
Christian kingdoms, while those who stayed in Al-Andalus progressively arabised and became known
as musta'arab (mozarabs).[55] Besides slaves of Iberian origin,[52] the slave population also comprised
the Ṣaqāliba (literally meaning "slavs", although they were slaves of generic European origin) as well
as Sudanese slaves.[56] The frequent raids in Christian lands provided Al-Andalus with continuous slave
stock, including women who often became part of the harems of the Muslim elite.[52] Slaves were also
shipped from Spain to elsewhere in the Ummah.[52]
In what should not have amounted to much more than a skirmish (later magnified by Spanish
nationalism),[57][58] a Muslim force sent to put down the Christian rebels in the northern mountains
was defeated by a force reportedly led by the legendary Pelagius, this is known as the Battle of
Covadonga. The figure of Pelagius, a by-product of the Asturian chronicles of Alfonso III (written more
than a century after the alleged battle), has been later reconstructed in conflicting historiographical
theories, most notably that of a refuged Visigoth noble or an autochthonous Astur chieftain.[59] The
consolidation of a Christian polity that would come to be known as the Kingdom of Asturias ensued
later. At the end of Visigothic rule, the assimilation of Hispano-Romans and Visigoths was occurring at a
fast pace. An unknown number of them fled and took refuge in Asturias or Septimania. In Asturias they
supported Pelagius's uprising, and joining with the indigenous leaders, formed a new aristocracy. The
population of the mountain region consisted of native Astures, Galicians, Cantabri, Basques and other
groups unassimilated into Hispano-Gothic society.[29] In 739, a rebellion in Galicia, assisted by the
Asturians, drove out Muslim forces and it joined the Asturian kingdom. In the northern Christian
kingdoms, lords and religious organizations often owned Muslim slaves who were employed as day
laborers and household servants.[52]
Caliph Al-Walid I had paid great attention to the expansion of an organized military, building the
strongest navy in the Umayyad Caliphate era (the second major Arab dynasty after Mohammad and the
first Arab dynasty of Al-Andalus). It was this tactic that supported the ultimate expansion to Hispania.
Islamic power in Spain specifically climaxed in the 10th century under Abd-ar-Rahman III.[60] The rulers
of Al-Andalus were granted the rank of Emir by the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I in Damascus. When
the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyad Caliphate, Abd al-Rahman I managed to escape to al-Andalus.
Once arrived, he declared al-Andalus independent. It is not clear if Abd al-Rahman considered himself
to be a rival caliph, perpetuating the Umayyad Caliphate, or merely an independent Emir. The state
founded by him is known as the Emirate of Cordoba. Al-Andalus was rife with internal conflict between
the Islamic Umayyad rulers and people and the Christian Visigoth-Roman leaders and people.

The Christian kingdoms of Hispania and the Islamic Almohad empire c. 1210

The Vikings invaded Galicia in 844, but were heavily defeated by Ramiro I at A Coruña.[61] Many of the
Vikings' casualties were caused by the Galicians' ballistas – powerful torsion-powered projectile
weapons that looked rather like giant crossbows.[61] 70 Viking ships were captured and burned.[61]
[62] Vikings returned to Galicia in 859, during the reign of Ordoño I. Ordoño was at the moment
engaged against his constant enemies the Moors; but a count of the province, Don Pedro, attacked the
Vikings and defeated them,[63] destroying 38 of their ships.
In the 10th century Abd-ar-Rahman III declared the Caliphate of Córdoba, effectively breaking all ties
with the Egyptian and Syrian caliphs. The Caliphate was mostly concerned with maintaining its power
base in North Africa, but these possessions eventually dwindled to the Ceuta province. The first navy of
the Emir of Córdoba was built after the Viking ascent of the Guadalquivir in 844 when they sacked
Seville.[64]
In 942, Hungarian raids on Spain, especially in Catalonia,[65] took place, according to Ibn Hayyan's
work.[66][64] Meanwhile, a slow but steady migration of Christian subjects to the northern kingdoms in
Christian Hispania was slowly increasing the latter's power.
Al-Andalus coincided with La Convivencia, an era of relative religious tolerance, and with the Golden
age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula.[67] Muslim interest in the peninsula returned in force
around the year 1000 when Al-Mansur (also known as Almanzor) sacked Barcelona in 985, and he
assaulted Zamora, Toro, Leon and Astorga in 988 and 989, which controlled access to Galicia.
[68] Under his son, other Christian cities were subjected to numerous raids.[69] After his son's death, the
caliphate plunged into a civil war and splintered into the so-called "Taifa Kingdoms". The Taifa kings
competed against each other not only in war but also in the protection of the arts, and culture enjoyed a
brief renaissance. The aceifas (Muslim military expeditions made in summer in medieval Spain) were
the continuation of a policy from the times of the emirate: the capture of numerous contingents of
Christian slaves, the saqáliba (plural of siqlabi, "slave").[70] These were the most lucrative part of the
booty, and constituted an excellent method of payment for the troops, so much so that
many aceifas were real hunts for people.
The Almohads, who had taken control of the Almoravids' Maghribi and al-Andalus territories by 1147,
surpassed the Almoravides in fundamentalist Islamic outlook, and they treated the non-
believer dhimmis harshly. Faced with the choice of death, conversion, or emigration, many Jews and
Christians left.[71]
By the mid-13th century, the Emirate of Granada was the only independent Muslim realm in Spain,
which survived until 1492 by becoming a vassal state to Castile, to which it paid tribute.

Warfare between Muslims and Christians[edit]

A battle of the Reconquista from the Cantigas de Santa Maria

Medieval Spain was the scene of almost constant warfare between Muslims and Christians.
The Taifa kingdoms lost ground to the Christian realms in the north. After the loss of Toledo in 1085, the
Muslim rulers reluctantly invited the Almoravides, who invaded Al-Andalus from North Africa and
established an empire. In the 12th century the Almoravid empire broke up again, only to be taken over
by the Almohad invasion, who were defeated by an alliance of the Christian kingdoms in the
decisive Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. By 1250, nearly all of Hispania was back under
Christian rule with the exception of the Muslim kingdom of Granada.
The Spanish language and universities[edit]

The title page of the Gramática de la lengua castellana (1492), the first grammar of a modern European language to
be published.

In the 13th century, many languages were spoken in the Christian kingdoms of Hispania. These were
the Latin-based Romance
languages of Castilian, Aragonese, Catalan, Galician, Aranese, Asturian, Leonese, and Portuguese,
and the ancient language isolate of Basque. Throughout the century, Castilian (what is also known
today as Spanish) gained a growing prominence in the Kingdom of Castile as the language of culture
and communication, at the expense of Leonese and of other close dialects.
One example of this is the oldest preserved Castilian epic poem, Cantar de Mio Cid, written about the
military leader El Cid. In the last years of the reign of Ferdinand III of Castile, Castilian began to be
used for certain types of documents, and it was during the reign of Alfonso X that it became the official
language. Henceforth all public documents were written in Castilian; likewise all translations were made
into Castilian instead of Latin.
At the same time, Catalan and Galician became the standard languages in their respective territories,
developing important literary traditions and being the normal languages in which public and private
documents were issued: Galician from the 13th to the 16th century in Galicia and nearby regions of
Asturias and Leon,[72] and Catalan from the 12th to the 18th century in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands
and Valencia, where it was known as Valencian. Both languages were later substituted in its official
status by Castilian Spanish, till the 20th century.
In the 13th century many universities were founded in León and in Castile. Some, such as the
Leonese Salamanca and the Castilian Palencia, were among the earliest universities in Europe.
In 1492, under the Catholic Monarchs, the first edition of the Grammar of the Castilian
Language by Antonio de Nebrija was published.

Early Modern Spain[edit]

Main articles: Habsburg Spain, Spanish Golden Age, Spain in the 17th century, History of Spain
(1700-1810), and Enlightenment in Spain
Dynastic union of the Catholic Monarchs[edit]

