HISTORY OF SPAIN
The most ancient known inhabitants of Spain were the Iberians. To these afterwards were joined certain tribes of Celts, and subsequently the two races united. The Phœniciaus made settlements at a very early date, having founded Cadiz about B.C. 1100; later the Greeks founded several cities, and then (B.C. 238) the history of Spain may properly be said to begin with the Carthaginian invasion. Hamilcar Barca undertook, with considerable success, to subjugate the tribes of the Peninsula, and in this effort he was followed by Hasdrubal and Hannibal. War between Rome and Carthage brought the Romans to Spain, and (B.C. 205) ended in their driving out the Carthaginians. The Romans then undertook the subjugation of the entire country, but in this they did not completely succeed until after about 200 years. The tribes in the mountains of the north were finally subjugated by Augustus and his generals, and Spain was converted into a Roman province.
In 256 A.D. the country was invaded by the Franks, and after their departure Spain became peaceful until the advent of the Goths. A Visigothic kingdom was established about 418 A.D. But after retaining the mastery of the country for nearly three centuries the Visigoths were in their turn conquered (711 A.D.) by the Saracens under Tarik, and the greater part of Spain became a province of the caliphs of Bagdad. For some years they held it as a dependency of the province of North Africa, but it was afterwards (717) governed by emirs appointed by the caliphs of Damascus. Dissensions ultimately arose between the central power and the province, with the result that an independent dynasty was established by Abd al-Rahman at Cordova (756 A.D.), which received additional power and magnificence from Hisham (788) and his son Al Hakam (796). Meanwhile several small kingdoms had been formed in the mountainous districts of the Pyrenees, probably by descendants of the Visigoths.
The chief of these were the kingdoms of Asturias, Leon, Navarre, Aragon, and Castile. These states were often at war with each other, and in the struggle for supremacy Castile and Aragon ultimately absorbed all the others. The rise of these two powerful Christian states in the 11th century was contemporary with the decline and disruption of the Ommiade dynasty of the Moslems, and in a struggle between the two religions a famous part was taken by the 'Cid'. It seemed, indeed, at this time as if the Moslem power in Spain was about to be annihilated, but with aid from Africa, and after the death of the Cid, they regained much of their influence. This power was directed at first by the Almoravides, whose caliphs ruled from Morocco, and then by the Almohades, until the latter were defeated (1212 A.D.) in the decisive battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. To the Moors there now remained only the kingdoms of Cordova and Granada, but even these were soon obliged to admit the supremacy of Castile.
Alphonso X. King of Castile and Leon, surnamed the Astronomer, the Philosopher, or the Wise; born in 1226, succeeded the throne in 1252. Being grandson of Philip of Hohenstaufen, son of Frederick Barbarossa, he endeavoured to have himself elected emperor of Germany, and in 1257 succeeded in dividing the election with Richard, earl of Cornwall. On Richard's death in 1272 he again unsuccessfully contested the imperial crown. Meantime his throne was endangered by conspiracies of the nobles and the attacks of the Moore. The Moors he conquered, but his domestic troubles were less easily overcome, and he was finally dethroned by his son Sancho, and died two years after, 1284. Alphonso was the most learned prince of his age.
Under his direction or superintendence were drawn up a celebrated code of laws, valuable astronomical tables which go under his name (Alphonsine Tables), the first general history of Spain in the Castilian tongue, and a Spanish translation of the Bible.
Ferdinand V., King of Aragon, (born March 10, 1453) His marriage wisely instigated by his father John II.(18th of October, 1469) to Isablla of Castile, brought about the close connection between Aragon and Castile that began the modern history of Spain.
