Spanish Empire

The Spanish Empire (Spanish: Imperio Español; Latin: Imperium

Hispanicum), historically known as the Hispanic Monarchy (Spanish:
Spanish Empire
Monarquía Hispánica) and as the Catholic Monarchy (Spanish: Imperio Español (Spanish)
Monarquía Católica[1]), was one of the largest empires in history. From Imperium Hispanicum (Latin)
the late 15th century to the early 19th, Spain controlled a huge overseas 1492–1975
territory in the New World and the Asian archipelago of the Philippines,
what they called "The Indies" (Spanish: Las Indias). It also included
territories in Europe, Africa and Oceania.[2] The Spanish Empire has
been described as the first global empire in history,[3] a description also
given to the Portuguese Empire.[4] It was the world's most powerful
empire during the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries, reaching its Left: Burgundy flag
Right: State flag
maximum extension in the 18th century.[5] The Spanish Empire was the
first empire to be called "the empire on which the sun never sets".[6] Motto: Plus Ultra (Latin)
"Further Beyond"
Castile became the dominant kingdom in Iberia because of its
Anthem: Marcha Real (Spanish)
jurisdiction over the overseas empire in the Americas and the "Royal March"
Philippines.[7] The structure of empire was established under the
Spanish Habsburgs (1516–1700) and under the Spanish Bourbon
monarchs, the empire was brought under greater crown control and
increased its revenues from the Indies.[8][9] The crown's authority in
The Indies was enlarged by the papal grant of powers of patronage,
giving it power in the religious sphere.[10][11] An important element in
the formation of Spain's empire was the dynastic union between
Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, known as the Catholic The areas of the world that at one time
were territories of the Spanish Monarchy or
Monarchs, which initiated political, religious and social cohesion but
Empire
not political unification.[12] Iberian kingdoms retained their political
Capital Madrid (de facto; de
identities, with particular administration and juridical configurations.
jure since 1561,
except 1601–06)
Although the power of the Spanish sovereign as monarch varied from
(Valladolid in 1601–
one territory to another, the monarch acted as such in a unitary
06)
manner[13] over all the ruler's territories through a system of councils:
the unity did not mean uniformity.[14] In 1580, when Philip II of Spain Common languages Spanish (de facto)
Latin (formal)
succeeded to the throne of Portugal (as Philip I), he established the
Italian, Sardinian,
Council of Portugal, which oversaw Portugal and its empire and Aragonese,
"preserv[ed] its own laws, institutions, and monetary system, and united Asturian, Basque,
only in sharing a common sovereign."[15] The Iberian Union remained
Catalan-
Valencian-
in place until in 1640, when Portugal overthrew Habsburg rule and Balearic, Galician,
reestablished independence under the House of Braganza.[16] Under Andalusian Arabic
Philip II, Spain, rather than the Habsburg empire, was identified as the (until 1609),
Quechua, Nahuatl,
most powerful nation in the world, easily eclipsing France and England. Zapotec, Maya,
Furthermore, despite attacks from other European states, Spain retained Tagalog and other
its position of dominance with apparent ease. indigenous
languages
The Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis (1559) confirmed the inheritance of Religion Catholic Church
(official and
Philip II in Italy (the Mezzogiorno and the Duchy of Milan). Spain's
dominant)
claims to Naples and Sicily in southern Italy dated back to the Islam (Crypto-Islam)
Aragonese presence in the 15th century. Following the peace reached in Inca religion
1559, there would be no Neapolitan revolts against Spanish rule until Aztec religion
Buddhism
1647. The Duchy of Milan formally remained part of the Holy Roman
Hinduism
Empire but the title of Duke of Milan was given to the King of Spain. Animism
The death of the Ottoman emperor Suleiman the Magnificent in 1566 Judaism (Crypto-
Judaism)
and the naval victory over the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Lepanto
in 1571 gave Spain a claim to be the greatest power not just in Europe Government Composite
but also in the world. monarchy
(Habsburgs)
The Spanish Empire in the Americas was formed after conquering large Absolute
stretches of land, beginning with Christopher Columbus in the monarchy
(Bourbons)
Caribbean Islands. In the early 16th century, it conquered and
incorporated the Aztec and Inca Empires, retaining indigenous elites
King
loyal to the Spanish crown and converts to Christianity as History
intermediaries between their communities and royal government.[17][18] • Conquest of the 1402–96
After a short period of delegation of authority by the crown in the Canary Islands
• Spanish landfall in 1492
Americas, the crown asserted control over those territories and
the Americas
established the Council of the Indies to oversee rule there.[19] Some • Conquest of 1512
scholars consider the initial period of the Spanish conquest as marking Navarre
the most egregious case of genocide in the history of mankind.[20] The • Union with 1580–1640
Portugal
death toll may have reached some 70 million indigenous people (out of
• Spanish American 1808–33
80 million) in this period.[20] However, other scholars believe the vast Wars of
majority of indigenous deaths were due to the low immunological Independence
capacity of native populations to resist exogenous diseases.[21] Many • Treaty of Paris 10 December
1898
native tribes and their cultures were entirely wiped out by the Spanish
• Withdrawal from 1975
conquest and disease epidemics.[22] the Spanish
Sahara
The structure of governance of its overseas empire was significantly
Currency Spanish real
reformed in the late 18th century by the Bourbon monarchs. Although Escudo (from 1537)
the crown attempted to keep its empire a closed economic system under Spanish dollar
Habsburg rule, Spain was unable to supply the Indies with sufficient (from 1598)
Spanish peseta
consumer goods to meet demand, so that foreign merchants from
(from 1869)
Genoa, France, England, Germany, and The Netherlands dominated the
trade, with silver from the mines of Peru, Bolivia and Mexico flowing Preceded by Succeeded by
to other parts of Europe. The merchant guild of Seville (later Cadiz) Crown of Spain
served as middlemen in the trade. The crown's trade monopoly was Castile Italy
broken early in the seventeenth century, with the crown colluding with Crown of First Mexican
Aragon Empire
the merchant guild for fiscal reasons in circumventing the supposedly
Emirate of Gran
closed system.[23] Spain was unable to defend the territories it claimed Granada Colombia
in the Americas, with the Dutch, the English, and the French taking Kingdom of United
Caribbean islands, using them to engage in contraband trade with the Navarre Provinces of
Spanish populace in the Indies. In the seventeenth century, the diversion
Burgundian the Río de la
Netherlands Plata
of silver revenue to pay for European consumer goods and the rising Episcopal Chile
costs of defense of its empire meant that "tangible benefits of America principality of Bolivia
to Spain were dwindling...at a moment when the costs of empire were Utrecht
Protectorate
climbing sharply."[24] Aztec Empire of Peru
Inca Empire First
The Bourbon monarchy attempted to expand the possibilities for trade Maya Philippine
within the empire, by allowing commerce between all ports in the Civilization Republic
Tondo Equatorial
empire, and took other measures to revive economic activity to the Guinea
benefit of Spain. The Bourbons had inherited "an empire invaded by Madja-as Sahrawi Arab
rivals, an economy shorn of manufactures, a crown deprived of Sultanate of Democratic
revenue... [and tried to reverse the situation by] taxing colonists, Sulu Republic
Louisiana Louisiana
tightening control, and fighting off foreigners. In the process, they (New France)
(New France)
gained a revenue and lost an empire."[9] The Napoleonic invasion of the Florida
Iberian peninsula precipitated the Spanish American wars of Territory
independence (1808-1826), resulting the loss of its most valuable US Military
Government
colonies.[25] In its former colonies in the Americas, Spanish is the in Cuba
dominant language and Catholicism the main religion, enduring cultural Puerto Rico
legacies of the Spanish Empire.

Contents
Catholic Monarchs and origins of empire
Campaigns in North Africa
Navarre and Struggles for Italy
Canary Islands
Rivalry with Portugal
New World Voyages and the Treaty of Tordesillas
Papal Bulls and the Americas
First settlements in the Americas
Assertion of Crown control in the Americas
The Spanish Habsburgs 1516-1700
Charles I of Spain/Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1516-1558)
Struggles for Italy
Ottoman Turks during Charles V's rule
Religious conflicts in the Holy Roman Empire
The Indies
Philip II (r. 1556-1598)
Ottoman Turks, the Mediterranean, and North Africa during Philip II's rule
Conflicts in North-West Europe
The Indies
The Philippines, the Sultanate of Brunei and Southeast Asia
Portugal and the Iberian Union 1580-1640
Philip III (r. 1598-1621)
Philip IV (r. 1621-1665)
Charles II and the End of the Spanish Habsburg Era
The Indies: Spanish America and the Philippines
Explorers, conquerors, and expansion of empire
Organization and administration of empire
Early institutions of governance
Spanish Law and indigenous peoples
Council of the Indies
Viceroyalties
Audiencias, the High Courts
 Civil administrative districts
Ecclesiastical organization
Cabildos or town councils
Frontier institutions – presidio and mission
Ordering colonial society – social structure and legal status
Royal economic policy, its failure, and reform
The Spanish Bourbons: Era of Reform (1700–1808)
Bourbon reforms
18th-century prosperity
Scientific investigations and expeditions
Contesting with other empires
Military recovery in Europe
Alliance with the Thirteen English Colonies
Contestation in Brazil
Rival empires in the Pacific Northwest
Loss of Spanish Louisiana
Other challenges to the Spanish Empire

End of the global empire (1808–1899)

Spanish American independence (1810 - 1833)
Loss of Overseas Islands (1861-1899)
Territories in Africa (1885–1975)
Legacy
See also
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links

Catholic Monarchs and origins of empire

With the marriage of the heirs apparent to their respective thrones Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile created a personal
union that most scholars view as the foundation of the Spanish monarchy. Their dynastic alliance was important for a number of
reasons, ruling jointly over a large aggregation of territories although not in a unitary fashion. They successfully pursued
expansion in Iberia in the Christian Reconquest of the Muslim Kingdom of Granada, completed in 1492, for which Valencia-born
Pope Alexander VI gave them the title of the Catholic Monarchs. Ferdinand of Aragon was particularly concerned with expansion
in France and Italy, as well as conquests in North Africa.[26]

With the Ottoman Turks controlling the choke points of the overland trade from Asia and the Middle East, both Spain and
Portugal sought alternative routes. The Kingdom of Portugal had an advantage over the rest of Iberian, having earlier retaken
territory from the Muslims. Portugal completed Christian reconquest in 1238 and settling the kingdom's boundaries. Portugal then
began to seek further overseas expansion, first to the port of Ceuta (1415) and then by colonizing the Atlantic islands of Madeira
(1418) and the Azores (1427-1452); it also began voyages down the west coast of Africa in the fifteenth century.[27] Its rival
Castile laid claim to the Canary Islands (1402) and retook territory from the Moors in 1462. The Christian rivals, Castile and
Portugal, came to formal agreements over the division of new territories in the Treaty of Alcaçovas (1479), as well as securing
the crown of Castile for Isabella, whose accession was challenged militarily by Portugal.
Following the voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492 and first major
settlement in the New World in 1493, Portugal and Castile divided the world by
the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), which gave Portugal Africa and Asia and the
Western Hemisphere to Spain.[28] The voyage of Christopher Columbus, a
Genoese mariner married to a Portuguese woman in Lisbon, obtained the support
of Isabella of Castile, sailing west in 1492, seeking a route to the Indies.
Columbus unexpectedly encountered the western hemisphere, populated by
peoples he named "Indians." Subsequent voyages and full-scale settlements of
Spaniards followed, with gold beginning to flow into Castile's coffers. Managing
the expanding empire became an administrative issue. The reign of Ferdinand
and Isabella began the professionalization of the apparatus of government in
Spain, which led to a demand for men of letters (letrados) who were university
graduates (licenciados), of Salamanca, Valladolid, Complutense and Alcalá.
These lawyer-bureaucrats staffed the various councils of state, eventually
including the Council of the Indies and Casa de Contratación, the two highest Coat of Arms of the Catholic
Monarchs
bodies in metropolitan Spain for the government of the empire in the New
World, as well as royal government in The Indies.

Campaigns in North Africa

With the Christian reconquest completed in the Iberian peninsula, Spain began trying to take territory in Muslim North Africa. It
had conquered Melilla in 1497, and further expansionism policy in North Africa was developed during the regency of Ferdinand
the Catholic in Castile, stimulated by the Cardinal Cisneros. Several towns and outposts in the North African coast were
conquered and occupied by Castile: Mazalquivir (1505), Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera (1508), Oran (1509), Algiers (1510),
Bougie and Tripoli (1510). Tripoli was taken on 24–25 July, the feast of St. James, protector of Spain; the claim was made that
10,000 Muslims were killed and many captured. On the Atlantic coast, Spain took possession of the outpost of Santa Cruz de la
Mar Pequeña (1476) with support from the Canary Islands, and it was retained until 1525 with the consent of the treaty of Cintra
(1509). The Spanish conquest of Oran (1509) was won with much bloodshed: a third of its Muslim population—4,000 inhabitants
— were massacred, and up to 8,000 were taken prisoner. The Zeiyanid sultans of Tlemcen quickly submitted to Spanish
protectorate, and the two powers soon became allies. Cardinal Cisneros converted two mosques to Catholic use, and restored and
expanded the town's fortifications. Oran, like other principal Algerian ports, was forced to accept a presidio (military outpost); it
became a major naval base, a garrison city armed with traffic-commanding cannons and harquebuses.

Algeria became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1518, and the Turks expelled the Spaniards from their coastal possessions (from
Algiers in 1529), replacing them with garrisons of Janissary corps.[29] Oran, however, remained in the hands of the Spanish. For
about 200 years, Oran's inhabitants were virtually held captive in their fortress walls, ravaged by famine and plague; soldiers, too,
were irregularly fed and paid.[29]

Spanish-held Oran resisted attacks in 1556, 1563, 1667, 1672, 1675 and 1688, and Spanish-held Ceuta and Melilla, Moroccan
sieges in 1720–7 and 1732, and 1774–5 respectively. The Spaniards lost Oran in 1708 (recapturing it in 1732, but evacuating it in
1792), as well as La Mamora in 1681, Larache in 1689 and Arzila in 1691.[30]

Navarre and Struggles for Italy

The Catholic Monarchs had developed a strategy of marriages for their children in order to isolate their long-time enemy: France.
The Spanish princesses married the heirs of Portugal, England and the House of Habsburg. Following the same strategy, the
Catholic Monarchs decided to support the Aragonese house of Naples against Charles VIII of France in the Italian Wars
beginning in 1494. As King of Aragon, Ferdinand had been involved in the struggle against France and Venice for control of
Italy; these conflicts became the center of Ferdinand's foreign policy as king. In
these battles, which established the supremacy of the Spanish Tercios in
European battlefields, the forces of the kings of Spain acquired a reputation for
invincibility that would last until the mid-17th century.

After the death of Queen Isabella in 1504, and her exclusion of Ferdinand from a
further role in Castile, Ferdinand married Germaine de Foix in 1505, cementing
an alliance with France. Had that couple had a surviving heir, likely the Crown
of Aragon would have been split from Castile, which was inherited by Charles,
El gran capitan at the Battle of
Ferdinand and Isabella's grandson.[31] Ferdinand adopted a more aggressive Cerignola.
policy toward Italy, attempting to enlarge Spain's sphere of influence there.
Ferdinand's first deployment of Spanish forces came in the War of the League of
Cambrai against Venice, where the Spanish soldiers distinguished themselves on the field alongside their French allies at the
Battle of Agnadello (1509). Only a year later, Ferdinand became part of the Holy League against France, seeing a chance at
taking both Milan — to which he held a dynastic claim – and Navarre. This war was less of a success than the war against Venice,
and in 1516, France agreed to a truce that left Milan in its control and recognized Spanish control of Upper Navarre, which had
effectively been a Spanish protectorate following a series of treaties in 1488, 1491, 1493, and 1495.[32]

Canary Islands
Portugal obtained several Papal bulls that acknowledged Portuguese control over the
discovered territories, but Castile also obtained from the Pope the safeguard of its rights to
the Canary Islands with the bulls Romani Pontifex dated 6 November 1436 and Dominatur
Dominus dated 30 April 1437.[33] The conquest of the Canary Islands, inhabited by
Guanche people, began in 1402 during the reign of Henry III of Castile, by Norman
nobleman Jean de Béthencourt under a feudal agreement with the crown. The conquest
was completed with the campaigns of the armies of the Crown of Castile between 1478
and 1496, when the islands of Gran Canaria (1478–1483), La Palma (1492–1493), and
Tenerife (1494–1496) were subjugated.[28]

Rivalry with Portugal

The Portuguese tried in vain to keep secret their discovery of the Gold Coast (1471) in the
Gulf of Guinea, but the news quickly caused a huge gold rush. Chronicler Pulgar wrote
that the fame of the treasures of Guinea "spread around the ports of Andalusia in such way
that everybody tried to go there".[34] Worthless trinkets, Moorish textiles, and above all, The conquest of the Canary
Islands (1402-1496)
shells from the Canary and Cape Verde islands were exchanged for gold, slaves, ivory and
Guinea pepper.

The War of the Castilian Succession (1475–79) provided the Catholic Monarchs with the opportunity not only to attack the main
source of the Portuguese power, but also to take possession of this lucrative commerce. The Crown officially organized this trade
with Guinea: every caravel had to secure a government license and to pay a tax on one-fifth of their profits (a receiver of the
customs of Guinea was established in Seville in 1475 – the ancestor of the future and famous Casa de Contratación).[35]

Castilian fleets fought in the Atlantic Ocean, temporarily occupying the Cape Verde islands (1476), conquering the city of Ceuta
in Tingitana Peninsula in 1476 (but retaken by the Portuguese),[a][b] and even attacked the Azores islands, being defeated at
Praia. [c][d] The turning point of the war came in 1478, however, when a Castilian fleet sent by King Ferdinand to conquer Gran
Canaria lost men and ships to the Portuguese who expelled the attack,[36] and a large Castilian armada—full of gold—was
entirely captured in the decisive battle of Guinea.[37][e]
 The Treaty of Alcáçovas (4 September 1479), while assuring
the Castilian throne to the Catholic Monarchs, reflected the
Castilian naval and colonial defeat:[38] "War with Castile broke
out waged savagely in the Gulf [of Guinea] until the Castilian
fleet of thirty-five sail was defeated there in 1478. As a result
of this naval victory, at the Treaty of Alcáçovas in 1479 Castile,
while retaining her rights in the Canaries, recognized the
Portuguese monopoly of fishing and navigation along the
whole west African coast and Portugal's rights over the
Madeira, Azores and Cape Verde islands [plus the right to
Iberian 'mare clausum' in the Age of Discovery
conquer the Kingdom of Fez ]."[39] The treaty delimited the
spheres of influence of the two countries,[40] establishing the
principle of the Mare clausum.[41] It was confirmed in 1481 by the Pope Sixtus IV, in the papal bull Æterni regis (dated on 21
June 1481).[42]

However, this experience would prove to be profitable for future Spanish overseas expansion, because as the Spaniards were
excluded from the lands discovered or to be discovered from the Canaries southward[43] — and consequently from the road to
India around Africa[44] — they sponsored the voyage of Columbus towards the west (1492) in search of Asia to trade in its
spices, encountering the Americas instead.[45] Thus, the limitations imposed by the Alcáçovas treaty were overcome and a new
and more balanced division of the world would be reached in the Treaty of Tordesillas between both emerging maritime
powers.[46]

New World Voyages and the Treaty of Tordesillas

Seven months before the treaty of Alcaçovas, King John II of Aragon died, and
his son Ferdinand II of Aragon, married to the Isabella I of Castile, inherited the
thrones of the Crown of Aragon. The two became known as the Catholic
Monarchs, with their marriage a personal union that created a relationship
between the Crown of Aragon and Castile, each with their own administrations,
but ruled jointly by the two monarchs.[47]

Ferdinand and Isabella defeated the last Muslim king out of Granada in 1492
after a ten-year war. The Catholic Monarchs then negotiated with Christopher
Columbus, a Genoese sailor attempting to reach Cipangu (Japan) by sailing Monument to Columbus, Statue
commemorating New World
west. Castile was already engaged in a race of exploration with Portugal to reach
discoveries. Western façade of
the Far East by sea when Columbus made his bold proposal to Isabella. In the monument. Isabella at the center,
Capitulations of Santa Fe, dated on 17 April 1492, Christopher Columbus Columbus on the left, a cross on her
obtained from the Catholic Monarchs his appointment as viceroy and governor right. Plaza de Colón, Madrid (1881-
in the lands already discovered[48] and that he might discover 85)
thenceforth;[49][50] thereby, it was the first document to establish an
administrative organization in the Indies.[51] Columbus' discoveries inaugurated
the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Spain's claim[52] to these lands was solidified by the Inter caetera papal bull dated 4
May 1493, and Dudum siquidem on 26 September 1493, which vested the sovereignty of the territories discovered and to be
discovered.

Since the Portuguese wanted to keep the line of demarcation of Alcaçovas running east and west along a latitude south of Cape
Bojador, a compromise was worked out and incorporated in the Treaty of Tordesillas, dated on 7 June 1494, in which the globe
was split into two hemispheres dividing Spanish and Portuguese claims. These actions gave Spain exclusive rights to establish
colonies in all of the New World from north to south (later with the exception of
Brazil, which Portuguese commander Pedro Alvares Cabral encountered in
1500), as well as the easternmost parts of Asia. The treaty of Tordesillas was
confirmed by Pope Julius II in the bull Ea quae pro bono pacis on 24 January
1506.[53] Spain's expansion and colonization was driven by economic
influences, for national prestige, and a desire to spread Catholicism to the New
World.

The treaty of Tordesillas[54] and the treaty of Cintra (18 September 1509)[55]
The return of Columbus, 1493
established the limits of the Kingdom of Fez for Portugal, and the Castilian
expansion was allowed outside these limits, beginning with the conquest of
Melilla in 1497.

Other European powers did not see the treaty between Spain and Portugal as
binding on themselves. Francis I of France observed "The sun shines for me as
for others and I should very much like to see the clause in Adam's will that
excludes me from a share of the world."[56]
Castile and Portugal divided the
world in The Treaty of Tordesillas.
Papal Bulls and the Americas
Unlike the crown of Portugal, Spain had
not sought papal authorization for its explorations, but with Christopher Columbus's
voyage in 1492, the crown sought papal confirmation of their title to the new lands.[57]
Since the defense of Catholicism and propagation of the faith was the papacy's primary
responsibility, there were a number of papal bulls promulgated that affected the powers of
the crowns of Spain and Portugal in the religious sphere. Converting the inhabitants of in
the newly discovered lands was entrusted by the papacy to the rulers of Portugal and
Spain, through a series of papal actions. The Patronato real, or power of royal patronage
for ecclesiastical positions had precedents in Iberia during the reconquest. In 1493 Pope
Alexander, from the Iberian Kingdom of Valencia, issued a series of bulls. The papal bull
of Inter caetera vested the government and jurisdiction of newly found lands in the kings
Iberian-born pope Alexander of Castile and León and their successors. Eximiae devotionis sinceritas granted the
VI promulgated bulls that Catholic monarchs and their successors the same rights that the papacy had granted
invested the Spanish Portugal, in particular the right of presentation of candidates for ecclesiastical positions in
monarchs with ecclesiastical the newly discovered territories.[58]
power in the newly found
lands overseas. According to the Concord of Segovia of 1475, Ferdinand was mentioned in the bulls as
king of Castile, and upon his death the title of the Indies was to be incorporated into the
Crown of Castile.[59] The territories were incorporated by the Catholic Monarchs as
jointly held assets.[60]

In the Treaty of Villafáfila of 1506, Ferdinand renounced not only the government of Castile in favor of his son-in-law Philip I of
Castile but also the lordship of the Indies, withholding a half of the income of the kingdoms of the Indies.[62] Joanna of Castile
and Philip immediately added to their titles the kingdoms of Indies, Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea. But the Treaty of
Villafáfila did not hold for long because of the death of Philip; Ferdinand returned as regent of Castile and as "lord the Indies".[59]

According to the domain granted by Papal bulls and the wills of queen Isabella of Castile in 1504 and king Ferdinand of Aragon
in 1516, such property became held by the Crown of Castile. This arrangement was ratified by successive monarchs, beginning
with Charles I in 1519[60] in a decree that spelled out the juridical status of the new overseas territories.[63]
The lordship of the discovered territories conveyed by papal bulls was private to
the kings of Castile and León. The political condition of the Indies were to
transform from "Lordship" of the Catholic Monarchs to "Kingdoms" for the heirs
of Castile. Although the Alexandrine Bulls gave full, free and omnipotent power
to the Catholic Monarchs,[64] they did not rule them as a private property but as
a public property through the public bodies and authorities from Castile,[65] and
when those territories were incorporated into the Crown of Castile the royal
power was subject to the laws of Castile.[64]

The crown was the guardian of levies for the support of the Catholic Church, in
particular the tithe, which was levied on the products of agriculture and
ranching. In general, Indians were exempt from the tithe. Although the crown
received these revenues, they were to be used for the direct support of the Ferdinand the Catholic points across
ecclesiastical hierarchy and pious establishments, so that the crown itself did not the Atlantic to the landing of
benefit financially from this income. The crown's obligation to support the Columbus, with naked natives.
Frontispiece of Giuliano Dati's
Church sometimes resulted in funds from the royal treasury being transferred to
Lettera, 1493.[61]
the Church when the tithes fell short of paying ecclesiastical expenses.[66]

In New Spain, the Franciscan Bishop of Mexico Juan de Zumárraga and the first
viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza established an institution in 1536 to train natives for ordination to the priesthood, the Colegio
de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco. The experiment was deemed a failure, with the natives considered too new in the faith to be
ordained. Pope Paul III did issue a bull, Sublimis Deus (1537), declaring that natives were capable of becoming Christians, but
Mexican (1555) and Peruvian (1567–68) provincial councils banned natives from ordination.[58]

First settlements in the Americas

With the Capitulations of Santa Fe, the Crown of Castile granted expansive
power to Christopher Columbus, including exploration, settlement, political
power, and revenues, with sovereignty reserved to the Crown. The first voyage
established sovereignty for the crown, and the crown acted on the assumption
that Columbus's grandiose assessment of what he found was true, so Spain
negotiated the Treaty of Tordesillas with Portugal to protect their territory on the
Spanish side of the line. The crown fairly quickly reassessed its relationship with
Columbus and moved to assert more direct crown control over the territory and
Columbus landing in 1492 planting
extinguish his privileges. With that lesson learned, the crown was far more the flag of Spain, by John Vanderlyn
prudent in the specifying the terms of exploration, conquest, and settlement in
new areas.

The pattern in the Caribbean that played out over the larger Spanish Indies was exploration of an unknown area and claim of
sovereignty for the crown; conquest of indigenous peoples or assumption of control without direct violence; settlement by
Spaniards who were awarded the labour of indigenous people via the encomienda; and the existing settlements becoming the
launch point for further exploration, conquest, and settlement, followed by the establishment institutions with officials appointed
by the crown. The patterns set in the Caribbean were replicated throughout the expanding Spanish sphere, so although the
importance of the Caribbean quickly faded after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire and the Spanish conquest of Peru,
many of those participating in those conquests had started their exploits in the Caribbean.[67]

The first permanent European settlements in the New World were established in the Caribbean, initially on the island of
Hispaniola, later Cuba and Puerto Rico. As a Genoese with the connections to Portugal, Columbus considered settlement to be on
the pattern of trading forts and factories, with salaried employees to trade with locals and to identify exploitable resources.[68]
 However, Spanish settlement in
the New World was based on a
pattern of a large, permanent
settlements with the entire
complex of institutions and
material life to replicate
Castilian life in a different
venue. Columbus's second
voyage in 1493 had a large
Cumaná, Venezuela. Founded in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.
contingent of settlers and goods
1510, the city is the oldest Founded in 1502, the city is the
continuously-inhabited European city to accomplish that.[69] On oldest continuously-inhabited
in the continental Americas. Hispaniola, the city of Santo European settlement in the New
Domingo was founded in 1496 World.
by Christopher Columbus's
brother Bartholomew Columbus and became a stone-built, permanent city.

Assertion of Crown control in the Americas

Although Columbus staunchly asserted and believed that the lands he encountered were in Asia, the paucity of material wealth
and the relative lack of complexity of indigenous society meant that the Crown of Castile initially was not concerned with the
extensive powers granted Columbus. As the Caribbean became a draw for Spanish settlement and as Columbus and his extended
Genoese family failed to be recognized as officials worthy of the titles they held, there was unrest among Spanish settlers. The
crown began to curtail the expansive powers that they had granted Columbus, first by appointment of royal governors and then a
high court or Audiencia in 1511.