Wedding portrait of the Catholic Monarchs

In the 15th century, the most important among all of the separate Christian kingdoms that made up the
old Hispania were the Kingdom of Castile (occupying northern and central portions of the Iberian
Peninsula), the Kingdom of Aragon (occupying northeastern portions of the peninsula), and
the Kingdom of Portugal occupying the far western Iberian Peninsula. The rulers of the kingdoms of
Castile and Aragon were allied with dynastic families in Portugal, France, and other neighboring
kingdoms.
The death of King Henry IV of Castile in 1474 set off a struggle for power called the War of the Castilian
Succession (1475–1479). Contenders for the throne of Castile were Henry's one-time heir Joanna la
Beltraneja, supported by Portugal and France, and Henry's half-sister Queen Isabella I of Castile,
supported by the Kingdom of Aragon and by the Castilian nobility.
Isabella retained the throne and ruled jointly with her husband, King Ferdinand II. Isabella and
Ferdinand had married in 1469[73] in Valladolid. Their marriage united both crowns and set the stage for
the creation of the Kingdom of Spain, at the dawn of the modern era. That union, however, was a union
in title only, as each region retained its own political and judicial structure. Pursuant to an agreement
signed by Isabella and Ferdinand on January 15, 1474,[74] Isabella held more authority over the newly
unified Spain than her husband, although their rule was shared.[74] Together, Isabella of Castile and
Ferdinand of Aragon were known as the "Catholic Monarchs" (Spanish: los Reyes Católicos), a title
bestowed on them by Pope Alexander VI.
Conclusion of the Reconquista and expulsions of Jews and Muslims[edit]
Further information: Reconquista, Spanish Inquisition, and Black legend (Spain)
The monarchs oversaw the final stages of the Reconquista of Iberian territory from the Moors with the
conquest of Granada, conquered the Canary Islands, and expelled the Jews from Spain under
the Alhambra Decree. Although until the 13th century religious minorities (Jews and Muslims) had
enjoyed considerable tolerance in Castile and Aragon – the only Christian kingdoms where Jews were
not restricted from any professional occupation – the situation of the Jews collapsed over the 14th
century, reaching a climax in 1391 with large scale massacres in every major city except Ávila.
The Catholic Monarchs ordered the remaining Jews to convert or face expulsion from Spain in 1492,
and extended the expulsion decrees to their territories on the Italian peninsula,
including Sicily (1493), Naples (1542), and Milan (1597).[75]
Over the following decades, Muslims faced the same fate; and about 60 years after the Jews, they were
also compelled to convert ("Moriscos") or be expelled. In the early 17th century, the converts were also
expelled. Jews and Muslims were not the only people to be persecuted during this time period.
Isabella ensured long-term political stability in Spain by arranging strategic marriages for each of her
five children. Her firstborn, a daughter named Isabella, married Afonso of Portugal, forging important
ties between these two neighboring countries and hopefully ensuring future alliance, but Isabella soon
died before giving birth to an heir. Juana, Isabella's second daughter, married into the Habsburg
dynasty when she wed Philip the Fair, the son of Maximilian I, King of Bohemia (Austria) and likely heir
to the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor.
This ensured an alliance with the Habsburgs and the Holy Roman Empire, a powerful, far-reaching
territory that assured Spain's future political security. Isabella's only son, Juan, married Margaret of
Austria, further strengthening ties with the Habsburg dynasty. Isabella's fourth child, Maria,
married Manuel I of Portugal, strengthening the link forged by her older sister's marriage. Her fifth
child, Catherine, married King Henry VIII of England and was mother to Queen Mary I of England.

Conquest of the Canary Islands, Columbian expeditions to the New World and African expansion[edit]
See also: Conquest of the Canary Islands, Kingdom of the Canary Islands, and Voyages of
Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus leads expedition to the New World, 1492, sponsored by Spanish crown

Taking of Oran by Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros in 1509.

The Castilian conquest of the Canary Islands, inhabited by Guanche people, took place between 1402
(with the conquest of Lanzarote) and 1496 (with the conquest of Tenerife). Two periods can be
distinguished in this process: the noble conquest, carried out by the nobility in exchange for a pact of
vassalage, and the royal conquest, carried out directly by the Crown, during the reign of the Catholic
Monarchs.[76] By 1520, European military technology combined with the devastating epidemics such as
bubonic plague and pneumonia brought by the Castilians and enslavement and deportation of natives
led to the extinction of the Guanches. Isabella and Ferdinand authorized the 1492 expedition
of Christopher Columbus, who became the first known European to reach the New World since Leif
Ericson. This and subsequent expeditions led to an influx of wealth into Spain, supplementing income
from within Castile for the state that would prove to be a dominant power of Europe for the next two
centuries.
Spain established colonies in North Africa that ranged from the Atlantic Moroccan coast to Tripoli in
Libya. Melilla was occupied in 1497, Oran in 1509, Larache in 1610, and Ceuta was annexed from the
Portuguese in 1668. Today, both Ceuta and Melilla still remain under Spanish control, together with
smaller islets known as the presidios menores (Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, las Islas de
Alhucemas, las Islas de Chafarinas).

Spanish empire[edit]
Main article: Spanish Empire
See also: Habsburg Spain
 Anachronous map of the Spanish Empire

The Spanish Empire was the first global empire. It was also one of the largest empires in world history.
In the 16th century, Spain and Portugal were in the vanguard of European global exploration and
colonial expansion. The two kingdoms on the conquest and Iberian Peninsula competed with each
other in opening of trade routes across the oceans. Spanish imperial conquest and colonization began
with the Canary Islands in 1312 and 1402.[77] which began the Castilian conquest of the Canary
Islands, completed in 1495.

The Conquest of Tenochtitlán

In the 15th and 16th centuries, trade flourished across the Atlantic between Spain and the Americas
and across the Pacific between East Asia and Mexico via the Philippines. Spanish Conquistadors,
operating privately, deposed the Aztec, Inca and Maya governments with extensive help from local
factions and took control of vast stretches of land.[78] In the Philippines, the Spanish, using Mexican
Conquistadors like Juan de Salcedo, conquered the kingdoms and sultanates of the islands by pitting
Pagans and Muslims against each other, thus employing the principle of "Divide and Conquer".[79] They
considered their war against the native Muslims of the Southeast Asia an extension of the
Spanish Reconquista.[80]
This New World empire was at first a disappointment, as the natives had little to trade. Diseases such
as smallpox and measles that arrived with the colonizers devastated the native populations, especially
in the densely populated regions of the Aztec, Maya and Inca civilizations, and this reduced the
economic potential of conquered areas. Estimates of the pre-Columbian population of the Americas
vary but possibly stood at 100 million—one fifth of humanity in 1492. Between 1500 and 1600 the
population of the Americas was halved. In Mexico alone, it has been estimated that the pre-conquest
population of around 25 million people was reduced within 80 years to about 1.3 million.
In the 1520s, large-scale extraction of silver from the rich deposits of Mexico's Guanajuato began to be
greatly augmented by the silver mines in Mexico's Zacatecas and Bolivia's Potosí from 1546. These
silver shipments re-oriented the Spanish economy, leading to the importation of luxuries and grain. The
resource-rich colonies of Spain thus caused large cash inflows for the country.[81] They also became
indispensable in financing the military capability of Habsburg Spain in its long series of European and
North African wars, though, with the exception of a few years in the 17th century, Taxes in Castile were
the most important source of revenue.

The Port of Seville in the late 16th century. Seville became one of the most populous and cosmopolitan European
cities after the expeditions to the New World.[82]
Spain enjoyed a cultural golden age in the 16th and 17th centuries. For a time, the Spanish Empire
dominated the oceans with its experienced navy and ruled the European battlefield with its fearsome
and well trained infantry, the famous tercios.
The financial burden within the peninsula was on the backs of the peasant class while the nobility
enjoyed an increasingly lavish lifestyle. From the time beginning with the incorporation of
the Portuguese Empire in 1580 (lost in 1640) until the loss of its American colonies in the 19th century,
Spain maintained one of the largest empires in the world even though it suffered military and economic
misfortunes from the 1640s.
Religion played a very strong role in the spread of the Spanish empire. The thought that Spain could
bring Christianity to the New World and protect Catholicism in Europe certainly played a strong role in
the expansion of Spain's empire.[83]

Spanish Kingdoms under the 'Great' Habsburgs (16th century)[edit]

Charles I, Holy Emperor[edit]

Charles I of Spain (better known in the English-speaking world as the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) was the most
powerful European monarch of his day.[84]

Spain's world empire reached its greatest territorial extent in the late 18th century but it was under
the Habsburg dynasty in the 16th and 17th centuries it reached the peak of its power and declined.
The Iberian Union with Portugal meant that the monarch of Castile was also the monarch of Portugal,
but they were ruled as separate entities both on the peninsula and in Spanish America and Brazil. In
1640, the House of Braganza revolted against Spanish rule and reasserted Portugal's independence.
[85]

When Spain's first Habsburg ruler Charles I became king of Spain in 1516, Spain became central to the
dynastic struggles of Europe. After he became king of Spain, Charles also became Charles V, Holy
Roman Emperor and because of his widely scattered domains was not often in Spain.
In 1556 Charles abdicated from his positions, giving his Spanish empire to his only surviving son, Philip
II of Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire to his brother, Ferdinand. Philip treated Castile as the
foundation of his empire, but the population of Castile (about a third of France's) was never large
enough to provide the soldiers needed to support the Empire. His marriage to Mary Tudor allied
England with Spain.
Philip II and the wars of religion[edit]

Battle of St. Quentin

In the 1560s, plans to consolidate control of the Netherlands led to unrest, which gradually led to
the Calvinist leadership of the revolt and the Eighty Years' War. The Dutch armies waged a war
of maneuver and siege, successfully avoiding set piece battles. This conflict consumed much Spanish
expenditure during the later 16th century. Other extremely expensive failures included an attempt to
invade Protestant England in 1588 that produced the worst military disaster in Spanish history when
the Spanish Armada—costing 10 million ducats—was scattered by a freak storm. Over 8,000 English
sailors died from diseases such as dysentery and typhus while the Spanish Armada was at sea.
Economic and administrative problems multiplied in Castile, and the weakness of the native economy
became evident in the following century. Rising inflation, financially draining wars in Europe, the
ongoing aftermath of the expulsion of the Jews and Moors from Spain, and Spain's growing
dependency on the silver imports, combined to cause several bankruptcies that caused economic crisis
in the country, especially in heavily burdened Castile. The great plague of 1596–1602 killed 600,000 to
700,000 people, or about 10% of the population. Altogether more than 1,250,000 deaths resulted from
the extreme incidence of plague in 17th-century Spain.[86] Economically, the plague destroyed the labor
force as well as creating a psychological blow to an already problematic Spain.[87]

