Spanish Empire

The Spanish Empire, sometimes called the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed from 1492 to 1976. Together with the Portuguese Empire, it began the European Age of Discovery. It reached across the globe, controlling large parts of the Americas, Africa, several islands in Asia and Oceania, and land in other parts of Europe. It was one of the most powerful empires of the early modern period and became known as "the empire on which the sun never sets". At its largest, in the late 1700s and early 1800s, it covered 13.7 million square kilometres (5.3 million square miles), making it one of the largest empires in history. For the use of the imperial title in medieval Spain, see Imperator totius Hispaniae.

Beginning with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, the Spanish Empire expanded for more than three centuries. It spread across the Caribbean Islands, half of South America, most of Central America, and much of North America. At first, Portugal was the only serious threat to Spanish power in the New World. To end this threat, Spain conquered Portugal and the Azores Islands from 1580 to 1582 during the War of the Portuguese Succession. This led to the Iberian Union, a forced union of the two crowns that lasted until 1640, when Portugal regained its independence from Spain. In 1700, Philip V became king of Spain after the death of Charles II, the last Habsburg monarch of Spain, who died without an heir.

The Magellan–Elcano circumnavigation, the first voyage around the Earth, laid the foundation for Spain's Pacific empire and its control over the East Indies. Gold and silver from mines in Zacatecas and Guanajuato in Mexico, and in Potosí in Bolivia, enriched the Spanish crown and paid for military campaigns and new territories. Spain was largely able to defend its American lands. The Dutch, English, and French took only small Caribbean islands and outposts, which they used for contraband trade with people in the Spanish Indies. Bankers from Genoa also played a key role by financing royal expeditions and military campaigns.

Under the Bourbon monarchy, the crown introduced reforms such as the Nueva Planta decrees, which centralized power and ended regional privileges. Trade with the colonies was encouraged, which increased Spanish influence in the Americas. Tensions also grew between the ruling elite and the rising middle class, as well as between peninsular Spaniards and Creoles in the Americas. These tensions helped set the stage for independence movements that began in the early 1800s, and Spanish colonial authority gradually broke apart. By the mid-1820s, Spain had lost its territories in Mexico, Central America, and South America. By late 1898, following the Spanish–American War, it had also lost Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippine Islands, and Guam in the Mariana Islands.

Main article: Catholic Monarchs of Spain

See also: History of the territorial organization of Spain

Catholic Monarchs and origins of the empire

The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile created a personal union that most scholars view as the foundation of the Spanish monarchy. Their combined power came under one House of Trastámara dynasty. In 1492, they completed the Christian conquest of the Muslim Emirate of Granada, and Pope Alexander VI gave them the title of the Catholic Monarchs. Because the Ottoman Turks controlled the overland trade routes from Asia and the Middle East, Spain and Portugal looked for other routes. Portugal expanded overseas first to Ceuta, then to Madeira and the Azores. Castile and Portugal later reached formal agreements in the Treaty of Alcaçovas (1479).

After Christopher Columbus, a Genoese mariner, sailed west in 1492 with the support of Isabella, he reached the New World. The Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 then divided the world between Portugal and Castile, giving Portugal Africa and Asia and giving Spain the Western Hemisphere. Gold began to flow into Castile, and managing the growing empire required trained lawyers and officials. These officials staffed the Council of the Indies and the Casa de Contratación, the two highest bodies for governing the empire in the New World. Spain also expanded in North Africa, including the conquest of Melilla in 1497.

The Spanish Habsburgs (1516–1700)

Main article: Habsburg Spain

Through the marriage politics of the Catholic Monarchs, their Habsburg grandson Charles inherited the Castilian empire in the Americas, the Crown of Aragon's Mediterranean lands (including all of southern Italy), and lands in Germany, the Low Countries, Franche-Comté, and Austria. This started the rule of the Spanish Habsburgs. The Austrian lands went to Ferdinand, brother of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Spain and the remaining possessions went to Charles's son, Philip II of Spain, when Charles stepped down in 1556. The Habsburgs wanted to weaken France, defend Europe against Islam and the Ottoman Empire in the Ottoman–Habsburg wars, keep their hegemony in the Holy Roman Empire, and defend the Roman Catholic Church against the Protestant Reformation. They also aimed to spread Christianity in the New World and the Philippines, take gold, silver, and sugar from the Americas, trade for porcelain, spices, and silk in Asia, and keep other European powers out of the New World. Money was a constant problem. Scholars at the School of Salamanca and the arbitristas discussed inflation, and wealthy people often put their money into public debt. The dynasty spent Castilian and American riches in wars across Europe, declared several moratoriums (bankruptcies) on its debt payments, and faced revolts across its lands, including in Spain.