Columbus encountered the mainland in 1498,[70] and the Catholic Monarchs learned of his discovery in May 1499. Taking
advantage of a revolt against Columbus in Hispaniola, they appointed Francisco de Bobadilla as governor of the Indies with civil
and criminal jurisdiction over the lands discovered by Columbus. Bobadilla, however, was soon replaced by Frey Nicolás de
Ovando in September 1501.[71] Henceforth, the Crown would authorize to individuals voyages to discover territories in the Indies
only with previous royal license,[70] and after 1503 the monopoly of the Crown was assured by the establishment of Casa de
Contratación (House of Trade) at Seville. The successors of Columbus, however, litigated against the Crown until 1536[72] for
the fulfillment of the Capitulations of Santa Fe in the pleitos colombinos.

In metropolitan Spain, the direction of the Americas was taken over by the Bishop Fonseca[73] between 1493 and 1516,[74] and
again between 1518 and 1524, after a brief period of rule by Jean le Sauvage.[75] After 1504 the figure of the secretary was
added, so between 1504 and 1507 Gaspar de Gricio took charge,[76] between 1508 and 1518 Lope de Conchillos followed
him,[77] and from 1519, Francisco de los Cobos.[78]

In 1511, the Junta of The Indies was constituted as a standing committee belonging to the Council of Castile to address issues of
the Indies,[79] and this junta constituted the origin of the Council of the Indies, established in 1524.[80] That same year, the crown
established a permanent high court, or audiencia, in the most important city at the time, Santo Domingo, on the island of
Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Now oversight of the Indies was based both in Castile and with officials of
the new royal court in the colony. As new areas were conquered and significant Spanish settlements were established, likewise
other audiencias were established.[81]

Following the settlement of Hispaniola, Europeans began searching elsewhere to begin new settlements, since there was little
apparent wealth and the numbers of indigenous were declining. Those from the less prosperous Hispaniola were eager to search
for new success in a new settlement. From there Juan Ponce de León conquered Puerto Rico (1508) and Diego Velázquez took
Cuba.
In 1508, the Board of Navigators met in Burgos and concurred on
the need to establish settlements on the mainland, a project
entrusted to Alonso de Ojeda and Diego de Nicuesa as governors.
They were subordinated to the governor of Hispaniola,[82] the
newly appointed Diego Columbus,[83] with the same legal
authority as Ovando.[84]

The first settlement on the mainland was Santa María la Antigua

del Darién in Castilla de Oro (now Nicaragua, Costa Rica,
Panama and Colombia), settled by Vasco Núñez de Balboa in
1510. In 1513, Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, and led
the first European expedition to see the Pacific Ocean from the
West coast of the New World. In an action with enduring
historical import, Balboa claimed the Pacific Ocean and all the
lands adjoining it for the Spanish Crown.[85]

The judgment of Seville of May 1511 recognized the viceregal Spanish territories in the New World around 1515
title to Diego Columbus, but limited it to Hispaniola and to the
islands discovered by his father, Christopher Columbus;[86] his
power was nevertheless limited by royal officers and magistrates[87] constituting a dual regime of government.[88] The crown
separated the territories of the mainland, designated as Castilla de Oro,[89] from the viceroy of Hispaniola, establishing Pedrarias
Dávila as General Lieutenant in 1513[90] with functions similar to those of a viceroy, while Balboa remained but was
subordinated as governor of Panama and Coiba on the Pacific Coast;[91] after his death, they returned to Castilla de Oro. The
territory of Castilla de Oro did not include Veragua (which was comprised approximately between the Chagres River and cape
Gracias a Dios[92]), as it was subject to a lawsuit between the Crown and Diego Columbus, or the region farther north, towards
the Yucatán peninsula, explored by Yáñez Pinzón and Solís in 1508–1509, due to its remoteness.[93] The conflicts of the viceroy
Columbus with the royal officers and with the Audiencia, created in Santo Domingo in 1511,[94] caused his return to the
Peninsula in 1515.

The Spanish Habsburgs 1516-1700

The period of the 16th to the mid-17th century is known as "the
Golden Age of Spain" (in Spanish, Siglo de Oro). As a result of
the marriage politics of the Catholic Monarchs (in Spanish, Reyes
Católicos), their Habsburg grandson Charles inherited the
Castilian empire in America, the Possessions of the Crown of
Aragon in the Mediterranean (including a large portion of
modern Italy), lands in Germany, the Low Countries, Franche-
Comté, and Austria (this, along with the rest of the hereditary
Habsburg domains, was almost immediately transferred to Spanish Empire (including claimed territories), and
Ferdinand, the Emperor's brother). Spanish Habsburg territories (including those
administered during the Iberian Union)
The Habsburgs pursued several goals:

Undermining the power of France and containing it in its eastern borders

Defending Europe against Islam, notably the Ottoman Empire in the Ottoman–Habsburg wars
Maintaining Habsburg hegemony in the Holy Roman Empire and defending the Roman Catholic Church against
the Protestant Reformation
Spreading (Catholic) Christianity to the unconverted indigenous of the New World and the Philippines
Exploiting the resources of the Americas (gold, silver, sugar) and trading with Asia (porcelain, spices, silk)
 Excluding other European powers from the possessions it claimed in the New World
Spain came across an imperial reality without finding profits at the beginning. It did stimulate some trade and industry, but the
trading opportunities encountered were limited. Therefore, Spain started to invest in America with the creation of cities, because
Spain was in America due to religious reasons. Matters began to change in the 1520s with the large-scale extraction of silver from
the rich deposits of Mexico's Guanajuato region, but it was the opening of the silver mines in Mexico's Zacatecas and Potosí in
Upper Peru (modern-day Bolivia) in 1546 that became legendary. During the 16th century, Spain held the equivalent of US$1.5
trillion (1990 terms) in gold and silver received from New Spain. These imports contributed to inflation in Spain and Europe from
the last decades of the 16th century. The vast imports of silver also made local manufactures uncompetitive and ultimately made
Spain overly dependent on foreign sources of raw materials and manufactured goods. "I learnt a proverb here", said a French
traveler in 1603: "Everything is dear in Spain except silver".[95] The problems caused by inflation were discussed by scholars at
the School of Salamanca and the arbitristas. The natural resource abundance provoked a decline in entrepreneurship as profits
from resource extraction are less risky.[96] The wealthy preferred to invest their fortunes in public debt (juros). The Habsburg
dynasty spent the Castilian and American riches in wars across Europe on behalf of Habsburg interests, and declared moratoriums
(bankruptcies) on their debt payments several times. These burdens led to a number of revolts across the Spanish Habsburg's
domains, including their Spanish kingdoms, but the rebellions were put down.

Charles I of Spain/Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1516-1558)

With the death of Ferdinand II of Aragon, and the supposed incompetence to rule
of his daughter, Queen Juana of Castile and Aragon, Charles of Ghent became
Charles I of Castile and Aragon. He was the first Habsburg monarch of Spain
and co-ruler of Spain with his mother. Charles had been raised in northern
Europe and his interests remained those of Christian Europe. The continuing
threat of the Ottoman Turks in the Mediterranean and Central Europe also
occupied the monarch. While not directly an inheritance, Charles was elected
emperor of the Holy Roman Empire after the death of his grandfather Emperor
Maximilian thanks to prodigious bribes paid to the prince-electors. Charles
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and
King of Spain (left) with his son Philip became the most powerful Christian ruler in Europe, but his Ottoman rival,
Suleiman the Magnificent, challenged Charles for primacy in Europe. France
made an unprecedented but pragmatic alliance with the Muslim Ottomans
against Habsburg political power and the Ottomans assisted German Protestant princes in the religious conflicts tearing Christian
unity apart in Northern Europe. Simultaneously, the overseas lands claimed by Spain in the New World proved to be a source of
wealth and the crown was able to assert greater control over its overseas possessions in the political and religious spheres than
was possible on Iberian peninsula or in Europe. The conquests of the Aztec Empire and the Inca Empire brought vast indigenous
civilizations into the Spanish Empire and the mineral wealth, particularly silver, were identified and exploited, becoming the
economic lifeblood of the crown. Under Charles, Spain and its overseas empire in the Americas became deeply entwined, with
the crown enforcing Catholic exclusivity; exercising crown primacy in political rule, unencumbered by claims of an existing
aristocracy; and defending its claims against other European powers.[97] In 1558 he abdicated his throne of Spain to his son,
Philip, leaving the ongoing conflicts to his heir.

Struggles for Italy

With the ascent of Charles I in 1516 and his election as sovereign of the Holy Roman Empire in 1519, Francis I of France found
himself surrounded by Habsburg territories. He invaded the Spanish possessions in Italy in 1521, inaugurating the second war of
Franco-Spanish conflict. The war was a disaster for France, which suffered defeat in the Battle of Biccoca (1522), the Battle of
Pavia (1525), in which Francis I was captured and imprisoned in Madrid,[98] and in the Battle of Landriano (1529) before Francis
relented and abandoned Milan to Spain.
The papacy and Charles had complicated relations. Charles's forces were
victorious at the Battle of Pavia in 1525. Pope Clement VII switched sides and
joined forces with France and prominent Italian states against the Habsburg
Emperor, resulting in the War of the League of Cognac. Charles grew exhausted
with the pope's meddling in what he viewed as purely secular affairs. In 1527,
Charles's army in northern Italy, underpaid and desiring to plunder the city of
Rome, mutinied, advanced southward toward Rome, and looted the city. The Battle of Pavia
Sack of Rome, while unintended by Charles, embarrassed the papacy sufficiently
enough that Clement, and succeeding popes, were considerably more
circumspect in their dealings with secular authorities. In 1533, Clement's refusal to annul the first marriage of King Henry VIII of
England to Charles's aunt, Catherine of Aragon, may have been partly or entirely motivated by his unwillingness to offend the
emperor and perhaps have his city sacked for a second time. The Peace of Barcelona, signed between Charles V and the Pope in
1529, established a more cordial relationship between the two leaders. Spain was effectively named the protector of the Catholic
cause, and Charles was crowned as King of Italy (Lombardy) in return for Spanish intervention in overthrowing the rebellious
Florentine Republic.

The crowns of Castile and Aragon depended on Genoese bankers for its finances and the Genoese fleet aided the Spanish in
fighting the Ottomans in the Mediterranean.[99]

Ottoman Turks during Charles V's rule

By the 16th century, the Ottomans had become a threat to the states of Western Europe. They had defeated the eastern Christian
Byzantine empire and seized its capital, creating it as the Ottoman capital and the Ottomans controlled a rich area of the eastern
Mediterranean, with links to Asia, Egypt, and India and in by the mid-sixteenth century, they ruled a third of Europe. The
Ottomans had created an impressive land and maritime empire, with port cities and short and long range trade
connections.[100]Charles's great rival was Suleiman the Magnificent, whose rule almost exactly coincided with Charles's. A
contemporary Spanish writer, Francisco López de Gómara, compared Charles unfavorably with Suleiman in the 1540s, saying
that although both were wealthy and pursued war, "the Turks succeeded better at fulfilling their projects than did the Spanish;
they devoted themselves more fully to the order and discipline of war, they were better advised, they used their money more
effectively."[101]

Ottoman conquests in Europe made significant gains with a decisive victory at Mohács.[102]

In 1543, Francis I of France announced his unprecedented alliance with the Islamic sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Suleiman the
Magnificent, by occupying the Spanish-controlled city of Nice in concert with Ottoman Turk forces. Henry VIII of England, who
bore a greater grudge against France than he held against Charles for standing in the way of his divorce, joined him in his
invasion of France. Although the Spanish were defeated at the Battle of Ceresole in Savoy, the French army was unable to
seriously threaten Spanish-controlled Milan, while suffering defeat in the north at the hands of Henry, thereby being forced to
accept unfavorable terms. The Austrians, led by Charles's younger brother Ferdinand, continued to fight the Ottomans in the east.

Charles V preferred to suppress the Ottomans through a more maritime strategy, hampering Ottoman movements in the Eastern
Mediterranean. Only in response to Barbary pirate’s raids on the eastern coast of Spain did Charles V personally lead attacks
against Algiers (1541).

The presence of Spain in North Africa declined during the reign of Charles V, though Tunis and its port, La Goleta, were taken in
1535. One after another, most of the Spanish possessions were lost: Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera (1522), Santa Cruz de Mar
Pequeña (1524), Algiers (1529), Tripoli (1551), Bujia (1554), and La Goleta and Tunis (1569).

Religious conflicts in the Holy Roman Empire

The Schmalkaldic League had allied itself to the French, and
efforts in Germany to undermine the League had been rebuffed.
Francis's defeat in 1544 led to the annulment of the alliance with
the Protestants, and Charles took advantage of the opportunity.
He first tried the path of negotiation at the Council of Trent in
1545, but the Protestant leadership, feeling betrayed by the stance
taken by the Catholics at the council, went to war, led by the
Saxon elector Maurice.

In response, Charles invaded Germany at the head of a mixed

Dutch–Spanish army, hoping to restore the Imperial authority. Map of the dominion of the Habsburgs following
The emperor personally inflicted a decisive defeat on the the abdication of Charles V (1556), as depicted in
The Cambridge Modern History Atlas (1912);
Protestants at the historic Battle of Mühlberg in 1547. In 1555,
Habsburg lands are shaded green. From 1556 the
Charles signed the Peace of Augsburg with the Protestant states
lands in a line from the Netherlands, through to the
and restored stability in Germany on his principle of cuius regio, east of France, to the south of Italy and the islands
eius religio, a position unpopular with Spanish and Italian were retained by the Spanish Habsburgs.
clergymen. Charles's involvement in Germany would establish a
role for Spain as protector of the Catholic, Habsburg cause in the
Holy Roman Empire; the precedent would lead, seven decades later, to involvement in the war that would decisively end Spain as
Europe's leading power.

The Indies
When Charles succeeded to the throne of Spain, Spain's overseas possessions in
the New World were based in the Caribbean and the Spanish Main and consisted
of a rapidly decreasing indigenous population, few resources of value to the
crown, and a sparse Spanish settler population. The situation changed
dramatically with the expedition of Hernán Cortés, who, with alliances with city-
states hostile to the Aztecs and thousands of indigenous Mexican warriors,
conquered the Aztec Empire (1519-1521). Following the pattern established in
Spain during the Christian reconquest of Islamic Spain, and in the Caribbean, the
first European settlements in the Americas, conquerors divided up the
indigenous population in private holdings encomiendas and exploited their labor.
Central Mexico and later the Inca Empire of Peru gave Spain vast new
indigenous populations to convert to Christianity and rule as vassals of the
The Pillars of Hercules with the motto
crown. Charles established the Council of the Indies in 1524 to oversee all of
"Plus Ultra" ("further beyond") as
Castile's overseas possessions. Charles appointed a viceroy in Mexico in 1535, symbol of the Holy Roman Emperor
capping the royal governance of the high court, Real Audiencia, and treasury Charles V in the town hall of Seville
officials with the highest royal official. Following the conquest of Peru, in 1542 (16th century). The Pillars of
Charles likewise appointed a viceroy. Both officials were under the jurisdiction Hercules were the traditional limits of
European exploration into the
of the Council of the Indies. Charles promulgated the New Laws of 1542 to limit
Atlantic. The most common
the power of the conqueror group to form a hereditary aristocracy that might
hypothesis of the origin of the Dollar
challenge the power of the crown. sign.

Philip II (r. 1556-1598)

 The reign of Philip II of Spain was extremely important, with both major successes and
failures. Philip was Charles V's only legitimate son. He did not become Holy Roman
Emperor, but divided Habsburg possessions with his uncle Ferdinand. Philip treated
Castile as the foundation of his empire, but the population of Castile was never great
enough to provide the soldiers needed to defend the Empire or settlers to populate it.
When he married Mary Tudor, England was allied to Spain. He seized the throne of
Portugal in 1580, creating the Iberian Union and bringing the entire Iberian peninsula
under his personal rule.

According to one of his biographers, it was entirely due to Philip that the Indies were
brought under crown control, remaining Spanish until the wars of independence in the
early nineteenth century and Catholic to the present era. His greatest failure was his
Philip II of Spain, Philip I of
Portugal, portrait by Titian inability to suppress the Dutch revolt, which was aided by English and French rivals. His
militant Catholicism also played a major role in his actions, as did his inability to
understand imperial finances. He inherited his father's debts and incurred his own
pursuing religious wars, resulting in recurring state bankruptcies and dependence on foreign bankers.[103] Although there was an
enormous expansion of silver production in Peru and Mexico, it did not remain in the Indies or even in Spain itself, but rather
much of it went to European merchant houses. Under Philip's rule, learned men, known as arbitristas began writing analyses of
this paradox of Spain's impoverishment.

Under Philip, about 9,000 men a year on average were recruited from Spain; in crisis years the total could rise to 20,000. Between
1567 and 1574, nearly 43,000 men left Spain to fight in Italy and the Low Countries.[104]

Ottoman Turks, the Mediterranean, and North Africa during Philip II's rule
The first years of his reign, "from 1558 to 1566, Philip II was
concerned principally with Muslim allies of the Turks, based in
Tripoli and Algiers, the bases from which North African
[Muslim] forces under the corsair Dragut preyed upon Christian
shipping."[105]In 1565, the Spanish defeated an Ottoman landing
on the strategic island of Malta, defended by the Knights of St.
John. The death of Suleiman the Magnificent the following year
and his succession by his less capable son Selim the Sot
emboldened Philip, who resolved to carry the war to the sultan The Battle of Lepanto (1571) marked the end of
himself. In 1571, Spanish and Venetian warships, joined by Ottoman naval supremacy in the Mediterranean
volunteers from across Europe led by Charles's natural son Don Sea.
John of Austria, annihilated the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of
Lepanto. The battle ended the threat of Ottoman naval hegemony
in the Mediterranean. Following the battle, Philip and the Ottomans concluded truce agreements. The victory was aided by the
participation of various military leaders and contingents from parts of Italy under Philip's rule. German soldiers took part in the
capture of Peñón del Vélez in North Africa in 1564. By 1575, German soldiers were three-quarters of Philip's troops.[106]

The Ottomans recovered soon. They reconquered Tunis in 1574, and they helped to restore an ally, Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik I
Saadi, to the throne of Morocco, in 1576. The death of the Persian shah, Tahmasp I, was an opportunity for the Ottoman sultan to
intervene in that country, so he agreed to a truce in the Mediterranean with Philip II in 1580.[107] Nonetheless, the Spanish at
Lepanto eliminated the best sailors of the Ottoman fleet, and the Ottoman Empire would never recover in quality what they could
in numbers. Lepanto was the decisive turning point in control of the Mediterranean away from centuries of Turkish hegemony. In
the western Mediterranean, Philip pursued a defensive policy with the construction of a series of armed garrisons and peace
agreements with some of the Muslim rulers of North Africa.[108]
In the first half of the 17th century, Spanish ships attacked the Anatolian coast, defeating larger Ottoman fleets at the Battle of
Cape Celidonia and the Battle of Cape Corvo. Larache and La Mamora, on the Moroccan Atlantic coast, and the island of
Alhucemas, in the Mediterranean, were taken, but during the second half of the 17th century, Larache and La Mamora were also
lost.

Conflicts in North-West Europe

When Philip succeeded his father, Spain was not at peace, since Henry II
of France came to the throne in 1547 and immediately renewed conflict
with Spain. Philip aggressively prosecuted the war against France,
crushing a French army at the Battle of St. Quentin in Picardy in 1558 and
defeating Henry again at the Battle of Gravelines. The Peace of Cateau-
Cambrésis, signed in 1559, permanently recognized Spanish claims in
Italy. In the celebrations that followed the treaty, Henry was killed by a
stray splinter from a lance. France was stricken for the next thirty years by
chronic civil war and unrest (see French Wars of Religion) and, during this
Otto van Veen: The Relief of Leiden
period, removed it from effectively competing with Spain and the (1574) after the Dutch had broken their
Habsburg family in European power games. Freed from effective French dykes in the Eighty Years' War.
opposition, Spain attained the apogee of its might and territorial reach in
the period 1559–1643.

The time for rejoicing in Madrid was short-lived. In 1566, Calvinist-led

riots in the Netherlands prompted the Duke of Alba to march into the
country to restore order. On February 16, 1568, a sentence of the
Inquisition condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands to death as
heretics.[109] Incapable of carrying out the full sentence, Alba created a
special court, the 'Council of Troubles', to determine who shall die.[110]

In 1568, William of Orange, better known as William the Silent, led a

failed attempt to drive Alba from the Netherlands. These battles are
generally considered to signal the start of the Eighty Years' War that ended Atrocities during the Spanish Fury in
with the independence of the United Provinces in 1648. The Spanish, who Antwerp on 4 November 1576
derived a great deal of wealth from the Netherlands and particularly from
the vital port of Antwerp, were committed to restoring order and
maintaining their hold on the provinces. According to Luc-Normand
Tellier, "It is estimated that the port of Antwerp was earning the Spanish
crown seven times more revenues than the Americas."[111]

Given that Spain was also fighting several wars simultaneously for nearly a
century, the kingdom was never able to bring the war against the Dutch to
a swift conclusion regardless of its financial and military potential. At the
same time, the Dutch were never able to successfully remove the Spanish
foothold in the southern Low Countries (Flanders and Brabant) regardless
of their growing military power and alliances vis-à-vis Spanish forces.
Battle of Gembloux, January 31, 1578
For Spain, the war became an endless quagmire, sometimes literally. In
1574, the Spanish army under Luis de Requeséns was repulsed from the
Siege of Leiden after the Dutch broke the dykes, thus causing extensive flooding. In 1576, faced with the bills from his 80,000-
man army of occupation in the Netherlands, the cost of his fleet that had won at Lepanto, together with the growing threat of
piracy in the open seas reducing his income from his American colonies,
Philip was forced to accept bankruptcy. The army in the Netherlands
mutinied not long after, seizing Antwerp and looting the southern
Netherlands, prompting several cities in the previously peaceful southern
provinces to join the rebellion. The Spanish chose to negotiate, and
pacified most of the southern provinces again with the Union of Arras in
1579. In response, the Netherlands created the Union of Utrecht, as an
alliance between the northern provinces, later that month. They officially
deposed Philip in 1581 when they enacted the Act of Abjuration. Under the
Arras agreement the southern states of the Spanish Netherlands, today in
Belgium and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais (and Picardy) régions in France,
expressed their loyalty to the Spanish king Philip II and recognized his
The Spanish Empire in 1580, with the
Governor-General, Don Juan of Austria. Spanish Netherlands in light green.

Tensions between England and Spain rose through the 1580s primarily as a
result of raids on Spanish shipping and the looting of Spanish settlements in the Americas (largely by Sir Francis Drake), and
religious differences between Catholic Spain and Protestant England. When the Spanish Armada sailed in 1588, England faced
the most serious threat of invasion since the Norman Conquest of 1066. Its defeat did not end the threat. An English Armada sent
to destroy the port at A Coruña in 1589 was itself defeated with 40 ships sunk and 15,000 men lost.[112] In 1591, Spain reasserted
its naval superiority at the Battle of Flores, when an attempt to capture its treasure fleet was thwarted.

Spain had invested itself in the religious warfare in France after Henry II's death. In 1589, Henry III, the last of the Valois lineage,
died at the walls of Paris. His successor, Henry IV of Navarre, the first Bourbon king of France, was a man of great ability,
winning key victories against the Catholic League at Arques (1589) and Ivry (1590). Committed to stopping Henry of Navarre
from becoming King of France, the Spanish divided their army in the Netherlands and invaded France, relieving Paris in 1590
and Rouen in 1592, but failing to prevent the succession of Henry of Navarre as Henry IV of France.

A substantial Spanish force landed in Brittany, where they ejected the English who were there. The Anglo-French forces
successfully held onto the port of Brest, but now there was a clear threat of a Spanish invasion of England launched from the
coasts of Brittany and Normandy. A force led by Carlos de Amésquita patrolled the English Channel, looking for an opportunity,
and landed troops in Cornwall. They seized supplies, sacked Penzance and the surrounding villages, then sailed away to
successfully engage and put to flee a Dutch squadron of 46 ships. In 1595, Henry declared war on Spain in an effort to stop its
continuing support of the Catholic League. Henry defeated a Spanish army invading Burgundy at Fontaine-Française (5 June
1595). Spanish troops operating from the Low Countries captured Cambrai (1595), Calais and Ardres (1596), and Amiens (March
1597). However, Henry regained Amiens after a long siege (April–September 1597).

In 1595, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Hugh Roe O'Donnell had fitful Spanish backing when they led an Irish rebellion.
While the English were occupied with containing the Irish problem, the Spanish launched two more Armadas against England.
The 1596 Armada was destroyed when it was hit by a storm off the coast of northern Spain. The 1597 Armada was more
successful. It reached the English Channel and came very close to making landfall undetected. It was only adverse weather
conditions that stopped this fleet from landing.

Faced with wars against France, England and the Netherlands, each led by capable leaders, the bankrupted Spanish empire found
itself competing against strong adversaries. Continuing piracy against its shipping in the Atlantic and costly colonial enterprises
forced Spain to renegotiate its debts in 1596. Philip had been forced to declare bankruptcy in 1557, 1560, 1575, and 1598.[113]
The crown attempted to reduce its exposure to the conflicts, first signing the Treaty of Vervins with France in 1598, recognizing
Henry IV (since 1593 a Catholic) as king of France, and restoring many of the stipulations of the previous Peace of Cateau-
Cambrésis.
The Indies
Under Philip II, royal power over The Indies increased, but the crown knew little
about its overseas possessions in the Indies. Although the Council of the Indies
was tasked with oversight there, it acted without advice of high officials with
direct colonial experience. Another serious problem was that the crown did not
know what Spanish laws were in force there. To remedy the situation, Philip
appointed Juan de Ovando, who was named President of the council, to give
advice. Ovando appointed a "chronicler and cosmographer of the Indies," Juan
López de Velasco, to gather information about the crown's holdings, which
resulted in the Relaciones geográficas in the 1580s.[114]
Potosi, discovered in 1545, produced
massive amounts of silver from a
The crown sought greater control over
single site in upper Peru. The first
encomenderos, who had attempted to image published in Europe. Pedro
establish themselves as a local Cieza de León, 1553.
aristocracy; strengthened the power of
the ecclesiastical hierarchy; shored up
religious orthodoxy by the establishment of the Inquisition in Lima and Mexico City
(1571); and increased revenues from silver mines in Peru and in Mexico, discovered in the
1540s. Particularly important was the crown's appointment of two able viceroys, Don
Francisco de Toledo as viceroy of Peru (r. 1569-1581), and in Mexico, Don Martín
Enríquez (r. 1568-1580), who was subsequently appointed viceroy to replace Toledo in
Peru. In Peru, after decades of political unrest, with ineffective viceroys and
encomenderos wielding undue power, weak royal institutions, a renegade Inca state
existing in Vilcabamba, and waning revenue from the silver mine of Potosí, Toledo's
The last Inca emperor, appointment was a major step forward for royal control. He built on reforms attempted
Túpac Amaru, who was under earlier viceroys, but he is often credited with a major transformation in crown rule
executed in 1572 at the
in Peru. Toledo formalized the labor draft of Andean commoners, the mita, to guarantee a
order of Viceroy Toledo, to
labor supply for both the silver mine at Potosí and the mercury mine at Huancavelica. He
the subsequent displeasure
of Philip II. established administrative districts of corregimiento, and resettled native Andeans in
reducciones to better rule them. Under Toledo, the last stronghold of the Inca state was
destroyed and the last Inca emperor, Tupac Amaru I, was executed. Silver from Potosí
flowed to coffers in Spain and paid for Spain's wars in Europe.[115] In Mexico, Viceroy Enríquez organized the defense of the
northern frontier against nomadic and bellicose indigenous groups, who attacked the transport lines of silver from the northern
mines.[116] In the religious sphere, the crown sought to bring the power of the religious orders under control with the Ordenanza
del Patronazgo, ordering friars to give up their Indian parishes and turn them over to the diocesan clergy, who were more closely
controlled by the crown.