A map of Europe in 1648, after the Peace of Westphalia

The cultural Golden Age (Siglo de Oro)[edit]

Main article: Spanish Golden Age
 View of Toledo by El Greco, between 1596 and 1600

The Spanish Golden Age (in Spanish, Siglo de Oro) was a period of flourishing arts and letters in
the Spanish Empire (now Spain and the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America), coinciding with
the political decline and fall of the Habsburgs (Philip III, Philip IV and Charles II). Arts during the Golden
Age flourished despite the decline of the empire in the 17th century. The last great writer of the age,
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, died in New Spain in 1695.[88]
The Habsburgs, both in Spain and Austria, were great patrons of art in their countries. El Escorial, the
great royal monastery built by King Philip II, invited the attention of some of Europe's greatest architects
and painters. Diego Velázquez, regarded as one of the most influential painters of European history and
a greatly respected artist in his own time, cultivated a relationship with King Philip IV and his chief
minister, the Count-Duke of Olivares, leaving us several portraits that demonstrate his style and skill. El
Greco, a respected Greek artist from the period, settled in Spain, and infused Spanish art with the
styles of the Italian renaissance and helped create a uniquely Spanish style of painting.
Some of Spain's greatest music is regarded as having been written in the period. Such composers
as Tomás Luis de Victoria, Luis de Milán and Alonso Lobo helped to shape Renaissance music and the
styles of counterpoint and polychoral music, and their influence lasted far into the Baroque period.
Spanish literature blossomed as well, most famously demonstrated in the work of Miguel de Cervantes,
the author of Don Quixote de la Mancha. Spain's most prolific playwright, Lope de Vega, wrote possibly
as many as one thousand plays over his lifetime, over four hundred of which survive to the present day.

Decline under the 'Minor' Habsburgs (17th century)[edit]

Spain's severe financial difficulties began in the middle 16th century, and would continue for the
remainder of Habsburg rule. Despite the successes of Spanish armies, at home the period was marked
by monetary inflation, mercantilism, and a variety of government monopolies and interventions. Spanish
kings were forced to declare sovereign defaults nine times between 1557 and 1666.[89]
Philip II died in 1598, and was succeeded by his son Philip III. In his reign (1598–1621) a ten-year truce
with the Dutch was overshadowed in 1618 by Spain's involvement in the European-wide Thirty Years'
War. Government policy was dominated by favorites, but it was also the period in which the geniuses
of Cervantes and El Greco flourished. Philip III was succeeded in 1621 by his son Philip IV of
Spain (reigned 1621–65). Much of the policy was conducted by the Count-Duke of Olivares. The Count-
Duke of Olivares was the inept prime minister from 1621 to 1643. He over-exerted Spain in foreign
affairs and unsuccessfully attempted domestic reform. His policy of committing Spain to recapture
Holland led to a renewal of the Eighty Years' War while Spain was also embroiled in the Thirty Years'
War (1618–1648). His attempts to centralise power and increase wartime taxation led to revolts in
Catalonia and in Portugal, which brought about his downfall.[90]
During the Thirty Years' War, in which various Protestant forces battled Imperial armies, France
provided subsidies to Habsburg enemies, especially Sweden. Sweden lost and France's First
Minister, Cardinal Richelieu, in 1635 declared war on Spain. The open war with Spain started with a
promising victory for the French at Les Avins in 1635. The following year Spanish forces based in the
Southern Netherlands hit back with devastating lightning campaigns in northern France that left French
forces reeling and the economy of the region in tatters. After 1636, however, Olivares, fearful of
provoking another disastrous bankruptcy, stopped the advance. In 1640,
both Portugal and Catalonia rebelled. Portugal was lost to the crown for good; in northern Italy and
most of Catalonia, French forces were expelled and Catalonia's independence was suppressed. In
1643, the French defeated one of Spain's best armies at Rocroi, northern France.[91]
Main article: Spain in the 17th century
 Louis XIV of France and Philip IV of Spain at the Meeting on the Isle of Pheasants in June 1660, part of the process
to put an end to the Franco-Spanish War (1635–59).

The Spanish "Golden Age" politically ends no later than 1659, with the Treaty of the Pyrenees, ratified
between France and Habsburg Spain.
During the long regency for Charles II, the last of the Spanish Habsburgs, favouritism milked Spain's
treasury, and Spain's government operated principally as a dispenser of patronage. Plague, famine,
floods, drought, and renewed war with France wasted the country. The Peace of the Pyrenees (1659)
had ended fifty years of warfare with France, whose king, Louis XIV, found the temptation to exploit a
weakened Spain too great. Louis instigated the War of Devolution (1667–68) to acquire the Spanish
Netherlands.
By the 17th century, the Catholic Church and Spain had showcased a close bond to one another,
attesting to the fact that Spain was virtually free of Protestantism during the 16th century. In 1620, there
were 100,000 Spaniards in the clergy; by 1660 the number had grown to about 200,000, and the
Church owned 20% of all the land in Spain. The Spanish bureaucracy in this period was highly
centralized, and totally reliant on the king for its efficient functioning. Under Charles II, the councils
became the sinecures of wealthy aristocrats despite various attempt at reform. Political commentators
in Spain, known as arbitristas, proposed a number of measures to reverse the decline of the Spanish
economy, with limited success. In rural areas of Spain, heavy taxation of peasants reduced agricultural
output as peasants in the countryside migrated to the cities. The influx of silver from the Americas has
been cited as the cause of inflation, although only one fifth of the precious metal, i.e. the quinto
real (royal fifth), actually went to Spain. A prominent internal factor was the Spanish economy's
dependence on the export of luxurious Merino wool, which had its markets in northern Europe reduced
by war and growing competition from cheaper textiles.
The once proud Spanish army was falling far behind its foes. It did badly at Bergen op Zoom in 1622,
and finance was not to blame. The Dutch won very easily at Hertogenbosch and Wesel in 1629. In 1632
the Dutch captured the strategic fortress town of Maastricht, repulsing three relief armies and dooming
the Spanish to defeat.[92]
While Spain built a rich American Empire that exported a silver treasure fleet every year, it was unable
to focus its financial, military, and diplomatic power on building up its Spanish base. The Crown's
dedication to destroying Protestantism through almost constant warfare created a cultural ethos among
Spanish leaders that undermined the opportunity for economic modernization or industrialization. When
Philip II died in 1598, his treasury spent most of its income on funding the huge deficit, which continued
to grow. In peninsular Spain, the productive forces were undermined by steady inflation, heavy taxation,
immigration of ambitious youth to the colonies, and by depopulation. Industry went into reverse –
Seville in 1621 operated 400 looms, where it had 16,000 a century before. Religiosity led by saints and
mystics, missionaries and crusaders, theologians and friars dominated Spanish culture, with the
psychology of a reward in the next world. Palmer and Colton argue:
the generations of crusading against infidels, even, heathens and heretics had produced an
exceptionally large number of minor aristocrats, chevaliers, dons, and hidalgos, who as a class were
contemptuous of work and who were numerous enough and close enough to the common people to
impress their haughty indifference upon the country as a whole.[93]
Elliott cites the achievements of Castille in many areas, especially high culture. He finds:[94]
A certain paradox in the fact that the achievement of the two most outstanding creative artists of Castile
– Cervantes and Velázquez – was shot through with a deep sense of disillusionment and failure; but the
paradox was itself a faithful reflection of the paradox of sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Castile. For
here was a country which had climbed to the heights and sunk to the depths; which had achieved
everything and lost everything; which had conquered the world only to be vanquished itself. The
Spanish achievement of the sixteenth century was essentially the work of Castile, but so also was the
Spanish disaster of the seventeenth; and it was Ortega y Gasset who expressed the paradox most
clearly when he wrote what may serve as an epitaph on the Spain of the House of Austria: ‘Castile has
made Spain, and Castile has destroyed it.’