The two states thus united retained their own laws, customs, and administration, but their gradual fusion was promoted and largely accomplished by Cardinal Ximenes. To strengthen the central government and curtail the power of the nobility the Santa Hermandad, or Holy Brotherhood, was formed (1476) to act as the administrators of justice; the Inquisition was instituted (1481) to promote religious orthodoxy and unity; the Jews were expelled for heterodoxy; After a bloody war of ten years the Moors were completely subjugated by the conquest of Granada (1492) and afterwards expelled. Ferdinand received from the pope the title of the Catholic, on account of the expulsion of the Moors from Spain. The most brilliant event of their reign was the discovery of America, which made them sovereigns of a new world. This politic prince laid the foundation of the Spanish ascendancy in Europe by the acquisition of Naples (1503), and by the conquest of Navarre (1512); but his policy was deceitful and despotic. He instituted the court of the Inquisition at Seville in 1480, and, to the great injury of Spanish commerce, expelled the Jews (1492) and Moors (1501). He died in 1516, his daughter Joanna, who had married Philip, son of Maximilian I., succeeded to the kingdom of Aragon, but her son, Charles I., became regent and ultimately king of the whole of Spain.
He was also ruler of the Netherlands, which he inherited from his father, and in 1519 he was proclaimed Charles V. emperor of Germany. As the champion of the Catholic Church he successively declare war with the French, the German Protestants, and the Turks. But as the expense of this vast policy overtaxed his own kingdom, and was only partially met by the wealth acquired by the conquest of Mexico (1518) and Peru (1531) .
Philip II. was born at Valladolid in 1527 the son of Charles V. and Isabella of Portugal. He married in succession to the Princess Mary of Portugal 1543, and to Mary of England 1554. His father abdicated the sovereignty of the Netherlands, to him in the public assembly at Brussels on 25th October, 1555. On 16th January, 1556 in the same hall he received the crown of Spain, with its possessions in Asia, Africa, and America..
His first act was to propose a truce with France, which was broken almost as soon as it was concluded. In 1556 he went to England, where he was refused the ceremony of a coronation and the troops that he demanded in aid of his war with France. These, however, were at length conceded to him by Mary, in violation of her marriage articles, and the levy, joined to the army of Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, and Count Egmont, assisted to gain the battle of St. Quintin, 10th August, 1557. On the death of Mary in 1558 Philip, who was still prosecuting the war, made proposals of marriage to her successor, Elizabeth, and was refused. In 1559 the French war was concluded by the peace of Cateau- Cambrésis and the marriage of Philip to Elizabeth of France, daughter of Henry II. Philip then finally left the Netherlands, having appointed his half - sister Margaret sovereign of the provinces, his main object in returning to Spain being to check the progress which the Reformation had made there.
On his arrival in his native country he had the satisfaction of being present at an auto-de-fé; The internal policy of this monarch was characterized by a severe absolutism in matters political and religious, an extension of the power of the Inquisition. In a few years' he extinguished the light of the Reformation, together with the spirit of freedom and enterprise in Spain.
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The cause of religion in France was also a constant subject of solicitude with Philip. In Naples, as in Spain, his zeal led him to persecute the Protestants; but it was in the Netherlands that his bigotry and obstinacy had their most disastrous, though ultimately fortunate results. In 1566 the revolt of the Netherlands commenced, which ended in the separation of the seven northern provinces from the crown of Spain, and their formation into the Dutch Republic. This struggle lasted about thirty years, till the close of Philip's reign. The events of this protracted struggle were varied in 1567 by a domestic tragedy - the rebellion, arrest, and suspicious death of Don Carlos, the son of Philip and his first wife Mary of Portugal. Shortly afterwards he lost the Queen Elizabeth, his third wife, and about the same time the Moors of Granada revolted, whose subjugation was effected in 1570. | |
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Philip II. of Spain |
In 1586 Philip declared war with England. The year 1588 saw the destruction of the Armada and the descent of Spain from her position as a first-class power in Europe. The remainder of his reign was occupied with war and intrigues with France, but in 1598 the Peace of Vervins was concluded. Philip showed some disposition at the same time to make peace with England and the Netherlands, but his offers were not accepted, and he died in 1598 without recognizing the independence of the latter country or being reconciled to the former. Before his death he had bestowed the sovereignty of the Spanish Netherlands on his daughter Isabella, subject to the crown of Spain.
He was succeeded (1599) by Philip III., who, by expelling all the Moriscos from his kingdom and engaging in the Thirty Years' war, impoverished the country. Further disasters overtook Spain on the accession of Philip IV. (1621), whose haughty centralizing policy under the minister Olivarez brought about civil war in Catalonia, Andalusia, and Naples; the loss of Portugal and French-Comté and the independence of the Netherlands. Under his son, Charles II. (1665), a prince who was feeble both in mind and body, the country declined still more, and at his death in 1700 without an heir.