The crown expanded its global claims and defended existing ones in the Indies. Transpacific explorations had resulted in Spain
claiming the Philippines and the establishment of Spanish settlements and trade with Mexico. The viceroyalty of Mexico was
given jurisdiction over the Philippines, which became the entrepôt for Asian trade. Philip's succession to the crown of Portugal in
1580 complicated the situation on the ground in The Indies between Spanish and Portuguese settlers, although Brazil and Spanish
America were administered through separate councils in Spain. Spain dealt with English encroachment on Spain's maritime
control in The Indies, particularly by Sir Francis Drake. Although the 1588 Spanish Armada was destroyed off the coast of the
British Isles, the Spanish defeated the fleet of Drake and John Hawkins in 1595 in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Cartagena de Indias
(Colombia). Spain regained control in the Isthmus of Panama by relocating the main port there from Nombre de Dios to
Portobelo.[117]
The Philippines, the Sultanate of Brunei and Southeast Asia
With the conquest and settlement of the Philippines, the Spanish
Empire reached its greatest extent.[118] In 1564, Miguel López de
Legazpi was commissioned by the viceroy of New Spain
(Mexico), Don Luis de Velasco, to lead an expedition in the
Pacific Ocean to find the Spice Islands, where earlier explorers
Ferdinand Magellan and Ruy López de Villalobos had landed in
1521 and 1543, respectively. The westward sailing to reach the
sources of spices continued to be a necessity with the Ottomans
Manila Cathedral (1792)
still controlled major choke points in central Asia. It was unclear
how the agreement between Spain and Portugal dividing the
Atlantic world affected finds on the other side of the Pacific. Spain had ceded its rights to the "Spice Islands" to Portugal in the
Treaty of Saragossa in 1529, but the appellation was vague as was their exact delineation. The Legazpi expedition was ordered by
King Philip II, after whom the Philippines had earlier been named by Ruy López de Villalobos, when Philip was heir to the
throne. The king stated that "the main purpose of this expediiton is to establish the return route from the western isles, since it is
already known that the route to them is fairly short."[119] The viceroy died in July 1564, but the Audiencia and López de Legazpi
completed the preparations for the expedition. On embarking on the expedition, Spain lacked maps or information to guide the
king's decision to authorize the expedition. That realization subsequently led to the creation of reports from the various regions of
the empire, the relaciones geográficas.[120] The Philippines came under the jurisdiction of the viceroyalty of Mexico, and once
the Manila Galleon sailings between Manila and Acapulco were established, Mexico became the Philippines' link to the larger
Spanish Empire.

Spanish colonization began in earnest when López de Legazpi arrived from Mexico in 1565 and formed the first settlements in
Cebu. Beginning with just five ships and five hundred men accompanied by Augustinian friars, and further strengthened in 1567
by two hundred soldiers, he was able to repel the Portuguese and create the foundations for the colonization of the archipelago. In
1571, the Spanish, their Mexican recruits and their Filipino (Visayan) allies attacked and occupied Maynila, a vassal-state of the
Sultanate of Brunei, and negotiated the incorporation of the Kingdom of Tondo which was liberated from the Bruneian Sultanate's
control and of whom, their princess, Gandarapa, had a tragic romance with the Mexican-born Conquistador and grandson of
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, Juan de Salcedo. The combined Spanish-Mexican-Filipino forces also built a Christian walled city
over the burnt ruins of Muslim Maynila and made it as the new capital of the Spanish East Indies and renamed it Manila.[121]
Spaniards were few and life was difficult and they were often outnumbered by their Latino recruits and Filipino allies. They
attempted to mobilize subordinated populations through the encomienda. Unlike in the Caribbean where the indigenous
populations rapidly disappeared, the indigenous populations continued to be robust in the Philippines.[122] One Spaniard
described the climate as "cuarto meses de polvo, cuartro meses de lodo, y cuartro meses de todo" (four months of dust, four
months of mud, and four months of everything).[123]

Legazpi built a fort in Manila and made overtures of friendship to Lakan Dula, Lakan of Tondo, who accepted. Maynila's former
ruler, the Muslim rajah, Rajah Sulayman, who was a vassal to the Sultan of Brunei, refused to submit to Legazpi but failed to get
the support of Lakan Dula or of the Pampangan and Pangasinan settlements to the north. When Tarik Sulayman and a force of
Kapampangan and Tagalog Muslim warriors attacked the Spaniards in the battle of Bangkusay, he was finally defeated and
killed. The Spanish also repelled an attack by Chinese pirate warlord Limahong. Simultaneously, the establishment of a
Christianized Philippines attracted Chinese traders who exchanged their silk for Mexican silver, Indian and Malay traders also
settled in the Philippines too, to trade their spices and gems for the same Mexican silver. The Philippines then became a center for
Christian missionary activity that was also directed to Japan and the Philippines even accepted Christian converts from Japan
after the Shogun persecuted them. Most of the soldiers and settlers sent by the Spanish to the Philippines were either from
Mexico or Peru and very little people directly came from Spain.
In 1578, the Castilian War erupted between the Christian Spaniards and Muslim Bruneians over control of the Philippine
archipelago. The Spanish were joined by the newly Christianized Non-Muslim Visayans of the Kedatuan of Madja-as who were
Animists and Rajahnate of Cebu who were Hindus, plus the Rajahnate of Butuan (who were from northern Mindanao and were
Hindus with a Buddhist Monarchy), as well as the remnants of the Kedatuan of Dapitan who are also Animists and had
previously waged war against the Islamic nations of the Sultanate of Sulu and Kingdom of Maynila. They fought against the
Sultanate of Brunei and its allies, the Bruneian puppet-states of Maynila and Sulu, which had dynastic links with Brunei. The
Spanish, its Mexican recruits and Filipino allies assaulted Brunei and seized its capital, Kota Batu. This was achieved partly as a
result of the assistance of two noblemen, Pengiran Seri Lela and Pengiran Seri Ratna. The former had traveled to Manila to offer
Brunei as a tributary of Spain for help to recover the throne usurped by his brother, Saiful Rijal.[124] The Spanish agreed that if
they succeeded in conquering Brunei, Pengiran Seri Lela would indeed become the Sultan, while Pengiran Seri Ratna would be
the new Bendahara. In March 1578, the Spanish fleet, led by De Sande himself, acting as Capitán General, started its journey
towards Brunei. The expedition consisted of 400 Spaniards and Mexicans, 1,500 Filipino natives and 300 Borneans.[125] The
campaign was one of many, which also included action in Mindanao and Sulu.[126][127]

The Spanish succeeded in invading the capital on April 16, 1578, with the help of
Pengiran Seri Lela and Pengiran Seri Ratna. Sultan Saiful Rijal and Paduka Seri Begawan
Sultan Abdul Kahar were forced to flee to Meragang then to Jerudong. In Jerudong, they
made plans to chase the conquering army away from Brunei. The Spanish suffered heavy
losses due to a cholera or dysentery outbreak.[128] They were so weakened by the illness
that they decided to abandon Brunei to return to Manila on June 26, 1578, after just 72
days. Before doing so, they burned the mosque, a high structure with a five-tier roof.[129]

Pengiran Seri Lela died in August–September 1578, probably from the same illness that
had afflicted his Spanish allies, although there was suspicion he could have been poisoned
by the ruling Sultan. Seri Lela's daughter, the Bruneian princess, left with the Spanish and
went on to marry a Christian Tagalog, named Agustín de Legazpi of Tondo, and had
children in the Philippines.[130]

In 1587, Magat Salamat, one of the children of Lakan Dula, along with Lakan Dula's
Miguel López de Legazpi
nephew and lords of the neighboring areas of Tondo, Pandacan, Marikina, Candaba,
Navotas and Bulacan, were executed when the Tondo Conspiracy of 1587–1588
failed;[131] a planned grand alliance with the Japanese Christian-captain, Gayo, and
Brunei's Sultan, would have restored the old aristocracy. Its failure resulted in the hanging of Agustín de Legaspi and the
execution of Magat Salamat (the crown-prince of Tondo).[132] Thereafter, some of the conspirators were exiled to Guam or
Guerrero, Mexico.

The Spanish then conducted the centuries long Spanish-Moro Conflict against the Sultanates of Maguindanao, Lanao and Sulu.
War was also waged against the Sultanate of Ternate and Tidore (in response to Ternatean slaving and piracy against Spain's
allies: Bohol and Butuan).[133] During the Spanish-Moro conflict, the Moros of Muslim Mindanao conducted piracy and slave-
raids against Christian settlements in the Philippines. The Spanish fought back by establishing Christian fort-cities such as
Zamboanga City on Muslim Mindanao. The Spanish considered their war with the Muslims in Southeast Asia an extension of the
Reconquista, a centuries-long campaign to retake and rechristianize the Spanish homeland which was invaded by the Muslims of
the Umayyad Caliphate. The Spanish expeditions into the Philippines were also part of a larger Ibero-Islamic world conflict[134]
that included a rivalry with the Ottoman Caliphate, which had a center of operations at its nearby vassal, the Sultanate of
Aceh.[135]

Portugal and the Iberian Union 1580-1640

In 1580, King Philip saw the opportunity to strengthen his position in Iberia
when the last member of the Portuguese royal family, Cardinal Henry of
Portugal, died. Philip asserted his claim to the Portuguese throne and in June
sent the Duke of Alba with an army to Lisbon to assure his succession. He
established the Council of Portugal, on the pattern of the royal councils, the
Spanish Empire of Philip II, III and IV
Council of Castile, Council of Aragon, and Council of the Indies, that oversaw
including all charted and claimed
particular jurisdictions, but all under the same monarch. In Portugal, the Duke of territories, maritime claims (mare
Alba and the Spanish occupation were little more popular in Lisbon than in clausum) and other features.
Rotterdam. The combined Spanish and Portuguese empires placed into Philip's
hands included almost the entirety of the explored New World along with a vast
trading empire in Africa and Asia. In 1582, when Philip II moved his court back to Madrid from the Atlantic port of Lisbon,
where he had temporarily settled to pacify his new Portuguese kingdom, the pattern was sealed, in spite of what every observant
commentator privately noted. "Sea power is more important to the ruler of Spain than any other prince", wrote one commentator,
"for it is only by sea power that a single community can be created out of so many so far apart." A writer on tactics in 1638
observed, "The might most suited to the arms of Spain is that which is placed on the seas, but this matter of state is so well known
that I should not discuss it, even if I thought it opportune to do so."[136] Portugal and her kingdoms, including Brazil and her
African colonies, were under the dominion of the Spanish monarch.

Portugal required an extensive occupation force to keep it under control, and

Spain was still reeling from the 1576 bankruptcy. In 1584, William the Silent
was assassinated by a half-deranged Catholic, and the death of the popular Dutch
resistance leader was hoped to bring an end to the war but did not. In 1586,
Queen Elizabeth I of England sent support to the Protestant causes in the
Netherlands and France, and Sir Francis Drake launched attacks against Spanish
merchants in the Caribbean and the Pacific, along with a particularly aggressive
attack on the port of Cadiz.

The Spanish Armada leaving the Bay Portugal was brought into Spain's conflicts with rivals. In 1588, hoping to put a
of Ferrol (1588). stop to Elizabeth's intervention, Philip sent the Spanish Armada to invade
England. Unfavorable weather, plus heavily armed and manœuvrable English
ships, and the fact that the English had been warned by their spies in the
Netherlands and were ready for the attack resulted in a defeat for the Armada. However, the failure of the Drake–Norris
Expedition to Portugal and the Azores in 1589 marked a turning point in the on-off 1585–1604 Anglo–Spanish War. The Spanish
fleets became more effective in transporting greatly increased quantities of silver and gold from the Americas, while English
attacks suffered costly failures.

During the reign of Philip IV (Philip III of Portugal) in 1640, the Portuguese revolted and fought for their independence from the
rest of Iberia. The Council of Portugal was subsequently dissolved.

Philip III (r. 1598-1621)

Philip sought to reduce foreign conflicts, since even the vast revenues could not sustain the nearly bankrupted kingdom. The
Kingdom of England, suffering from a series of repulses at sea and from a guerrilla war by Catholics in Ireland, who were
supported by Spain, agreed to the Treaty of London, 1604, following the accession of the more tractable Stuart King James I.
Philip's chief minister, the duke of Lerma, also steered Spain toward peace with the Netherlands in 1609, although the conflict
was to emerge again at a later point.[137]
Castile provided the Spanish crown with most of its revenues and its best troops.[138][f]
The plague devastated Castilian lands between 1596 and 1602, causing the deaths of some
600,000 people.[139] A great number of Castilians went to America or died in battle. In
1609, the great majority of the Morisco population of Spain (much more numerous and
unassimilated in the kingdoms of Valencia and Aragon, than in the Crown of Castile or the
Principality of Catalonia) was expelled. It is estimated that Castile lost about 25% of its
population between 1600 and 1623. Such a dramatic drop in the population meant the
basis for the Crown's revenues was dangerously weakened in a time when it was engaged
in continuous conflict in Europe.[140]

Peace with England and France gave Spain an opportunity to focus its energies on
restoring its rule to the Dutch provinces. The Dutch, led by Maurice of Nassau, the son of
William the Silent and perhaps the greatest strategist of his time, had succeeded in taking a
number of border cities since 1590, including the fortress of Breda. Following the peace
with England, the new Spanish commander Ambrogio Spinola, a general with the ability
to match Maurice, pressed hard against the Dutch and was prevented from conquering the Philip III of Spain, Philip II of
Portugal
Netherlands only by Spain's latest bankruptcy in 1607. In 1609, the Twelve Years' Truce
was signed between Spain and the United Provinces. At last, Spain was at peace – the Pax
Hispanica.

Spain made a fair recovery during the truce, putting its finances in order and doing much to restore its prestige and stability in the
run-up to the last truly great war in which she would play a leading part. Philip II's successor, Philip III, was a man of limited
ability, uninterested in politics and preferring to delegate management of the empire to others. His chief minister was the capable
Duke of Lerma.

The Duke of Lerma (and to a large extent Philip II) had been uninterested in the affairs of their ally, Austria. In 1618, the king
replaced him with Don Baltasar de Zúñiga, a veteran ambassador to Vienna. Don Balthasar believed that the key to restraining the
resurgent French and eliminating the Dutch was a closer alliance with Habsburg Austria. In 1618, beginning with the
Defenestration of Prague, Austria and the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II, embarked on a campaign against the Protestant
Union and Bohemia. Don Balthasar encouraged Philip to join the Austrian Habsburgs in the war, and Spinola, the rising star of
the Spanish army in the Netherlands, was sent at the head of the Army of Flanders to intervene. Thus, Spain entered into the
Thirty Years' War.

Philip IV (r. 1621-1665)

When Philip IV succeeded his father in 1621, Spain was clearly in economic and political decline, a source of consternation. The
learned arbitristas sent the king more analyses of Spain's problems and possible solutions. As an illustration of the precarious
economic situation of Spain at the time, it was actually Dutch bankers who financed the East India merchants of Seville. At the
same time, everywhere in the world Dutch entrepreneurship and settlements were undermining Spanish and Portuguese
hegemony. The Dutch were religiously tolerant and not evangelical, focusing on trade, as opposed to Spain's longstanding
defense of Catholicism. A Dutch proverb says, "Christ is good; trade is better!"[56]

Spain badly needed time and peace to repair its finances and to rebuild its economy. In 1622, Don Balthasar was replaced by
Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, a reasonably honest and able man.[141] After certain initial setbacks, the Bohemians
were defeated at White Mountain in 1621, and again at Stadtlohn in 1623. The war with the Netherlands was renewed in 1621
with Spinola taking the fortress of Breda in 1625. The intervention of Christian IV of Denmark in the war threatened the Spanish
position, but the victory of the Imperial general Albert of Wallenstein over the Danes at Dessau Bridge and again at Lutter (both
in 1626), eliminated that threat.
There was hope in Madrid that the Netherlands might finally be
reincorporated into the Empire, and after the defeat of Denmark the
Protestants in Germany seemed crushed. France was once again involved
in its own instabilities (the Siege of La Rochelle began in 1627), and
Spain's eminence seemed clear. The Count-Duke Olivares asserted, "God
is Spanish and fights for our nation these days".[142]

Olivares realized that Spain needed to reform, and to reform it needed

peace, first and foremost with the Dutch United Provinces. Olivares aimed
for "peace with honor", however, which meant in practice a peace
settlement that would have restored to Spain something of its predominant
position in the Netherlands. This was unacceptable to the United The Surrender of Breda (1625) to
Provinces, and the inevitable consequence was the constant hope that one Ambrogio Spinola, by Velázquez. This
victory came to symbolize the renewed
more victory would finally lead to "peace with honor", perpetuating the
period of Spanish military vigor in the
ruinous war that Olivares had wanted to avoid to begin with. In 1625, Thirty Years' War.
Olivares proposed the Union of Arms, which aimed at raising revenues
from the Indies and other kingdoms of Iberia for imperial defense, which
met strong opposition.[143][144] The Union of Arms was the sparking point for a major revolt in Catalonia in 1640. This turmoil
also seemed a propitious moment for the Portuguese to revolt against Habsburg rule, with the Duke of Braganza proclaimed as
John IV of Portugal.[145]

While Spinola and the Spanish army were focused on the Netherlands, the war seemed to
go in Spain's favor. But in 1627 the Castilian economy collapsed. The Habsburg had been
debasing their currency to pay for the war and prices exploded, just as they had in
previous years in Austria. Until 1631, parts of Castile operated on a barter economy owing
to the currency crisis, and the government was unable to collect any meaningful taxes
from the peasantry and had to depend on revenue from its colonies. The Spanish armies,
like others in German territories, resorted to "paying themselves" on the land.

Olivares had backed certain taxation reforms in Spain pending the end of the war, but was
blamed for another embarrassing and fruitless war in Italy. The Dutch, who during the
Twelve Years' Truce had made increasing their navy a priority, (which showed its
maturing potency at the Battle of Gibraltar 1607), managed to strike a great blow against
Philip IV of Spain, Philip III
Spanish maritime trade with the capture by captain Piet Hein of the Spanish treasure fleet
of Portugal
on which Spain had become dependent after the economic collapse.

Spanish military resources were stretched across Europe and also at sea as they sought to
protect maritime trade against the greatly improved Dutch and French fleets, while still occupied with the Ottoman and associated
Barbary pirate threat in the Mediterranean. In the meantime the aim of choking Dutch shipping was carried out by the Dunkirkers
with considerable success. In 1625 a Spanish-Portuguese fleet, under Admiral Fadrique de Toledo, regained the strategically vital
Brazilian city of Salvador da Bahia from the Dutch. Elsewhere, the isolated and undermanned Portuguese forts in Africa and the
Asia proved vulnerable to Dutch and English raids and takeovers or simply being bypassed as important trading posts.

In 1630, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, one of history's most noted commanders, landed in Germany and relieved the port of
Stralsund, the last continental stronghold of German forces belligerent to the Emperor. Gustavus then marched south and won
notable victories at Breitenfeld and Lützen, attracting more Protestant support with every step he took. By now Spain was deeply
involved in saving their Austrian allies from the Swedes who had continued to be wildly successful despite the death of Gustavus
at Lützen in 1632. In early September 1634, a Spanish army that had marched from Italy linked with the Imperials at the town of
Nördlingen, bringing their total to 33,000 troops. Having severely underestimated the number of experienced Spanish soldiers in
 the reinforcements, the commanders of the Protestant armies of the Heilbronn
League decided to offer battle. The seasoned Spanish infantry — which had not
been present at any of the battles that had ended in Swedish victories — was
mostly responsible for the complete rout of the enemy army, which lost 21,000
casualties out of 25,000 men (to only 3,500 for the Catholics).

Alarmed by the Spanish success

at Nördlingen and the probable
collapse of the Swedish military
effort Cardinal Richelieu, the
Victory of the Spanish troops led by
the Duke of Feria, at the city of chief minister of Louis XIII,
Konstanz, during the Thirty Years' realised that it would be
War, 1633. Oil on canvas by Vicente necessary to turn the existing
Carducho, 1634. cold war into a hot one if Spain,
in conjunction with the
Habsburg Austrian empire was The swearing of the oath of
ratification of the Treaty of Münster in
to be stopped from dominating Europe. In the war that followed, Spain invaded
1648 (1648) that ended the Eighty
France, ravaging Champagne and Burgundy and even threatening to take Paris in
Years' War between Spain and the
1636. This extended the supply lines too much and for fear of causing another Netherlands. Gerard ter Borch
bankruptcy, they abandoned the campaign and returned to the border. The
Spanish army would never again penetrate so far. At the Battle of the Downs in
1639 a Spanish fleet carrying troops was destroyed by the Dutch navy, and the Spanish found themselves unable to supply and
reinforce their forces adequately in the Netherlands.

The Army of Flanders, which represented the finest of Spanish soldiery and leadership, faced a French assault led by Louis II de
Bourbon, Prince de Condé in northern France at Rocroi in 1643. The Spanish, led by Francisco de Melo, were beaten by the
French. After a closely fought battle the Spanish were forced to surrender on honorable terms. As a result, while the defeat was
not a rout, the high status of the Army of Flanders was ended at Rocroi. The defeat at Rocroi also led to the dismissal of the
embattled Olivares, who was confined to his estates by the king's order and died two years later. The Peace of Westphalia ended
the Spanish Eighty Years' War in 1648, with Spain recognizing the independence of the Seven United Provinces of the
Netherlands.

In 1640, Spain had already experienced the loss of Portugal, following its revolt against Spanish rule, and brought to an end the
Iberian Union, and the establishment of the House of Braganzaunder king John IV of Portugal. He had received widespread
support from the Portuguese people, and Spain was unable to respond, since it was at war with France and Catalonia revolted that
year. with the war against France. Spain and Portugal co-existed in a de facto state of peace from 1644 to 1656. When John died
in 1656, the Spanish attempted to wrest Portugal from his son Alfonso VI of Portugal but were defeated at Ameixial (1663) and
Montes Claros (1665), leading to Spain's recognition of Portugal's independence in 1668, during the regency of Philip IV's young
heir, Charles II, who was seven at the time.

War with France continued for eleven more years. Although France suffered from a civil war from 1648 to 1652 (see Wars of the
Fronde), Spain had been exhausted by the Thirty Years' War and the ongoing revolts. With the war against the United Provinces
at an end in 1648, the Spanish drove the French out of Naples and Catalonia in 1652, recaptured Dunkirk, and occupied several
northern French forts that they held until peace was made. The war came to an end soon after the Battle of the Dunes (1658),
where the French army under Viscount Turenne retook Dunkirk. Spain agreed to the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659 that ceded to
France the Spanish Netherlands territory of Artois and the northern Catalan county of Roussillon.
France was now the dominant power on continental Europe, and the
United Provinces were dominant in the Atlantic. The Great Plague of
Seville (1647–1652) killed up to 25% of Seville's population. Sevilla, and
indeed the economy of Andalucía, would never recover from such
complete devastation. Altogether Spain was thought to have lost 500,000
people, out of a population of slightly fewer than 10,000,000, or nearly 5%
of its entire population. Historians reckon the total cost in human lives due
to these plagues throughout Spain, throughout the entire 17th century, to be
a minimum of nearly 1.25 million.[146]
The meeting of Philip IV of Spain and
In the Indies, Spanish claims were effectively challenged in the Caribbean Louis XIV of France on 7 July 1660 at
by the English, the French, and the Dutch, which all established permanent Pheasant Island
colonies there, after raiding and trading starting in the late sixteenth
century. Although the islands' loss barely diminished its American
territories, the islands were strategically located and held political, military, and economic advantages in the long run. Spain's
main Caribbean strongholds of Cuba and Puerto Rico remained in crown hands, but Windward Islands and Leeward Islands
which Spain claimed but did not occupy were vulnerable. The English settled St Kitts (1623–25), Barbados (1627); Nevis (1628);
Antigua (1632), and Montserrat (1632); it captured Jamaica in 1655. The French settled in the West Indies in Martinique and
Guadaloupe in 1635; and the Dutch acquired trading bases in Curaçao, St Eustace, and St Martin.[56]

Charles II and the End of the Spanish Habsburg Era

The Spain that the sickly young Charles II (1661-1700) inherited was clearly in decline
and there were more losses immediately. Charles became monarch in 1665 when he was
four years old, so a regency of his mother and a five-member government junta ruled in
his name, headed by his natural half-brother John of Austria. Under the regency, Louis
XIV of France prosecuted the War of Devolution against the Spanish Netherlands in
1667–68, losing considerable prestige and territory, including the cities of Lille and
Charleroi. In the Franco-Dutch War of 1672–1678, Spain lost still more territory when it
came to the assistance of its former Dutch enemies, most notably Franche-Comté.

In the Nine Years' War (1688–1697) Louis XIV once again invaded the Spanish
Netherlands. French forces led by the Duke of Luxembourg defeated the Spanish at
Fleurus (1690) and subsequently defeated Dutch forces under William III of Orange, who
fought on Spain's side. The war ended with most of the Spanish Netherlands under French
Charles II of Spain occupation, including the important cities of Ghent and Luxembourg. The war revealed to
Europe the vulnerability of the Spanish defenses and bureaucracy. Further, the ineffective
Spanish Habsburg government took no action to improve them.

Spain suffered utter decay and stagnation during the final decades of the seventeenth century. While the rest of Western Europe
went through exciting changes in government and society – the Glorious Revolution in England and the reign of the Sun King in
France – Spain remained adrift. The Spanish bureaucracy that had built up around the charismatic, industrious, and intelligent
Charles I and Philip II demanded a strong and hardworking monarch; the weakness and lack of interest of Philip III and Philip IV
contributed to Spain's decay. Charles II was childless and weak ruler, known as "The Bewitched." In his last will and testament he
left his throne to a French prince, the Bourbon Philip of Anjou, rather than to another Habsburg. This resulted in the War of the
Spanish Succession, with the Austrian Habsburg and the British challenging Charles II's choice of a Bourbon prince to succeed
him as king.
The Indies: Spanish America and the Philippines
To the end of its imperial rule, Spain called its overseas possessions in the Americas and the Philippines "The Indies," an
enduring remnant of Columbus's notion that he had reached Asia by sailing west. When these territories reach a high level of
importance, the crown established the Council of the Indies in 1524, following the conquest of the Aztec empire, asserting
permanent royal control over its possessions. Regions with dense indigenous populations and sources of mineral wealth attracting
Spanish settlers became colonial centers, while those without such resources were peripheral to crown interest. Once regions
incorporated into the empire and their importance assessed, overseas possessions came under stronger or weaker crown
control.[147] The crown learned its lesson with the rule of Christopher Columbus and his heirs in the Caribbean, and they never
subsequently gave authorization of sweeping powers to explorers and conquerors. The Catholic Monarchs' conquest of Granada
in 1492 and their expulsion of the Jews "were militant expressions of religious statehood at the moment of the beginning of the
American colonization."[148] The crown's power in the religious sphere was absolute in its overseas possessions through the
papacy's grant of the Patronato real, and "Catholicism was indissolubly linked with royal authority."[149] Church-State relations
were established in the conquest era and remained stable until the end of the Habsburg era in 1700, when the Bourbon monarchs
implemented major reforms and changed the relationship between crown and altar.

The crown's administration of its overseas empire was implemented by royal officials in both the civil and religious spheres, often
with overlapping jurisdictions. The crown could administer the empire in the Indies by using native elites as intermediaries with
the large indigenous populations. Administrative costs of empire were kept low, with a small number of Spanish officials
generally paid low salaries.[150] Crown policy to maintain a closed commercial system limited to one port in Spain and only a
few in the Indies was in practice not closed, with European merchant houses supplying Spanish merchants in the Spanish port of
Seville with high quality textiles and other manufactured goods that Spain itself could not supply. Much of the silver of the Indies
was diverted into those European merchant houses. Crown officials in the Indies enabled the creation of a whole commercial
system in which they could coerce native populations to participate while reaping profits themselves in cooperation with
merchants.[150]

Explorers, conquerors, and expansion of empire

After Columbus, the Spanish colonization of the Americas was led by a
series of soldiers-of-fortune and explorers called conquistadors. The
Spanish forces, in addition to significant armament and equestrian
advantages, exploited the rivalries between competing indigenous peoples,
tribes, and nations, some of which were willing to form alliances with the
Spanish in order to defeat their more-powerful enemies, such as the Aztecs
or Incas—a tactic that would be extensively used by later European
colonial powers. The Spanish conquest was also facilitated by the spread
of diseases (e.g. smallpox), common in Europe but never present in the
New World, which reduced the indigenous populations in the Americas.
Emperor Atahualpa is shown surrounded
This sometimes caused a labor shortage for plantations and public works on his palanquin at the Battle of
and so the colonists informally and gradually, at first, initiated the Atlantic Cajamarca.
slave trade. (see Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas)

One of the most accomplished conquistadors was Hernán Cortés, who, leading a relatively small Spanish force but with local
translators and the crucial support of thousands of native allies, achieved the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in the
campaigns of 1519–1521. This territory later became the Viceroyalty of New Spain, present day Mexico. Of equal importance
was the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire by Francisco Pizarro, which would become the Viceroyalty of Peru.[151]
 After the conquest of Mexico, rumors of golden cities (Quivira and Cíbola
in North America and El Dorado in South America) motivated several
other expeditions. Many of those returned without having found their goal,
or finding it much less valuable than was hoped. Indeed, the New World
colonies only began to yield a substantial part of the Crown's revenues
with the establishment of mines such as that of Potosí (Bolivia) and
Zacatecas (Mexico) both started in 1546. By the late 16th century, silver
from the Americas accounted for one-fifth of Spain's total budget.[151]

Eventually the world's stock of precious metal was doubled or even tripled
by silver from the Americas.[152] Official records indicate that at least 75%
Cristóbal de Olid leads Spanish soldiers of the silver was taken across the Atlantic to Spain and no more than 25%
with Tlaxcalan allies in the conquests of
across the Pacific to China. Some modern researchers argue that due to
Jalisco, 1522. From Lienzo de Tlaxcala.
rampant smuggling about 50% went to China.[152] In the 16th century
"perhaps 240,000 Europeans" entered American ports.[153]

Further Spanish settlements were progressively established in the New World: New Granada in the 1530s (later in the Viceroyalty
of New Granada in 1717 and present day Colombia), Lima in 1535 as the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru, Buenos Aires in
1536 (later in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776), and Santiago in 1541.