The Habsburg dynasty became extinct in Spain with Charles II's death in 1700, and the War of the
Spanish Succession ensued in which the other European powers tried to assume control of the Spanish
monarchy. King Louis XIV of France eventually lost the War of the Spanish Succession The victors
were Britain, the Dutch Republic and Austria. They allowed the crown of Spain to pass to the Bourbon
dynasty, provided Spain and France would never be merged.[95]

Spain under the Bourbons, 1715-1808[edit]

Main article: History of Spain (1700-1810)

Recognition of the Duke of Anjou as King of Spain, under the name of Philip V , November 16, 1700

Charles II died in 1700, and having no direct heir, was succeeded by his great-nephew Philippe
d'Anjou, a French prince. The War of the Spanish Succession (1700-1714) pitted proponents of the
Bourbon succession against those for the Hapsburg. Concern among other European powers that
Spain and France united under a single Bourbon monarch would upset the balance of power. The war
pitted powerful France and fairly strong Spain against the Grand Alliance of England, Portugal, Savoy,
the Netherlands and Austria. After an extended conflict, especially in Spain, the treaty of
Utrecht recognized Philip, Duke of Anjou, Louis XIV's grandson, as King of Spain (as Philip V), thus
confirming the succession stipulated in the will of the Charles II of Spain. However, Philip was
compelled to renounce for himself and his descendants any right to the French throne, despite some
doubts as to the lawfulness of such an act. Spain's Italian territories were apportioned.[96]

An 18th-century map of the Iberian Peninsula

 The Battle of Cape Passaro, 11 August 1718

Philip V signed the Decreto de Nueva Planta in 1715. This new law revoked most of the historical rights
and privileges of the different kingdoms that formed the Spanish Crown, especially the Crown of
Aragon, unifying them under the laws of Castile, where the Castilian Cortes Generales had been more
receptive to the royal wish.[97] Spain became culturally and politically a follower of absolutist France.
Lynch says Philip V advanced the government only marginally over that of his predecessors and was
more of a liability than the incapacitated Charles II; when a conflict came up between the interests of
Spain and France, he usually favored France.[98]
Philip made reforms in government, and strengthened the central authorities relative to the provinces.
Merit became more important, although most senior positions still went to the landed aristocracy. Below
the elite level, inefficiency and corruption was as widespread as ever. The reforms started by Philip V
culminated in much more important reforms of Charles III.[98][99] The historian Jonathan Israel,
however, argues that King Charles III cared little for the Enlightenment and his ministers paid little
attention to the Enlightenment ideas influential elsewhere on the Continent. Israel says, "Only a few
ministers and officials were seriously committed to enlightened aims. Most were first and foremost
absolutists and their objective was always to reinforce monarchy, empire, aristocracy...and
ecclesiastical control and authority over education."[100]
The economy, on the whole, improved over the depressed 1650–1700 era, with greater productivity and
fewer famines and epidemics.[101]
Elisabeth of Parma, Philip V's wife, exerted great influence on Spain's foreign policy. Her principal aim
was to have Spain's lost territories in Italy restored. In 1717, Philip V ordered an invasion of Sardinia,
which had been given to Austria by the Treaty of Utrecht. Spanish troops then invaded Sicily. The
aggression prompted the Holy Roman Empire to form a new pact with the members of the Triple
Alliance, resulting in the Quadruple Alliance of 1718. All members demanded Spanish retreat from
Sardinia and Sicily, resulting in war by December 1718. The war lasted two years and resulted in a rout
of the Spanish. Hostilities ceased with the Treaty of The Hague in February 1720. In this settlement,
Philip V abandoned all claims on Italy. Later, however, Spain reconquered Naples and Sicily during
the War of the Polish Succession (1733–35). In 1748, after the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–
48), Spain obtained the duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla in northern Italy.
The rule of the Spanish Bourbons continued under Ferdinand VI (1746–59) and Charles III (1759–88).
Under the rule of Charles III and his ministers – Leopoldo de Gregorio, Marquis of Esquilache and José
Moñino, Count of Floridablanca – the economy improved. Fearing that Britain's victory over France in
the Seven Years' War (1756–63) threatened the European balance of power, Spain allied itself to
France and invaded Portugal, a British ally, but suffered a series of military defeats and ended up
having to cede Florida to the British at the Treaty of Paris (1763) while gaining Louisiana from France.
Spain regained Florida with the Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended the American Revolutionary
War (1775–83), and gained an improved international standing.
However, there were no reforming impulses in the reign of Charles IV (1788 to abdication in 1808),
seen by some as mentally handicapped. Dominated by his wife's lover, Manuel de Godoy, Charles IV
embarked on policies that overturned much of Charles III's reforms. After briefly opposing Revolutionary
France early in the French Revolutionary Wars, Spain was cajoled into an uneasy alliance with its
northern neighbor, only to be blockaded by the British. Charles IV's vacillation, culminating in his failure
to honour the alliance by neglecting to enforce the Continental System, led to the invasion of Spain in
1808 under Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, thereby triggering the Peninsular War, with enormous
human and property losses, and loss of control over most of the overseas empire.
During most of the 18th century Spain had arrested its relative decline of the latter part of the 17th
century. But despite the progress, it continued to lag in the political and mercantile developments then
transforming other parts of Europe, most notably in Great Britain, the Low Countries, and France. The
chaos unleashed by the Peninsular War caused this gap to widen greatly and would slow Spain's
industrialisation.

El paseo de las Delicias, a 1784-1785 painting by Ramón Bayeu depicting a meeting of members of the aristocracy in
the aforementioned location.

The Age of Enlightenment reached Spain in attenuated form about 1750. Attention focused on medicine
and physics, with some philosophy. French and Italian visitors were influential but there was little
challenge to Catholicism or the Church such as characterized the French philosophes. The leading
Spanish figure was Benito Feijóo (1676–1764), a Benedictine monk and professor. He was a successful
popularizer noted for encouraging scientific and empirical thought in an effort to debunk myths and
superstitions. By the 1770s the conservatives had launched a counterattack and used censorship and
the Inquisition to suppress Enlightenment ideas.[102]
At the top of the social structure of Spain in the 1780s stood the nobility and the church. A few hundred
families dominated the aristocracy, with another 500,000 holding noble status. There were 200,000
church men and women, half of them in heavily endowed monasteries that controlled much of the land
not owned by the nobles. Most people were on farms, either as landless peons or as holders of small
properties. The small urban middle class was growing, but was distrusted by the landowners and
peasants alike.[103]

War of Spanish Independence and American wars of

independence[edit]
See also: History of Spain (1810–73)

War of Spanish Independence (1808–1814)[edit]

Main article: Peninsular War

The Second of May 1808 was the beginning of the popular Spanish resistance against Napoleon.
In the late 18th century, Bourbon-ruled Spain had an alliance with Bourbon-ruled France, and therefore
did not have to fear a land war. Its only serious enemy was Britain, which had a powerful navy; Spain
therefore concentrated its resources on its navy. When the French Revolution overthrew the Bourbons,
a land war with France became a threat which the king tried to avoid. The Spanish army was ill-
prepared. The officer corps was selected primarily on the basis of royal patronage, rather than merit.
About a third of the junior officers had been promoted from the ranks, and while they did have talent
they had few opportunities for promotion or leadership. The rank-and-file were poorly trained peasants.
Elite units included foreign regiments of Irishmen, Italians, Swiss, and Walloons, in addition to elite
artillery and engineering units. Equipment was old-fashioned and in disrepair. The army lacked its own
horses, oxen and mules for transportation, so these auxiliaries were operated by civilians, who might
run away if conditions looked bad. In combat, small units fought well, but their old-fashioned tactics
were hardly of use against the Napoleonic forces, despite repeated desperate efforts at last-minute
reform.[104] When war broke out with France in 1808, the army was deeply unpopular. Leading generals
were assassinated, and the army proved incompetent to handle command-and-control. Junior officers
from peasant families deserted and went over to the insurgents; many units disintegrated. Spain was
unable to mobilize its artillery or cavalry. In the war, there was one victory at the Battle of Bailén, and
many humiliating defeats. Conditions steadily worsened, as the insurgents increasingly took control of
Spain's battle against Napoleon. Napoleon ridiculed the army as "the worst in Europe"; the British who
had to work with it agreed.[105] It was not the Army that defeated Napoleon, but the insurgent peasants
whom Napoleon ridiculed as packs of "bandits led by monks" (they in turn believed Napoleon was the
devil).[106] By 1812, the army controlled only scattered enclaves, and could only harass the French with
occasional raids. The morale of the army had reached a nadir, and reformers stripped the aristocratic
officers of most of their legal privileges.[107]
Spain initially sided against France in the Napoleonic Wars, but the defeat of her army early in the war
led to Charles IV's pragmatic decision to align with the revolutionary French. Spain was put under a
British blockade, and her colonies began to trade independently with Britain but it was the defeat of
the British invasions of the Río de la Plata in South America (1806 and 1807) that emboldened
independence and revolutionary hopes in Spain's North and South American colonies. A major Franco-
Spanish fleet was lost at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, prompting the vacillating king of Spain to
reconsider his difficult alliance with Napoleon. Spain temporarily broke off from the Continental System,
and Napoleon – irritated with the Bourbon kings of Spain – invaded Spain in 1808 and
deposed Ferdinand VII, who had been on the throne only forty-eight days after his father's abdication in
March 1808. On July 20, 1808, Joseph Bonaparte, eldest brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, entered
Madrid and established a government by which he became King of Spain, serving as a surrogate for
Napoleon.[108]

The Third of May 1808, Napoleon's troops shoot hostages. Goya

The former Spanish king was dethroned by Napoleon, who put his own brother on the throne.
Spaniards revolted. Thompson says the Spanish revolt was, "a reaction against new institutions and
ideas, a movement for loyalty to the old order: to the hereditary crown of the Most Catholic kings, which
Napoleon, an excommunicated enemy of the Pope, had put on the head of a Frenchman; to the
Catholic Church persecuted by republicans who had desecrated churches, murdered priests, and
enforced a "loi des cultes"; and to local and provincial rights and privileges threatened by an efficiently
centralized government.[109] Juntas were formed all across Spain that pronounced themselves in favor
of Ferdinand VII. On September 26, 1808, a Central Junta was formed in the town of Aranjuez to
coordinate the nationwide struggle against the French. Initially, the Central Junta declared support for
Ferdinand VII, and convened a "General and Extraordinary Cortes" for all the kingdoms of the Spanish
Monarchy. On February 22 and 23, 1809, a popular insurrection against the French occupation broke
out all over Spain.[110]
The peninsular campaign was a disaster for France. Napoleon did well when he was in direct
command, but that followed severe losses, and when he left in 1809 conditions grew worse for France.
Vicious reprisals, famously portrayed by Goya in "The Disasters of War", only made the Spanish
guerrillas angrier and more active; the war in Spain proved to be a major, long-term drain on French
money, manpower and prestige.[111]

The promulgation of the Constitution of 1812, oil painting by Salvador Viniegra.

