History of Spain (1700–1810)

The last few years of the rule of the mentally challenged and childless Spanish Hapsburg Charles II, were dominated by the politics of who would succeed the unfortunate monarch, the last Spanish king of the Hapsburg dynasty. Spain was at the center of this political crisis, but it was the "object not the arbiter."[1] Economic troubles, the decay of the Spanish bureaucracy, a series of defeats in wars against France, and the erosion of imperial institutions in the seventeenth century had left Charles the king of a declining empire, and his physical and mental weakness provided him with little ability to reverse the course of his country. The vastness and wealth of the ultramarine Spanish Empire in the New World and the Philippines, along with her naval resources, had made Spain a vital part of European power politics. If the throne of Spain was to go to a relative of the king of France, or if the two countries were to be united, the balance of power in Europe would shift in France's favor. The wealth of the Spanish overseas empire would flow to France. If it remained in the hands of another member of the anti-French, Austrian Hapsburg dynasty, the status quo would remain. European politics during the seventeenth century became dominated by establishing an orderly succession in Spain that would not alter the balance between Europe's great powers.

Bourbon France and Hapsburg Austria and its allies went to war to determine the successor to Charles. The prize was the wealth of the Spanish Empire. The War of the Spanish Succession (1702–14) was won by France, but by the Treaty of Utrecht ending the conflict, the French and Spanish Bourbon dynasties pledged not to unite formally. Louis XIV of France's exclamation that the "Now there are no more Pyrenees!" now that his grandson was Spain's monarch did not come to pass.[2] Although Charles II's chosen heir inaugurated a new dynastic house in Spain, the Hapsburg Spanish empire in Europe was reduced to the Iberian peninsular itself, with the loss of Spanish Italy and the Spanish Netherlands, and Britain captured Gibraltar and the island of Menorca as well. The Treaty of Utrecht ended the conflict and Philip V of Spain renounced any claims to the French throne. Before the conflict ended, Philip's young wife, Maria Louisa of Savoy (1688–1714) died, and the Bourbon royal succession was assured with the birth of two sons.

Elisabeth Farnese, queen of Spain and second wife of Philip V of Spain

Philip V proved an effective administrator, centralizing the Spanish authority by eliminating regional cortes (parliaments) and beginning a process of making uniform the laws among the various regions of Spain's empire by eliminating special privileges (fueros). The Nueva Planta decrees (1716) dismantled the composite system of rule in Spain, and replaced it with rule from Madrid and unitary Castilian values. If the Austrian Hapsburgs had won the War of the Spanish Succession, Hapsburg pluralism promised to be continued, leading Aragon to support the losing Hapsburg cause. The Nueva Planta decrees eliminated that regional autonomy. "The most enduring achievement of the reign of Philip V was to establish, for the first time since the Romans, a single, united polity."[3]

Also eliminated with the Bourbon dynasty was the Hapsburg system of conciliar government, replacing councils with four secretariats, later evolving into ministries: State & Foreign Affairs, Charity & Justice; Army & Navy, and The Indies, i.e., the overseas portions of the Spanish Empire. The four ministers formed a "cabinet council" and ministers were directly responsible to the crown. In general, aristocratic men no longer dominated government positions, but rather men of talent who were then elevated to high position and rewarded with noble titles. Some 200 new titles were created by Philip alone.[4] Administrative reforms included the division of Spain into eight reinos headed by a military official and an audiencia was established for the administration of justice. Local level administrators (corregidores), which had already existed in Castile, were appointed to the other reinos. An important reform was in taxation and royal debt. Some bonds issued by the crown were repudiated while others had their interest rate downgraded. New tax officials were efficient in collecting and administering taxes, to the benefit of the new monarchy. Regions that had not paid taxes at the same levels as Castile were not subject to taxation by the unitary state.[5] Since Spain under the Bourbon monarchs pursued many wars, having a tax base to pay for them was crucial.