Main articles: Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, and Spanish conquest of the Maya

During Habsburg rule, the Spanish Empire greatly expanded in the Americas, beginning with the conquest of the Aztec Empire. These conquests were achieved not by the Spanish army, but by small groups of adventurers, including artisans, traders, gentry, and peasants, who worked independently under the crown's encomienda system. Despite opposition from Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, the governor of Hispaniola, Hernán Cortés led 550 conquistadors to the coast of Mexico in March 1519. Many Tlaxcalan people joined the invaders against their Aztec rulers. Cortés's forces entered the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, on 8 November. After a fierce struggle in 1521, Tenochtitlan fell, which marked the beginning of Spanish colonial rule in Mexico and led to the Viceroyalty of New Spain in 1535. Pedro de Alvarado began conquering northern Central America in 1523, and by 1528 most of the major Maya kingdoms were under Spanish control, except the Petén Basin. The last independent Maya kingdoms were defeated in 1697 during the Spanish conquest of Petén. In 1532, Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire by capturing its leader Atahualpa in Cajamarca. This led to the Viceroyalty of Peru in 1542, giving Spain control over much of western South America. In southern Chile, the Mapuche people resisted the Spanish for centuries during the Arauco War. Philip II (ruled 1556–98) oversaw the colonization of the Philippines, which began in 1565 with Miguel López de Legazpi. His victory in the War of the Portuguese Succession led to the annexation of Portugal in 1580, bringing its overseas empire, including coastal Brazil, the Persian Gulf area, and African and Indian coastal enclaves, under Spanish rule. The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559 also reaffirmed Spanish control over the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of Sicily, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Duchy of Milan, and Italy became the core of Spain's power. By the mid-17th century, the global empire strained Spain's economic, administrative, and military resources, and its military lacked modernization and relied heavily on foreign suppliers.

Main article: Philip II of Spain

Main article: Decline of Spain

The Spanish Bourbons (1700–1833)

Main articles: History of Spain (1700–1808) and Spanish Enlightenment

After the childless Charles II of Spain died in 1700, the throne was disputed in the War of the Spanish Succession. The Treaties of Utrecht ended the war in 1713. They made Philip V of Spain, a French prince from the House of Bourbon and grandson of Louis XIV, the new king. Spain kept its overseas empire, but it gave up several European lands, and Britain gained Menorca and Gibraltar. Britain also received the right to sell slaves in Spanish America for thirty years. The Bourbon kings then tried to make the government stronger, increase tax income, and gain more control over the colonies. Trade grew during the 18th century, and in New Spain, silver mining boomed, though many ordinary people remained poor. The Bourbon reforms were meant to strengthen the empire, but they also upset many colonists. In 1808, French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte invaded the Iberian peninsula and placed his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the Spanish throne. This led to a crisis of rule in Spanish America and to the Spanish American wars of independence (1808–1826).

Spain fought several wars during this period. Spanish forces won the Battle of Bitonto in 1734 and recovered Naples and Sicily. During the Seven Years' War, Britain captured Havana and Manila, but Spain later recovered Menorca during the American Revolutionary War. Spain's claims in the Pacific Northwest were challenged, and the Nootka Crisis nearly led to war with Britain. In 1800, France regained the Louisiana Territory, which it sold to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Within the Americas, leaders such as Simón Bolívar fought for independence, and most of Spanish America became separate republics. Ferdinand VII, king of Spain, died in 1833, and Spain's hopes of reconquering Mexico ended with him.

Last territories in the Americas and the Pacific (1833–1898)

In the 1850s and 1860s, Spain took part in colonial activities around the world, including on the west coast of South America (Chincha Islands War), in Vietnam (Cochinchina campaign), and in Mexico. In 1861, Spain annexed Santo Domingo, a land that had been independent from Spain since 1821 and from Haiti since 1844. This led to a guerrilla war in 1863. Spanish forces were weakened by disease and cut off from supplies and weapons, as rebels attacked mule supply trains, captured arms depots, and burned towns they could not hold. When Spain left Santo Domingo in 1865, it had spent over 33 million pesos and suffered over 10,000 combat casualties, with 18,000 Spanish soldiers dead from all causes. Dominicans who had sided with Spain moved to Cuba, where they later helped Cuban rebels in the Ten Years' War defeat Spanish units and gain control of much of eastern Cuba. By contrast, the Lares rebellion of 1868 in Puerto Rico was quickly suppressed, because the rebels had no military tactics.