Florida was colonized in 1565 by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés when he founded St. Augustine and then promptly defeated an
attempt led by the French Captain Jean Ribault and 150 of his countrymen to establish a French foothold in Spanish Florida
territory. Saint Augustine quickly became a strategic defensive base for the Spanish ships full of gold and silver being sent to
Spain from its New World dominions.

The Portuguese mariner sailing for Castile, Ferdinand

Magellan, died while in the Philippines commanding a
Castilian expedition in 1522, which was the first to
circumnavigate the globe. The Basque commander Juan
Sebastián Elcano led the expedition to success. Spain
sought to enforce their rights in the Moluccan islands,
which led a conflict with the Portuguese, but the issue
was resolved with the Treaty of Zaragoza (1525),
settling the location of the antimeridian of Tordesillas,
which would divide the world into two equal
hemispheres. From then on, maritime expeditions led to
the discovery of several archipelagos in the South
Pacific as the Pitcairn Islands, the Marquesas, Tuvalu,
Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands or New Guinea, to which
Spain laid claim.
Spanish explorations and routes across the Pacific Ocean.
Most important in Pacific exploration was the claim on
the Philippines, which was populous and strategically
located for the Spanish settlement of Manila and entrepôt for trade with China. On 27 April 1565, the first permanent Spanish
settlement in the Philippines was founded by Miguel López de Legazpi and the service of Manila Galleons was inaugurated. The
Manila Galleons shipped goods from all over Asia across the Pacific to Acapulco on the coast of Mexico. From there, the goods
were transshipped across Mexico to the Spanish treasure fleets, for shipment to Spain. The Spanish trading port of Manila
facilitated this trade in 1572. Although Spain claimed islands in the Pacific, it did not encounter or claim the Hawaiian Islands.
The control of Guam, Mariana Islands, Caroline Islands, and Palau came later, from the end of the 17th century, and remained
under Spanish control until 1898.

In the eighteenth century, Spain was concerned with Russian and British expansion in the Pacific Northwest of North America
and sent expeditions to explore and further shore up Spanish claims to the region.[154]

Organization and administration of empire

The empire in the Indies was a newly established dependency of the kingdom of Castile alone, so crown power was not impeded
by any existing cortes (i.e. parliament), administrative or ecclesiastical institution, or seigneurial group.[155] The crown sought to
establish and maintain control over its overseas possessions through a complex, hierarchical bureaucracy, which in many ways
was decentralized. The crown asserted is authority and sovereignty of the territory and vassals it claimed, collected taxes,
maintained public order, meted out justice, and established policies for governance of large indigenous populations. Many
institutions established in Castile found expression in The Indies from the early colonial period. Spanish universities expanded to
train lawyer-bureaucrats (letrados) for administrative positions in Spain and its overseas empire.

The end of the Habsburg dynasty in 1700 saw major administrative reforms in the eighteenth century under the Bourbon
monarchy, starting with the first Spanish Bourbon monarch, Philip V (r. 1700-1746) and reaching its apogee under Charles III (r.
1759-1788). The reorganization of administration has been called "a revolution in government."[156] Reforms sought to centralize
government control through reorganization of administration, reinvigorate the economies of Spain and the Spanish empire
through changes in mercantile and fiscal policies, defend Spanish colonies and territorial claims through the establishment of a
standing military, undermine the power of the Catholic church, and rein in the power of the American-born elites.[157]

Early institutions of governance

The crown relied on ecclesiastics as important councilors and royal officials in the governance of their overseas territories.
Archbishop Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca, Isabella's confessor, was tasked with reining in Columbus's independence. He strongly
influenced the formulation of colonial policy under the Catholic Monarchs, and was instrumental in establishing the Casa de
Contratación (1503), which enabled crown control over trade and immigration. Ovando fitted out Magellan's voyage of
circumnavigation, and became the first President of the Council of the Indies in 1524.[158] Ecclesiastics also functioned as
administrators overseas in the early Caribbean period, particularly Frey Nicolás de Ovando, who was sent to investigate the
administration of Francisco de Bobadilla, the governor appointed to succeed Christopher Columbus.[159] Later ecclesiastics
served as interim viceroys, general inspectors (visitadores), and other high posts.

The crown established control over trade and emigration to the Indies with the 1503 establishment the Casa de Contratación
(House of Trade) in Seville. Ships and cargoes were registered, and emigrants vetted to prevent migration of anyone not of old
Christian heritage and facilitated the migration of families and women.[160] In addition, the Casa de Contratación took charge of
the fiscal organization, and of the organization and judicial control of the trade with the Indies.[161]

The politics of asserting royal authority opposite to Columbus caused the suppression of his privileges in The Indies and the
creation of territorial governance under royal authority. These governorates, also called as provinces, were the basic of the
territorial government of the Indies,[162] and arose as the territories were conquered and colonized.[163] To carry out the
expedition (entrada), which entailed exploration, conquest, and initial settlement of the territory, the king, as owner of the Indies,
agreed capitulación (an itemized contract) with the specifics of the conditions of the expedition in a particular territory. The
individual leaders of expeditions (adelantados) assumed the expenses of the venture and in return received as reward the grant
from the government of the conquered territories;[164] and in addition, they received instructions about treating the
aborigens.[165]

After the end of the period of conquests, it was necessary to manage extensive and different territories with a strong bureaucracy.
In the face of the impossibility of the Castilian institutions to take care of the New World affairs, other new institutions were
created.[166]
As the basic political entity it was the governorate, or province. The governors exercised
judicial ordinary functions of first instance, and prerogatives of government legislating by
ordinances.[167] To these political functions of the governor, it could be joined the military
ones, according to military requirements, with the rank of Captain general.[168] The office
of captain general involved to be the supreme military chief of the whole territory and he
was responsible for recruiting and providing troops, the fortification of the territory, the
supply and the shipbuilding.[169]

Provinces in the Spanish Empire had a royal treasury controlled by a set of officiales
reales (royal officials). The officials of the royal treasury included up to four positions: a
tesorero (treasurer), who guarded money on hand and made payments; a contador
Fray Bartolome de Las
(accountant or comptroller), who recorded income and payments, maintained records, and Casas, Protector of the
interpreted royal instructions; a factor, who guarded weapons and supplies belonging to Indians
the king, and disposed of tribute collected in the province; and a veedor (overseer), who
was responsible for contacts with native inhabitants of the province, and collected the
king's share of any war booty. The treasury officials were appointed by the king, and were largely independent of the authority of
the governor. Treasury officials were generally paid out of the income from the province and were normally prohibited from
engaging in personal income-producing activities.[170]

The indigenous populations in the Caribbean became the focus of the crown in its roles as sovereigns of the empire and patron of
the Catholic Church. Spanish conquerors holding grants of indigenous labor in encomienda ruthlessly exploited them Spanish. A
number of friars in the early period came to the vigorous defense of the indigenous populations, who were new converts to
Christianity. Prominent Dominican friars in Santo Domingo, especially Antonio de Montesinos and Bartolomé de Las Casas
denounced the maltreatment and pressed the crown to act to protect the indigenous populations. The crown enacted Laws of
Burgos (1513) and the Requerimiento to curb the power of the Spanish conquerors and give indigenous populations the
opportunity to peacefully embrace Spanish authority and Christianity. Neither was effective in its purpose. Las Casas was
officially appointed Protector of the Indians and spent his life arguing forcefully on their behalf. The New Laws of 1542, limiting
the power of encomenderos, were a result.

Beginning in 1522 in the newly conquered Mexico, government units in the Spanish Empire had a royal treasury controlled by a
set of officiales reales (royal officials). There were also sub-treasuries at important ports and mining districts. The officials of the
royal treasury at each level of government typically included two to four positions: a tesorero (treasurer), the senior official who
guarded money on hand and made payments; a contador (accountant or comptroller), who recorded income and payments,
maintained records, and interpreted royal instructions; a factor, who guarded weapons and supplies belonging to the king, and
disposed of tribute collected in the province; and a veedor (overseer), who was responsible for contacts with native inhabitants of
the province, and collected the king's share of any war booty. The veedor, or overseer, position quickly disappeared in most
jurisdictions, subsumed into the position of factor. Depending on the conditions in a jurisdiction, the position of factor/veedor
was often eliminated, as well.[171]

The treasury officials were appointed by the king, and were largely independent of the authority of the viceroy, audiencia
president or governor. On the death, unauthorized absence, retirement or removal of a governor, the treasury officials would
jointly govern the province until a new governor appointed by the king could take up his duties. Treasury officials were supposed
to be paid out of the income from the province, and were normally prohibited from engaging in income-producing activities.[172]
</ref>

Spanish Law and indigenous peoples

The protection of the indigenous populations from enslavement and exploitation by
Spanish settlers were established in the Laws of Burgos, 1512–1513. The laws were the
first codified set of laws governing the behavior of Spanish settlers in the Americas,
particularly with regards to treatment of native Indians in the institution of the
encomienda. They forbade the maltreatment of natives, and endorsed the Indian
Reductions with attempts of conversion to Catholicism.[173] Upon their failure to
effectively protect the indigenous and following the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
and the Spanish conquest of Peru, more stringent laws to control conquerors' and settlers'
exercise of power, especially their maltreatment of the indigenous populations, were
promulgated, known as the New Laws (1542). The crown aimed to prevent the formation
of an aristocracy in the Indies not under crown control.

Despite the fact that The Queen Isabel was the first monarch that laid the first stone for the
protection of the indigenous peoples in her testament in which the Catholic monarch Colegio de San Gregorio,
prohibited the enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.[174] Then the first Valladolid, where the Laws
of the Indies were
such in 1542; the legal thought behind them was the basis of modern International
promulgated
law.[175] Taking advantage of their extreme remoteness from royal power, some colonists
were disagree with the laws when they saw their power being reduced, forcing a partial
suppression of these New Laws.

The Valladolid debate (1550–1551) was the first moral debate in European history to discuss the rights and treatment of a
colonized people by colonizers. Held in the Colegio de San Gregorio, in the Spanish city of Valladolid, it was a moral and
theological debate about the colonization of the Americas, its justification for the conversion to Catholicism and more specifically
about the relations between the European settlers and the natives of the New World. It consisted of a number of opposing views
about the way natives were to be integrated into colonial life, their conversion to Christianity and their rights and obligations.
According to the French historian Jean Dumont The Valladolid debate was a major turning point in world history “In that
moment in Spain appeared the dawn of the human rights”.[176]

Council of the Indies

In 1524 the Council of the Indies was established, following the system of system of Councils that advised the monarch and made
decisions on his behalf about specific matters of government.[177] Based in Castile, with the assignment of the governance of the
Indies, it was thus responsible for drafting legislation, proposing the appointments to the King for civil government as well as
ecclesiastical appointments, and pronouncing judicial sentences; as maximum authority in the overseas territories, the Council of
the Indies took over both the institutions in the Indies as the defense of the interests of the Crown, the Catholic Church, and of
indigenous peoples.[178] With the 1508 papal grant to the crown of the Patronato real, the crown, rather than the pope, exercised
absolute power over the Catholic Church in the Americas and the Philippines, a privilege the crown zealously guarded against
erosion or incursion. Crown approval through the Council of the Indies was needed for the establishment of bishoprics, building
of churches, appointment of all clerics.[179]

In 1721, at the beginning of the Bourbon monarchy, the crown transferred the main responsibility for governing the overseas
empire from the Council of the Indies to the Ministry of the Navy and the Indies, which were subsequently divided into two
separate ministries in 1754.[157]

Viceroyalties
The impossibility of the physical presence of the monarch and the necessity of strong royal governance in The Indies resulted in
the appointment of viceroys ("vice-kings"), the direct representation of the monarch, in both civil and ecclesiastical spheres.
Viceroyalties were the largest territory unit of administration in the civil and religious spheres and the boundaries of civil and
ecclesiastical governance coincided by design, to ensure crown control over both
bureaucracies.[180] Until the eighteenth century, there were just two
viceroyalties, with the Viceroyalty of New Spain (founded 1535) administering
North America, a portion of the Caribbean, and the Philippines, and the
viceroyalty of Peru (founded 1542) having jurisdiction over Spanish South
America. Viceroys served as the vice-patron of the Catholic Church, including
the Inquisition, established in the seats of the viceroyalties (Mexico City and
Peru). Viceroys were responsible for good governance of their territories,
economic development, and humane treatment of the indigenous
populations.[181] View of the Plaza Mayor of Mexico
City and the viceroy's palace, by
In the eighteenth-century reforms, the Viceroyalty of Peru was reorganized, Cristóbal de Villalpando, 1695
splitting off portions to form the Viceroyalty of New Granada (Colombia) (1739)
and the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata (Argentina) (1776), leaving Peru with
jurisdiction over Peru, Charcas, and Chile. Viceroys were of high social standing, almost without exception born in Spain, and
served fixed terms.

Audiencias, the High Courts

The Audiencias were initially constituted by the crown as a key administrative institution
with royal authority and loyalty to the crown as opposed to conquerors and first
settlers.[182] Although constituted as the highest judicial authority in their territorial
jurisdiction, they also had executive and legislative authority, and served as the executive
on an interim basis. Judges (oidores) held "formidable power. Their role in judicial affairs
and in overseeing the implementation of royal legislation made their decisions important
for the communities they served." Since their appointments were for life or the pleasure of
the monarch, they had a continuity of power and authority that viceroys and captains-
general lacked because of their shorter-term appointments.[81] They were the "center of
the administrative system [and] gave the government of the Indies a strong basis of
permanence and continuity."[183]

Their main function was judicial, as a court of justice of second instance —court of appeal
Members of the Real
— in penal and civil matters, but also the Audiencias were courts the first instance in the
Audiencia (Royal Audience)
city where it had its headquarters, and also in the cases involving the Royal Treasury.[184] of Lima, the presidente,
Besides court of justice, the Audiencias had functions of government as counterweight the alcaldes de corte, fiscal and
authority of the viceroys, since they could communicate with both the Council of the alguacil mayor. (Nueva
Indies and the king without the requirement of requesting authorization from the Crónica y Buen Gobierno, p.
488)
viceroy.[184] This direct correspondence of the Audiencia with the Council of the Indies
made it possible for the Council to give the Audiencia direction on general aspects of
government.[182]

Audiencias were a significant base of power and influence for American-born elites, starting in the late sixteenth century, with
nearly a quarter of appointees being born in the Indies by 1687. During a financial crisis in the late seventeenth century, the
crown began selling Audiencia appointments, and American-born Spaniards held 45% of Audiencia appointments. Although
there were restrictions of appointees' ties to local elite society and participation in the local economy, they acquired dispensations
from the cash-strapped crown. Audiencia judgments and other functions became more tied to the locality and less to the crown
and impartial justice.
During the Bourbon Reforms in the mid-eighteenth century, the crown systematically sought to centralize power in its own hands
and diminish that of its overseas possessions, appointing peninsular-born Spaniards to Audiencias. American-born elite men
complained bitterly about the change, since they lost access to power that they had enjoyed for nearly a century.[81]

Civil administrative districts

During the early colonial era and under the Habsburgs, the crown established a regional layer of colonial jurisdiction in the
institution of Corregimiento, which was between the Audiencia and town councils. Corregimiento expanded "royal authority
from the urban centers into the countryside and over the indigenous population."[185] As with many colonial institutions,
corregimiento had its roots in Castile when the Catholic Monarchs centralize power over municipalities. In the Indies,
corregimiento initially functioned to bring control over Spanish settlers who exploited the indigenous populations held in
encomienda, in order to protect the shrinking indigenous populations and prevent the formation of an aristocracy of conquerors
and powerful settlers. The royal official in charge of a district was the Corregidor, who was appointed by the viceroy, usually for
a five-year term. Corregidores collected the tribute from indigenous communities and regulated forced indigenous labor.
Alcaldías mayores were larger districts with a royal appointee, the Alcalde mayor.

As the indigenous populations declined, the need for corregimiento decreased and then suppressed, with the alcaldía mayor
remaining an institution until it was replaced in the eighteenth-century Bourbon Reforms by royal officials, Intendants. The salary
of officials during the Habsburg era were paltry, but the corregidor or alcalde mayor in densely populated areas of indigenous
settlement with a valuable product could use his office for personal enrichment. As with many other royal posts, these positions
were sold, starting in 1677.[185] The Bourbon-era intendants were appointed and relatively well paid.[186]

Ecclesiastical organization
During the early colonial period, the crown authorized friars of Catholic
religious orders (Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians) to function as
priests during the conversion of indigenous populations. During the early Age of
Discovery, the diocesan clergy in Spain was poorly educated and considered of a
low moral standing, and the Catholic Monarchs were reluctant to allow them to
spearhead evangelization. Each order set up networks of parishes in the various
regions (provinces), sited in existing Indian settlements, where Christian
churches were built and where evangelization of the indigenous was based.[187]
However, after the 1550s, the crown increasingly favored the diocesan clergy
over the religious orders since the diocesan clergy was under the direct authority
Cathedral of Puebla, Mexico of the crown, while religious orders were with their own internal regulations and
leadership. The crown had authority to draw the boundaries for dioceses and
parishes. The creation of the ecclesiastical hierarchy with priests who not
members of religious orders, those known as the diocesan or secular clergy, marked a turning point in the crown's control over the
religious sphere. In 1574, Philip II promulgated the Order of Patronage (Ordenaza del Patronato) ordering the religious orders to
turn over their parishes to the secular clergy, a policy that secular clerics had long sought for the central areas of empire, with
their large indigenous populations. Although implementation was slow and incomplete, it was an assertion of royal power over
the clergy and the quality of parish priests improved, since the Ordenanza mandated competitive examination to fill vacant
positions.[188] Religious orders along with the Jesuits embarked on further evangelization in frontier regions of the empire. The
Jesuits resisted crown control, refusing to pay the tithe on their estates that supported the ecclesiastical hierarchy and came into
conflict with bishops. The most prominent example is in Puebla, Mexico, when Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza was driven
from his bishopric by the Jesuits. The bishop challenged the Jesuits' continuing to hold Indian parishes and function as priests
without the required royal licenses. His fall from power is viewed as an example of the weakening of the crown in the mid-
seventeenth century since it failed to protect their duly appointed bishop.[189] The crown expelled the Jesuits from Spain and The
Indies in 1767 during the Bourbon Reforms.

Cabildos or town councils

Spanish settlers sought to live in towns and cities, with governance being
accomplished through the town council or Cabildo. The cabildo was composed
of the prominent residents (vecinos) of the municipality, so that governance was
restricted to a male elite, with majority of the population exercising power. Cities
were governed on the same pattern as in Spain and in the Indies the city was the
framework of Spanish life. The cities were Spanish and the countryside
indigenous.[190] In areas of previous indigenous empires with settled
populations, the crown also melded existing indigenous rule into a Spanish
pattern, with the establishment of cabildos and the participation of indigenous Cabildo in the city of Salta
elites as officials holding Spanish titles. There were a variable number of (Argentina)
councilors (regidores), depending on the size of the town, also two municipal
judges (alcaldes menores), who were judges of first instance, and also other
officials as police chief, inspector of supplies, court clerk, and a public herald.[191] They were in charge of distributing land to the
neighbors, establishing local taxes, dealing with the public order, inspecting jails and hospitals, preserving the roads and public
works such as irrigation ditchs and bridges, supervising the public health, regulating the festive activities, monitoring market
prices, or the protection of Indians.[192]

After the reign of Philip II, the municipal offices, including the councilors, were auctioned to alleviate the need for money of the
Crown, even the offices could also be sold, which became hereditary,[193] so that the government of the cities went on to hands of
urban oligarchies.[194] In order to control the municipal life, the Crown ordered the appointment of corregidores and alcaldes
mayores to exert greater political control and judicial functions in minor districts.[195] Their functions were governing the
respective municipalities, administering of justice and being appellate judges in the alcaldes menores' judgments,[196] but only
the corregidor could preside over the cabildo.[197] However, both charges were also put up for sale freely since the late 16th
century.[198]</ref>

Most Spanish settlers came to the Indies as permanent residents, established families and businesses, and sought advancement in
the colonial system, such as membership of cabildos, so that they were in the hands of local, American-born (crillo) elites. During
the Bourbon era, even when the crown systematically appointed peninsular-born Spaniards to royal posts rather than American-
born, the cabildos remained in the hands of local elites.[199]

Frontier institutions – presidio and mission

As the empire expanded into areas of less dense indigenous populations, the crown created a chain of presidios, military forts or
garrisons, that provided Spanish settlers protection from Indian attacks. In Mexico during the sixteenth-century Chichimec War
guarded the transit of silver from the mines of Zacatecas to Mexico City. As many as 60 salaried soldiers were garrisoned in
presidios.[200] Presidios had a resident commanders, who set up commercial enterprises of imported merchandise, selling it to
soldiers as well as Indian allies.[201]

The other frontier institution was the religious mission to convert the indigenous populations. Missions were established with
royal authority through the Patronato real. The Jesuits were effective missionaries in frontier areas until their expulsion from
Spain and its empire in 1767. The Franciscans took over some former Jesuit missions and continued the expansion of areas
incorporated into the empire. Although their primary focus was on religious conversion, missionaries served as "diplomatic
agents, peace emissaries to hostile tribes ... and they were also expected to hold the line against nomadic nonmissionary Indians
as well as other European powers."[202] On the frontier of empire, Indians
were seen as sin razón, ("without reason"); non-Indian populations were
described as gente de razón ("people of reason"), who could be mixed-race
castas or black and had greater social mobility in frontier regions.[203]

Ordering colonial society – social structure and

legal status
Codes regulated the status of individuals and groups in the empire in both
the civil and religious spheres, with Spaniards (peninsular- and American-
born) monopolizing positions of economic privilege and political power.
Royal law and Catholicism codified and maintained hierarchies of class The San Diego presidio in California
and race, while all were subjects of the crown and mandated to be
Catholic.[204] The crown took active steps to establish and maintain
Catholicism by evangelizing the pagan indigenous populations, as well as African slaves
not previously Christian, and incorporating them into Christendom. The Catholicism
remains the dominant religion in Spanish America. The crown also imposed restrictions
on emigration to the Americas, excluding Jews and crypto-Jews, Protestants, and
foreigners, using the Casa de Contratación to vet potential emigres and issue licenses to
travel.

A central question from the time of first Contact with indigenous populations was their
relationship to the crown and to Christianity. Once those issues were resolved
theologically, in practice the crown sought to protect its new vassals. It did so by dividing
peoples of the Americas into the República de Indios, the native populations, and the
República de Españoles. The República de Españoles was the entire Hispanic sector,
composed of Spaniards, but also Africans (enslaved and free), as well as mixed-race
castas.
Depiction of the casta
Within the República de Indios, men were explicitly excluded from ordination to the system in Mexico
Catholic priesthood and obligation for military service as well as the jurisdiction of the
Inquisition. Indians under colonial rule who lived in communities had crown protections,
but they were considered legal minors. Indian communities had protections of traditional lands by the creation of community
lands that could not be alienated, the fondo legal. They managed their own affairs internally through Indian town government
under the supervision of royal officials, the corregidores and alcaldes mayores. Although indigenous men were barred from
becoming priests, indigenous communities created religious confraternaties under priestly supervision, which functioned as burial
societies for their individual members, but also organized community celebrations for their patron saint. Blacks also had separate
confraternities, which likewise contributed to community formation and cohesion, reinforcing identity within a Christian
institution.[205]

After the fall of the Aztec and Inca empires, the rulers of the empires were replaced by the Spanish monarchy, while retaining
much of the hierarchical indigenous structures. The crown recognized noble status of elite Indians, giving them exemption from
the head-tax and the right to use the nobles title don and doña. Indigenous noblemen were a key group for the administration of
the Spanish Empire, since they served as intermediaries between crown officials and indigenous communities.[17][206] Indigenous
noblemen could serve on cabildos, ride horses, and carry firearms. The crown's recognition of indigenous elites as nobles meant
that these men were incorporated into colonial system with privileges separating them from Indian commoners. Indian noblemen
were thus crucial to the governance of the huge indigenous population. Through their continued loyalty to the crown, they
maintained their positions of power within their communities but also served as agents of colonial governance. The Spanish
 Empire's utilization of local elites to rule large populations that are ethnically distinct from
the rulers has long been practiced by earlier empires.[207]Indian caciques were crucial in
the early Spanish period, especially when the economy was still based on extracting
tribute and labor from commoner Indians who had rendered goods and service to their
overlords in the prehispanic period. Caciques mobilized their populations for
encomenderos and, later, repartimiento recipients chosen by the crown. The noblemen
became the officers of the cabildo in indigenous communities, regulating internal affairs,
as well as defending the communities’ rights in court. In Mexico, this was facilitated by
the 1599 establishment of the General Indian Court (Juzgado General de Indios), which
heard legal disputes in which indigenous communities and individuals were engaged. With
legal mechanisms for dispute-resolution, there were relatively few outbreaks of violence
and rebellion against crown rule. Eighteenth-century rebellions in long-peaceful areas of
Detail of a gallery of portraits Mexico, the Tzeltal Rebellion of 1712 and most spectacularly in Peru with the Tupac
of sovereigns in Peru, Amaru Rebellion (1780–81) saw indigenous noblemen leading uprisings against the
showing continuity from Inca Spanish state.
emperors to Spanish
monarchs. Published in In the República de Españoles, class and race hierarchies were codified in institutional
1744 by Jorge Juan and structures. Spaniards emigrating to The Indies were to be Old Christians of pure Christian
Antonio de Ulloa in Relación
heritage, with the crown excluding New Christians, converts from Judaism and their
del Viaje a la América
descendants, because of their suspect religious status. The crown established the
Meridional
Inquisition in Mexico and Peru in 1571, and later Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), to
guard Catholics from the influence of crypto-Jews, Protestants, and foreigners. Church
practices established and maintained racial hierarchies by recording baptism, marriage, and burial were kept separate registers for
different racial groups. Churches were also physically divided by race.[208]

Race mixture (mestizaje) was a fact of colonial society, with the three racial
groups, European whites (españoles), Africans (negros), and Indians (indios)
producing mixed-race offspring, or castas. There was a pyramid of racial status
with the apex being the small number of European white (españoles), a slightly
larger number of mixed-race castas, who, like the whites were mainly urban
dwelling, and the largest populations were Indians living in communities in the
countryside. Although Indians were classified as part of the Repúbica de Indios,
their offspring of unions with Españoles and Africans were castas. White-Indian
mixtures were more socially acceptable in the Hispanic sphere, with the
Auto de Fe in Toledo, Spain 1651.
possibility over generations of mixed-race offspring being classified as Español.
Civil officials oversaw the corporal
Any offspring with African ancestry could never remove the "stain" of their punishment of those convicted by the
racial heritage, since Africans were seen as "natural slaves." Eighteenth-century Inquisition in public ceremonies in
paintings depicted the sistema de castas in hierarchical order,[209] but there was Spain, Mexico City, and Lima.
some fluidity in the system rather than absolute rigidity.[210] Men of color began
to apply to the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, but in 1688 Bishop
Juan de Palafox y Mendoza attempted to prevent their entrance by drafting new regulations barring blacks and mulattoes. In small
Mexican parishes, dark complected priests served while their mixed-race heritage was left unacknowledged.[211] In 1776, the
crown attempted to prevent marriages between racially unequal partners by issuing the Royal Pragmatic on Marriage, taking
approval of marriages away from the couple and placing it in their parents' hands. The marriage between Luisa de Abrego, a free
black domestic servant from Seville and Miguel Rodríguez, a white Segovian conquistador in 1565 in St. Augustine (Spanish
Florida), is the first known and recorded Christian marriage anywhere in the continental United States.[212]
The criminal justice system in Spanish cities and towns meted out justice depending on the severity of the crime and the class,
race, age, health, and gender of the accused. Non-whites (blacks and mixed-race castas) were far more often and more severely
punished, while Indians, considered legal minors, were not expected to behave better and were more leniently punished. Royal
and municipal legislation attempted to control the behavior of black slaves, who were subject to a curfew, could not carry arms,
and were prohibited from running away from their masters. As the urban, white, lower-class (plebeian) population increased, they
too were increasingly subject to criminal arrest and punishment. Capital punishment was seldom employed, with the exception of
sodomy and recalcitrant prisoners of the Inquisition, whose deviation from Christian orthodoxy was considered extreme.
However, only the civil sphere could exercise capital punishment and prisoners were “relaxed,” that is, released to civil
authorities. Often criminals served sentences of hard labor in textile workshops (obrajes), presidio service on the frontier, and as
sailors on royal ships. Royal pardons to ordinary criminals were often accorded on the celebration of a royal marriage,
coronation, or birth.[213]

Elite Spanish men had access to special corporate protections (fueros) and had exemptions by virtue of their membership in a
particular group. One important privilege was their being judged by the court of their corporation. Members of the clergy held the
fuero eclesiástico were judged by ecclesiastical courts, whether the offense was civil or criminal. In the eighteenth century the
crown established a standing military and with it, special privileges (fuero militar). The privilege extended to the military was the
first fuero extended to the non-whites who served the crown. Indians had a form of corporate privilege through their membership
in indigenous communities. In central Mexico, the crown established a special Indian court (Juzgado General de Indios), and
legal fees, including access to lawyers, were funded by a special tax.[214] The crown extended the peninsular institution of the
merchant guild (consulado) first established in Spain, including Seville (1543), and later established in Mexico City and Peru.
Consulado membership was dominated by peninsular-born Spaniards, usually members of transatlantic commercial houses. The
consulados’ tribunals heard disputes over contracts, bankruptcy, shipping, insurance and the like and became a wealthy and
powerful economic institution and source of loans to the viceroyalties.[215] Transatlantic trade remained in the hands of
mercantile families based in Spain and the Indies. The men in the Indies were often younger relatives of the merchants in Spain,
who often married wealthy American-born women. American-born Spanish men (criollos) in general did not pursue commerce
but instead owned landed estates, entered the priesthood, or became a professional. Within elite families then peninsular-born
Spaniards and criollos were often kin.[216]

The regulation of the social system perpetuated the privileged status of wealthy elite white men against the vast indigenous
populations, and the smaller but still significant number of mixed-race castas. In the Bourbon era, for the first time there was a
distinction made between Iberian-born and American-born Spaniards, In the Habsburg era, in law and ordinary speech they were
grouped together without distinction. Increasingly American-born Spaniards developed a distinctly local focus, with peninsular-
born (peninsulares) Spaniards increasingly seen as outsiders and resented, but this was a development in the late colonial period.
Resentment against peninsulares was due to a deliberate change in crown policy, which systematically favored them over
American-born criollos for high positions in the civil and religious hierarchies.[217]This left criollos only the membership in a
city or town's cabildo. When the secularizing Bourbon monarchy pursued policies strengthening secular royal power over
religious power, it attacked the fuero eclesiástico, which for many members of the lower clergy was a significant privilege. Parish
priests who had functioned as royal officials as well as clerics in Indian towns lost their privileged position. At the same time the
crown established a standing army and promoted militias for the defense of empire, creating a new avenue of privilege for creole
men and for castas, but excluding indigenous men from conscription or voluntary service.