The succession to the throne lay between the Hapsburgs, whose claim was upheld by the Emperor Leopold I., and the Bourbons, whose claim was maintained by Louis XIV.
Philip V. Of Spain, the first Spanish king of the Bourbon dynasty, was born at Versailles 1683, he was the grandson of Louis XIV. of France, on the death of Charles in November, 1700, he succeeded to the crown of Spain by the will of Charles II., and was generally recognized in Spain, Naples, and the Netherlands; but the succession was contested by the Archduke Charles of Austria, whose claim was enforced by the armies of England, Holland, and Austria in the wars of the Spanish Succession, which began in 1702.
After the war it was agreed by the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) to acknowledge the Bourbon Philip V. as king of Spain, but Gibraltar was lost to Spain, Minorca was also ceded to England, Sicily to Savoy, the Netherlands, Naples, and the Milanese to Austria. He married Elizabeth Farnese, niece of the Duke of Parma, in 1714, and Alberoni, the minister of the Duke of Parma in Spain, became prime-minister. As Philip had a son by the first wife, the daughter of the Duke of Savoy, the children of Elizabeth could not succeed to the crown of Spain. Elizabeth wished to provide for them in Italy, and even coveted the reversion of the crown of France. These pretensions formed the basis of schemes on Alberoni's part which alienated France and led to the Triple Alliance formed in 1717 by Great Britain, France, and Holland against Spain, and which was afterwards merged by the accession of Austria into the Quadruple Alliance. The invasion of Spain by the Duke of Berwick compelled Philip to accede to the terms of the alliance. In 1724 Philip resigned the crown of Spain in favour of his son Don Louis, but the death of Louis a few months later induced him to resume the royal power. He died in 1746, after a reign of forty-six years. Philip was constantly governed by favourites, and his constitutional melancholy at last completely incapacitated him for business.
Under the able administration of Cardinal Alberoni Spain regained a large part of its power in Europe. This revival was continued under Ferdinand VI, who succeeded to the throne in 1746; but it received its greatest impulse from Charles III. (1759), who developed the agricultural and other resources of his country, and broke the power of the Inquisition by banishing the Jesuits (1767).
The full effect of these and other liberal measures was arrested, however, by the accession of Charles IV. (1788), whose policy, directed by Godoy, first brought about a rupture with the French Republic, and then a close alliance with France and a war against the British, resulting in the battle of Trafalgar (1805), when the naval power of Spain was destroyed. Spain received further humiliation by the success of Napoleon, the Treaty of Fontainebleau, and the occupation of the country by French soldiers.
The result was a popular rising which forced his father to abdicate (March 1808) in favour of Ferdinand VII., King of Spain, eldest son of Charles IV., and of Maria Louisa of Parma, born in 1784;
A month later be himself abdicated in favour of Napoleon, who conferred the crown on his brother Joseph. The Council of Castile gave at first a reluctant assent to this arrangement, but soon the provinces declared war and the council entered into an alliance with Great Britain. As the result of this popular rising Madrid was taken, Joseph Bonaparte retreated, and a junta formed to govern in the name of Ferdinand VII. On the arrival of Napoleon, however, the Spanish army was destroyed, Madrid retaken, Joseph Bonaparte restored, and there having British army under Sir John Moore driven back upon Coruna. The Peninsula was now only saved from complete subjugation by the arrival of Wellington with an army in Portugal, and the determined resistance which he offered during several campaigns to Napoleon's generals. In several battles the British army routed the French and advanced into Spain; but it was not until the spring of 1813 that Wellington was able to clear the Peninsula of French soldiers and to fight his way through the Pyrenees into France. In consequence of this success the Bourbon prince, Ferdinand VII., returned to Spain in March, 1814. His arbitrary conduct caused an insurrection in 1820, which was at first successful, but Louis XVIII. of France having sent an army to his aid, his authority was once more made absolute in Spain, but the country made little progress owing to the absolute and liberal policy which he adopted.
