Spanish Empire

Spanish Empire Imperio Español
← 1492–1975 →
Cross of Burgundy Flag Coat of arms
Capital	Toledo (1492-1561) Madrid (since 1561)
Language(s)	Spanish
Religion	Roman Catholic
Government	Monarchy
Monarch
- 1516-1556	Charles I
- 1886-1902	Maria Christina of Austria, Regent during the minority of king Alphonse XIII
History
- Discovery of the Americas	1492
- Conquest of the Aztec Empire	1519-1521
- Conquest of the Inca Empire	1532–1537
- Spanish-American War	1975
Currency	Spanish real, Spanish escudo

The Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in history and one of the first global empires.

In the 15th and 16th centuries Spain was in the center of European global exploration and colonial expansion and the opening of trade routes across the oceans, with trade across the Atlantic Ocean between Spain and the Americas and across the Pacific Ocean between Asia-Pacific and Mexico via the Philippines. Conquistadors destroyed the Aztec, Inca, and Maya civilizations, and took a lot of land in North and South America. For a time, the Spanish Empire dominated the oceans with its experienced navy and ruled the European battlefield with its well trained infantry. Spain enjoyed a cultural golden age in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Definition

The Spanish Empire generally means Spain's overseas colonies in the Americas, the Pacific, and elsewhere. But it is not clear what is exactly part of the Spanish Empire. For instance, traditionally, territiories such as the Low Countries or Spanish Netherlands were included as they were part of the possessions of the King of Spain, governed by Spanish officials and defended by Spanish troops. But the British historian Henry Kamen writes that these territories were never part of a "Spanish" state and instead formed part of the wider Habsburg estate. Therefore many historians use both "Habsburg" and "Spanish" when they speak of the empire of Charles V or Philip II. Only from an "Anglosaxon" point of view can these observations be accurate since, with all effect, the Low Countries were part of Spain during that period.

Philip II's realms in 1598, showing its administrative structure during the Iberian Union, 1580-1640.

Portugal was occupied by Spanish forces and was ruled by the same monarch in "personal union", but Portugal remained a separate state. The Portuguese empire continued to be ruled from Lisbon during this period. Therefore there was a joint Spanish-Portuguese rule for some time. These jointly run empires have sometimes been called the Spanish-Portuguese Empire, but they were not parts of one state.

The Beginnings of the Empire (1402–1521)

Historically incorrect map of the Aragonese Crown

The marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile created a personal union of Aragon and Castile.

Surrender of Granada's king in the presence of the Catholic Kings.

In 1492, Spain drove out the last Moorish king of Granada. After their victory, the Spanish monarchs allowed Christopher Columbus to try to reach India by sailing west. Columbus instead "discovered" America. That was the start of the Spanish colonization of the continent.

Christopher Columbus taking possession of La Española.

By the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, the globe was divided into two hemispheres between Spain and Portugal. Therefore Spain had the right to start colonies in all of the New World from Alaska to Cape Horn (except Brazil), as well as Asia. The Castilian Empire was the result of a period of rapid colonial expansion into the New World, as well as the Philippines and colonies in Africa: Melilla was captured by Castile in 1497 and Oran in 1509.

Results till today

The Spanish language and the Roman Catholic Church were brought to the Americas and to the Spanish East Indies (Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Marianas, Palau and the Philippines) by the Spanish colonization which began in the 15th century. Together with the Portuguese empire, the Spanish empire laid the foundations of a globalised trade by opening up the great trans-oceanic trade routes. Modern International law has its roots in the Spanish colonial expansion and bad experience with imperialism as well.

References

• Archer, Christon et al., World History of Warfare. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002.
• Armstrong, Edward (1902). The emperor Charles V. New York: The Macmillan Company
• Black, Jeremy (1996). The Cambridge illustrated atlas of warfare: Renaissance to revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-47033-1
• Braudel, Fernand (1972). The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, trans. Siân Reynolds. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-090566-2
• Fernand Braudel, The Perspective of the World (part iii of Civilization and Capitalism) 1979, translated 1985.
• Brown, J. and Elliott, J. H. (1980). A palace for a king. The Buen Retiro and the Court of Philip IV. New Haven: Yale University Press
• Brown, Jonathan (1998). Painting in Spain : 1500–1700. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-06472-1
• Dominguez Ortiz, Antonio (1971). The golden age of Spain, 1516-1659. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-297-00405-0
• Edwards, John (2000). The Spain of the Catholic Monarchs, 1474-1520. New York: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-16165-1
• Harman, Alec (1969). Late Renaissance and Baroque music. New York: Schocken Books.
• Kamen, Henry (1998). Philip of Spain. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07800-5
• Kamen, Henry (2003). Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492-1763. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-093264-3
• Kamen, Henry (2005). Spain 1469-1714. A Society of Conflict (3rd ed.) London and New York: Pearson Longman. ISBN 0-582-78464-6
• Parker, Geoffrey (1997). The Thirty Years' War (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-12883-8
• Parker, Geoffrey (1972). The Army of flanders and the Spanish road, 1567-1659; the logistics of Spanish victory and defeat in the Low Countries' Wars.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-08462-8
• Parker, Geoffrey (1977). The Dutch revolt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-8014-1136-X
• Parker, Geoffrey (1978). Philip II. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-69080-5
• Parker, Geoffrey (1997). The general crisis of the seventeenth century. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-16518-0
• Stradling, R. A. (1988). Philip IV and the government of Spain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-32333-9
• Thomas, Hugh (1997). The Slave Trade; The History of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1440-1870. London: Papermac. ISBN 0-333-73147-6
• Various (1983). Historia de la literatura espanola. Barcelona: Editorial Ariel
• Wright, Esmond, ed. (1984). History of the World, Part II: The last five hundred years (3rd ed.). New York: Hamlyn Publishing. ISBN 0-517-43644-2.

Other pages

• Colonialism
• History of Spain
• New Spain
• Spanish colonization of the Americas

Other websites

• Library of Iberian Resources Online, Stanley G Payne A History of Spain and Portugal vol 1 Ch 13 "The Spanish Empire"
• The Mestizo-Mexicano-Indian History in the USA
• Sizes of the largest Empires in History:"To Rule the Earth"
• Documentary Film, Villa de Albuquerque
• The last Spanish colonies (in Spanish)