Royal economic policy, its failure, and reform

The Spanish Empire benefited from favorable factor endowments in its overseas possessions with their large, exploitable,
indigenous populations and rich mining areas.[218] Given that, the crown attempted to create and maintain a classic, closed
mercantile system, warding off competitors and keeping wealth within the empire. It failed for two hundred years under the
Habsburgs. In the eighteenth century the crown attempted to reverse course under the Bourbon monarchs. The crown's pursuit of
wars to maintain and expand territory, defend the Catholic faith and stamp out Protestantism, and beat back Ottoman Turkish
strength outstripped its ability to pay for it all, despite the huge production of
silver in Peru and Mexico. Most of that flow paid mercenary soldiers in the
European religious wars in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and into
foreign merchants’ hands to pay for the consumer goods manufactured in
northern Europe. Paradoxically the wealth of the Indies impoverished Spain and
enriched northern Europe.[219]

This was well recognized in Spain, with writers on political economy, the
arbitristas sending the crown lengthy analyses in the form of "memorials, of the
perceived problems and with proposed solutions.[220][221] According to these
Cerro de Potosí, discovered in 1545,
thinkers, "Royal expenditure must be regulated, the sale of office halted, the
the rich, sole source of silver from
growth of the church checked. The tax system must be overhauled, special Peru, worked by compulsory
concessions be made to agricultural laborers, rivers be made navigable and dry indigenous labor mit'a
lands irrigated. In this way alone could Castile's productivity increased, its
commerce restored, and its humiliating dependence on foreigners, on the Dutch
and the Genoese, be brought to an end."[222]

From the early days of the Caribbean and conquest era, the crown attempted to control trade between Spain and the Indies with
restrictive policies enforced by the House of Trade (est. 1503) in Seville. Shipping was through particular ports in Spain (Seville,
subsequently Cadiz), Spanish America (Veracruz, Acapulco, Havana, Cartagena de Indias, and Callao/Lima) and the Philippines
(Manila). Spanish settlers in the Indies in the very early period were few and Spain could supply sufficient goods to them. But as
the Aztec and Inca empires were conquered in the early sixteenth century and then large deposits of silver found in both Mexico
and Peru, the regions of those major empires, Spanish immigration increased and demand for goods rose far beyond Spain's
ability to supply it. Since Spain had little capital to invest in the expanding trade and no significant commercial group, bankers
and commercial houses in Genoa, Germany, The Netherlands, France, and England supplied both investment capital and goods in
a supposedly closed system. Even in the sixteenth century, Spain recognized that the idealized closed system did not function in
reality. Despite that the crown did not alter its restrictive structure or advocacy of fiscal prudence, despite the pleas of the
arbitristas, the Indies trade remained nominally in the hands of Spain, but in fact enriched the other European countries.

The crown established the system of treasure fleets (flota) to protect the conveyance of
silver to Seville (later Cadiz). Merchants in Seville conveyed consumer goods that were
registered and taxed by the House of Trade. were sent to the Indies were produced in other
European countries. Other European commercial interests came to dominate supply, with
Spanish merchant houses and their guilds (consulados) in Spain and the Indies acting as
mere middlemen, reaping profits a slice of the profits. However, those profits did not
promote Spanish economic development of a manufacturing sector, with its economy
continuing to be based on agriculture. The wealth of the Indies led to prosperity in
northern Europe, particularly The Netherlands and England, both Protestant. As Spain's
power weakened in the seventeenth century, England, The Netherlands, and the French
took advantage overseas by seizing islands in the Caribbean, which became bases for a
burgeoning contraband trade in Spanish America. Crown officials who were supposed to
Spanish galleon, the suppress contraband trade were quite often in cahoots with the foreigners, since it was a
mainstay of transatlantic and
source of personal enrichment. In Spain, the crown itself participated in collusion with
transpacific shipping,
foreign merchant houses, since they paid fines, "meant to establish a compensation to the
engraving by Albert Durer
state for losses through fraud." it became for merchant houses a calculated risk for doing
business; for the crown it gained income it would have lost otherwise. Foreigner
merchants were part of the supposed monopoly system of trade. The transfer of the House of Trade from Seville to Cadiz meant
even easier access of foreign merchant houses to the Spanish trade.[23]
The motor of the Spanish imperial economy that had a global impact was silver mining. The mines in Peru and Mexico were in
the hands of a few elite mining entrepreneurs, with access to capital and a stomach for the risk mining entailed. They operated
under a system of royal licensing, since the crown held the rights to subsoil wealth. Mining entrepreneurs assumed all the risk of
the enterprise, while the crown gained a 20% slice of the profits, the royal fifth (“Quinto”). Further adding to the crown's
revenues was mining was that it crown held a monopoly on the supply of mercury, used for separating pure silver from silver ore
in the patio process. The crown kept the price high, thereby depressing the volume of silver production.[223] Protecting its flow
from Mexico and Peru as it transited to ports for shipment to Spain resulted early on in a convoy system (the flota) sailing twice a
year. Its success can be judged by the fact that the silver fleet was captured only once, in 1628 by Dutch privateer Piet Hein. That
loss resulted in the bankruptcy of the Spanish crown and an extended period of economic depression in Spain.[224]

During the Bourbon era, economic reforms sought to reverse the pattern that left Spain
impoverished with no manufacturing sector and its colonies’ need for manufactured goods
supplied by other nations. It attempted to restructure to establish as closed trading system,
but it was hampered by the terms of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. The treaty ending the War
of the Spanish Succession with a victory for the Bourbon French candidate for the throne
had a provision for the British to legally trade by a license (asiento) African slaves to
Spanish America. The provision undermined the possibility of a revamped Spanish
monopoly system. The merchants also used the opportunity to engage in contraband trade
of their manufactured goods. Crown policy sought to make legal trade more appealing
than contraband by instituting free commerce (comercio libre) in 1778 whereby Spanish
American ports could trade with each other and they could trade with any port in Spain. It
was aimed at revamping a closed Spanish system and outflanking the increasingly
powerful British empire. Silver production revived in the eighteenth century, with Cover of the English
translation of the Asiento
production far surpassing the earlier output. The crown reducing the taxes on mercury,
contract signed by Britain
meaning that a greater volume of pure silver could be refined. Silver mining absorbed and Spain in 1713 as part of
most available capital in Mexico and Peru, and the crown emphasized the production of the Utrecht treaty that ended
precious metals that was sent to Spain. There was some economic development in the the War of Spanish
Indies to supply food, but a diversified economy did not emerge.[223] The impact of Succession. The contract
economic reforms of the Bourbon era is difficult to assess, since the Napoleonic invasion granted exclusive rights to
Britain to sell slaves in the
of Spain and the outbreak of the Spanish American wars of independence ended the
Spanish Indies.
Spanish Empire as a global power.

The Spanish Bourbons: Era of Reform (1700–1808)

With the 1700 death of the childless Charles II of Spain, the crown of Spain was contested in the War of the Spanish Succession.
Under the Treaties of Utrecht (11 April 1713) ending the war, the French prince of the House of Bourbon, Philippe of Anjou,
grandchild of Louis XIV of France, became the king Philip V. He retained the Spanish overseas empire in the Americas and the
Philippines. The settlement gave spoils to those who had backed a Habsburg for the Spanish monarchy, ceding European territory
of the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, Milan, and Sardinia to Austria; Sicily and parts of Milan to the Duchy of Savoy, and
Gibraltar and Menorca to the Kingdom of Great Britain. The treaty also granted the British the exclusive right to slave trading in
Spanish America for thirty years, the asiento, as well as licensed voyages to ports in Spanish colonial dominions, openings, for
both licit and illicit trade.[225]

Spain's economic and demographic recovery had begun slowly in the last decades of the Habsburg reign, as was evident from the
growth of its trading convoys and the much more rapid growth of illicit trade during the period. (This growth was slower than the
growth of illicit trade by northern rivals in the empire's markets.) However, this recovery was not then translated into institutional
improvement, rather the "proximate solutions to permanent problems."[226] This legacy of neglect was reflected in the early years
of Bourbon rule in which the military was ill-advisedly pitched into battle in the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718–1720).
 Following the war, the new Bourbon monarchy took a much more cautious approach to
international relations, relying on a family alliance with Bourbon France, and continuing
to follow a program of institutional renewal.

The crown program to enact reforms that promoted administrative control and efficiency
in the metropole to the detriment of interests in the colonies undermined creole elites'
loyalty to the crown. When French forces of Napoleon Bonaparte invaded the Iberian
peninsula in 1808, Napoleon ousted the Spanish Bourbon monarchy, placing his brother
Joseph Bonaparte on the Spanish throne. There was a crisis of legitimacy of crown rule in
Spanish America, leading to the Spanish American wars of independence (1808-1826)
saw virtually all of Spain's overseas empire gaining its independence.
Philip V of Spain (r. 1700-
1746), the first Spanish
monarch of the House of Bourbon reforms
Bourbon The Spanish Bourbons' broadest
intentions were to reorganize the
institutions of empire to better administer
it for the benefit of Spain and the crown. It sought to increase revenues and to
assert greater crown control, including over the Catholic Church. Centralization
of power was to be for the benefit of the crown and the metropole and for the
defense of its empire against foreign incursions.[157] From the viewpoint of
Spain, the structures of colonial rule under the Habsburgs were no longer Representation of the two powers,
functioning to the benefit of Spain, with much wealth being retained in Spanish church and state, symbolized by the
altar and the throne, with the
America and going to other European powers. The presence of other European
presence of the king Charles III and
powers in the Caribbean, with the English in Barbados (1627), St Kitts (1623-5),
the Pope Clement XIV, seconded by
and Jamaica (1655); the Dutch in Curaçao, and the French in Saint Domingue the Viceroy, Antonio Bucareli, and
(Haiti) (1697), Martinique, and Guadaloupe had broken the integrity of the the Archbishop of Mexico, Alonso
closed Spanish mercantile system and established thriving sugar Núñez de Haro, respectively, before
colonies.[227][56] the Virgin Mary. "Glorification of the
Immaculate Conception," Francisco
At the beginning of his reign, the first Spanish Bourbon, King Philip V, Antonio Vallejo, National Museum of
reorganized the government to strengthen the executive power of the monarch as Art (Mexico).

was done in France, in place of the deliberative, polysynodial system of

Councils.[228]

Philip's government set up a ministry of the Navy and the Indies (1714) and established commercial companies, the Honduras
Company (1714), a Caracas company, the Guipuzcoana Company (1728), and the most successful one, the Havana Company
(1740).

In 1717–1718, the structures for governing the Indies, the Consejo de Indias and the Casa de Contratación, which governed
investments in the cumbersome Spanish treasure fleets, were transferred from Seville to Cadiz, where foreign merchant houses
had easier access to the Indies trade.[229] Cadiz became the one port for all Indies trading (see flota system). Individual sailings at
regular intervals were slow to displace the traditional armed convoys, but by the 1760s there were regular ships plying the
Atlantic from Cadiz to Havana and Puerto Rico, and at longer intervals to the Río de la Plata, where an additional viceroyalty was
created in 1776. The contraband trade that was the lifeblood of the Habsburg empire declined in proportion to registered shipping
(a shipping registry having been established in 1735).
Two upheavals registered unease within Spanish America and at the same time demonstrated the renewed resiliency of the
reformed system: the Tupac Amaru uprising in Peru in 1780 and the rebellion of the comuneros of New Granada, both in part
reactions to tighter, more efficient control.

18th-century prosperity
The 18th century was a century of prosperity for the overseas Spanish Empire as
trade within grew steadily, particularly in the second half of the century, under
the Bourbon reforms. Spain's crucial victory in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias
against a massive British fleet and army in the Caribbean port of Cartagena de
Indias, one of a number of successful battles, helped Spain secure its dominance
of America until the 19th century.

That British Armada was the biggest ever gathered before the Normandy
landings which even exceeded in more than 60 ships Philip's II Great Armada.
San Felipe de Barajas Fortress
The British fleet formed by 195 ships, 32,000 soldiers and 3,000 artillery pieces
Cartagena de Indias. In 1741, the
was defeated by the Admiral Blas de Lezo. The Battle of Cartagena de Indias
Spanish defeated a British attack on
was one of the best Spanish victories against the unsuccessful British attempts to this fortress in present-day Colombia
take control of The Spanish Americas. There were many successful battles that in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias.
helped Spain secure its dominance of America until the 19th century.[230]

With a Bourbon monarchy came a repertory of Bourbon mercantilist ideas based on a centralized state, put into effect in America
slowly at first but with increasing momentum during the century. Shipping grew rapidly from the mid-1740s until the Seven
Years' War (1756–1763), reflecting in part the success of the Bourbons in bringing illicit trade under control. With the loosening
of trade controls after the Seven Years' War, shipping trade within the empire once again began to expand, reaching an
extraordinary rate of growth in the 1780s.

The end of Cadiz's monopoly of trade with America brought about a rebirth of Spanish manufactures. Most notable was the
rapidly growing textile industry of Catalonia which by the mid-1780s saw the first signs of industrialization. This saw the
emergence of a small, politically active commercial class in Barcelona. This isolated pocket of advanced economic development
stood in stark contrast to the relative backwardness of most of the country. Most of the improvements were in and around some
major coastal cities and the major islands such as Cuba, with its tobacco plantations, and a renewed growth of precious metals
mining in America.

On the other hand, most of rural Spain and its empire, where the great bulk of the population lived, lived in relatively backward
conditions by 18th-century West European standards, reinforced old customs and isolation. Agricultural productivity remained
low despite efforts to introduce new techniques to what was for the most part an uninterested, exploited peasant and labouring
groups. Governments were inconsistent in their policies. Though there were substantial improvements by the late 18th century,
Spain was still an economic backwater. Under the mercantile trading arrangements it had difficulty in providing the goods being
demanded by the strongly growing markets of its empire, and providing adequate outlets for the return trade.

From an opposing point of view according to the "backwardness" mentioned above the naturalist and explorer Alexander von
Humboldt traveled extensively throughout the Spanish Americas, exploring and describing it for the first time from a modern
scientific point of view between 1799 and 1804. In his work Political essay on the kingdom of New Spain containing researches
relative to the geography of Mexico he says that the Indians of New Spain lived in better conditions than any Russian or German
peasant in Europe.[231] According to Humboldt, despite the fact that Indian farmers were poor, under Spanish rule they were free
and slavery was non-existent, their conditions were much better than any other peasant or farmer in the advanced Northern
Europe.[232]
Humboldt also published a comparative analysis of bread and meat consumption in New Spain (México) compared to other cities
in Europe such as Paris. Mexico City consumed 189 pounds of meat per person per year, in comparison to 163 pounds consumed
by the inhabitants of Paris, the Mexicans also consumed almost the same amount of bread as any European city, with 363
kilograms of bread per person per year in comparison to the 377 kilograms consumed in Paris. Caracas consumed seven times
more meat per person than in Paris. Von Humboldt also said that the average income in that period was four times the European
income and also that the cities of New Spain were richer than many European cities.[231]

Scientific investigations and expeditions

The Spanish American Enlightenment produced a huge body of information on Spain's
overseas empire via scientific expeditions. The most famous traveler in Spanish America
was Prussian scientist Alexander von Humboldt, whose travel writings, especially
Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain,and scientific observations remain important
sources for the history of Spanish America. Humboldt's expedition was authorized by the
crown, but was self-funded from his personal fortune. The Bourbon crown promoted state-
funded scientific work prior to the famous Humboldt expedition. Eighteenth-century
clerics contributed to the expansion of scientific knowledge.[233] These include José
Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez,[234] and José Celestino Mutis.

The Spanish crown funded a number of important scientific expeditions: Botanical

Expedition to the Viceroyalty of Peru (1777–78); Royal Botanical Expedition to New
Portrait of Alexander von Granada (1783-1816);[235] the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain (1787-
Humboldt by Friedrich 1803);[236] which scholars are now examining afresh.[237] Although the crown funded a
Georg Weitsch, 1806 number of Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest to bolster claims to territory,
lengthy transatlantic and transpacific Malaspina-Bustamante Expedition was for scientific
purposes. The crown also funded the Balmis Expedition in 1804 to vaccinate colonial
populations against smallpox.

Much of the research done in the eighteenth century was never published or otherwise disseminated, in part due to budgetary
constraints on the crown. Starting in the late twentieth century, research on the history of science in Spain and the Spanish empire
has blossomed, with primary sources being published in scholarly editions or reissued, as well the publication of a considerable
number of important scholarly studies.[238]

Contesting with other empires

The Spanish empire had still not returned to first-rate power status, but it had recovered and even extended its territories
considerably from the dark days at the beginning of the eighteenth century when it was, particularly in continental matters, at the
mercy of other powers' political deals. The relatively more peaceful century under the new monarchy had allowed it to rebuild
and start the long process of modernizing its institutions and economy, and the demographic decline of the 17th century had been
reversed. It was a middle-ranking power with great power pretensions that could not be ignored. But time was to be against it.

Military recovery in Europe

Bourbon institutional reforms bore fruit militarily when Spanish forces easily retook Naples and Sicily from the Austrians in
1734 during the War of the Polish Succession, and during the War of Jenkins' Ear (1739–42) thwarted British efforts to seize the
strategic cities of Cartagena de Indias and Santiago de Cuba by defeating a massive British army and navy[g] led by Edward
Vernon, which ended Britain's ambitions in the Spanish Main. Moreover, though Spain was severely defeated during the invasion
of Portugal and lost some territories to British forces towards the end of the Seven Years' War (1756–63),[240] Spain promptly
recovered these losses and seized the British naval base in the Bahamas during the American Revolutionary War (1775–83).
Alliance with the Thirteen English Colonies
Spain contributed to the independence of the British Thirteen Colonies together with
France. The Spanish governor of Louisiana (New Spain) Bernardo de Gálvez carried
Spanish policies counter to Great Britain, which sought to take treasure and territory from
the Spanish. Spain and France were allies because of the Bourbon Pacte de Famille carried
out by both countries against Britain. Gálvez took measures against British smuggling in
the Caribbean sea and promoted trade with France. Under royal order from Charles III of
Spain Gálvez continued the aid operations to supply the American rebels.[241] The British
blockaded the colonial ports of the Thirteen Colonies, and the route from Spanish-
controlled New Orleans up to the Mississippi river was an effective alternative to supply
the American rebels. Spain actively supported the thirteen colonies throughout the
American Revolutionary War, beginning in 1776 by jointly funding Roderigue Hortalez
and Company, a trading company that provided critical military supplies, throughout A Spanish army captures
British Pensacola in 1781. In
financing the final Siege of Yorktown in 1781 with a collection of gold and silver from
1783 the Treaty of Paris
Havana.[239]
returned all of Florida to
Spain for the return of the
Spanish aid was supplied to the colonies via four main routes: (1)from French ports with
Bahamas.
the funding of Roderigue Hortalez and Company; (2)through the port of New Orleans and
up the Mississippi river; (3)from warehouses in Havana; and (4)from the northwestern
Spanish port of Bilbao, through the Gardoqui family trading company which supplied significant war materiel.[242]

Britain blockaded the thirteen colonies economically, so the American public

debt increased dramatically. Spain, through the Gardoqui family, sent 120,000
silver 8 real coin, known as a Spanish dollar, the coin upon which the original
United States dollar was based, and it remained legal tender in the United States
until the coinage act of 1857 (in fact the Spanish dollar or Carolus became the
first global currency in the 18th century).[243]

The American revolutionary army that won the Battles of Saratoga was equipped
and armed by Spain. Spain had the chance to recover territories lost to Britain in
the Seven Years' War, particularly Florida. Galvez gathered an army from all
Painting of Gálvez at the Siege of
corners of Spanish America, around 7,000 men. The Governor of Spanish Pensacola by Augusto Ferrer-
Louisiana prepared an offensive against the British at the Gulf Coast campaign Dalmau.
to control the lower Mississippi and Florida. Gálvez completed the conquest of
West Florida in 1781 with the successful Siege of Pensacola.[244]

Shortly thereafter, Gálvez conquered New Providence island in the Bahamas, aborting the last British resistance plan, which kept
the Spanish dominion over the Caribbean and accelerated the triumph of the American army. Jamaica was the last British
stronghold of importance in the Caribbean. Gálvez organized a landing on the island; however, the Peace of Paris (1783) was
concluded and the invasion cancelled.

Contestation in Brazil
The majority of the territory of today's Brazil had been claimed as Spanish when exploration began with the navigation of the
length of the Amazon River in 1541–42 by Francisco de Orellana. Many Spanish expeditions explored large parts of this vast
region, especially those close to Spanish settlements. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Spanish soldiers, missionaries and
adventurers also established pioneering communities, primarily in Paraná, Santa Catarina, and São Paulo, and forts on the
northeastern coast threatened by the French and Dutch.
As Portuguese-Brazilian settlement expanded, following in the trail of the
Bandeirantes exploits, these isolated Spanish groups were eventually integrated
into Brazilian society. Only some Castilians who were displaced from the
disputed areas of the Pampas of Rio Grande do Sul have left a significant
influence on the formation of the gaucho, when they mixed with Indian groups,
Portuguese and blacks who arrived in the region during the 18th century. The
Spanish were barred by their laws from slaving of indigenous people, leaving
them without a commercial interest deep in the interior of the Amazon basin.
The Laws of Burgos (1512) and the New Laws (1542) had been intended to
protect the interests of indigenous people. The Portuguese-Brazilian slavers, the
Bandeirantes, had the advantage of access from the mouth of the Amazon River,
which was on the Portuguese side of the line of Tordesillas. One famous attack
upon a Spanish mission in 1628 resulted in the enslavement of about 60,000
Spanish and Portuguese empires in
indigenous people.[h]
1790.
In time, there was in effect a self-funding force of occupation. By the 18th
century, much of the Spanish territory was under de facto control of Portuguese-
Brazil. This reality was recognized with the legal transfer of sovereignty in 1750 of most of the Amazon basin and surrounding
areas to Portugal in the Treaty of Madrid. This settlement sowed the seeds of the Guaraní War in 1756.

Rival empires in the Pacific Northwest

Spain claimed all of North America in the Age of
Discovery, but claims were not translated into occupation
until a major resource was discovered and Spanish
settlement and crown rule put in place. The French had
established an empire in northern North America and took
some islands in the Caribbean. The English established
colonies on the eastern seaboard of North America and in
northern North America and some Caribbean islands as
well. In the eighteenth century, the Spanish crown realized
that its territorial claims needed to be defended, particularly
in the wake of its visible weakness during the Seven Years'
War when Britain captured the important Spanish ports of
Havana and Manila. Another important factor was that the
Russian empire had expanded into North America from the
mid-eighteenth century, with fur trading settlements in what Spanish territorial claims on the West Coast of North
America in the 18th century, contested by the Russian
is now Alaska and forts as far south as Fort Ross,
empire and the British
California. Great Britain was also expanding into areas that
Spain claimed as its territory on the Pacific coast. Taking
steps to shore up its fragile claims to California, Spain began planning California missions in 1769. Spain also began a series of
voyages to the Pacific Northwest, where Russia and Great Britain were encroaching on claimed territory. The Spanish expeditions
to the Pacific Northwest, with Alessandro Malaspina and others sailing for Spain, came too late for Spain to assert its sovereignty
in the Pacific Northwest.[245] The Nootka Crisis (1789–1791) nearly brought Spain and Britain to war. It was a dispute over
claims in the Pacific Northwest, where neither nation had established permanent settlements. The crisis could have led to war, but
it was resolved in the Nootka Convention, in which Spain and Great Britain agreed to not establish settlements and allowed free
access to Nootka Sound on the west coast of what is now Vancouver Island. In 1806 Baron Nikolai Rezanov attempted to
negotiate a treaty between the Russian-American Company and the Viceroyalty of New Spain, but his unexpected death in 1807
ended any treaty hopes. Spain gave up its claims in the West of North America in the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, ceding its
rights there to the United States, allowing the U.S. to purchase Florida, and establishing a boundary New Spain and the U.S.
When the negotiations between the two nations were taking place, Spain's resources were stretched due to the Spanish American
wars of independence.[246]

Loss of Spanish Louisiana

The growth of trade and wealth in the colonies caused increasing
political tensions as frustration grew with the improving but still
restrictive trade with Spain. Malaspina's recommendation to turn
the empire into a looser confederation to help improve
governance and trade so as to quell the growing political tensions
between the élites of the empire's periphery and center was
suppressed by a monarchy afraid of losing control. All was to be
swept away by the tumult that was to overtake Europe at the turn
Spanish Empire in 1790. In North America, Spain
of the 19th century with the French Revolutionary and
claimed lands west of the Mississippi River and the
Napoleonic Wars.
Pacific coast from California to Alaska, but it did
not control them on the ground. The crown
The first major territory Spain was to lose in the 19th century was
constructed missions and presidios in coastal
the vast and wild Louisiana Territory, which stretched north to
California and sent maritime expeditions to the
Canada and was ceded by France in 1763 under the terms of the Pacific Northwest to assert sovereignty.
Treaty of Fontainebleau. The French, under Napoleon, took back
possession as part of the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800 and sold
it to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Napoleon's sale of the Louisiana Territory to the United States in 1803
caused border disputes between the United States and Spain that, with rebellions in West Florida (1810) and in the remainder of
Louisiana at the mouth of the Mississippi, led to their eventual cession to the United States,

Other challenges to the Spanish Empire

The destruction of the main Spanish fleet, under French command, at the Battle
of Trafalgar (1805) undermined Spain's ability to defend and hold on to its
empire. The British invasions of the Río de la Plata attempted to seize the
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1806. The viceroy retreated hastily to the
hills when defeated by a small British force. However, the Criollos' militias and
colonial army eventually repulsed the British. The later intrusion of Napoleonic
Churruca's Death, oil on canvas
forces into Spain in 1808 (see Peninsular War) cut off the effective connection
about the Battle of Trafalgar by
with the empire. A combination of internal and external factors led to the
Eugenio Álvarez Dumont, Prado
unforeseen loss of most of Spain's empire in the Indies in the Spanish American Museum.
wars of independence.

