Spanish History

by Marechal | Last Updated: January 11, 2005

Page 1 of 2 - Spain is one of the most famous (well-known) of the European powers during the Colonial era. If one remembers one thing from world history class, it was that the Spanish conquered the Aztecs and Incans. Everyone is familiar with Cortes and his muskets conquering the mighty Central American cultures. We all know of Pizarro and his destruction of the Incan Empire in South America. Some of us even remember King Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, who sent Columbus on his voyage in 1492 to discover the New World. As important and influential as the Spanish conquest of the New World was, we forget and overlook the events and actions that took place on the Continent, where Spain was as active as ever.

One thing a person needs to keep in mind is that Spain was more like a federation than a unified state, like France. Each of the large Spanish provinces, acted as though it was an independent state. The states of Aragon, Castile, Granada, all of them had there own history, peoples, culture, and language even. Spain had experienced an invasion by the Moors and it was not until 1492 that they were driven out of Spain, ending in the final conquest of Granada. It was as late as 1479 that Spain was finally united, under one crown: Ferdinand II. It was Ferdinand II and Isabella who held court and sent Columbus out West with some Spanish ships and finances to cover his expedition. With the discovery of the New World, Spain immediately began claiming the lands therein. A dozen expeditions were launched, each made up of explorers, missionaries, and troops sent over to explore and conquer these vast lands in the name of God and Spain.

Soon, all the other European powers were trading and conquering in the New World. The Portuguese amassed a fortune quickly, but in 1580, Spain annexed Portugal. It wouldn't be until 1640 that Portugal regained her independence. Such men as Hernando Cortes, Ponce de Leon, Narvaez, de Vaca, and Pizarro led expeditions covering the domains from the southwestern United States to central South American mountains. In this New World they found minerals in abundance. Ships by the dozens carried loads of gold and silver from the Americas to Spanish ports. However, there trade did not go unspoiled, piracy became more and more abundant in the late 1500s as England and France encouraged pirates to seize Spanish galleons on their way to Spain.

In 1516, Charles I became the King of Spain. Charles I was from the Habsburg royal family line. His father, Emperor Maximilian I, had arranged his marriage into Spanish royalty. He began what was known as the Spanish Habsburg line. In 1519, Charles was crowned Holy Roman Emperor upon his father's death, making him Charles V. A series of wars with the Turks ensued and conflict developed between the German Lutherans and Catholics. By 1556, he had had enough, and abdicated his Spanish throne to his son Philip II, the Holy Roman Empire and the Austrian domains were passed onto Ferdinand I, his brother. Charles V moved into a monastery were he lived until his death in 1558.

The reign of Philip II was of a more mediocre note. He launched several campaigns of his own, but almost all of them proved to be dismal failures. His war with the Turks ended in stalemate. Philip's war against France was a costly defeat. He is most famous for ordering the Spanish Armada to invade England in 1588, and as we all know, this ended in a fiasco. Philip encouraged the Inquisition, which was a powerful Church organization that sought to Christianize the entire Spanish population and condemn any who would profess a faith contrary to that of the Roman Catholic Church. Perhaps his worst move was his lack of understanding for the Dutch, whose lands were under Spanish authority (the Netherlands). In 1581, they revolted and declared their independence. Philip's army was unable to prevent the rebellion or stop their independence. However, Spain retained a lower territory, which later became the Spanish Netherlands. This territory was under Spanish rule until 1713, when it was ceded to the Austrian Habsburgs. Continued ...

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