Philip's selection of capable French and Italian ministers to key positions in the government reined in independent, isolated, and corrupt ministries that had flourished in the later period of Hapsburg rule. Philip aimed at expanding economic activity and moved toward economic freedom, especially regarding Spain's trade in its overseas empire, in theory a Spanish monopoly. Expanding Spanish manufactures and agricultural exports was envisioned, so that trade did not benefit foreign powers who had horned in on the Spanish American trade. The House of Trade long operating in Seville, was moved to Cádiz in 1717. Philip permitted the foundation of the Basque Caracas Company in 1728, on the model of Northern European trading companies, to trade with Venezuela, a major producer of chocolate.[6] The free trade zone (comercio libre) within the Spanish sphere expanded further with later Spanish Bourbons.

Philip was often dominated in his policies by his second wife, Elizabeth Farnese. He adopted an aggressive foreign policy that invested Spain in a series of costly wars throughout his reign. The loss of so much of the European territory promised to him by Charles II's decree and Philip V's personal ambition put him at unease with the Treaty of Utrecht. Philip's wife Elizabeth, a member of the ducal house of Parma, and her favorite minister, Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, desired to have their claims in Italy and those of Philip restored. But an alliance of France, Britain, and the Dutch Republic challenged Spain's ambitions which threatened the peace of Europe. In 1717, Philip invaded Sardinia, one of the territories lost to Austria after the War of the Spanish Succession. The invasion of Sicily thereafter prompted the formation of the Quadruple Alliance of Britain, France, Austria, and the Netherlands to oppose Philip's ambitions. In 1720, embarrassed by the failure of Spanish arms at sea and on land in the War of the Quadruple Alliance, Philip dismissed Alberoni and signed a peace treaty with Austria, with both sides recognizing the Treaty of Utrecht.

The Spanish again attempted to regain some of their lost territory in the Anglo-Spanish War of 1727–1729. An alliance was concluded in 1725 with the Austrians, who agreed to help the Spanish in retaking key naval bases in the Mediterranean - Menorca and Gibraltar – from the British.

Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad. Philip V and Charles III made the navy a high priority of their governments

In response, an alliance was forged by the British Secretary of State, Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, with France and the Dutch Republic; when Philip did finally lay siege to Gibraltar, Austria declined to intervene against the powerful alliance, and Spain was left alone once again. French armies invaded the Basque country and Britain and Netherlands elected to capture Spain's New World empire and disrupt precious metal shipments hoping to prevent Philip from buying the Austrians into intervention; the allies suffered greater losses in men than the Spanish but the plan succeeded and Philip was forced to sue for peace in 1729. Elizabeth Farnese did get one of her wishes, though; the Italian duchies of Parma, Piacenza, and Tuscany were restored to her family.[7]

After 1729, Philip was more reserved in his use of Spanish power and sought the close support of allies, in particular France: a more cautious strategy that yielded positive results. Philip sought a friendly axis with his relatives in France in the War of the Polish Succession, where he succeeded in regaining Naples and Sicily for his son, the future Charles III of Spain. The Family Compact with Louis XV of France was signed in 1733, bringing the two states closer together after the embarrassments of the Quadruple Alliance. Friction with Britain prompted by the War of Jenkins' Ear (1739–1741) pushed Philip into a closer alliance with France in the years leading to the War of the Austrian Succession, in which Philip obtained further concessions from Austria for his family in Italy. This restored Spanish power in Italy to much of its pre-war extent, and added new territories that had not previously been part of the Spanish Empire in Italy.

Late in his reign, Philip elected to place the reformation of his government in the hands of his ministers. The youthful and ambitious Zenón de Somodevilla had been created Marquis of Ensenada in 1736 for his successful diplomacy after the War of the Polish Succession, and seven years afterwards, in 1743, he was made Philip (and Elizabeth's) favorite at court, and for the remainder of Philip's reign, Ensenada effectively ruled Spain. Ensenada sought a cautious but independent foreign policy that distanced his country from both France or Britain, and desired a stable, peaceful environment in which Spain could reform her institutions. Ensenada commissioned a secret report on the state of Spanish America carried out by Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa. Their report asserted that the overseas empire was inefficiently and incompetently administered by American-born Spaniards (criollos) and detailed the enmity between peninsular-born Spaniards and American-born. Administrative reforms of the overseas empire was informed by the report Ensenada commissioned.[8]