End of the global empire (1808–1899)

In 1808, Napoleon forces invaded the Iberian peninsula, resulting in the evacuation of the Portuguese royal family to Brazil and
the abdication of the Spanish King. Napoleon placed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, on the Spanish throne, provoking an uprising
from the Spanish people, the Peninsular War, a grinding guerrilla war that Napoleon dubbed his "ulcer". The war was famously
depicted by the painter Goya). The French invasion also sparked in many places in Spanish America a crisis of legitimacy of
crown rule and movements that resulted in political independence. In Spain, political uncertainty lasted over a decade and turmoil
for several decades, civil wars on succession disputes, a republic, and finally a liberal democracy. Resistance coalesced around
juntas, emergency ad-hoc governments. A Supreme Central and
Governing Junta of the Kingdom, ruling in the name of
Ferdinand VII, was created on 25 September 1808 to coordinate
efforts among the various juntas.

Spanish American independence (1810 -

1833)
The idea of a separate identity for Spanish America has been
developed in the modern historical literature,[247] but the idea of
complete Spanish American independence from the Spanish
Empire was not general at the time and political independence
was not inevitable. Historian Brian Hamnett argues that had the
Spanish monarchy and Spanish liberals been more flexible
regarding the place of the overseas possessions, that the empire
would not have collapsed.[248]Juntas emerged in Spanish
America as Spain faced a political crisis due to the invasion by
Napoleon Bonaparte and abdication of Ferdinand VII. Spanish
Americans reacted in much the same way the Peninsular Spanish
did, legitimizing their actions through traditional law, which held The Americas towards the year 1800, the colored
that sovereignty reverted to the people in the absence of a territories were considered provinces in some
maps of the Spanish Empire.
legitimate king.

The majority of Spanish Americans continued to support the idea

of maintaining a monarchy, but did not support retaining absolute monarchy
under Ferdinand VII.[249] Spanish Americans wanted self-government. The
juntas in the Americas did not accept the governments of the Europeans –
neither the government set up for Spain by the French nor the various Spanish
Governments set up in response to the French invasion. The juntas did not accept
the Spanish regency, isolated under siege in the city of Cadiz (1810–1812). They
also rejected the Spanish Constitution of 1812 although the Constitution gave
Spanish citizenship those in the territories that had belonged to the Spanish
monarchy in both hemispheres.[250] The liberal Spanish Constitution of 1812 The Second of May 1808: The
recognized indigenous peoples of the Americas as Spanish citizens. But the Charge of the Mamelukes, by
acquisition of citizenship for any casta of Afro-American peoples of the Francisco de Goya (1814) showing
Americas was through naturalization – excluding slaves. Spanish resistance to French troops
in Madrid
A long period of wars followed in America from 1809 to 1829. In end South
America this period of wars led to the independence of Argentina (1813),
Paraguay (1813) and Uruguay (1815, but subsequently ruled by Brazil until
1828). José de San Martín campaigned for independence in Chile (1818) and in
Peru (1821). Further north, Simón Bolívar led forces that won independence
between 1811 and 1825 for the area that became Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador,
Perú and Bolivia (then Alto Perú). Panama declared independence in 1821 and
merged with the Republic of Gran Colombia (from 1821 to 1903).

The Reconquista of Buenos Aires

In the Viceroyalty of New Spain, free-thinking secular priest, Miguel Hidalgo y
Costilla, declared Mexican freedom in 1810 in the Grito de Dolores.
Independence was actually won in 1821 by a royalist army officer turned
independentist, Agustín de Iturbide, in alliance with insurgent Vicente Guerrero
and under the Plan of Iguala. The conservative Catholic hierarchy in New Spain
supported Mexican independence largely because it found the liberal Spanish
Constitution of 1812 abhorrent. Central America provinces became independent
via Mexico's independence in 1821 and joined Mexico for a brief time (1822–
The Battle of Ayacucho, 9 December
23), but they chose their own path when Mexico became a republic in 1824. 1824. The defeat of the Spanish
army at Ayacucho in Peru signaled
The Spanish coastal fortifications in Veracruz, Callao and Chiloé were the the end of Spain's empire in South
footholds that resisted until 1825 and 1826 respectively. In Spanish America, America.
Royalist guerrillas continued the war in several countries, and Spain launched
attempts to retake Venezuela in 1827 and Mexico in 1829. Spain finally
abandoned all plans of military re-conquest at the death of King Ferdinand VII in 1833. Finally the spanish government went so
far as to renounce sovereignty over all of continental America in 1836.

Loss of Overseas Islands (1861-1899)

Santo Domingo likewise declared independence in 1821 and began negotiating for inclusion in Bolivar's Republic of Gran
Colombia, but was quickly occupied by Haiti, which ruled it until an 1844 revolution. After 17 years of independence, in 1861,
Santo Domingo was again made a colony due to Haitian aggression, yet by 1865 Santo Domingo again declared independence,
making it the only territory that Spain retook.

After 1865, only Cuba and Puerto Rico and the Philippines, Guam and nearby Pacific islands remained under Spanish control in
the Indies. The Cuban war for independence was cut short by U.S. intervention in what became known as the Spanish–American
War in 1898. Spain also lost Puerto Rico and the Philippines in that conflict.[251] The following year, Spain then sold its
remaining Pacific Ocean possessions to Germany, retaining only its African territories.

Spain in the post-Napoleonic era was in political crisis, with the

French invasion and restoration of the Spanish monarchy under
the autocratic Ferdinand VII having broken apart any traditional
consensus on sovereignty, fragmented the country politically and
regionally and unleashed wars and disputes between
progressives, liberals and conservatives. The instability inhibited
Spain's development, which had started fitfully gathering pace in
the eighteenth century. A brief period of improvement occurred The Spanish Empire in 1898
in the 1870s when the capable Alfonso XII of Spain and his
thoughtful ministers succeeded in restoring some vigor to
Spanish politics and prestige, cut short by Alfonso's early death.

An increasing level of nationalist, anti-colonial uprisings in various colonies culminated with the Spanish–American War of 1898,
fought primarily over Cuba. Military defeat was followed by the independence of Cuba and the cession of Puerto Rico, Guam,
and the Philippines to the United States, receiving US$20 million in compensation for the Philippines .[251] On 2 June 1899, the
second expeditionary battalion Cazadores of Philippines the last Spanish garrison in the Philippines, which had been besieged in
Baler, Aurora at war end, was pulled out, effectively ending around 300 years of Spanish hegemony in the archipelago.[252]

Territories in Africa (1885–1975)

By the end of the 17th century, only Melilla, Alhucemas, Peñón de Vélez
de la Gomera (which had been taken again in 1564), Ceuta (part of the
Portuguese Empire since 1415, has chosen to retain its links to Spain once
the Iberian Union ended; the formal allegiance of Ceuta to Spain was
recognized by the Treaty of Lisbon in 1668), Oran and Mazalquivir
remained as Spanish territory in Africa. The latter cities were lost in 1708,
reconquered in 1732 and sold by Charles IV in 1792.

In 1778, Fernando Poo Island (now Bioko), adjacent islets, and

commercial rights to the mainland between the Niger and Ogooué Rivers A map of Equatorial Guinea
were ceded to Spain by the Portuguese in exchange for territory in South
America (Treaty of El Pardo). In the 19th century, some Spanish explorers
and missionaries would cross this zone, among them Manuel Iradier.

In 1848, Spanish troops conquered the Islas Chafarinas.

In 1860, after the Tetuan War, Morocco ceded Sidi Ifni to Spain as a part of the
Treaty of Tangiers, on the basis of the old outpost of Santa Cruz de la Mar
Pequeña, thought to be Sidi Ifni. The following decades of Franco-Spanish
collaboration resulted in the establishment and extension of Spanish
protectorates south of the city, and Spanish influence obtained international
recognition in the Berlin Conference of 1884: Spain administered Sidi Ifni and
Western Sahara jointly. Spain claimed a protectorate over the coast of Guinea
from Cape Bojador to Cap Blanc, too. Río Muni became a protectorate in 1885
and a colony in 1900. Conflicting claims to the Guinea mainland were settled in
1900 by the Treaty of Paris.

Following a brief war in 1893, Spain expanded its influence south from Melilla.

In 1911, Morocco was divided between the French and Spanish. The Rif Berbers
The Earl of Reus at the Battle of rebelled, led by Abdelkrim, a former officer for the Spanish administration. The
Tétouan
Battle of Annual (1921) during the Rif War was a sudden, grave, and almost fatal
military defeat suffered by the Spanish army against Moroccan insurgents. A
leading Spanish politician emphatically declared: "We are at the most acute period of Spanish decadence".[253] After the disaster
of Annual, the Alhucemas landing took place in September 1925 at the bay of Alhucemas. The Spanish Army and Navy with a
small collaboration of an allied French contingent put an end to the Rif War. It is considered the first successful amphibious
landing in history supported by seaborne air power and tanks.[254]

In 1923, Tangier was declared an international city under French, Spanish, British, and later Italian joint administration.

In 1926 Bioko and Rio Muni were united as the colony of Spanish Guinea, a
status that would last until 1959. In 1931, following the fall of the monarchy, the
African colonies became part of the Second Spanish Republic. In 1934, during
the government of Prime Minister Alejandro Lerroux, Spanish troops led by
General Osvaldo Capaz landed in Sidi Ifni and carried out the occupation of the
territory, ceded de jure by Morocco in 1860. Five years later, Francisco Franco, a
general of the Army of Africa, rebelled against the republican government and
started the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). During the Second World War the Spanish officers in Africa in 1920
Vichy French presence in Tangier was overcome by that of Francoist Spain.
Spain lacked the wealth and the interest to develop an extensive economic infrastructure in its African colonies during the first
half of the 20th century. However, through a paternalistic system, particularly on Bioko Island, Spain developed large cocoa
plantations for which thousands of Nigerian workers were imported as laborers.

In 1956, when French Morocco became independent, Spain surrendered

Spanish Morocco to the new nation, but retained control of Sidi Ifni, the
Tarfaya region and Spanish Sahara. Moroccan Sultan (later King)
Mohammed V was interested in these territories and invaded Spanish Sahara
in 1957, in the Ifni War, or in Spain, the Forgotten War (la Guerra
Olvidada). In 1958, Spain ceded Tarfaya to Mohammed V and joined the
previously separate districts of Saguia el-Hamra (in the north) and Río de
Oro (in the south) to form the province of Spanish Sahara.

In 1959, the Spanish territory on the Gulf of Guinea was established with a
status similar to the provinces of metropolitan Spain. As the Spanish
Equatorial Region, it was ruled by a governor general exercising military and
Morocco and Spanish territories civilian powers. The first local elections were held in 1959, and the first
Equatoguinean representatives were seated in the Spanish parliament. Under
the Basic Law of December 1963, limited autonomy was authorized under a
joint legislative body for the territory's two provinces. The name of the country was changed to 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 endured until the 1975 Green March prompted a withdrawal, under Moroccan military pressure. The future of this former
Spanish colony remains uncertain.

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

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

Legacy
Although the Spanish Empire declined from its apogee in the middle seventeenth
century, it remained a wonder for other Europeans for its sheer geographical
span. Writing in 1738, English poet Samuel Johnson questioned, "Has heaven
reserved, in pity to the poor,/No pathless waste or undiscovered shore,/No secret
island in the boundless main,/No peaceful desert yet unclaimed by Spain?"[255]

The Spanish Empire left a huge linguistic, religious, political, cultural, and urban
architectural legacy in the Western Hemisphere. With over 470 million native
speakers today, Spanish is the second most spoken native language in the world, The Cathedral of Lima is a legacy of
as result of the introduction of the language of Castile—Castilian, "Castellano" the Spanish settlement in that city.
—from Iberia to Spanish America, later expanded by the governments of
successor independent republics. In the Philippines, the Spanish–American War
(1898) brought the islands under U.S. jurisdiction, with English being imposed in schools and Spanish becoming a secondary
official language.
 An important cultural legacy of the Spanish empire overseas is Roman
Catholicism, which remains the main religious faith in Spanish America and the
Philippines. Christian evangelization of indigenous peoples was a key
responsibility of the crown and a justification for its imperial expansion.
Although indigenous were considered neophytes and insufficiently mature in
their faith for indigenous men to be ordained to the priesthood, the indigenous
were part of the Catholic community of faith. Catholic orthodoxy enforced by
the Inquisition, particularly targeting crypto-Jews and Protestants. Not until after
The Cathedral of Mexico City is the
their independence in the nineteenth century did Spanish American republics
largest cathedral in Spanish America,
allow religious toleration of other faiths. Observances of Catholic holidays often
built on the ruins of the Aztec central
plaza. have strong regional expressions and remain important in many parts of Spanish
America. Observances include Day of the Dead, Carnival, Holy Week, Corpus
Christi, Epiphany, and national saints' days, such as the Virgin of Guadalupe in
Mexico.

Politically, the colonial era has strongly influenced modern Spanish America. The territorial divisions of the empire in Spanish
America became the basis for boundaries between new republics after independence and for state divisions within countries. With
no colonial precedent for democracy or a legislative branch of government, the executive power is stronger than legislative
power. The idea that government should benefit those at the top and that public office is a source of enrichment for officeholders
is a legacy of the colonial era.[256]

Hundreds of towns and cities in the Americas were founded during the Spanish rule, with the colonial centers and buildings of
many of them now designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites attracting tourists. The tangible heritage includes universities,
forts, cities, cathedrals, schools, hospitals, missions, government buildings and colonial residences, many of which still stand
today. A number of present-day roads, canals, ports or bridges sit where Spanish engineers built them centuries ago. The oldest
universities in the Americas were founded by Spanish scholars and Catholic missionaries. The Spanish Empire also left a vast
cultural and linguistic legacy. The cultural legacy is also present in the music, cuisine, and fashion, some of which have been
granted the status of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The long colonial period in Spanish America resulted in a mixing of indigenous peoples, Europeans, and Africans that were
classified by race and hierarchically ranked, favoring white Europeans.

In concert with the Portuguese Empire, the Spanish Empire laid the foundations of a truly global trade by opening up the great
trans-oceanic trade routes and the exploration of unknown territories and oceans for the western knowledge. The Spanish Dollar
became the world's first global currency.

One of the features of this trade was the exchange of a great array of domesticated plants and animals between the Old World and
the New in the Columbian Exchange. Some cultivars that were introduced to America included grapes, wheat, barley, apples and
citrous fruits; animals that were introduced to the New World were horses, donkeys, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens. The
Old World received from America such things as maize, potatoes, chili peppers, tomatoes, tobacco, beans, squash, cacao
(chocolate), vanilla, avocados, pineapples, chewing gum, rubber, peanuts, cashews, Brazil nuts, pecans, blueberries, strawberries,
quinoa, amaranth, chia, agave and others. The result of these exchanges was to significantly improve the agricultural potential of
not only in America, but also that of Europe and Asia. Diseases brought by Europeans and Africans, such as smallpox, measles,
typhus, and others, devastated indigenous populations that had no immunity, with syphilis the exchange from the New World to
Old.

There were also cultural influences, which can be seen in everything from architecture to food, music, art and law, from Southern
Argentina and Chile to the United States of America together with the Philippines. The complex origins and contacts of different
peoples resulted in cultural influences coming together in the varied forms so evident today in the former colonial areas.
 See also
King of Spain
Viceroys of New Spain
Governor-General of the
Philippines
Viceroys of Peru
Viceroys of Río de la Plata
Viceroys of New Granada
Spain
New Spain Detail of a Mural by Diego Rivera at
Las Islas Filipinas the National Palace of Mexico
A painting showing a
showing the ethnic differences
Spanish man with a Viceroyalty of Peru
between Agustín de Iturbide, a
Native American wife Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata
criollo, and the multiracial Mexican
and their child. Mixed- Viceroyalty of New Granada
court
race European Spanish West Indies
Amerindians were Spanish East Indies
referred to as Mestizos. Spanish North Africa
Spanish West Africa
Colonialism
Creole nationalism
Historiography of Colonial Spanish
America
History of Spain
History of the Americas
Spain in the 17th century
Spain in the 18th century
Spanish Colonial architecture
Bourbon Reforms
Spanish colonization of the
Americas
Spanish conquest of the Aztec
empire
Spanish conquest of Peru
Spanish American wars of
independence
Spanish–American War
List of countries that gained
independence from Spain

References

Notes
a. ... In August, the Duke besieged Ceuta [The city was simultaneously besieged by the moors and a Castilian army
led by the Duke of Medina Sidónia] and took the whole city except the citadel, but with the arrival of Afonso V in
the same fleet which led him to France, he preferred to leave the square. As a consequence, this was the end of
the attempted settlement of Gibraltar by converts from Judaism ... which D. Enrique de Guzmán had allowed in
1474, since he blamed them for the disaster. See Ladero Quesada, Miguel Ángel (2000), "Portugueses en la
frontera de Granada (http://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/ELEM/article/view/ELEM0000110067A/22548)" in En la
España Medieval, vol. 23 (in Spanish), p. 98, ISSN 0214-3038 (https://www.worldcat.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:
0214-3038).
 b. A dominated Ceuta by the Castilians would certainly have forced a share of the right to conquer the Kingdom of
Fez (Morocco) between Portugal and Castile instead of the Portuguese monopoly recognized by the treaty of
Alcáçovas. See Coca Castañer (2004), "El papel de Granada en las relaciones castellano-portuguesas (1369–
1492) (http://e-spacio.uned.es/fez/eserv.php?pid=bibliuned:ETF894AF4FD-4B92-850E-ABF9-089C09ED6A76&d
sID=Documento.pdf)", in Espacio, tiempo y forma (in Spanish), Serie III, Historia Medieval, tome 17, p. 350: ... In
that summer, D. Enrique de Guzmán crossed the Strait with five thousand men to conquer Ceuta, managing to
occupy part of the urban area on the first thrust, but knowing that the Portuguese King was coming with
reinforcements to the besieged [Portuguese], he decided to withdraw ...
c. A Castilian fleet attacked the Praia's Bay in Terceira Island but the landing forces were decimated by a
Portuguese counter-attack because the rowers panicked and fled with the boats. See chronicler Frutuoso,
Gaspar (1963)- Saudades da Terra (https://books.google.com/books?id=Aqs4AAAAMAAJ&q=%22tamb%C3%A9
m+os+que+pela+terra+fugiam+se+deitavam+ao+mar,+onde+alguns+morriam+afogados,+e+outros+foram+mort
os+%C3%A0+borda+de+%C3%A1gua%22&dq=%22tamb%C3%A9m+os+que+pela+terra+fugiam+se+deitavam
+ao+mar,+onde+alguns+morriam+afogados,+e+outros+foram+mortos+%C3%A0+borda+de+%C3%A1gua%22&
sa=X&ei=wCqqUZ23CZKThQeXioGoDQ&redir_esc=y) (in Portuguese), Edição do Instituto Cultural de Ponta
Delgada, volume 6, chapter I, p. 10 (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22tamb%C3%A9m+os+que+pela+terra
+fugiam+se+deitavam+ao+mar%2C+onde+alguns+morriam+afogados%2C+e+outros+foram+mortos+%C3%A0
+borda+de+%C3%A1gua%22&btnG=Pesquisar+livros&tbm=bks&tbo=1). See also Cordeiro, António (1717)-
Historia Insulana (https://books.google.com/books?id=bM9TAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA257&dq=%22der%C3%A3o+nell
e+com+tal+furia+que,+ou+feridos+ou+affogados,+nenhum+ficou+com+vida%22&sa=X&ei=Qi6qUbKVJJC3hAfry
oGQDA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22der%C3%A3o%20nelle%20com%20tal%20furia%20que%2C%20ou%
20feridos%20ou%20affogados%2C%20nenhum%20ficou%20com%20vida%22&f=false) (in Portuguese), Book
VI, Chapter VI, p. 257 (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22der%C3%A3o+nelle+com+tal+furia+que%2C+ou+f
eridos+ou+affogados%2C+nenhum+ficou+com+vida%22&btnG=Pesquisar+livros&tbm=bks&tbo=1)
d. This attack happened during the Castilian war of Succession. See Leite, José Guilherme Reis- Inventário do
Património Imóvel dos Açores Breve esboço sobre a História da Praia (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22foi
+atacada+pelos+castelhanos%2C+ent%C3%A3o+em+guerra+aberta+com+os+portugueses%22&tbm=bks&tbo
=1) (in Portuguese).
e. This was a decisive battle because after it, in spite of the Catholic Monarchs' attempts, they were unable to send
new fleets to Guinea, Canary or to any part of the Portuguese empire until the end of the war. The Perfect Prince
sent an order to drown any Castilian crew captured in Guinea waters. Even the Castilian navies which left to
Guinea before the signature of the peace treaty had to pay the tax ("quinto") to the Portuguese crown when
returned to Castile after the peace treaty. Isabella had to ask permission to Afonso V so that this tax could be
paid in Castilian harbors. Naturally all this caused a grudge against the Catholic Monarchs in Andalusia.
f. Paul Kennedy points out that the very reliance on such a narrow tax base was a major problem for Spanish
finances in the long term. See Kennedy 2017, p. 65.
g. This was the largest amphibious attack until the Invasion of Normandy in 1944.[239]
h. An early bandeira in 1628, (led by Antônio Raposo Tavares), composed of 2,000 allied Indians, 900 Mamluks
(Mestizos) and 69 white Paulistanos, to find precious metals and stones and/or to capture Indians for slavery.
This expedition alone was responsible for the destruction of most of the Jesuit missions of Spanish Guairá and
the enslavement of 60,000 indigenous people. In response the missions that followed were heavily fortified.

Citations
1. Fernández Álvarez, Manuel (1979). España y los españoles en los tiempos modernos (in Spanish). University of
Salamanca. p. 128.
2. Gibson 1966, p. 91; Lockhart & Schwartz 1983, p. 19.
 3. Phillips Jr, William D.; Rahn Phillips, Carla (2016). "Spain as the first global empire" (https://www.cambridge.org/c
ore/books/concise-history-of-spain/spain-as-the-first-global-empire/F7B8F313785D9617BA12636F41696996#).
A Concise History of Spain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 176–272.
doi:10.1017/CBO9781316271940.006 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2FCBO9781316271940.006).
ISBN 9781316271940.

Powell, Philip Wayne ([1991?]). Árbol de odio: la leyenda negra y sus consecuencias en las relaciones entre
Estados Unidos y el mundo hispánico. Ediciones Iris de Paz. ISBN 9788440488855. OCLC 55157841
4. Page, Melvin Eugene; Sonnenburg, Penny M. (2003). Colonialism: An International, Social, Cultural, and Political
Encyclopedia (https://books.google.com/?id=qFTHBoRvQbsC&q=first+global#v=snippet&q=first%20global&f=fals
e). ABC-CLIO. p. 481. ISBN 9781576073353. Retrieved 5 October 2018.

Brockey, Liam Matthew (2008). Portuguese Colonial Cities in the Early Modern World (https://books.google.c
om/?id=gIlT0Uhaq_oC&q=global+empire#v=snippet&q=global%20empire&f=false). Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
p. xv. ISBN 9780754663133. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
Juang, Richard M.; Morrissette, Noelle (2008). Africa and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History : a
Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia (https://books.google.com/?id=wFrAOqfhuGYC&q=first+global+empire#v=snip
pet&q=first%20global%20empire&f=false). ABC-CLIO. p. 894. ISBN 9781851094417. Retrieved 5 October
2018.
5. "Extension" (http://pares.mcu.es/Bicentenarios/portal/en/extension.html). pares.mcu.es. 4 December 2015.
Retrieved 12 June 2018.
6. Cropsey, Seth (29 August 2017). Seablindness: How Political Neglect Is Choking American Seapower and What
to Do About It (https://books.google.com/?id=2S-dDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT13&lpg=PT13&dq=fray+francisco+de+ugal
de+imperio#v=onepage&q=fray%20francisco%20de%20ugalde%20imperio&f=false). Encounter Books.
ISBN 9781594039164.
7. Gibson 1966, p. 90–91.
8. Tracy, James D. (1993). The Rise of Merchant Empires: Long-Distance Trade in the Early Modern World, 1350–
1750 (https://books.google.com/?id=heEdZziizrUC&lpg=PA35&dq=&pg=PA35#v=onepage&q=&f=false).
Cambridge University Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-521-45735-4.
9. Lynch 1989, p. 21.
10. Schwaller, John F., "Patronato Real" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol 4, p. 323–
324
11. Mecham 1966, p. 4–6; Haring 1947, p. 181–182.
12. Gibson 1966, p. 4.
13. Ruiz Martín 1996, p. 473.
14. Ruiz Martín 1996, p. 465.
15. Elliott 1977, p. 270.
16. Cohen, Thomas M. "Portugal, Restoration of 1640" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996,
vol. 4, p. 450–451
17. Gibson 1964.
18. Spalding, Karen (November 1973). "Kurakas and Commerce: A Chapter in the Evolution of Andean Society".
Hispanic American Historical Review. 53 (4): 581–599.
19. Burkholder, Mark A. "Council of the Indies" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol. 2, p.
293.
20. Naimark, Norman (2016). Genocide: A World History. p. 35.
21. Cook, Noble David (1998). Born To Die: disease and new world conquest, 1492-1650. Cambridge University
Press. pp. 1–14.

The First Horseman: Disease in Human History; John Aberth; Pearson-Prentice Hall (2007); pp. 47–75(51)
22. The Spanish Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia [2 volumes]: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. 2016. p. 221.
ISBN 978-1610694223.
23. Lynch 1989, pp. 10–11.
24. Elliott 1989, p. 24-25.
25. Lynch, John. "Spanish American Independence" in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Latin America and the
Caribbean 2nd edition. New York: Cambridge University Press 1992, p. 218.
26. Bethany, Aram (2006). "Monarchs of Spain". Iberia and the Americas: culture, politics, and history. Santa
Barbara: ABC Clio. p. 725.
27. Dutra, Francis A. "Portuguese Empire" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol. 4, p. 451
28. Burkholder, Mark A. "Spanish Empire" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol. 5, p. 167
29. Ring, Trudy (2014). Middle East and Africa: International Dictionary of Historic Places. Routledge. p. 558.
30. Black, Jeremy. European Warfare in a Global Context, 1660–1815. Routledge. p. 24.
31. Edwards 2000, pp. 282–88.
32. Edwards 2000, p. 248.
33. Castañeda Delgado, Paulino (1996). "La Santa Sede ante las empresas marítimas ibéricas" (https://web.archive.
org/web/20110927135626/http://www.bibliojuridica.org/libros/2/725/14.pdf) (PDF). La Teocracia Pontifical en las
controversias sobre el Nuevo Mundo. Universidad Autónoma de México. ISBN 978-968-36-5153-2. Archived
from the original (http://www.bibliojuridica.org/libros/2/725/14.pdf) (PDF) on 27 September 2011.
34. Hernando del Pulgar (1943), Crónica de los Reyes Católicos, vol. I (in Spanish), Madrid, pp. 278–279.
35. Jaime Cortesão (1990), Os Descobrimentos Portugueses (https://books.google.com/books?id=gOxKAAAAYAAJ
&q=%22devemos+buscar+a+origem+da+futura+e+famosa%22&dq=%22devemos+buscar+a+origem+da+futura
+e+famosa%22sa=X&ei=uNqpUZPJJsqLhQfer4HAAg&redir_esc=y), vol. III (in Portuguese), Imprensa Nacional-
Casa da Moeda, p. 551 (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22devemos+buscar+a+origem+da+futura+e+famos
a%22&btnG=Pesquisar+livros&tbm=bks&tbo=1), ISBN 9722704222
36. The Canary's campaign: Alfonso de Palencia, Decada IV (https://books.google.com/books?id=-1A3cWT_1kAC&
pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=%22Alonso+de+Palencia+decada+cuarta+naves+castellanas%22&source=bl&ots=kdD
s0IZIC2&sig=1GhLLlK7uT95iMhwkS2KqoLeBJQ&ei=zGpZTbrYFIKAhQf-9YyDDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=res
ult&resnum=1&ved), Book XXXI, Chapters VIII and IX ("preparation of 2 fleets" [to Guinea and to Canary,
respectively] "so that with them King Ferdinand crush its enemies" [the Portuguese] ...). Palencia wrote that the
conquest of Gran Canary was a secondary goal to facilitate the expeditions to Guinea (the real goal), a means to
an end.