In Cuba, the First War for Independence was fought from 1868 to 1878, causing between 100,000 and 150,000 Cuban deaths. The Second War for Independence took place between 1895 and 1898, and about 300,000 Cubans died. Around 200,000 of these deaths were civilians, attributed to disease and famine caused by Spanish concentration camps. American sympathy for the Cuban revolutionaries grew because of reports of atrocities and the sinking of USS Maine. On 25 April 1898, the U.S. declared war on Spain, starting the Spanish–American War. The destruction of Spain's fleets at Manila Bay and Santiago de Cuba cut off supply lines, leading to surrenders in the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Cuba and Puerto Rico were the remaining territories of the empire in the Americas. The Treaty of Paris (1898) gave Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam to the U.S. and sold the Philippines for US$20 million. The following year, Spain sold its remaining Pacific Ocean possessions to Germany in the German–Spanish Treaty, keeping only its African territories. On 2 June 1899, the second expeditionary battalion Cazadores of the Philippines, the last Spanish garrison there, was pulled out. It had been besieged in Baler, Aurora at the end of the war, and its departure effectively ended around 300 years of Spanish rule in the archipelago.

Territories in Africa (1885–1976)

Main articles: Spanish Guinea, Spanish West Africa, Spanish Sahara, and Spanish protectorate in Morocco

By the end of the 17th century, only Melilla, Alhucemas, Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, and Ceuta (part of the Portuguese Empire since 1415) kept their links to Spain after the Iberian Union ended. The Treaty of Lisbon recognized Ceuta's loyalty to Spain in 1668. Oran and Mers El Kébir also stayed Spanish until they were lost in 1708, reconquered in 1732, and sold by Charles IV in 1792. In 1778, Fernando Pó (now Bioko) and trading rights on the mainland between the Niger and Ogooué rivers were given to Spain by Portugal in exchange for land in South America (Treaty of El Pardo). In the 19th century, Spanish explorers and missionaries, including Manuel Iradier, crossed this area. In 1848, Spanish troops occupied the empty Chafarinas Islands.

In 1860, after the Tetuan War, Morocco paid Spain 100 million pesetas as war reparations and gave Sidi Ifni to Spain under the Treaty of Tangiers. At the Berlin Conference of 1884, Spain's influence was recognized, and it ran Sidi Ifni and Spanish Sahara together. Spain also claimed a protectorate along the coast from Cape Bojador to Cap Blanc and tried to press a claim over the Adrar and Tiris regions in Mauritania. Río Muni became a protectorate in 1885 and a colony in 1900. The Treaty of Paris settled the claims to the Guinea mainland in 1900, leaving Spain with 26,000 km² of the 300,000 it first claimed, stretching east to the Ubangi River.

Following a brief war in 1893, Morocco paid 20 million pesetas and Spain expanded south from Melilla. In 1912, Morocco was divided between the French and Spanish. The Riffians, led by Abdelkrim, a former officer for the Spanish administration, rebelled. The Battle of Annual (1921) in the Rif War was a major defeat for the Spanish army. After this disaster, Spain began using German chemical weapons against the Moroccans. In September 1925, the Alhucemas landing by Spanish and French forces ended the Rif War.

In 1923, Tangier became an international city under joint administration. In 1926, Bioko and Rio Muni were united as the colony of Spanish Guinea, which lasted until 1959. In 1931, the African colonies became part of the Second Spanish Republic. In 1934, during the government of Alejandro Lerroux, Spanish troops occupied Sidi Ifni, which Morocco had ceded de jure in 1860. In 1936, Francisco Franco, a general of the Army of Africa, rebelled and started the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). During the Second World War, the Vichy French presence in Tangier was overcome by Francoist Spain.

Spain lacked the wealth and interest to build a large economic infrastructure in its African colonies during the first half of the 20th century. Through a paternalistic system, particularly on Bioko Island, Spain developed large cocoa plantations worked by thousands of Nigerian laborers.

In 1956, when French Morocco became independent, Spain gave Spanish Morocco to the new nation but kept Sidi Ifni, the Tarfaya region, and Spanish Sahara. Sultan (later King) Mohammed V wanted these territories and unsuccessfully invaded Spanish Sahara in 1957 during the Ifni War. In 1958, Spain ceded Tarfaya to Mohammed V and joined the districts of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro to form the province of Spanish Sahara.

In 1959, the Spanish territory on the Gulf of Guinea became the Spanish Equatorial Region, ruled by a governor general with military and civilian powers. The first Equatoguinean representatives were seated in the Spanish parliament. In 1963, limited autonomy was granted, and the country was renamed Equatorial Guinea. In March 1968, under pressure from Equatoguinean nationalists and the United Nations, Spain announced that it would grant the country independence.

In 1969, under international pressure, Spain returned Sidi Ifni to Morocco. Spanish control of Spanish Sahara lasted until the 1975 Green March led to a withdrawal under Moroccan military pressure. The future of this former colony remains uncertain.

The Canary Islands and Spanish cities on the African mainland are considered an equal part of Spain and the European Union, but they have a different tax system.