Ferdinand's successor was Charles III, son of Philip V by his second wife, Elizabeth Farnese. Charles was the half-brother of Ferdinand VI, and not initially expected to ascend the throne of Spain. Since Ferdinand had no children, it was clear that Charles would ascend to the throne. In his half-brother's last years of ill physical and mental health and erratic behavior, Charles kept up to the minute on happenings in Spain. He learned of the "spreading administrative paralysis, breakdown of responsibility, and delays in making key decisions" and was worried that France and Spain in the event might attempt to carve up the Spanish Empire.[10] At age 16, Charles had been named Duke of Parma at his mother's demand. His experience there gave him a place to experiment with the practice of enlightened despotism. He exhibited a martial spirit early on, acquiring Naples and Sicily by force of arms and becoming "King of the Two Sicilies," though his tastes were generally more peaceful. Upon arriving in Spain, he did not share Carvajal's taste for an alliance with Britain.[11]

He had been introduced to reform by his mentor in Sicily, Bernardo Tanucci. Although Tanucci remained behind in the Two Sicilies to advise Charles's son, King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, as the two thrones could not be united by consequence of treaty, Charles carried with him a cadre of Italian reformers who saw potential in the Spanish bureaucracy for modernization. The architect of the first phase of Charles III's reforms was one such Italian, Leopoldo de Gregorio - a man of humble origins whose ability as a military supplier for the Neapolitan army impressed the king and raised him to royal prominence. Created "Marquis of Esquilache" in 1755, Gregorio was one of Spain's leading statesman from the arrival of Charles III to the Marquis's death in 1785.[12]

The Marquess of Esquilache, Sicilian statesman and reformer in service to King Charles III

Although the Seven Years' War had broken out in 1756, Spain had managed to remain strictly neutral under the ministry of Ricardo Wall, who continued to lead Spain's government in the early years of Charles III. Charles, however, bore a grudge against the English and as the war became increasingly desperate for France, he went against his chief minister's wishes and intervened on France's behalf in 1762. Spain fared poorly in the war, and the British captured Havana and Manila within a year. Florida was ceded to the British and Spain recognized British control over Menorca and Gibraltar in 1763, although the vast territory of Louisiana was given to Spain to compensate her for her losses. After the Treaty of Paris (1763), however, Spain could focus on internal development.

By far the largest landholder in Spain, the Church had been treated with great charity by the Spanish kings of the seventeenth century - Philip IV in particular donated large tracts of territory in religious piety. Much of this land went unused, and a great deal of the remainder of the country was owned by gentlemanly hidalgos who lived primarily off of the state. The system had grown long obsolete, and a growing population (Spain's population would increase from eight to twelve million between 1700 and the French Revolution) had put great pressure on the government to reform. Like neighboring Portugal, Spain's antiquated bureaucracy had grown dependent on the income and production from its colonies to support an unmanageable, large class of landowning, nonproductive gentlemen and clergy.

The Enlightenment had been a force of anticlericalism in Europe, and Charles, in applying its lessons to Spain, saw it less stridently, seeking to strengthen the power of the crown (regalism) against that of the Catholic Church and the papacy. Ferdinand VI had undertaken to reduce the power of the Jesuits in Spain and had arranged for Spain's kings to appoint her own bishops, a power that France's kings had held since the fifteenth century. Charles, who advocated a radical policy and rapid modernization of the country, expelled the Jesuit Order from Spain completely in 1767 (see Suppression of the Jesuits). The Inquisition was scaled down, but not completely eradicated; as late as 1787, a woman was burned as a witch.

Land reform and agricultural reform alienated both clergymen and landed elites in Spain. Charles chose to ally with the merchantmen of his country and a growing middle class that came with a new prosperity during his rule. An advocate of free trade, Charles reduced the tariff barriers that had been the core of Spanish trade policy for centuries. The Marquis of Esquilache successfully liberalized the grain trade in 1765, but riots broke out in 1766 in due to the rise in grain prices.

