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The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery.
- Kingdom of Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country located in...
- Spanish Guinea
18th–19th centuries Evolution of Spanish possessions and...
- Cross of Burgundy
Cross of Burgundy. The Cross of Burgundy (French: Croix de...
- Kingdom of Spain
As was the case in peninsular Spain, Africans (negros) were able buy their freedom (horro), so that in most of the empire free Blacks and Mulatto (Black + Spanish) populations outnumbered slave populations.
- Abdications of Charles IV and Ferdinand VII
- Napoleon's 1808 Invasion and Spanish Resistance
- Spain's First National Assembly
- Reaction
- Trienio Liberal
- The "Ominous Decade"
- Spanish American Independence
- The Carlist War and The Regencies
- Moderado Rule
- Rule by Pronunciamento
The reign of Charles IV was characterized by his lack of interest in governing. His wife Maria Luisa dominated him, and both husband and wife backed Manuel de Godoy as first minister. Many of Godoy's decisions were criticised and increasingly Charles's son and heir, Ferdinand gathered support against his detested father. A mob supporting Ferdinand ...
Although there were a few Spaniards who supported Napoleon's seizure of power in Spain, many regional centers rose up and formed juntas to rule in the name of the ousted Bourbon king, Ferdinand VII. Spanish America also created juntas to rule in the name of the king, since Joseph I was considered an illegitimate sovereign. Bloody warfare raged in S...
The Cortes of Cádizwas the first national assembly to claim sovereignty in Spain and the Spanish Empire. It represented the abolition of the old kingdoms and the recognition of overseas components of the Spanish Empire for representation. The opening session was held on 24 September 1810. In November 1809, the army of the Central Junta was routed a...
On 24 March 1814, six weeks after returning to Spain, Ferdinand VII abolished the constitution. King Ferdinand VII's refusal to agree to the liberal Spanish Constitution of 1812 on his accession to the throne in 1814 came as little surprise to most Spaniards; the king had signed on to agreements with the clergy, the church, and with the nobility in...
A conspiracy of liberal mid-ranking officers in the expedition being outfitted at Cádiz mutinied before they were shipped to the Americas. Led by Rafael del Riego, the conspirators seized their commander and led their army around Andalusia hoping to gather support; garrisons across Spain declared their support for the would-be revolutionaries. Rieg...
Immediately following the restoration of absolutist rule in Spain, King Ferdinand VII embarked on a policy intended to restore old conservative values to government; the Jesuit Order and the Spanish Inquisition were reinstated once more, and some autonomy was again devolved to the provinces of Aragon, Navarre, and Catalonia. Although he refused to ...
Already in 1810, Caracas and Buenos Airesjuntas declared their independence from the Bonapartist government in Spain and sent ambassadors to the United Kingdom. The British alliance with Spain had also moved most of the Latin American colonies out of the Spanish economic sphere and into the British sphere, with whom extensive trade relations were d...
After their fall from grace in 1823 at the hands of a French invasion, Spanish liberals had pinned their hopes on Ferdinand VII's spouse Maria Cristina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, who bore some marks as a liberal and a reformer. However, when she became regent for her daughter Isabella in 1833, she made it clear to the court that she intended no such ...
The cortes, now exasperated by serial revolutions, coups, and counter-coups, decided not to name another regent, and instead declared that the 13-year-old Isabella II was of age. Isabella, now inundated with the competing interests of courtiers espousing an array of ideologies and interests, vacillated as her mother did between them, and served to ...
Ramón Narváez was succeeded by Juan Bravo Murillo, a practical man and a seasoned politician. Murillo carried the same authoritarian tendencies as Narváez but made serious efforts to advance Spanish industry and commerce. He surrounded himself with technocrats who attempted to take an active role in the advancement of the Spanish economy. An aggres...
The Spanish Empire, also known as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy was one of the largest empires in history and one of the first global empires in world history. Soon after the Reconquista, Spain became the biggest global empire. It led European exploration of the New World, building the large Viceroyalties in the New World.
Although Charles II's chosen heir inaugurated a new dynastic house in Spain, the Hapsburg Spanish empire in Europe was reduced to the Iberian peninsula itself, with the loss of Spanish Italy and the Spanish Netherlands, and Britain captured Gibraltar and the island of Menorca as well.
The Spanish Empire became the foremost global power, dominating the oceans as well as European battlefields. Spain enjoyed a cultural golden age in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when silver and gold from American mines increasingly financed a long series of European and North African wars. Until the eighteenth century, the Spanish ...
Jun 13, 2022 · The apparatus of colonial government in the Spanish Empire consisted of multiple levels, starting with the monarchy and Council of the Indies at the top and moving down to the viceroy, audiencias, mayors, and local councils.