Alfonso de Palencia, Decada IV (https://books.google.com/books?id=-1A3cWT_1kAC&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&

dq=%22Alonso+de+Palencia+decada+cuarta+naves+castellanas%22&source=bl&ots=kdDs0IZIC2&sig=1Gh
LLlK7uT95iMhwkS2KqoLeBJQ&ei=zGpZTbrYFIKAhQf-9YyDDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1
&ved), book XXXII, chapter III: in 1478 a Portuguese fleet intercepted the armada of 25 navies sent by
Ferdinand to conquer Gran Canary – capturing 5 of its navies plus 200 Castilians – and forced it to fled
hastily and definitively from the Canary waters. This victory allowed Prince John to use the Canary Islands as
an "exchange coin" in the peace treaty of Alcáçovas.
37. Pulgar, Hernando del (1780), Crónica de los señores reyes católicos Don Fernando y Doña Isabel de Castilla y
de Aragon (http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/cronica-de-los-senores-reyes-catolicos-don-fernando-y-dona-is
abel-de-castilla-y-de-aragon--2/) (in Spanish), chapters LXXVI and LXXXVIII ("How the Portuguese fleet defeated
the Castilian fleet which had come to the Mine of Gold"). From the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes.
38. Laughton, Leonard (1943). "Reviews" (https://books.google.com/books?id=YTgcAAAAMAAJ&q=%22But+the+Po
rtuguese+were+the+stronger%22&dq=%22But+the+Portuguese+were+the+stronger%22&sa=X&ei=hd6pUf6fEM
aHhQeR6oHgCQ&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA). The Mariner's mirror. London: Society for Nautical Research. 29 (3):
184. "... For four years the Castilians traded and fought; but the Portuguese were the stronger. They defeated a
large Spanish fleet off Guinea in 1478, besides gaining other victories. The war ended in 1479 by Ferdinand
resigning his claims to Guinea ..."

... More important, Castile recognized Portugal as the sole proprietor of the Atlantic islands (excepting the
Canaries) and of the African coast in the Treaty of Alcáçovas in 1479. This Treaty clause, secured by
Portuguese naval successes off Africa during an otherwise unsuccessful war, eliminated the only serious
rival. In Richardson, Patrick, The expansion of Europe, 1400–1660 (https://books.google.com/books?id=byN_
AAAAMAAJ&q=%22Alc%C3%A1%C3%A7ovas+in+1479.+This+treaty+clause,+secured+by+Portuguese+na
val+successes+off+Africa%22&dq=%22Alc%C3%A1%C3%A7ovas+in+1479.+This+treaty+clause,+secured+
by+Portuguese+naval+successes+off+Africa%22&sa=X&ei=u-KpUaW0BdK5hAeaqICgDw&ved=0CDMQ6AE
wAA) (1966), Longmans, p. 48 (http://www.google.com.br/search?q=+%22Alc%C3%A1%C3%A7ovas+in+14
79.+This+treaty+clause%2C+secured+by+Portuguese+naval+successes+off+Africa%22&btnG=Pesquisar+li
vros&tbm=bks&tbo=1)
39. Waters, David (1988), Reflections Upon Some Navigational and Hydrographic Problems Of The XVth Century
Related To The Voyage Of Bartolomeu Dias, 1487–88 (https://books.google.com/books?id=UKK-b3If-78C&pg=P
A299&dq=%22war+with+Castile+broke+out+waged+savagely%22&sa=X&ei=TuepUe-COcOwhAe25IDoBQ&redi
r_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22war%20with%20Castile%20broke%20out%20waged%20savagely%22&f=false), p.
299 (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22war+with+Castile+broke+out+waged+savagely%22&btnG=Pesquisar
+livros&tbm=bks&tbo=1), in the Separata from the Revista da Universidade de Coimbra, vol. XXXIV.
40. ... the Treaty of Alcáçovas was an important step in defining the expansion areas of each kingdom ... The
Portuguese triumph in this agreement is evident, and in addition deserved. Efforts and perseverance developed
over the last four decades by Henry the Navigator during the Discoveries in Africa reached their fair reward. In
Donat, Luis Rojas (2002), España y Portugal ante los otros: derecho, religión y política en el descubrimiento
medieval de América (https://books.google.com/books?id=7jIaAQAAIAAJ&q=%22El+triunfo+portugu%C3%A9s+
en+este+acuerdo+es+evidente%22&dq=%22El+triunfo+portugu%C3%A9s+en+este+acuerdo+es+evidente%22
&sa=X&ei=FPmpUYHJFoPBhAeltYDQDQ&redir_esc=y) (in Spanish), Ediciones Universidad del Bio-Bio, p. 88 (h
ttp://www.google.com/search?q=%22El+triunfo+portugu%C3%A9s+en+este+acuerdo+es+evidente%22&btnG=P
esquisar+livros&tbm=bks&tbo=1), ISBN 9567813191
41. ... Castile undertakes not to allow any his subject navigate waters reserved to the Portuguese. From the Canary's
Parallel onwards, the Atlantic Ocean would be a Mare clausum to the Castilians. The treaty of Alcáçovas
represented a huge victory for Portugal and resulted tremendously damaging to Castile. In Espina Barrio, Angel
(2001), Antropología en Castilla y León e iberoamérica: Fronteras (https://books.google.com/books?id=k6B6AAA
AMAAJ&q=%22El+tratado+de+Alc%C3%A1%C3%A7ovas+supon%C3%ADa+un+triunfo+enorme+para+Portuga
l+y+resultaba+tremendamente+perjudicial+para+castilla%22&dq=%22El+tratado+de+Alc%C3%A1%C3%A7ova
s+supon%C3%ADa+un+triunfo+enorme+para+Portugal+y+resultaba+tremendamente+perjudicial+para+castill
a%22&sa=X&ei=fhWqUePgC9CxhAek44HICQ&redir_esc=y), vol. III (In Spanish), Universidad de Salamanca,
Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas de Castilla y León, p. 118 (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22El+t
ratado+de+Alc%C3%A1%C3%A7ovas+supon%C3%ADa+un+triunfo+enorme+para+Portugal+y+resultaba+trem
endamente+perjudicial+para+castilla%22&btnG=Pesquisar+livros&tbm=bks&tbo=1), ISBN 8493123110
42. Davenport, Frances Gardiner (2004), European Treaties Bearing on the History of the United States and Its
Dependencies (https://books.google.com/books?id=mDPF4ILESaUC&lpg=PA49&dq=&pg=PA49#v=onepage&q=
&f=false), The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., p. 49, ISBN 978-1-58477-422-8
43. ... Castile accepted a Portuguese monopoly on new discoveries in the Atlantic from the Canaries southward and
toward the African coast. In Bedini 1992, p. 53
44. ... This boundary line cut off Castile from the route to India around Africa ..., in Prien, Hans-Jürgen (2012),
Christianity in Latin America: Revised and Expanded Edition (https://books.google.com/books?id=kSAbYoBGmx
QC&pg=PA8&dq=%22This+boundary+line+cut+off+Castile+from+the+route+to+India%22&sa=X&ei=xqKrUcDsC
42O7QaO_YGoDA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22This%20boundary%20line%20cut%20off%20Castile%20fro
m%20the%20route%20to%20India%22&f=false), Brill, p. 8 (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22This+boundar
y+line+cut+off+Castile+from+the+route+to+India%22&btnG=Pesquisar+livros&tbm=bks&tbo=1), ISBN 978-90-
04-24207-4
45. ... With an eye to the Treaty of Alcáçovas which only permitted westerly expansion by Castile, the Crown
accepted the proposals of the Italian adventurer [Christopher Columbus] because if, contrary to all expectation,
he were to prove successful, a great opportunity would arise to outmanoeuvre Portugal ..., in Emmer, Piet (1999),
General History of the Caribbean (https://books.google.com/books?id=Xx1SuWX9YIkC&pg=PA86&dq=%22With
+an+eye+to+the+Treaty+of+Alcacovas+%22&sa=X&ei=5KarUc6yCoiu7AbOw4HgDg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&
q=%22With%20an%20eye%20to%20the%20Treaty%20of%20Alcacovas%20%22&f=false), vol. II, UNESCO, p.
86 (http://www.google.com.br/search?q=%22with+an+eye+to+the+Treaty+of+Alca%C3%A7ovas+which+only+pe
rmitted+westerly+expansion%22&btnG=Pesquisar+livros&tbm=bks&tbo=1), ISBN 0-333-72455-0
46. Superpowers Spain and Portugal struggled for global control and in the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas the Pope
divided the non-Christian world between them. In Flood, Josephine (2006), The original Australians: Story of the
Aboriginal people (https://books.google.com/books?id=h0Ph5GLwWOQC&pg=PA1&dq=%22Superpowers+Spain
+and+Portugal+struggled%22%22&sa=X&ei=JpOyUeLyDcKr7Ab554G4BQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22Su
perpowers%20Spain%20and%20Portugal%20struggled%22%22&f=false), p.1 (http://www.google.com/search?q
=%22Superpowers+Spain+and+Portugal+struggled%22%22&btnG=Pesquisar+livros&tbm=bks&tbo=1), ISBN 1
74114 872 3
47. Burbank & Cooper 2010, pp. 120–121.
48. Fernández Herrero 1992, p. 143.
49. McAlister, Lyle N. (1984). Spain and Portugal in the New World, 1492–1700 (https://books.google.com/books?id=
lFwnCYl85VEC&lpg=PA69&dq=&pg=PA69#v=onepage&q=&f=false). U of Minnesota Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-
8166-1218-5.
50. Historia general de España 1992, p. 189.
51. Fernández Herrero 1992, p. 141.
52. Diffie, Bailey Wallys; Winius, George Davison (1977). Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580 (https://
books.google.com/?id=hBTqPX4G9Y4C&lpg=PA173&dq=&pg=PA173#v=onepage&q=&f=true). University of
Minnesota Press. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-8166-0782-2.
53. Vieira Posada, Édgar (2008). La formación de espacios regionales en la integración de América Latina (https://b
ooks.google.com/books?id=-PAQOJyi-1UC&lpg=PA56&dq=&pg=PA56#v=onepage&q=&f=false). Pontificia
Universidad Javeriana. p. 56. ISBN 978-958-698-234-4.
54. Sánchez Doncel, Gregorio (1991). Presencia de España en Orán (1509–1792) (https://books.google.com/books?
id=EOV8qNnYvDwC&lpg=PA129&dq=&pg=PA122#v=onepage&q&f=true). I.T. San Ildefonso. p. 122. ISBN 978-
84-600-7614-8.
55. Los Trastámara y la Unidad Española (https://books.google.com/books?id=_vp1mwUwOmoC&lpg=PA644&dq=&
pg=PA644#v=onepage&q&f=true). Ediciones Rialp. 1981. p. 644. ISBN 978-84-321-2100-5.
56. Collier, Simon (1992). "The non-Spanish Caribbean Islands to 1815". The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Latin
America and the Caribbean (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 212–213.
57. John F. O'Callaghan, "Line of Demarcation," in Bedini 1992, pp. 423–424
58. Nelson H. Minnich, "Papacy" and John F. O'Callaghan, "Line of Demarcation," in Bedini 1992, pp. 537–540, 423–
424

Bethell, Leslie (1984). The Cambridge History of Latin America (https://books.google.com/?id=_w0kAPYQ5x

MC&lpg=PA289&dq=&pg=PA289#v=onepage&q&f=false). 1. Cambridge University Press. p. 289. ISBN 978-
0-521-23223-4.
Sánchez Bella, Ismael (1993). Instituto de investigaciones jurídicas UNAM (ed.). "Las bulas de 1493 en el
Derecho Indiano" (http://www.juridicas.unam.mx/publica/librev/rev/hisder/cont/5/est/est14.pdf) (PDF). Anuario
Mexicano de Historia del Derecho (in Spanish). 5: 371. ISSN 0188-0837 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0188-
0837).
59. Sánchez Prieto, Ana Belén (2004). La intitulación diplomática de los Reyes Católicos: un programa político y una
lección de historia (http://www.ucm.es/centros/cont/descargas/documento11351.pdf) (PDF) (in Spanish). III
Jornadas Científicas sobre Documentación en época de los Reyes Católicos. p. 296.
60. Hernández Sánchez-Barba, Mario (1990). La Monarquía Española y América: Un Destino Histórico Común (http
s://books.google.com/?id=XL6LCZ9WG2QC&lpg=PA36&pg=PA36#v=onepage&q&f=true) (in Spanish).
Ediciones Rialp. p. 36. ISBN 978-84-321-2630-7.

Roca Tocco, Carlos Alberto (1993). "De las bulas alejandrinas al nuevo orden político americano" (http://ww
w.juridicas.unam.mx/publica/librev/rev/hisder/cont/5/est/est13.pdf) (PDF). Anuario Mexicano de Historia del
Derecho (in Spanish). Instituto de investigaciones jurídicas UNAM. 5: 331. ISSN 0188-0837 (https://www.worl
dcat.org/issn/0188-0837).
Salinas Araneda, Carlos (1983). "El proceso de incorporacion de las indias a castilla" (http://www.rderecho.eq
uipu.cl/index.php../rderecho/article/viewFile/100/91). Revista de Derecho de la Pontificia Universidad Católica
de Valparaíso (in Spanish). Ediciones Universitarias de Valparaíso. 7: 23–26. ISSN 0718-6851 (https://www.
worldcat.org/issn/0718-6851).
61. Bedini 1992, p. 337.
62. Memoria del Segundo Congreso Venezolano de Historia, del 18 al 23 de noviembre de 1974 (https://books.googl
e.com/?id=GFdsAAAAMAAJ&q=%22a+ra%C3%ADz+de+la+cual+Fernando+perdi%C3%B3+no+solamente+el+
gobierno+de+Castilla,+sino+tambi%C3%A9n+el+se%C3%B1or%C3%ADo+de+las+Indias,+quedando+solament
e%22&dq=%22a+ra%C3%ADz+de+la+cual+Fernando+perdi%C3%B3+no+solamente+el+gobierno+de+Castilla,
+sino+tambi%C3%A9n+el+se%C3%B1or%C3%ADo+de+las+Indias,+quedando+solamente%22) (in Spanish).
Academia Nacional de la Historia (Venezuela). 1975. p. 404.
63. Elliott 2006, p. 120.
64. Anuario de estudios americanos – Volumen 32 (https://books.google.com/?id=__kMAQAAMAAJ&q=%22La+con
dici%C3%B3n+pol%C3%ADtica+de+las+indias%22+Se%C3%B1or%C3%ADo+reinos&dq=%22La+condici%C
3%B3n+pol%C3%ADtica+de+las+indias%22+Se%C3%B1or%C3%ADo+reinos). 1975.
65. Historia y sociabilidad (https://books.google.com/?id=keYAW_4N_YwC&lpg=PA269&dq=Indias%20de%20se%C
3%B1or%C3%ADo%20a%20reino&pg=PA269#v=onepage&q&f=false). 2007. ISBN 9788483716540.
66. Haring 1947, p. 285.
67. Lockhart & Schwartz 1983, pp. 61–85.
68. Lockhart & Schwartz 1983, p. 62.
69. Lockhart & Schwartz 1983, p. 63.
70. Diego-Fernández Sotelo 1987, p. 139.
71. Diego-Fernández Sotelo 1987, p. 143–145.
72. Diego-Fernández Sotelo 1987, pp. 147–149; Sibaja Chacón 2006, p. 117.
73. Lynch, John (2007). Los Austrias (1516–1700) (https://books.google.com/?id=lvM7GaczH00C&lpg=PA203&dq=&
pg=PA203#v=onepage&q&f=true) (in Spanish). Editorial Critica. p. 203. ISBN 978-84-8432-960-2.

Díaz del Castillo, Bernal (2005). José Antonio Barbón Rodríguez (ed.). Historia verdadera de la conquista de
la Nueva España: Manuscrito "Guatemala" (https://books.google.com/?id=XZJWZjfg7KQC&lpg=RA1-PA656&
dq=&pg=RA1-PA656#v=onepage&q&f=true) (in Spanish). UNAM. p. 656. ISBN 978-968-12-1196-7.
 74. Edwards, John; Lynch, John (2005). Edad Moderna: Auge del Imperio, 1474–1598 (https://books.google.com/?id
=JqS0uVXMlhAC&lpg=PA290&dq=&pg=PA290#v=onepage&q=&f=true) (in Spanish). 4. Editorial Critica. p. 290.
ISBN 978-84-8432-624-3.
75. Historia general de España 1992, p. 232.
76. Gómez Gómez 2008, p. 84.
77. Mena garcía, Carmen (2003). "La Casa de la Contratación de Sevilla y el abasto de las flotas de Indias" (https://b
ooks.google.com/books?id=6uKD1di85zcC&lpg=PA242&dq=&hl=es&pg=PA242#v=onepage&q=&f=true). In
Antonio Acosta Rodríguez; Adolfo Luis González Rodríguez; Enriqueta Vila Vilar (eds.). La Casa de la
Contratación y la navegación entre España y las Indias (in Spanish). Universidad de Sevilla. p. 242. ISBN 978-
84-00-08206-2.
78. Gómez Gómez 2008, p. 90.
79. Brewer Carías, Allan-Randolph (1997). La ciudad ordenada (https://books.google.com/?id=QMBJAAAAYAAJ&q=j
unta+indias+castilla+1511&dq=) (in Spanish). Instituto Pascual Madoz, Universidad Carlos III. p. 69. ISBN 978-
84-340-0937-0.
80. Martínez Peñas, Leandro (2007). El confesor del rey en el Antiguo Régimen (https://books.google.com/?id=JAt1
eXmY6nsC&lpg=PA213&dq=&pg=PA213#v=onepage&q=&f=true) (in Spanish). Editorial Complutense. p. 213.
ISBN 978-84-7491-851-9.
81. Burkholder, "Audiencia" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol. 1, p. 235-236
82. Arranz Márquez 1982, p. 89–90.
83. Arranz Márquez 1982, p. 97; Historia general de España 1992, p. 195
84. Arranz Márquez 1982, p. 101.
85. Kozlowski, Darrell J. (2010). Colonialism (https://books.google.com/?id=cCsUBMj2cvQC&lpg=PA84&dq=&pg=PA
84#v=onepage&q=&f=true). Infobase Publishing. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-4381-2890-0.
86. Sibaja Chacón 2006, p. 39.
87. Historia general de España 1992, p. 174, 186.
88. Historia general de España 1992, p. 195.
89. Sibaja Chacón 2006, p. 36.
90. Historia general de España 1992, p. 197.
91. Carrera Damas 1999, p. 457; Sibaja Chacón 2006, p. 50

Mena García, María del Carmen (1992). Pedrarias Dávila (https://books.google.com/books?id=o9qselEBMys

C&lpg=PA27&dq=&pg=PA29#v=onepage&q=&f=false) (in Spanish). Universidad de Sevilla. p. 29. ISBN 978-
84-7405-834-5.
92. Sibaja Chacón 2006, pp. 55–59, 32.
93. Historia general de España 1992, p. 165; Sibaja Chacón 2006, p. 36–37.
94. Carrera Damas 1999, p. 458

Colón de Carvajal, Anunciada; Chocano Higueras, Guadalupe (1992). Cristóbal Colón: incógnitas de su
muerte 1506–1902 (https://books.google.com/books?id=jBTF3fZowzUC&lpg=PA38&dq=&pg=PA40#v=onepa
ge&q&f=false) (in Spanish). CSIC. p. 40. ISBN 978-84-00-07305-3.
95. Quoted in Braudel 1984, vol 2., p. 171.
96. Baten, Jörg (2016). A History of the Global Economy. From 1500 to the Present. Cambridge University Press.
p. 159. ISBN 978-1-107-50718-0.
97. Burbank & Cooper 2010, p. 144-45.
98. Presa González, Fernanado; Grenda, Agnieszka Matyjaszczyk (2003). Madrid a los ojos de los viajeros polacos :
un siglo de estampas literarias de la Villa y Corte (1850–1961) (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Madrid: Huerga & Fierro.
ISBN 9788483744161.
99. Burbank & Cooper 2010, p. 121.
100. Burbank & Cooper 2010, p. 132.
101. quoted in Burbank & Cooper 2010, p. 119
102. "Cross and Crescent" (http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01911/html/index8.html).
103. Parker 1978, p. 115-118, 123-124; Archer 2002, p. 251.
104. Kamen 2005, p. 150.
105. Kamen 2003, p. 155.
106. Kamen 2003, p. 166-67.
107. The Tempest and Its Travels – Peter Hulme – Google Libros (https://books.google.com/books?id=sLD6aT7QfYg
C&lpg=PA122&dq=&pg=PA122#v=onepage&q=&f=true). Books.google.es. Retrieved on 2013-07-29.
108. Kamen 2003, p. 255.
109. Waite, Charles B. (1992). History of the Christian Religion to the Year 200. Book Tree. p. 535.

Escamilla, Jose (2011). Protestant England and Catholic Spain: Two Nations Molded by Religion, and Their
Impact on America. WestBow Press. p. 12.
110. Miller, Lee (2000). Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony. Arcade Publishing. p. 147.
111. Tellier, Luc-Normand (2009), Urban world history: an economic and geographical perspective (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=cXuCjDbxC1YC), PUQ, p. 308, ISBN 978-2-7605-1588-8 Extract of page 308 (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=cXuCjDbxC1YC&pg=PA308)
112. Fernández Duro, Cesáreo (1972). Armada Española desde la Unión de los Reinos de Castilla y Aragón. Museo
Naval de Madrid, Instituto de Historia y Cultura Naval, Tomo III, Capítulo III. Madrid. p.51
113. Burkholder, Suzanne Hiles, "Philip II of Spain" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol.
4, p. 393-394
114. Parker 1978, p. 113.
115. Bakewell, Peter, "Francisco de Toledo" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol. 5, p. 249
116. Parker 1978, p. 114.
117. Pattridge, Blake D. "Francis Drake" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol. 2, p. 406
118. Kamen 2003, p. 154.
119. quoted in Kamen 2003, p. 201
120. Kamen 2003, p. 160.
121. Kurlansky 1999, p. 64; Joaquin 1988.
122. Kamen 2003, p. 203.
123. quoted in Cushner, Nicholas P. (1971). Spain in the Philippines. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University. p. 4.
124. Alip 1964, pp. 201, 317.
125. United States War Dept 1903 p.379
126. McAmis 2002, p. 33.
127. "Letter from Francisco de Sande to Felipe II, 1578" (https://web.archive.org/web/20141014220759/http://www.filip
iniana.net/ArtifactView.do?artifactID=P40000000008&query=Francisco%20de%20Sande). Archived from the
original (http://www.filipiniana.net/ArtifactView.do?artifactID=P40000000008&query=Francisco%20de%20Sande)
on October 14, 2014. Retrieved October 17, 2009.
128. Frankham 2008, p. 278; Atiyah 2002, p. 71.
129. Saunders 2002, pp. 54–60.
130. Saunders 2002, p. 57.
131. Tomas L. "Magat Salamat" (https://web.archive.org/web/20071212002729/http://www.geocities.com/sinupan/mag
atsalamat.htm). Archived from the original (http://geocities.com/sinupan/magatsalamat.htm) on 12 December
2007. Retrieved 14 July 2008.
132. Fernando A. Santiago, Jr. "Isang Maikling Kasaysayan ng Pandacan, Maynila 1589–1898" (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20090814203000/http://www.philjol.info/index.php/MALAY/article/viewFile/80/77). Archived from the
original (http://www.philjol.info/index.php/MALAY/article/viewFile/80/77) on 14 August 2009. Retrieved 18 July
2008.
133. Ricklefs, M.C. (1993). A History of Modern Indonesia Since c. 1300 (2nd ed.). London: MacMillan. p. 25.
ISBN 978-0-333-57689-2.
134. Truxillo, Charles A. (2012). Crusaders in the Far East: The Moro Wars in the Philippines in the Context of the
Ibero-Islamic World War. Fremont, CA: Jain. ISBN 9780895818645.
135. Peacock; Gallop (2015). From Anatolia to Aceh: Ottomans, Turks and Southeast Asia. Oxford University Press.
ISBN 9780197265819.
136. Quoted in Braudel 1984
137. Burkholder, Suzanne Hiles. "Philip III of Spain" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol.
4, p. 394
138. Elliott 1961, pp. 56–57.
139. Stanley G. Payne. "Chapter 15: A History of Spain and Portugal" (http://libro.uca.edu/payne1/payne15.htm).
Library of Iberian Resources Online (LIBRO). University of Central Arkansas.
140. For a general account, see Kennedy 2017, pp. 40–93
141. Elliott 1986.
142. Brown & Elliott 1980, p. 190
143. Andrien, Kenneth J. "Unión de Armas" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol. 5, p. 293
144. Elliott 1986, pp. 244-277.
145. Burkholder, Suzanne Hiles. "Philip IV of Spain" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol.
4, p. 394
146. Payne, Stanley G. (1973), "The Seventeenth-Century Decline" (http://libro.uca.edu/payne1/payne15.htm), A
History of Spain and Portugal, 1, Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, retrieved 8 October 2008
147. Johnson, Lyman L.; Migden Socolow, Susan (2002). "Colonial Centers, Colonial Peripheries, and the Economic
Agency of the Spanish State". In Daniels, Christine; Kennedy, Michael V (eds.). Negotiated Empires: Centers and
Peripheries in the Americas, 1500-1820. New York: Routledge. pp. 59–78.
148. Gibson 1966, p. 69.
149. Mecham 1966, p. 36.
150. Patch, Robert W. (May 1994). "Imperial Politics and Local Economy in Colonial Central America, 1670-1770".
Past & Present (143): 78.
151. "Conquest in the Americas" (https://web.archive.org/web/20091028035130/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia
_761575057_13/Spain.html). Archived from the original (http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761575057_13/Sp
ain.html) on 28 October 2009. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
152. Mann, Charles C. (2012). 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created (https://books.google.com/books?
id=-lB3sy0aH4AC&pg=PA33). Random House Digital, Inc. pp. 33–34. ISBN 978-0-307-27824-1. Retrieved
28 August 2012.
153. Axtell, James (September – October 1991), "The Columbian Mosaic in Colonial America" (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20080517052031/http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/data/art/AXTELL01.ART), Humanities, 12 (5): 12–
18, archived from the original (http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/data/art/AXTELL01.ART) on 17 May 2008,
retrieved 8 October 2008
154. Cook, Warren L. (1973). Flood Tide of Empire: Spain and the Pacific Northwest, 1543-1819. New Haven: Yale
University Press.
155. Parry, J.H. (1953). The Sale of Public Office in the Spanish Indies Under the Habsburgs. Ibero-Americana 37.
University of California Press. p. 4.
156. Brading 1971, pp. 33-94.
157. Kuethe, Allan J. "The Bourbon Reforms" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol. 1, p.
399-401
158. Nader, Helen, "Antonio de Fonseca" in Bedini 1992, pp. 282–283
159. Cook, Noble David. "Nicolás de Ovando" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol. 4, p.
254
160. Delamarre-Sallard, Catherine (2008). Manuel de civilisation espagnole et latino-américaine (https://books.google.
com/?id=0y28O-vxgUQC&lpg=PA131&dq=&pg=PA130#v=onepage&q&f=true) (in Spanish). Editions Bréal.
p. 130. ISBN 978-2-7495-0335-6.
161. Sanz Ayán, Carmen (1993). Sevilla y el comercio de Indias (https://books.google.com/?id=keL8BgoeX_cC&lpg=
PA23&dq=&pg=PA23#v=onepage&q=&f=true) (in Spanish). Ediciones Akal. p. 23. ISBN 978-84-460-0214-7.
162. Andreo García, Juan (2007). "Su Majestad quiere gobernar: la Administración española en Indias durante los
siglos XVI y XVII" (https://books.google.com/books?id=keYAW_4N_YwC&lpg=PA282&dq=&hl=es&pg=PA279#v=
onepage&q=&f=true). In Bautista Vilar, Juan; Peñafiel Ramón, Antonio; Irigoyen López, Antonio (eds.). Historia y
sociabilidad: homenaje a la profesora María del Carmen Melendreras Gimeno (in Spanish). EDITUM. p. 279.
ISBN 978-84-8371-654-0.
163. Góngora 1998, p. 99.
164. Lagos Carmona 1985, p. 119.
165. Lagos Carmona 1985, p. 122.
166. Historia general de España 1992, p. 601.
167. Góngora 1998, p. 97.
168. Muro Romero, Fernando (1975). Las presidencias-gobernaciones en Indias (siglo XVI) (https://books.google.co
m/?id=zLfZaSvdgVMC&lpg=PA178&dq=&pg=PA177#v=onepage&q=&f=true) (in Spanish). CSIC. p. 177.
ISBN 978-84-00-04233-2.
169. Malberti de López, Susana (2006). "Las instituciones políticas en la región de Cuyo" (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=bHwzlftPNZwC&lpg=PA141&dq=&hl=es&pg=PA141#v=onepage&q=&f=true). In Instituto de Historia
Regional y Argentina "Héctor Domingo Arias" (ed.). Desde San Juan hacia la historia de la región (in Spanish).
effha. p. 141. ISBN 978-950-605-481-6.
170. Bushnell, Amy (1981). The King's Coffer: Proprietors of the Spanish Florida Treasury 1565-1702 (http://ufdc.ufl.e
du/AA00014878/00001). Gainesville, Florida: University Presses of Florida. pp. 1–2. ISBN 0-8130-0690-2.
Retrieved 23 May 2019.
171. Bushnell 1981, pp. 1–2; Chipman 2005

Parry, John Horace (1990) [1966]. The Spanish Seaborne Empire (https://books.google.com/?id=VV2Nn8f3O
KgC&pg=PA203&lpg=PA203&dq=factor+overseer+accountant+treasurer+spanish#v=onepage&q=factor%20
overseer%20accountant%20treasurer%20spanish&f=false) (First paperback ed.). Berkeley, California:
University of California Press. pp. 202–203. ISBN 978-0-520-07140-7. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
172. Bushnell 1981, p. 1–2; Chipman 2005.
173. "1512–1513: Laws of Burgos" (http://faculty.smu.edu/bakewell/BAKEWELL/texts/burgoslaws.html), Colonial Latin
America, Peter Bakewell, 1998, retrieved 8 October 2008
174. Esparza, José Javier (2015). La cruzada del océano: La gran aventura de la conquista de América (https://book
s.google.co.uk/books?id=XRIACwAAQBAJ) (in Spanish). La Esfera de los Libros. ISBN 9788490602638.
175. Scott, James Brown (2000). The Spanish origin of international law (4th ed.). Union, NJ: Lawbook Exchange.
ISBN 978-1-58477-110-4.
176. Dumont, Jean (1997). El amanecer de los derechos del hombre : la controversia de Valladolid (in Spanish).
Madrid: Encuentro. ISBN 978-8474904154.
177. Cano, José (2007). "El gobierno y la imagen de la Monarquía Hispánica en los viajeros de los siglos XVI y XVII.
De Austrias a Borbones" (https://books.google.com/?id=Iwx9tdF05LQC&lpg=PA21&dq=&pg=PA21#v=onepage&
q=&f=false). La monarquía de España y sus visitantes: siglos XVI al XIX Colaborador Consuelo Maqueda Abreu
(in Spanish). Editorial Dykinson. pp. 21–22. ISBN 9788498491074.
178. Jiménez Núñez, Alfredo (2006). El gran norte de México: una frontera imperial en la Nueva España (1540–1820)
(https://books.google.com/?id=3J0sAG8D51kC&lpg=PA41&dq=&pg=PA41#v=onepage&q=&f=true) (in Spanish).
Editorial Tebar. p. 41. ISBN 978-84-7360-221-1.
179. Mecham 1966, p. 111-137.
180. Mecham 1966, p. 26.
181. Burkholder, Mark A. "Viceroyalty, Viceroy" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol. 5, p.
408-409
182. Góngora 1998, p. 100.
183. Fernando Cervantes, "Audiencias" in Encyclopedia of Mexico. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, p. 109.
184. Garavaglia, Juan Carlos; Marchena Fernández, Juan (2005). América Latina de los orígenes a la Independencia
(https://books.google.com/?id=lhPNmx3UkkQC&lpg=PA266&dq=&pg=PA266#v=onepage&q=&f=true) (in
Spanish). Editorial Critica. p. 266. ISBN 978-84-8432-652-6.
185. Burkholder, Mark A. "Corregidor" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol. 2, p. 272
186. Brungardt, Maurice (2006). "Corregidor/Corregimiento". Iberia and the Americas: culture, politics, and history. 1.
Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. pp. 361–363.
187. Ricard, Robert (1966). The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico. Berkeley: University of California Press.
188. Padden, Robert C. (1956). "The Ordenanza del Patronazgo of 1574". The Americas (12): 333–354.