In March 1812, the Cortes of Cádiz created the first modern Spanish constitution, the Constitution of
1812 (informally named La Pepa). This constitution provided for a separation of the powers of the
executive and the legislative branches of government. The Cortes was to be elected by universal
suffrage, albeit by an indirect method. Each member of the Cortes was to represent 70,000 people.
Members of the Cortes were to meet in annual sessions. The King was prevented from either
convening or proroguing the Cortes. Members of the Cortes were to serve single two-year terms. They
could not serve consecutive terms; a member could serve a second term only by allowing someone
else to serve a single intervening term in office. This attempt at the development of a modern
constitutional government lasted from 1808 until 1814.[112] Leaders of the liberals or reformist forces
during this revolution were José Moñino, Count of Floridablanca, Gaspar Melchor de
Jovellanos and Pedro Rodríguez, Conde de Campomanes. Born in 1728, Floridablanca was eighty
years of age at the time of the revolutionary outbreak in 1808. He had served as Prime Minister under
King Charles III of Spain from 1777 until 1792; However, he tended to be suspicious of the popular
spontaneity and resisted a revolution.[113] Born in 1744, Jovellanos was somewhat younger than
Floridablanco. A writer and follower of the philosophers of the Enlightenment tradition of the previous
century, Jovellanos had served as Minister of Justice from 1797 to 1798 and now commanded a
substantial and influential group within the Central Junta. However, Jovellanos had been imprisoned
by Manuel de Godoy, Duke of Alcudia, who had served as the prime minister, virtually running the
country as a dictator from 1792 until 1798 and from 1801 until 1808. Accordingly, even Jovellanos
tended to be somewhat overly cautious in his approach to the revolutionary upsurge that was sweeping
Spain in 1808.[114]
The Spanish army was stretched as it fought Napoleon's forces because of a lack of supplies and too
many untrained recruits, but at Bailén in June 1808, the Spanish army inflicted the first major defeat
suffered by a Napoleonic army; this resulted in the collapse of French power in Spain. Napoleon took
personal charge and with fresh forces reconquered Spain in a matter of months, defeating the Spanish
and British armies in a brilliant campaign of encirclement. After this the Spanish armies lost every battle
they fought against the French imperial forces but were never annihilated; after battles they would
retreat into the mountains to regroup and launch new attacks and raids. Guerrilla forces sprang up all
over the country and, with the army, tied down huge numbers of Napoleon's troops, making it difficult to
sustain concentrated attacks on enemy forces. The attacks and raids of the Spanish army and
guerrillas became a massive drain on Napoleon's military and economic resources.[115] In this war,
Spain was aided by the British and Portuguese, led by the Duke of Wellington. The Duke of Wellington
fought Napoleon's forces in the Peninsular War, with Joseph Bonaparte playing a minor role as king at
Madrid. The brutal war was one of the first guerrilla wars in modern Western history. French supply
lines stretching across Spain were mauled repeatedly by the Spanish armies and guerrilla forces;
thereafter, Napoleon's armies were never able to control much of the country. The war fluctuated, with
Wellington spending several years behind his fortresses in Portugal while launching occasional
campaigns into Spain.[116]
After Napoleon's disastrous 1812 campaign in Russia, Napoleon began to recall his forces for the
defence of France against the advancing Russian and other coalition forces, leaving his forces in Spain
increasingly undermanned and on the defensive against the advancing Spanish, British and Portuguese
armies. At the Battle of Vitoria in 1813, an allied army under the Duke of Wellington decisively defeated
the French and in 1814 Ferdinand VII was restored as King of Spain.[117][118]

Independence of Spanish America[edit]

Main article: Spanish American wars of independence

The pro-independence forces delivered a crushing defeat to the royalists and secured the independence of Peru in
the 1824 battle of Ayacucho.

Spain lost all of its North and South American territories, except Cuba and Puerto Rico, in a complex
series of revolts 1808–26.[119][120] Spain was at war with Britain 1798–1808, and the British Navy cut
off its ties to the overseas empire. Trade was handled by American and Dutch traders. The colonies
thus had achieved economic independence from Spain, and set up temporary governments or juntas
which were generally out of touch with the mother country. After 1814, as Napoleon was defeated and
Ferdinand VII was back on the throne, the king sent armies to regain control and reimpose autocratic
rule. In the next phase 1809–16, Spain defeated all the uprising. A second round 1816–25 was
successful and drove the Spanish out of all of its mainland holdings. Spain had no help from European
powers. Indeed, Britain (and the United States) worked against it. When they were cut off from Spain,
the colonies saw a struggle for power between Spaniards who were born in Spain (called
"peninsulares") and those of Spanish descent born in New Spain (called "creoles"). The creoles were
the activists for independence. Multiple revolutions enabled the colonies to break free of the mother
country. In 1824 the armies of generals José de San Martín of Argentina and Simón Bolívar of
Venezuela defeated the last Spanish forces; the final defeat came at the Battle of Ayacucho in
southern Peru. After that Spain played a minor role in international affairs. Business and trade in the ex-
colonies were under British control. Spain kept only Cuba and Puerto Rico in the New World.[121]

Reign of Ferdinand VII (1813–1833)[edit]

Aftermath of the Napoleonic wars[edit]
Main article: History of Spain (1810–73)
The Napoleonic wars had severe negative effects on Spain's long-term economic development. The
Peninsular war ravaged towns and countryside alike, and the demographic impact was the worst of any
Spanish war, with a sharp decline in population in many areas caused by casualties, outmigration, and
disruption of family life. The marauding armies seized farmers' crops, and more importantly, farmers lost
much of their livestock, their main capital asset. Severe poverty became widespread, reducing market
demand, while the disruption of local and international trade, and the shortages of critical inputs,
seriously hurt industry and services. The loss of a vast colonial empire reduced Spain's overall wealth,
and by 1820 it had become one of Europe's poorest and least-developed societies; three-fourths of the
people were illiterate. There was little industry beyond the production of textiles in Catalonia. Natural
resources, such as coal and iron, were available for exploitation, but the transportation system was
rudimentary, with few canals or navigable rivers, and road travel was slow and expensive. British
railroad builders were pessimistic about the potential for freight and passenger traffic and did not invest.
Eventually a small railway system was built, radiating from Madrid and bypassing the natural resources.
The government relied on high tariffs, especially on grain, which further slowed economic development.
For example, eastern Spain was unable to import inexpensive Italian wheat, and had to rely on
expensive homegrown products carted in over poor roads. The export market collapsed apart from
some agricultural products. Catalonia had some industry, but Castile remained the political and cultural
center, and was not interested in promoting industry.[122]
Although the juntas, that had forced the French to leave Spain, had sworn by the liberal Constitution of
1812, Ferdinand VII had the support of conservatives and he rejected it.[123] He ruled in the
authoritarian fashion of his forebears.[124]
The government, nearly bankrupt, was unable to pay her soldiers. There were few settlers or soldiers in
Florida, so it was sold to the United States for 5 million dollars. In 1820, an expedition intended for the
colonies revolted in Cadiz. When armies throughout Spain pronounced themselves in sympathy with
the revolters, led by Rafael del Riego, Ferdinand relented and was forced to accept the liberal
Constitution of 1812. This was the start of the second bourgeois revolution in Spain, the trienio
liberal which would last from 1820 to 1823.[118] Ferdinand himself was placed under effective house
arrest for the duration of the liberal experiment.

Trienio liberal (1820–23)[edit]
Main article: Trienio liberal
The tumultuous three years of liberal rule that followed (1820–23) were marked by various absolutist
conspiracies. The liberal government, which reminded European statesmen entirely too much of the
governments of the French Revolution, was viewed with hostility by the Congress of Verona in 1822,
and France was authorized to intervene. France crushed the liberal government with massive force in
the so-called "Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis" expedition, and Ferdinand was restored as
absolute monarch in 1823. In Spain proper, this marked the end of the second Spanish bourgeois
revolution.