During the Napoleonic war the South American colonies had asserted their independence, Florida had been sold to the United States, and the finances misused; while these things were now aggravated by the despotic rule of a king who dissolved the cortes, set aside the constitution, and reestablished the Inquisition. A revolt against this policy took place in 1820 and spread throughout the country, in consequence of which the constitution was re-established, the Inquisition abolished, and 1822 the cortes with a liberal majority elected. This movement for liberty, however, was suppressed by the Holy Alliance, under whose sanction a French army entered Spain (1823) and remained there for four years, during which the royal absolutism was restored.
In 1829 having no sons Ferdinand to the exclusion of his brother, Don Carlos, abolished by a 'pragmatic sanction, the Salic law of 1713 by which Philip V. had excluded women from the throne of Spain ' . Due to this his daughter was proclaimed queen, on the death of her father in 1833, under the title of Isabella II., queen of Spain, daughter of Ferdinand III., born in 1830, As this queen was only three years old, her mother, Maria Christina, undertook the regency;
The early years of her reign were disturbed by a rising in favour of her uncle, Don Carlo; who, if the Salic law had not been set aside, would have ascended the throne instead of her; and a serious civil war broke out. The Carlist party achieved considerable success at first, but the civil strife was ultimately brought to an end by the triumph of the royalists (1840) under Espartero and O'Donnell. Notwithstanding this the regent, who found it impossible to control the various factions, retired into France, and Espartero was recognized as regent.
She was declared of age in 1843, and her government was carried on by Narvaez, who had superseded Espartero.
By the influence of Louis Philippe, the French king, a marriage was brought about in 1845 between Isabella and her cousin, Don Francisco d'Assiz. For some years after this event the political history of Spain became a medley of party intrigue and petty political change, until in 1866 the severe measures taken against the liberals by Narvaez ended in a military insurrection. This, however, was suppressed by the royal troops, and Generals Prim, Serrano, and O'Donnell were banished.
Her reign was so despotic that a revolution took place in 1868, headed by Generals Prim and Serrano. The latter entered Madrid in command of the revolutionary troops, and Isabella fled to France. The cortes still declared in favour of the monarchical form of government, and great difficulty was experienced in finding a prince both able and willing to occupy the vacant throne. It was offered to Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, but the jealousy of France caused Napoleon III to demand the withdrawal of this candidate, and the diplomatic difficulties connected with this matter were the ostensible cause of the France-Prussian war. The crown was at length accepted by Amadeus, second son of Victor Emmanuel, and in 1870 he was formally elected king by the cortes. But the various parties, among which the most active were the Carlists and the federalists, made government difficult, and the king, after three years of strife, resigned his task.
Following this event the cortes declared in favour of a federal republic (1873), and the presidency was in trusted to Castelar; but the outbreak of a Carlist war in the Basque Provinces and the party complications in the cortes made this form of government impossible. Accordingly Castelar and his ministry resigned (1874), and the government of the country was undertaken by the chiefs of the revolution of 1868, headed by Marshal Serrano. Under this military administration vigorous measures were taken to suppress the Carlist rebellion; and as it had been proved that a republican form of government was impossible. Isabella resigned her claims to the crown in favour of her son Alfonso, she lived sometimes in Spain, sometimes in Paris.
Alphonso XII., King of Spain, the only son of Queen Isabella II. and her cousin Francis of Assisi, was born in 1857. He left Spain with his mother when she was driven from the throne by the revolution of 1868, and till 1874 resided partly in France, partly in Austria. In the latter year he studied for a time at the English military college, Sandhurst, being then known as Prince of the Asturias. His mother had given up her claims to the throne in 1870 in his favour.
In 1874 Alfonso came forward himself as claimant, and in the end of the year was proclaimed by General Martinez Campos as king. In 1875 the young king, with the title of Alfonso XII., landed at Barcelona, and was enthusiastically received, most of the Spaniards being by this time tired of the republican government. He successfully brought the Carlist struggle to an end (1876), and henceforth he reigned with little disturbance. He married first his cousin Maria de las Mercedes, daughter of the Duke de Montpensier; second, Maria Christina, archduchess of Austria and died in 1885 leaving his widow with two daughters, a son on being born posthumously, Alphonso XIII. May 17th 1886, Christina of Austria, his mother acted as regent.
In 1898, the United States stripped Spain of her richest remaining colonies.