Schwaller, John F (1986). "The Ordenanza del Patronazgo in New Spain, 1574–1600". The Americas (42):
253–274.
189. Brading 1993, pp. 241-247.
190. Lockhart & Schwartz 1983, p. 66-67.
191. Bennassar 2001, p. 98.
192. Delgado de Cantú, Gloria M. (2005). El mundo moderno y contemporáneo (https://books.google.com/?id=1oJ22d
mhBZIC&lpg=PT89&dq=&pg=PT90#v=onepage&q&f=true) (in Spanish). 1. Pearson Educación. p. 90. ISBN 978-
970-26-0665-9.

Orduña Rebollo, Enrique (2003). Municipios y provincias: Historia de la Organización Territorial Española (htt
ps://books.google.com/?id=UNaIBvyNyvQC&lpg=PA205&dq=&pg=PA238#v=onepage&q=&f=true) (in
Spanish). INAP. p. 238. ISBN 978-84-259-1249-8.
De Blas, Patricio (2000). Historia Común de Iberoamérica (https://books.google.com/?id=Ho1qYAQkXIQC&lp
g=PA210&pg=PA202#v=onepage&q=cabildo&f=true) (in Spanish). EDAF. p. 202. ISBN 978-84-414-0766-4.
193. Bennassar 2001, p. 99.
194. Orduña Rebollo, Enrique (2003). Municipios y provincias: Historia de la Organización Territorial Española (https://
books.google.com/?id=UNaIBvyNyvQC&lpg=PA237&dq=&pg=PA237#v=onepage&q=&f=true) (in Spanish).
INAP. p. 237. ISBN 978-84-259-1249-8.
195. Historia general de España 1992, p. 615.
196. Pérez Guartambel, Carlos (2006). Justicia indígena (https://books.google.com/?id=cHW_FcJdtacC&lpg=PA49&d
q=&pg=PA50#v=onepage&q=&f=false) (in Spanish). Universidad de Cuenca. pp. 49–50. ISBN 978-9978-14-119-
9.
197. Bosco Amores, Juan (2006). Historia de América (https://books.google.com/?id=6dNzKGOzbmUC&lpg=PA271&
dq=&pg=PA273#v=onepage&q=&f=false) (in Spanish). Editorial Ariel. p. 273. ISBN 978-84-344-5211-4.
198. Bennassar 2001, p. 101.
199. Lockhart & Schwartz 1983, p. 322.
200. Gibson 1966, p. 191-192.
201. Altman, Cline & Javier Pescador 2003, pp. 321-322.
202. Ramírez, Susan E. "Missions: Spanish America" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996,
vol. 4, p. 77
203. Miranda, Gloria E. (1988). "Racial and Cultural Dimensions of "Gente de Razón" Status in Spanish and Mexican
California". Southern California Quarterly. 70 (3): 265–278. doi:10.2307/41171310 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F41
171310). JSTOR 41171310 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/41171310).
204. Seed, Patricia. "Caste and Class Structure in Colonial Spanish America" in Encyclopedia of Latin American
History and Culture 1996, vol. 2, p. 7
205. von Germeten, Nicole (2006). Black Blood Brothers: Confraternities and Social Mobility for Afro-Mexicans.
Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press.
206. Rowe, John H. (May 1957). "The Incas Under Spanish Colonial Institutions". Hispanic American Historical
Review. 37 (2): 155–159. doi:10.2307/2510330 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2510330). JSTOR 2510330 (https://w
ww.jstor.org/stable/2510330).

Fernández de Recas, Guillermo S. (1961). Cacicazgos y nobiliario indígena de la Nueva España. México:
Instituto Bibliográfico Mexicano.
207. Burbank & Cooper 2010, p. 8.
208. O’Hara, Matthew (2009). A Flock Divided: Race, Religion, and Politics in Mexico, 1749-1857. Durham: Duke
University Press.
209. Katzew, Ilona (2004). Casta Painting. New Haven: Yale University Press.
210. Cope, R. Douglas (1994). The Limits of Racial Domination. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
211. Ramos-Kittrell, Jesús (2016). Playing in the Cathedral: Music, Race, and Status in New Spain. New York: Oxford
University Press. pp. 39–40.
212. J. Michael Francis, PhD, Luisa de Abrego: Marriage, Bigamy, and the Spanish Inquisition (http://laflorida.org/florid
a-stories/), University of Southern Florida
213. Burkholder, Mark A. "Criminal Justice" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol. 2, p.
298-300

MacLachlan, Colin M. (1975). Criminal Justice in Eighteenth-Century Mexico: A Study of the Acordada.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
214. Borah, Woodrow (1983). Justice by Insurance. Berkeley: University of California Press.
215. Woodward, Ralph Lee. “Consulado” in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol. 2, p. 254-
256
216. Lockhart & Schwartz 1983, p. 324-325.
217. Lockhart & Schwartz 1983, p. 320.
218. Kenneth L. Sokoloff, Stanley L. Engerman (2000). "History Lessons: Institutions, Factor Endowments, and Paths
of Development in the New World" (http://www.econ.nyu.edu/user/debraj/Courses/Readings/SokoloffEngerman.p
df) (PDF). The Journal of Economic Perspectives. 14 (3): 217–232. doi:10.1257/jep.14.3.217 (https://doi.org/10.1
257%2Fjep.14.3.217).
219. Stein & Stein 2000, p. 40-57.
220. Andrien, Kenneth A. “Arbitristas” in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol. 1 p. 122
221. Stein & Stein 2000, p. 94-102.
222. Elliott 1989, p. 231.
223. Bakewell, Peter and Kendall W. Brown, “Mining: Colonial Spanish America” in Encyclopedia of Latin American
History and Culture 1996, vol. 4, p. 59-63
224. Fisher, John R. “Fleet System (Flota)” in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol. 2, p. 575
225. Braudel 1984, vol. 2, p. 418.
226. Lynch 1989, p. 1.
227. Fisher, John R. "The Spanish American empire, 1580–1808" in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Latin America
and the Caribbean, 2nd edition. New York: Cambridge University Press 1992, pp. 204-05.
228. Albareda Salvadó, Joaquim (2010). La Guerra de Sucesión de España (1700–1714) (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=3optq8WlRIMC&pg=PA24). Editorial Critica. pp. 239–241. ISBN 9788498920604.
229. Lynch 1989, p. 11.
230. Victoria, Pablo (2005). El día que España derrotó a Inglaterra : de cómo Blas de Lezo, tuerto, manco y cojo,
venció en Cartagena de Indias a la otra "Armada Invencible" (in Spanish) (1a. ed.). Barcelona: Áltera.
ISBN 9788489779686.
231. von Humboldt 1811.
232. Janota, Tom (9 February 2015). Alexander von Humboldt, un explorador científico en América (https://books.goo
gle.co.uk/books?id=jmuVBgAAQBAJ). CIDCLI. p. 64. ISBN 9786078351121.
233. Schmitt, Karl (April 1959). "The Clergy and the Enlightenment in Latin America: An Analysis". The Americas. 15
(4).

Aldridge, Alfred Owen (1971). The Ibero-American Enlightenment. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
234. Saladino García, Alberto (1990). Dos científicos de la Ilustración hispanoamericana: J.A. Alzate y F.J. de Caldas
(in Spanish). Mexico: UNAM.

Codding, Mitchell A. (1994). "Perfecting the geography of New Spain: Alzate and the Cartographic legacy of
Sigüenza y Góngora". Colonial Latin American Review. 2: 185–219.
235. Pérez Arbeláez, Enrique (1983) [1967]. José Celestino Mutis y la real expedición botánica del Nuevo Reyno de
Granada (in Spanish) (2nd. ed.). Bogotá: Instituto Colombiano de Cultura Hispánica.
236. Rickett, Harold W. (1947). "The Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain". Chronica Botanica. 11 (1): 1–81.

de Solano, Francisco, ed. (1987). La Real Expedición Botánica a Nueva España, 1787-1800 (in Spanish).
Madrid: CSIC.
237. Engstrand, Iris H. W. (1981). Spanish Scientists in the New World: The Eighteenth-Century Expeditions. Seattle:
University of Washington Press.

Bleichmar, Daniela (2012). Visible Empire: Botanical Expeditions & Visible Culture in the Hispanic
Enlightenment. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
De Vos, Paula S. (June 2006). "Research, Development, and Empire: State Support of Science in Spain and
Spanish America, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries". Colonial Latin America Review. 15 (1): 55–79.
238. Cañizares-Esguerra, Jorge (2006). Nature, Empire, and Nation: Explorations in the History of Science in the
Iberian World. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Bleichmar, Daniela, ed. (2008). Science in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, 1500-1800. Stanford:
Stanford University Press.
Peset, José Luis, ed. (1989). Ciencia, vida, y espacio en Iberoamérica (in Spanish). Madrid: CSIC.
Franklin Safier, Neil (2008). Measuring the New World: Enlightenment Science and South America. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
239. Victoria 2005.
240. Prowse, D. W. (2007). A History of Newfoundland: from the English, Colonial and Foreign Records (https://books.
google.com/books?id=typhCoyd1S8C&pg=PA311). Heritage Books. p. 311. ISBN 9780788423109. "In one short
year the unfortunate Spaniards saw their armies beaten in Portugal, Cuba and Manila torn from their grasp, their
commerce destroyed, and their fleets annihilated."
241. Martínez Láinez, Fernando; Canales Torres, Carlos (2008). Banderas lejanas: la exploración, conquista y
defensa por España del territorio de los actuales Estados Unidos (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Madrid: Edaf.
ISBN 9788441421196.
242. "Diego de Gardoqui: Personal Information" (http://home.nps.gov/applications/tuma/Detail.cfm?Personal_ID=1884
8). National Park Service.

Bolton, Herbert E.; Marshall, Thomas Maitland. The Colonization of North America 1492 to 1783. p. 507.
243. "Spanish Silver Dollar, 1774: Specifications" (http://www.silentworldfoundation.org.au/products/collection/spanish-
silver-dollar-1774/). www.silentworldfoundation.org.au.
244. Cardelús, Borja (2007). La huella de España y de la cultura hispana en los Estados Unidos (2nd ed.). Madrid:
Centro de Cultura Iberoamericana (CCI). ISBN 9788461150366.
245. Kamen 2003, p. 237, 485.
246. Salvucci, Linda K. "Adams-Onis Treaty (1819)" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture 1996, vol.
1, pp. 11-12
247. Brading 1993.
248. Hamnett 2017.
249. "Historians generally have assumed that these movements invoked the name of Fernando VII to mask their real
goal: achieving independence". 1998 Jaime E. Rodríguez. The Independence of Spanish America - Page 107
250. Peña, Lorenzo (2002). Un Puente jurídico entre Iberoamérica y Europa: la Constitución española de 1812 (http://
digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/9858/1/1812Cadiz.pdf) (PDF) (in Spanish). Casa de América-CSIC. pp. 6–7.
ISBN 978-84-88490-55-1.
251. Law.yale.edu: Treaty of Peace Between the United States and Spain (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/sp1
898.asp)
252. Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A Guide to 8,500 Battles 2007 (https://books.google.com/books?id=3amnMPTP
P5MC&lpg=PA100&dq=Jun%202%201899%20Philippines&hl=es&pg=PA100#v=onepage&q=Jun%202%20189
9%20Philippines&f=false) Cerezo finally surrendered with the full honors of war (1 July 1898 – 2 June 1899)
253. La derrota más amarga del Ejército español – ABC.es (http://www.abc.es/20110715/archivo/abci-desastre-annua
l-201107150904.html)‹See Tfd›(in Spanish)
254. "Desembarco en Alhucemas, el "Día D" de las tropas españolas en el norte de África" (http://www.abc.es/historia
-militar/20140112/abci-desembarco-alhucemas-tropas-espanolas-201401111236.html). abc (in Spanish). 12
January 2014.
255. quoted in Simon Collier, "The Spanish Conquests, 1492–1580" in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Latin America
and the Caribbean. New York: Cambridge University Press 1992, p. 194.
256. Altman, Cline & Javier Pescador 2003, pp. 363, 366.

Bibliography
Alip, Eufronio Melo (1964). Philippine History: Political, Social, Economic (https://books.google.com/books?id=5F
hCnQEACAAJ).
Altman, Ida; Cline, Sarah; Javier Pescador, Juan (2003). The Early History of Greater Mexico. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson. pp. 321–322.
Archer, Christon; et al. (2002). World History of Warfare. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska. ISBN 978-0-8032-
4423-8.
Arranz Márquez, Luis (1982). Don Diego Colón, almirante, virrey y gobernador de las Indias (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=kRhygUNmg4UC) (in Spanish). CSIC. ISBN 978-84-00-05156-3.
Atiyah, Jeremy (2002). Rough guide to Southeast Asia. Rough Guide. ISBN 978-1858288932.
Bedini, Silvio, ed. (1992). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-13-142670-2.
Bennassar, Bartolomé (2001). La América española y la América portuguesa: siglos XVI-XVIII (https://books.goo
gle.com/?id=837Hw5QgdWgC) (in Spanish). Akal. ISBN 978-84-7600-203-2.
Burbank, Jane; Cooper, Frederick (2010). Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference (https://
books.google.com/books?id=y7B9euuLEkUC&lpg=PA120&dq=&pg=PA120#v=onepage&q=&f=true). Princeton
University Press. pp. 120–121. ISBN 978-0-691-12708-8.
Brading, D.A. (1993). The First America: Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots, and the Liberal State, 1492-1866.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521447966.
Brading, D.A. (1971). Miners and Merchants in Bourbon Mexico, 1763-1810. New York: Cambridge University.
ISBN 978-0521102070.
Braudel, Fernand (1984) [1979]. Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th century. 3 volumes. London: Collins.
Brown, Jonathan; Elliott, John Huxtable (1980). A Palace for a King. The Buen Retiro and the Court of Philip IV.
New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-02507-1.
Bushnell, Amy (1981). The King's Coffer: Proprietors of the Spanish Florida Treasury 1565–1702. Gainesville,
Florida: University Presses of Florida. ISBN 978-0-8130-0690-1.
Carrera Damas, Germán (1999). Historia general de América Latina (https://books.google.com/books?id=Bq2DZ
pHvPkkC#v=onepage&q&f=true) (in Spanish). UNESCO. ISBN 978-92-3-303151-7.
Chipman, Donald E. (2005). Moctezuma's Children: Aztec Royalty under Spanish Rule, 1520–1700 (https://book
s.google.com/?id=nbp7AAAAQBAJ&pg=PT55&lpg=PT55&dq=factor+overseer+accountant+treasurer+spanish#v
=onepage&q=factor%20overseer%20accountant%20treasurer%20spanish&f=false) (Individual e-book (no page
numbers) ed.). Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-78264-8. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
Diego-Fernández Sotelo, Rafael (1987). Las capitulaciones colombinas (https://books.google.com/books?id=4ou
Nv6ZaRZQC) (in Spanish). El Colegio de Michoacán A.C. ISBN 978-968-7230-30-6.
Edwards, John (2000). The Spain of the Catholic Monarchs, 1474–1520. New York: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-
16165-3.
Elliott, J.H. (2006). Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830. New Haven: Yale
University Press.
Elliott, J.H. (1989). Spain and Its World, 1500-1700. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Elliott, J.H. (1986). The Count-Duke of Olivares: the statesman in an age of decline. New Haven: Yale University
Press. ISBN 9780300033908.
Elliott, J.H. (1977). Imperial Spain, 1469-1716. New York: New American Library.
Elliott, J.H. (1961). "The Decline of Spain". Past and Present. 20 (20): 52–75. doi:10.1093/past/20.1.52 (https://do
i.org/10.1093%2Fpast%2F20.1.52).
Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. 5 volumes. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1996.
Fernández Herrero, Beatriz (1992). La utopía de América: teoría, leyes, experimentos (https://books.google.com/
books?id=Lcv7a0tM7XgC) (in Spanish). Anthropos Editorial. ISBN 978-84-7658-320-3.
Frankham, Steven (2008). Borneo. Footprint Handbooks. Footprint. ISBN 978-1906098148.
Gómez Gómez, Margarita (2008). El sello y registro de Indias: imagen y representación (https://books.google.co
m/?id=smJvSuwZbn4C) (in Spanish). Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar. ISBN 978-3-412-20229-3.
Góngora, Mario (1998). Estudios sobre la historia colonial de hispanoamérica (https://books.google.com/?id=1dP
IXTZ3xJkC) (in Spanish). ISBN 978-956-11-1381-7.
Hamnett, Brian (2017). The End of Iberian Rule on the American Continent, 1770-1830. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 978-1316626634.
Haring, Clarence (1947). The Spanish Empire in America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Historia general de España y América (https://books.google.com/books?id=4DWBNjs8iwEC) (in Spanish). 10.
Ediciones Rialp. 1992. ISBN 978-84-321-2102-9.
von Humboldt, Alexander (1 January 1811). Political essay on the kingdom of New Spain containing researches
relative to the geography of Mexico (https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/85282#page/12/mode/1up). Printed
for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown ... and H. Colburn ... ISBN 9780665185465 – via Biodiversity
Library.
Joaquin, Nick (1988). Culture and history: occasional notes on the process of Philippine becoming (https://books.
google.com/?id=NS1vAAAAMAAJ). Solar. ISBN 978-971-17-0633-3.
Kamen, Henry (2005). Spain 1469–1714. A Society of Conflict (third ed.). London: Pearson Longman. ISBN 978-
0-582-78464-2.
Kamen, Henry (2003). Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492–1763. New York: HarperCollins.
ISBN 978-0-06-093264-0.
Kennedy, Paul M (2017) [1988]. The rise and fall of the great powers: economic change and military conflict from
1500 to 2000. London: William Collins. ISBN 9780006860525.
Kurlansky, Mark (1999). The Basque history of the world (https://books.google.com/?id=uW5gQgAACAAJ).
Walker. ISBN 978-0-8027-1349-0.
Lagos Carmona, Guillermo (1985). Los títulos históricos (https://books.google.com/?id=dlY7Lg5p9A4C#v=onepa
ge&q=&f=true) (in Spanish). Editorial Andrés Bello. OCLC 320082537
(https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/320082537).
Lockhart, James; Schwartz, Stuart B. (1983). Early Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-0-521-23344-6.
Lynch, John (1989). Bourbon Spain, 1700-1808. New York. ISBN 978-0-631-19245-9.
McAmis, Robert Day (2002). Malay Muslims: The History and Challenge of Resurgent Islam in Southeast Asia.
Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0802849458.
Mecham, J. Lloyd (1966). Church and State in Latin America: A History of Politico-Ecclesiastical Relations
(revised ed.). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Parker, Geoffrey (1978). Philip II. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-69080-5.
Ruiz Martín, Felipe (1996). La proyección europea de la monarquía hispánica (https://books.google.com/?id=jlJP
sVc8UvQC) (in Spanish). Editorial Complutense. ISBN 978-84-95983-30-5.
Saunders, Graham (2002). A History of Brunei. Routledge. ISBN 978-0700716982.
Sibaja Chacón, Luis Fernando (2006). El cuarto viaje de Cristóbal Colón y los orígenes de la provincia de Costa
Rica (https://books.google.com/books?id=q61T1fs_K4wC&lpg=PA58&pg=PA37#v=onepage&q&f=false) (in
Spanish). EUNED. ISBN 978-9968-31-488-6.
Stein, Stanley J.; Stein, Barbara H. (2000). Silver, Trade, and War: Spain and America in the Making of Early
Modern Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University.
Victoria, Pablo (2005). El día que España derrotó a Inglaterra : de cómo Blas de Lezo, tuerto, manco y cojo,
venció en Cartagena de Indias a la otra "Armada Invencible" (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Barcelona: Áltera.
ISBN 9788489779686.
Further reading
Anderson, James Maxwell (2000). The History of Portugal. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-
31106-2.
Black, Jeremy (1996). The Cambridge illustrated atlas of warfare: Renaissance to revolution. Cambridge:
Cambridge University. ISBN 978-0-521-47033-9.
Boyajian, James C. (2007). Portuguese Trade in Asia Under the Habsburgs, 1580–1640. Johns Hopkins
University. ISBN 978-0-8018-8754-3.
Braudel, Fernand (1972). The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (https://archive.
org/details/mediterraneanthe01brau). Berkeley, Calif. : University of California Press.
Brown, Jonathan (1998). Painting in Spain: 1500–1700. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-
06472-8.
Dominguez Ortiz, Antonio (1971). The Golden Age of Spain, 1516–1659. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ISBN 978-0-297-00405-9.
Elliott, J.H. (1970). The Old World and The New. Cambridge.
Farriss, N.M. (1968). Crown and Clergy in Colonial Mexico, 1759-1821. London: Athlone Press.
Fisher, John (1985). Commercial Relations Between Spain and Spanish America in the Era of Free Trade, 1778-
1796. Liverpool.
Gibson, Charles (1966). Spain in America. New York: Harper and Row.
Gibson, Charles (1964). The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Herr, Richard (1958). The Eighteenth-Century Revolution in Spain. Princeton, N.J.
Israel, Jonathan (May 1981). "Debate--The Decline of Spain: A Historical Myth". Past and Present (91): 170–85.
Kagan, Richard L.; Parker, Geoffrey (1995). Spain, Europe and the Atlantic: Essays in Honour of John H. Elliott.
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-52511-4.
Kamen, Henry (1998). Philip of Spain. New Haven: Yale University. ISBN 978-0-300-07800-8.
Lach, Donald F.; Van Kley, Edwin J. (1994). Asia in the Making of Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago.
ISBN 978-0-226-46734-4.
Lynch, John (1964). Spain Under the Hapsburgs. New York.
Lynch, John (1983). The Spanish American Revolutions, 1808-1826. New York.
MacLachlan, Colin M. (1988). Spain's Empire in the New World: The Role of Ideas in Institutional and Social
Change. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Marichal, Carlos; Mantecón, Matilde Souto (1994). "Silver and Situados: New Spain and the Financing of the
Spanish Empire in the Caribbean in the Eighteenth Century". Hispanic American Historical Review. 74 (4): 587–
613. doi:10.2307/2517493 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2517493). JSTOR 2517493 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2
517493).
Merriman, Roger Bigelow (1918). The Rise of the Spanish Empire in the Old World and the New (https://archive.
org/search.php?query=Spanish%20%20Merriman). New York.
Olson, James S. (1992). Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Empire, 1402–1975 (https://www.questia.com/librar
y/3767770/historical-dictionary-of-the-spanish-empire-1402-1975).
Paquette, Gabriel B. Enlightenment, governance, and reform in Spain and its empire, 1759–1808. New York:
Palgrave Macmillan 2008. ISBN 978-0230300521.
Parker, Geoffrey (1997). The Thirty Years' War (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-12883-4.
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 978-0-521-08462-
8.
Parker, Geoffrey (1977). The Dutch revolt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-1136-6.
Parker, Geoffrey (1997). The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-
16518-1.
Parry, J.H. (1966). The Spanish Seaborne Empire. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-
07140-7.
Ramsey, John Fraser (1973). Spain: The Rise of the First World Power. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-
0-8173-5704-7.
Restall, Matthew (2007). "The Decline and Fall of the Spanish Empire?". The William and Mary Quarterly. 64 (1):
183–194. JSTOR 4491607 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4491607).
Schmidt-Nowara, Christopher; Nieto Phillips, John M., eds. (2005). Interpreting Spanish Colonialism: Empires,
Nations, and Legends. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.
 Stein, Stanley J.; Stein, Barbara H. (2003). Apogee of Empire: Spain and New Spain in the Age of Charles III,
1759-1789. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University.
Stradling, R. A. (1988). Philip IV and the Government of Spain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-0-521-32333-8.
Studnicki-Gizbert, Daviken (2007). A Nation upon the Ocean Sea: Portugal's Atlantic Diaspora and the Crisis of
the Spanish Empire, 1492–1640. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-803911-2.
Thomas, Hugh (2004). Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire 1490–1522. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
ISBN 978-0-297-64563-4.
Thomas, Hugh (1997). The Slave Trade; The History of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1440–1870. London: Papermac.
ISBN 978-0-333-73147-5.
Vicens Vives, Jaime (1969). An Economic History of Spain (3rd revised ed.). Princeton.
Wright, Esmond, ed. (1984). History of the World, Part II: The last five hundred years (third ed.). New York:
Hamlyn Publishing. ISBN 978-0-517-43644-8.

External links
Library of Iberian Resources Online, Stanley G Payne A History of Spain and Portugal vol 1 Ch 13 "The Spanish
Empire" (http://libro.uca.edu/payne1/spainport1.htm)
The Mestizo-Mexicano-Indian History in the USA (https://archive.is/19961226232657/http://www.sonic.net/~doret
k/ArchiveARCHIVE/NATIVE%20AMERICAN/TheMestizo-Mexicano-Indi.html)
Documentary Film, Villa de Albuquerque (https://web.archive.org/web/20061203063044/http://www.knmetv.org/pr
ogramming/villadeabq.php3)
The last Spanish colonies (https://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://es.geocities.com/coloniasesp&date=2009
-10-25+03:17:15) ‹See Tfd›(in Spanish)
Francisco José Calderón Vázquez (2008), Fronteras, identidad, conflicto e interacción. Los Presidios Españoles
en el Norte Africano (https://web.archive.org/web/20090214075645/http://eumed.net/libros/2008c/433/) (in
Spanish), ISBN 978-84-691-6786-1, archived from the original (http://www.eumed.net/libros/2008c/433/) on 14
February 2009
The Kraus Collection of Sir Francis Drake (http://international.loc.gov/intldl/drakehtml/rbdkhome.html) at the
Library of Congress contains primary materials on Spanish colonialism.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spanish_Empire&oldid=907724421"

This page was last edited on 24 July 2019, at 21:04 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using
this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.