"Ominous Decade" (1823–1833)[edit]

Main article: Ominous Decade

Execution of Torrijos and his men in 1831. Ferdinand VII took repressive measures against the liberal forces in his
country.

Battle of the First Carlist War, by Francisco de Paula Van Halen

In Spain, the failure of the second bourgeois revolution was followed by a period of uneasy peace for
the next decade. Having borne only a female heir presumptive, it appeared that Ferdinand would be
succeeded by his brother, Infante Carlos of Spain. While Ferdinand aligned with the conservatives,
fearing another national insurrection, he did not view Carlos's reactionary policies as a viable option.
Ferdinand – resisting the wishes of his brother – decreed the Pragmatic Sanction of 1830, enabling his
daughter Isabella to become Queen. Carlos, who made known his intent to resist the sanction, fled to
Portugal.

Reign of Isabella II (1833–1868)[edit]

Main articles: Isabella II of Spain and History of Spain (1810–73)
Ferdinand's death in 1833 and the accession of Isabella II as Queen of Spain sparked the First Carlist
War (1833–39). Isabella was only three years old at the time so her mother, Maria Cristina of Bourbon-
Two Sicilies, was named regent until her daughter came of age. Carlos invaded the Basque country in
the north of Spain and attracted support from absolutist reactionaries and conservatives; these forces
were known as the "Carlist" forces. The supporters of reform and of limitations on the absolutist rule of
the Spanish throne rallied behind Isabella and the regent, Maria Cristina; these reformists were called
"Christinos." Though Christino resistance to the insurrection seemed to have been overcome by the
end of 1833, Maria Cristina's forces suddenly drove the Carlist armies from most of the Basque country.
Carlos then appointed the Basque general Tomás de Zumalacárregui as his commander-in-chief.
Zumalacárregui resuscitated the Carlist cause, and by 1835 had driven the Christino armies to the Ebro
River and transformed the Carlist army from a demoralized band into a professional army of 30,000 of
superior quality to the government forces. Zumalacárregui's death in 1835 changed the Carlists'
fortunes. The Christinos found a capable general in Baldomero Espartero. His victory at the Battle of
Luchana (1836) turned the tide of the war, and in 1839, the Convention of Vergara put an end to the
first Carlist insurrection.[125]
The progressive General Espartero, exploiting his popularity as a war hero and his sobriquet "Pacifier of
Spain", demanded liberal reforms from Maria Cristina. The Queen Regent, who resisted any such idea,
preferred to resign and let Espartero become regent instead in 1840. Espartero's liberal reforms were
then opposed by moderates, and the former general's heavy-handedness caused a series of sporadic
uprisings throughout the country from various quarters, all of which were bloodily suppressed. He was
overthrown as regent in 1843 by Ramón María Narváez, a moderate, who was in turn perceived as too
reactionary. Another Carlist uprising, the Matiners' War, was launched in 1846 in Catalonia, but it was
poorly organized and suppressed by 1849.

Episode of the 1854 Spanish Revolution in the Puerta del Sol, by Eugenio Lucas Velázquez.

Isabella II took a more active role in government after coming of age, but she was unpopular throughout
her reign (1833–68). There was another pronunciamiento in 1854 led General Leopoldo O'Donnell,
intending to topple the discredited rule of the Count of San Luis. A popular insurrection followed the
coup and the Progressive Party obtained widespread support in Spain and came to government in
1854.[126] After 1856, O'Donnell, who had already marched on Madrid that year and ousted another
Espartero ministry, attempted to form the Liberal Union, his own political project. Following attacks on
Ceuta by tribesmen based in Morocco, a war against the latter country was successfully waged by
generals O'Donnell and Juan Prim.

Sexenio Democrático (1868–1874)[edit]

Main article: Sexenio Democrático
See also: History of Spain (1810–73)
 Members of the provisional government after the 1868 Glorious Revolution, by Jean Laurent.

In 1868 another insurgency, known as the Glorious Revolution took place.

The progresista generals Francisco Serrano and Juan Prim revolted against Isabella and defeated
her moderado generals at the Battle of Alcolea (1868). Isabella was driven into exile in Paris.[127]
Two years later, in 1870, the Cortes declared that Spain would again have a king. Amadeus of Savoy,
the second son of King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, was selected and duly crowned King of Spain early
the following year.[128] Amadeus – a liberal who swore by the liberal constitution the Cortes
promulgated – was faced immediately with the incredible task of bringing the disparate political
ideologies of Spain to one table. The country was plagued by internecine strife, not merely between
Spaniards but within Spanish parties.
Following the Hidalgo affair and an army rebellion, Amadeus famously declared the people of Spain to
be ungovernable, abdicated the throne, and left the country (11 February 1873).
First Spanish Republic (1873–74)

Main article: First Spanish Republic

Proclamation of the Spanish Republic in Madrid

In the absence of the Monarch, a government of radicals and Republicans was formed and declared
Spain a republic. The First Spanish Republic (1873–74) was immediately under siege from all quarters.
The Carlists were the most immediate threat, launching a violent insurrection after their poor showing in
the 1872 elections. There were calls for socialist revolution from the International Workingmen's
Association, revolts and unrest in the autonomous regions of Navarre and Catalonia, and pressure from
the Catholic Church against the fledgling republic.[129]
A coup took place in January 1874, when General Pavía broke into the Cortes. This prevented the
formation of a federal republican government, forced the dissolution of the Parliament and led to the
instauration of a unitary praetorian republic ruled by General Serrano, paving the way for
the Restoration of the Monarchy through another pronunciamiento, this time by Arsenio Martínez
Campos, in December 1874.

Restoration (1874–1931)[edit]
Main article: Spain under the Restoration
Reign of Alfonso XII and Regency of Maria Christina[edit]

1894 satirical cartoon depicting the tacit accord for seamless government change (turnismo) between the leaders of
two dynastic parties (Sagasta and Cánovas del Castillo), with the country being lied in an allegorical fashion.

Following the success of a December 1874 military coup the monarchy was restored in the person
of Alfonso XII (the son of former queen Isabella II). The ongoing Carlist insurrection was eventually put
down.[130] The Restoration period, following the proclamation of the 1876 Constitution, witnessed the
installment of an uncompetitive parliamentary system devised by Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, in which
two "dynastic" parties, the conservatives and the liberals alternated in control of the government
(turnismo). Election fraud (materialized in the so-called caciquismo) became ubiquitous, with elections
reproducing pre-arranged outcomes struck in the Capital.[131] Voter apathy was no less important.
[132] The reign of Alfonso was followed by that of his son Alfonso XIII,[133] initially a regency until the
latter's coming of age in 1902.
The 1876 Constitution granted the Catholic Church a great grip over the education (particularly in the
secondary education).[134] Meanwhile, an organization formed in 1876 upon a group
of Krausists educators, the Institución Libre de Enseñanza, had a leading role in the educational and
cultural renovation in the country, covering for the inaction of the Spanish State.[135]

Disaster of 1898[edit]

The explosion of the USS Maine launched the Spanish–American War in April 1898

In 1868, Cuba launched a war of independence against Spain. On that island, as had been the case in
Santo Domingo, the Spanish government found itself embroiled in a difficult campaign against an
indigenous rebellion. Unlike in Santo Domingo, however, Spain would initially win this struggle, having
learned the lessons of guerrilla warfare well enough to defeat this rebellion. The pacification of the
island was temporary, however, as the conflict revived in 1895 and ended in defeat at the hands of the
United States in the Spanish–American War of 1898. Cuba gained its independence and Spain lost its
remaining New World colony, Puerto Rico, which together with Guam and the Philippines were ceded to
the United States for 20 million dollars. In 1899, Spain sold its remaining Pacific islands – the Northern
Mariana Islands, Caroline Islands and Palau – to Germany and Spanish colonial possessions were
reduced to Spanish Morocco, Spanish Sahara and Spanish Guinea, all in Africa.[136]
The "disaster" of 1898 created the Generation of '98, a group of statesmen and intellectuals who
demanded liberal change from the new government. However both Anarchism on the left
and fascism on the right grew rapidly in Spain in the early 20th century. A revolt in 1909
in Catalonia was bloodily suppressed.[137] Jensen (1999) argues that the defeat of 1898 led many
military officers to abandon the liberalism that had been strong in the officer corps and turn to the right.
They interpreted the American victory in 1898 as well as the Japanese victory against Russia in
1905 as proof of the superiority of willpower and moral values over technology. Over the next three
decades, Jensen argues, these values shaped the outlook of Francisco Franco and other Falangists.
[138]

Crisis of the Restoration system (1913–1931)[edit]