"Esquilache Riots (1766)", by Francisco Goya. The liberalization of the grain trade by Esquilache caused a sharp rise in grain prices, and in turn, riots.

Although he believed in centralized government and continued the reforms of his predecessors to reduce the autonomy of the regional parliaments that could potentially challenge his power, Charles approved of establishing prototype chambers of commerce, the Economic Societies of the Friends of the Country) to encourage local economic development and initiative. The national infrastructure was improved to foster the development of Spanish manufacturing, and a unified monetary system was implemented.

The Count of Floridablanca, Spanish statesman and reformer, by Pompeo Batoni

The reforms were not without costs, however, and in 1766, in the context of a worldwide grain shortage and the difficulties of the recently liberalized grain trade, riots broke out in Madrid and other cities in Spain against rising grain prices. The "Motin de Esquilache" drove the king from his capital and embarrassed the king's chief minister. Aragonese grandee, the Count of Aranda. Aranda gained prominence during the crisis and led the government in the king's absence. Aranda was the only titled aristocrat in Charles's administration; the king generally preferred men of lower social origin who were university graduates from outside Castile. Charles granted noble titles to able men in his administration, who became part of a loyal and progressive bureaucracy.[13] Charles removed Esquilache from power in Madrid, naming Ambassador to Venice.

Aranda, as the leader of the Aragonese faction at court, favored a more decentralized system of government. Aragon's special rights in Spain had been suppressed when the Bourbon monarch Philip V ascended the throne. Following the ouster of Esquilache for a time Aranda was the leading figure in Spanish politics. A criminal prosecutor named José Moñino gained prominence as the investigator of the riots and as an outspoken supporter of the king's reformist policies. The riots were attributed to the Jesuits, who were advocates of papal power, when Bourbons were centralizing regal power. The role of the Jesuits in the riots was named as the reason to oust the Jesuits from Spain and its empire in 1767. Esquilache had arranged to have him made ambassador to Venice in 1767; in 1773 Moñino succeeded in having the Pope revoke the papal charter of the Jesuit Order. For this success, Charles named Moñino the Count of Floridablanca.

The new count was named chief minister in 1777 and undertook the material reform of the Spanish bureaucracy. His chief bureaucratic successes were the creation of a true cabinet system of government in 1778 and the creation of Spain's first national bank, the National Bank of San Carlos, in 1782.[14][15] Recognizing the damage done to Spain's education system after the expulsion of the Jesuits, Floridablanca undertook drastic reform to hire new teachers and modernize Spain's education system. Floridablanca's most enduring accomplishment was the freedom of trade in Spain's empire in the New World to foreigners.

Although Floridablanca – like Carvajal before him – admired British governance and believed that a cordial relationship with George III of the United Kingdom was the best policy for Spain, the American Revolutionary War was too great an opportunity for Charles III to pass up, and Spain went to war against Britain alongside France and the Dutch Republic in 1779, after providing monetary assistance to the rebels. Bernardo de Gálvez, the governor of Spanish Louisiana, led the campaign to retake the forts lost to the British since 1762; Pensacola, Florida was retaken in 1782, and the Bahamas were seized later that year. The Treaty of Paris (1783) restored much of what Spain had lost in the Seven Years' War, including Florida.

Spanish and Portuguese empires, 1790.

Charles is considered "the most successful monarch of Spain after Ferdinand and Isabel" in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. "He deserves high a rank among the enlightened despots of the eighteenth century, for in many ways he accomplished more than such famous rulers as Frederick the Great of Prussia, and Joseph II of Austria."[16] Historian Stanley Payne writes that Charles III "was probably the most successful European ruler of his generation. He had provided firm, consistent, intelligent leadership. He had chosen capable ministers....[his] personal life had won the respect of the people."[17] John Lynch's assessment is that in Bourbon Spain "Spaniards had to wait half a century before their government was rescued by Charles III, a giant among midgets."[18]

The Executions of the Third of May by Francisco Goya

The Spanish people rallied around the cause of Prince Ferdinand, who, even as a prisoner in France, was made into a national hero in what became a "war of independence" for Spain. Godoy, Charles IV, and his wife retired first to France, then to Italy, and left Spanish politics permanently.[20]

The installation of Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain sparked a revolution in Spain. On 3 May 1808, a revolt in Madrid was bloodily suppressed by the French army, which now found itself attempting the occupation of both Portugal and Spain. The incident and the perceived brutality of the French response created a rallying point for Spanish revolutionaries; the executions were captured famously by the Spanish painter Francisco Goya. The Spanish army, on the whole, pronounced itself in favor of Ferdinand and joined the British and Portuguese in a united front against the French.

Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain (r. 1808–14)

Regional juntas were set up that declared Joseph's monarchy invalid; the clergy rallied against the "godless" French. The juntas collectively asked Britain for aid, and London was only too happy to oblige. The Junta in Seville declared itself the Supreme Junta for Spain in 1808, and most regional juntas (and the colonies in the New World) assented to the supremacy of the Seville Junta, which became a provisional government for Spain in the absence of Ferdinand. A new French offensive the following year forced it to withdraw to Cádiz, where it would remain until close to the end of the war.

King Joseph had attempted to reconcile with the Spanish early on; at Bayonne, after the forced abdication of Ferdinand, Joseph gathered an assembly of Spanish notables to draft a constitution for his new Bonapartist regime in Spain. The most prominent members in Spanish politics – including the Count of Floridablanca – declined to attend. The cabinet and constitution that Joseph did present was viewed as illegitimate. Joseph entered Madrid on 25 July 1808, after the rebellion against his government was already well under way.

The Colossus by Francisco Goya, a representation of the war in Spain

A series of victories against the French in 1808 prompted Napoleon himself to invade Spain in 1809, forcing the British and their allies to evacuate the peninsula in only two months' time. Satisfied, Napoleon placed command of the war in the hands of one of his marshals, Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult. With the destruction of the Spanish army in 1808, Spanish resistance transformed into fierce guerrilla warfare. Although numerically inferior to the regular British, Portuguese, and Spanish armies, so effective were the Spanish guerillas that of 350,000 men of the French Armée de l'Espagne, 200,000 were employed in the protection of France's vulnerable lines of supply stretching across the breadth of Spain.

Many Spanish liberals – carrying the tradition of Charles III and his ministers – saw in a close relationship with France the hope for modernity and progress in their country. Called "afrancesados," they viewed the end of the Inquisition and the establishment of a more secular, liberal monarchy with affection, but as the French occupation dragged on, popularity for French rule even among liberals waned. By 1812, many of these afrancesados had become members of the Spanish guerilla war.

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, commander of the Anglo-Portuguese Army in the Peninsular War.

The British, under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley, invaded Spain from Portugal in 1810. A Spanish force, pulled together from the remnants of the Spanish army and volunteer fighters, joined him and successfully defeated the French under the personal command of Joseph Bonaparte at the Battle of Talavera. For his victory, Wellesley was made Duke of Wellington, although not long after Talavera he was forced to retreat into Portugal once more. Although Wellington took Madrid on 6 August 1812, he retreated not long after back to Portugal. With the stretched and harassed French forces depleted when Napoleon redeployed troops for what would be a disastrous offensive against Russia, [[saw an opportunity and attacked again in 1813. At the Battle of Vitoria, on 21 June 1813, the French under the personal command of King Joseph were again defeated, and were subsequently forced as far back as the Pyrenees in early July. Fighting continued in the mountains throughout the winter, though in the spring of 1814 the Allies advanced into southern France.

The Cortes of Cádiz drafted the Spanish Constitution of 1812. Dominated by liberal reformers, the Cortes of Cádiz described a constitutional monarchy. The inquisition would be abolished, though Roman Catholicism was still the state religion and heresy a crime. The constitution provided for freedom of speech, freedom of association, and universal manhood suffrage. In response to the constitution, France temporarily annexed Catalonia.

• Navarro i Soriano, Ferran (2019). Harca, harca, harca! Músiques per a la recreació històrica de la Guerra de Successió (1794-1715). Editorial DENES. ISBN 978-84-16473-45-8.