Morocco still claims Ceuta, Melilla, and plazas de soberanía, even though they are internationally recognized as parts of Spain. Isla Perejil was occupied on 11 July 2002 by Moroccan forces, who were removed by Spanish naval forces in a bloodless operation.

Imperial economic policy

See also: Latin American economy § Colonial era and Independence (ca. 1500–1850)

The Spanish Empire gained a lot from its overseas lands, which had large Indigenous populations to work and rich mines. The crown tried to keep a strict mercantile system that kept rivals out and wealth inside the empire, especially in the Crown of Castile. In reality, the system had many holes, and smuggling was common. Illegal trade even became part of how the local government worked in Buenos Aires. Wars to defend the Catholic faith, stop Protestantism, and push back the Ottoman Turks cost more than the empire could pay, even with huge amounts of silver from Peru and New Spain. Writers called arbitristas sent the crown ideas for fixing these problems, but little changed. The House of Trade in Seville enforced strict rules on trade with the Indies, with ships sailing through ports such as Veracruz, Acapulco, Cartagena de Indias, Callao, Lima, and Manila. Since Spain could not supply enough goods, bankers and merchants in Genoa, Germany, the Netherlands, France, and England provided much of the goods and money. The wealth of the Indies therefore helped other European countries more than Spain.

The crown set up treasure fleets to protect silver shipments to Seville and later Cádiz. Other countries made most of the goods, and Spanish merchants and their consulados mostly acted as middlemen. The silver mining industry was the empire's biggest global impact. The royal fifth gave the crown a 20% share of mining profits, and the crown controlled the mercury needed for the patio process. Forced labor was also used, through a system called repartimiento, which existed alongside slave labor, indentured labor, and paid work. Indigenous communities had to send workers to mines and farms, and they often paid tributes as well. Under the Bourbon Reforms, Spain tried to close its trade system, but the Treaty of Utrecht that ended the War of the Spanish Succession allowed British merchants to sell enslaved people in Spanish America under the Asiento de Negros. In 1778, the crown introduced free commerce (comercio libre) to make legal trade more attractive than smuggling. Silver production grew, but a more varied economy did not develop.

Scientific investigations and expeditions

The Spanish American Enlightenment produced a large amount of information about Spain's overseas empire through scientific expeditions. The most famous traveler in Spanish America was Prussian scientist Alexander von Humboldt. His travel writings, especially Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain and his scientific observations, are still important sources for the history of Spanish America. The crown approved Humboldt's expedition, but he paid for it himself from his personal fortune. Before Humboldt's trip, the Bourbon crown had already supported science with public money. Clergy members in the 1700s also helped science grow, including José Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez and José Celestino Mutis.

The Spanish crown paid for several important science expeditions, including the Botanical Expedition to the Viceroyalty of Peru (1777–78), the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Granada (1783–1816), and the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain (1787–1803), which scholars are now studying again. The crown also funded some Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest to support its claims to land. The long transatlantic and transpacific Malaspina-Bustamante Expedition, however, was for science. In 1804 the crown also paid for the Balmis Expedition to vaccinate colonial people against smallpox. Much of the research from the 1700s was never published or shared, partly because the crown had limited money. Since the late 1900s, the study of the history of science in Spain and its empire has grown greatly.

Legacy

See also: Spanish colonial architecture and Analysis of European colonialism and colonization

The Spanish Empire declined from its peak in the late 1600s, but other Europeans still marveled at how much land it covered. Writing in 1738, English author Samuel Johnson asked whether any shore was left unclaimed by Spain. The empire left a large legacy of language, religion, politics, culture, and city building in the Western Hemisphere. Today, over 519 million people speak Spanish as their first language, which makes it the most spoken native language in the world after Chinese. Spanish spread from Castile in Spain to Spanish America, and later the governments of independent republics continued to promote it. In the Philippines, the Spanish–American War (1898) placed the islands under U.S. control, and Spanish became a secondary official language. Roman Catholicism, another major legacy, remains the main religion in Spanish America and the Philippines. The Inquisition enforced Catholic beliefs and targeted crypto-Jews and Protestants. Only after independence in the 1800s did Spanish American republics allow religious toleration for other faiths. Catholic celebrations such as Day of the Dead, Carnival, and Holy Week remain important in many places.

The colonial period also shaped politics and everyday life. The empire's territorial divisions became the basis for borders between new countries after independence. Many towns and cities were founded during Spanish rule, and some of their colonial centers are now UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Universities, forts, cathedrals, hospitals, and bridges from that time still stand today. The empire also helped start a truly global trade through trade routes across the oceans, and the Spanish dollar became the world's first global currency. Plants and animals moved between the Old World and the New in the Columbian Exchange, which changed farming and food across the world. Diseases brought by Europeans and Africans, such as smallpox and measles, devastated indigenous populations who had no immunity.

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