The bipartisan system began to collapse in the later years of the constitutional part of the reign
of Alfonso XIII, with the dynastic parties largely disintegrating into factions: the conservatives faced a
schism between datistas, mauristas and ciervistas. The liberal camp split into the mainstream liberals
followers of the Count of Romanones (romanonistas) and the followers of Manuel García Prieto, the
"democrats" (prietistas).[139] An additional liberal albista faction was later added to the last two.[140]
Spain's neutrality in World War I spared the country from carnage, yet the conflict caused massive
economic disruption, with the country experiencing at the same time an economic boom (the increasing
foreign demand of products and the drop of imports brought hefty profits) and widespread social
distress (with mounting inflation, shortage of basic goods and extreme income inequality).[141] A major
revolutionary strike was called for August 1917, supported by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party,
the UGT and the CNT, seeking to overthrow the government by means of a general strike.
The Dato government deployed the army against the workers to brutally quell any threat to social order,
sealing in turn the demise of the cabinet and undermining the constitutional order.[142] The strike was
one of the three simultaneous developments of a wider three-headed crisis in 1917 that cracked the
Restoration regime, that also included a military crisis induced by the cleavage in the Armed Forces
between Mainland and Africa-based ranks vis-à-vis the military promotion (and ensuing formation
of juntas of officers that refused to dissolve upon request from the government),[143] and a political crisis
brought by the challenge posed by Catalan nationalism, whose bourgeois was emboldened by the
economic upswing caused by the profits from exports to Entente powers during World War I.[144]
During the Rif War, the crushing defeat of the Spanish Army in the so-called "Disaster of Annual" in the
Summer of 1921 brought in a matter of days the catastrophic loss of the lives of about 9,000 Spanish
soldiers and the loss of all occupied territory in Morocco that had been gained since 1912.[145] This
entailed the greatest defeat suffered by a European power in an African colonial war in the 20th century.
[146][dubious – discuss]

See also: Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera

The successful 1925 Alhucemas landing turned the luck in the Rif War towards Spain's favour.

Alfonso XIII tacitly endorsed the September 1923 coup by General Miguel Primo de Rivera that
installed a dictatorship led by the latter. The regime enforced the State of War all over the country from
September 1923 to May 1925 and, in permanent violation of the 1876 Constitution, wrecked with the
legal-rational component of the constitutional compromise.[147][148] Attempts to institutionalise the
regime (initially a Military Directory) were taken, in the form of a single official party (the Patriotic Union)
and a consultative chamber (the National Assembly).[147][149]
Preceded by a partial retreat from vulnerable posts in the interior of the protectorate in Morocco,
[150] Spain (in joint action with France) turned the tides in Morocco in 1925, and the Abd el-Krim-
led Republic of the Rif started to see the beginning of its end after the Alhucemas landing and ensuing
seizure of Ajdir,[151] the heart of the Riffian rebellion. The war had dragged on since 1917 and cost
Spain $800 million.[152][153] The Spanish officers of the war ended up taking the brutality of the
colonial military practices to the mainland.[154]
The late 1920s were prosperous until the worldwide Great Depression hit in 1929. In early 1930
bankruptcy and massive unpopularity forced the king to remove Primo de Rivera.
See also: Dictablanda of Dámaso Berenguer
Primo de Rivera was replaced by Dámaso Berenguer's so-called dictablanda. The later ruler was in turn
replaced by Admiral Aznar-Cabañas in February 1931, soon before the scheduled municipal elections
of April 1931, which were considered a plebiscite on the Monarchy. Urban voters had lost faith in the
monarch and voted for republican parties. In the wake of the Republican victory, the king fled the
country and a republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931.[155][156]

Second Spanish Republic (1931–36)[edit]

Main articles: Second Spanish Republic and Provisional Government of the Second Spanish Republic

Celebrations of the proclamation of the 2nd Republic in Barcelona.

A provisional government presided by Niceto Alcalá Zamora was installed as the Republic, popularly
nicknamed as "la niña bonita" ('the pretty girl'),[157] was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, a democratic
experiment at a time when democracies were beginning to descend into dictatorships elsewhere in the
continent.[157][158] A Constituent election was called for June 1931. The dominant bloc emerging
from the election, an alliance of liberals and socialists, brought Manuel Azaña (who had undertaken a
decisive reform as War minister in the provisional government by trying to democratize the Armed
Forces)[159] to premiership, heading from the on a number of coalition cabinets.[160] While the
Republican government was able to easily quell the first 1932 coup d'etat led by José Sanjurjo, the
generals, who felt humiliated because of the military reform privately developed a strong contempt
towards Azaña.[159] The new parliament drafted a new constitution which was approved on 9 December
1931.
Political ideologies were intensely polarized, as both right and left saw vast evil conspiracies on the
other side that had to be stopped. Regarding the crux of the role of the Church, within the Left people
saw the former as the major enemy of modernity and the Spanish people, and the right saw it as the
invaluable protector of Spanish values.[161]
Under the Second Spanish Republic, women were allowed to vote in general elections for the first time.
The Republic devolved substantial self-government to Catalonia and, for a brief period in wartime, also
to the Basque Provinces.
The first cabinets of the Republic were center-left, headed by Niceto Alcalá-Zamora and Manuel Azaña.
Economic turmoil, substantial debt, and fractious, rapidly changing governing coalitions led to
escalating political violence and attempted coups by right and left.
Following the 1933 election, the right-wing Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (CEDA),
based on the Catholic vote, was set to enter the radical government. An armed rising of workers in
October 1934, which reached its greatest intensity in Asturias, was forcefully put down by the
government. This in turn energized political movements across the spectrum in Spain, including a
revived anarchist movement and new reactionary and fascist groups, including the Falange and a
revived Carlist movement.[162]
A devastating 1936–39 civil war was won in 1939 by the rebel forces under Francisco Franco. It was
supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The rebels (backed among other by traditionalist Carlists,
Fascist falangists and Far-right alfonsists) defeated the Republican loyalists (with a variable support of
Socialists, Liberals, Communists, Anarchists and Catalan and Basque nationalists), who were backed
by the Soviet Union.
Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)[edit]
Main article: Spanish Civil War

People's militias attacking on a Rebel position in Somosierra in the early stages of the war.

The Spanish Civil War was started by a military coup d'etat in 17–18 July 1936 against the Republican
government. The coup, intending to prevent social and economic reforms carried by the new
government, had been carefully plotted since the electoral right-wing defeat at the February 1936
election.[163] The coup failed everywhere but in the Catholic heartland (Galicia, Old Castile and
Navarre), Morocco, Zaragoza, Seville and Oviedo, while the rest of the country remained loyal to the
Republic, including the main industrial cities (such as Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Bilbao), where
the putschists were crushed by the combined action of workers and peasants.[164]
The Republic looked to the Western democracies for help, but following an earlier commitment to
provide assistance by French premier Léon Blum, by 25 July the latter had already backtracked on it,
as to the mounting inner division within his country the British opposition to intervention added up, as
the sympathies of the UK lied in the Rebel faction.[165]
The Rebel faction enjoyed direct military support from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, while since the
very beginning they also enjoyed the support of Salazarist Portugal, the power-base of one of the
leading rebels, José Sanjurjo. The Soviet Union sold weapons to the Republican faction, while left-wing
sympathizers around the world went to Spain to fight in the International Brigades, set up by
the Communist International. The conflict become a worldwide ideological battleground that pitted the
left and many liberals against Catholics and conservatives. Worldwide there was a decline in pacifism
and a growing sense that another world war was imminent, and that it would be worth fighting for.[166]
After the Spanish Civil War, the active agrarian population began to decline in Spain, the provinces with
latifundia in Andalusia continued being the ones with the greatest number of day laborers; at the same
time this was the region with the lowest literacy share.[167]

Political and military balance[edit]

Advance of Italian tankettes during the Battle of Guadalajara.

The Spanish Republican government moved to Valencia, to escape Madrid, which was under siege by
the Nationalists. It had some military strength in the Air Force and Navy, but it had lost nearly all of the
regular Army. After opening the arsenals to give rifles, machine guns and artillery to local militias, it had
little control over the Loyalist ground forces. Republican diplomacy proved ineffective, with only two
useful allies, the Soviet Union and Mexico. Britain, France and 27 other countries had agreed to an
arms embargo on Spain, and the United States went along. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy both signed
that agreement, but ignored it and sent supplies and vital help, including a powerful air force under
German command, the Condor Legion. Tens of thousands of Italians arrived under Italian command.
Portugal supported the Nationalists, and allowed the trans-shipment of supplies to Franco's forces. The
Soviets sold tanks and other armaments for Spanish gold, and sent well-trained officers and political
commissars. It organized the mobilization of tens of thousands of mostly communist volunteers from
around the world, who formed the International Brigades.
In 1936, the Left united in the Popular Front and were elected to power. However, this coalition,
dominated by the centre-left, was undermined both by the revolutionary groups such as
the anarchist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) and
by anti-democratic far-right groups such as the Falange and the Carlists. The political violence of
previous years began to start again. There were gunfights over strikes; landless labourers began to
seize land, church officials were killed and churches burnt. On the other side, right wing militias (such
as the Falange) and gunmen hired by employers assassinated left wing activists. The Republican
democracy never generated the consensus or mutual trust between the various political groups that it
needed to function peacefully. As a result, the country slid into civil war. The right wing of the country
and high ranking figures in the army began to plan a coup, and when Falangist politician José Calvo-
Sotelo was shot by Republican police, they used it as a signal to act while the Republican leadership
was confused and inert.[168][169]

Military operations[edit]

Two women and a man during the siege of the Alcázar

The Nationalists under Franco won the war, and historians continue to debate the reasons. The
Nationalists were much better unified and led than the Republicans, who squabbled and fought
amongst themselves endlessly and had no clear military strategy. The Army went over to the
Nationalists, but it was very poorly equipped – there were no tanks or modern airplanes. The small navy
supported the Republicans, but their armies were made up of raw recruits and they lacked both
equipment and skilled officers and sergeants. Nationalist senior officers were much better trained and
more familiar with modern tactics than the Republicans.[170]
On 17 July 1936, General Francisco Franco brought the colonial army stationed in Morocco to the
mainland, while another force from the north under General Mola moved south from Navarre. Another
conspirator, General Sanjurjo, who was in exile in Portugal, was killed in a plane crash while being
brought to join the other military leaders. Military units were also mobilised elsewhere to take over
government institutions. Franco intended to seize power immediately, but successful resistance by
Republicans in the key centers of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, the Basque country, and other points
meant that Spain faced a prolonged civil war. By 1937 much of the south and west was under the
control of the Nationalists, whose Army of Africa was the most professional force available to either
side. Both sides received foreign military aid: the Nationalists from Nazi Germany and Italy, while the
Republicans were supported by organised far-left volunteers from the Soviet Union.

Ruins of Guernica

The Siege of the Alcázar at Toledo early in the war was a turning point, with the Nationalists
successfully resisting after a long siege. The Republicans managed to hold out in Madrid, despite a
Nationalist assault in November 1936, and frustrated subsequent offensives against the capital
at Jarama and Guadalajara in 1937. Soon, though, the Nationalists began to erode their territory,
starving Madrid and making inroads into the east. The North, including the Basque country fell in late
1937 and the Aragon front collapsed shortly afterwards. The bombing of Guernica on the afternoon of
26 April 1937 – a mission used as a testing ground for the German Luftwaffe's Condor Legion – was
probably the most infamous event of the war and inspired Picasso's painting. The Battle of the Ebro in
July–November 1938 was the final desperate attempt by the Republicans to turn the tide. When this
failed and Barcelona fell to the Nationalists in early 1939, it was clear the war was over. The remaining
Republican fronts collapsed, as civil war broke out inside the Left, as the Republicans suppressed the
Communists. Madrid fell in March 1939.[171]
The war cost between 300,000 and 1,000,000 lives. It ended with the total collapse of the Republic and
the accession of Francisco Franco as dictator of Spain. Franco amalgamated all right wing parties into
a reconstituted fascist party Falange and banned the left-wing and Republican parties and trade unions.
The Church was more powerful than it had been in centuries.[172]
The conduct of the war was brutal on both sides, with widespread massacres of civilians and prisoners.
After the war, many thousands of Republicans were imprisoned and up to 150,000 were executed
between 1939 and 1943. Some 500,000 refugees escaped to France; they remained in exile for years
or decades.

Francoist Spain, 1939-1975[edit]

Main article: Francoist Spain

Franco visiting Tolosa in 1948

The Francoist regime resulted in the deaths and arrests of hundreds of thousands of people who were
either supporters of the previous Second Republic of Spain or potential threats to Franco's state. They
were executed, sent to prisons or concentration camps. According to Gabriel Jackson, the number of
victims of the White Terror (executions and hunger or illness in prisons) just between 1939 and 1943
was 200,000.[173] Child abduction was also a wide-scale practice. The lost children of Francoism may
reach 300,000.[174][175]
During Franco's rule, Spain was officially neutral in World War II and remained largely economically and
culturally isolated from the outside world. Under a military dictatorship, Spain saw its political parties
banned, except for the official party (Falange). Labour unions were banned and all political activity
using violence or intimidation to achieve its goals was forbidden.

Francisco Franco and his appointed successor Prince Juan Carlos de Borbón.

Under Franco, Spain actively sought the return of Gibraltar by the United Kingdom, and gained some
support for its cause at the United Nations. During the 1960s, Spain began imposing restrictions on
Gibraltar, culminating in the closure of the border in 1969. It was not fully reopened until 1985.
Spanish rule in Morocco ended in 1967. Though militarily victorious in the 1957–58 Moroccan invasion
of Spanish West Africa, Spain gradually relinquished its remaining African colonies. Spanish Guinea
was granted independence as Equatorial Guinea in 1968, while the Moroccan enclave of Ifni had been
ceded to Morocco in 1969. Two cities in Africa, Ceuta and Melilla remain under Spanish rule and
sovereignty.
The latter years of Franco's rule saw some economic and political liberalization (the Spanish miracle),
including the birth of a tourism industry. Spain began to catch up economically with its European
neighbors.[176]
Franco ruled until his death on 20 November 1975, when control was given to King Juan Carlos.[177] In
the last few months before Franco's death, the Spanish state went into a paralysis. This was capitalized
upon by King Hassan II of Morocco, who ordered the 'Green March' into Western Sahara, Spain's last
colonial possession.

History of Spain (1975–present)[edit]

Main article: History of Spain (1975–present)

Transition to democracy[edit]
Main article: Spanish transition to democracy
The Spanish transition to democracy or new Bourbon restoration was the era when Spain moved from
the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to a liberal democratic state. The transition started with Franco's
death on 20 November 1975, while its completion is marked by the electoral victory of the
socialist PSOE on 28 October 1982.
Under its current (1978) constitution, Spain is a constitutional monarchy. It comprises 17 autonomous
communities (Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castile and
León, Castile–La Mancha, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Community of Madrid, Region of
Murcia, Basque Country, Valencian Community, and Navarre) and 2 autonomous cities
(Ceuta and Melilla).
Between 1978 and 1982, Spain was led by the Unión del Centro Democrático governments. In 1981
the 23-F coup d'état attempt took place. On 23 February Antonio Tejero, with members of the Guardia
Civil entered the Congress of Deputies, and stopped the session, where Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo was
about to be named prime minister of the government. Officially, the coup d'état failed thanks to the
intervention of King Juan Carlos. Spain joined NATO before Calvo-Sotelo left office. Along with political
change came radical change in Spanish society. Spanish society had been extremely conservative
under Franco,[citation needed] but the transition to democracy also began a liberalization of values and
social customs.

Felipe González signing the treaty of accession to the European Economic Community on 12 June 1985.

Valladolid in 1986. A OTAN NO ( 'No to NATO') banner can be read on the highrise building

After earning a sweeping majority at the October 1982 general election, the Spanish Socialist Workers'
Party (PSOE) governed the country, with Felipe González as prime minister. On 1 January 1986,
Spain joined the European Economic Community (EEC). A referendum on whether Spain should
remain in NATO was held in March 1986. The ruling party, the PSOE, favoured Spain's permanence (a
turn from their anti-NATO stance back in 1982, a change of discourse already initiated by 1983 and
made explicit in 1984).[178] Meanwhile, the Conservative opposition (People's Coalition), called for
abstention.[179] The 'yes' to permanence in NATO unexpectedly won.[180]
The country hosted the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and Seville Expo '92.

Spain within the European Union (1993 to present)[edit]

Further information: Spanish property bubble, 2008–14 Spanish financial crisis, and Eurozone crisis
In 1996, the centre-right Partido Popular government came to power, led by José María Aznar. On 1
January 1999, Spain exchanged the peseta for the new Euro currency. The peseta continued to be
used for cash transactions until January 1, 2002. On 11 March 2004 a number of terrorist bombs
exploded on busy commuter trains in Madrid by Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda, killing 191
persons and injuring thousands. The election, held three days after the attacks, was won by the PSOE,
and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero replaced Aznar as prime minister. As José María Aznar and his
ministers at first accused ETA of the atrocity, it has been argued that the outcome of the election has
been influenced by this event.
In the wake of its joining the EEC, Spain experienced an economic boom during two decades, cut
painfully short by the financial crisis of 2008. During the boom years, Spain attracted a large number
of immigrants, especially from the United Kingdom, but also including unknown but substantial illegal
immigration, mostly from Latin America, eastern Europe and north Africa.[181] Spain had the fourth
largest economy in the Eurozone, but after 2008 the global economic recession hit Spain hard, with the
bursting of the housing bubble and unemployment reaching over 25%, sharp budget cutbacks were
needed to stay in the Euro zone. The GDP shrank 1.2% in 2012.[182] Although interest rates were
historically low, investments were not encouraged sufficiently by entrepreneurs.[183] Losses were
especially high in real estate, banking, and construction. Economists concluded in early 2013 that,
"Where once Spain's problems were acute, now they are chronic: entrenched unemployment, a large
mass of small and medium-sized enterprises with low productivity, and, above all, a constriction in
credit."[184] With the financial crisis and high unemployment, Spain is now suffering from a combination
of continued illegal immigration paired with a massive emigration of workers, forced to seek
employment elsewhere under the EU's "Freedom of Movement", with an estimated 700,000, or 1.5% of
total population, leaving the country between 2008 and 2013.[185]
Spain is ranked as a middle power able to exert modest regional influence. It has a small voice in
international organizations; it is not part of the G8 and participates in the G20 only as a guest. Spain is
part of the G6 (EU).

See also