Rise as a World Power: From the Renaissance to the nineteenth century

Until the late 15th century, Castile, León, Aragón, and Navarre were four independent states, with independent languages, laws, monarchs, armies and, in the case of Aragon and Castile, two empires: the former with one in the Mediterranean and the latter with a new, rapidly growing one in the Americas. The process of political unification continued into the early 16th century. It was the unification of these separate Iberian empires that became the base of what is now referred to as the Spanish Empire. The political, social and military adaptations of the 15th century and with the rising output of the American silver mines from the middle of the 16th century, made Spain the most powerful country in Europe throughout the 16th century and the first half of the 17th century.
An anachronous map showing areas pertaining to the Spanish Empire at various times over a period exceeding 400 years. For detailed key click on map. The Spanish colonial empire at its territorial height in 1790. Regions of influence (explored/claimed but never controlled or vice versa) or short-lived / disputed colonies. Portuguese possessions ruled jointly under the Spanish sovereign, 1580–1640. Territories lost at, or prior to, the 1714 Peace of Utrecht.
Equatorial Guinea, Spanish Morocco and West Africa, 1884–1975.
An anachronous map showing areas pertaining to the Spanish Empire at various times over a period exceeding 400 years. For detailed key click on map. The Spanish colonial empire at its territorial height in 1790. Regions of influence (explored/claimed but never controlled or vice versa) or short-lived / disputed colonies. Portuguese possessions ruled jointly under the Spanish sovereign, 1580–1640. Territories lost at, or prior to, the 1714 Peace of Utrecht. Equatorial Guinea, Spanish Morocco and West Africa, 1884–1975.

It was in the 16th century, during the long reigns of the first two Spanish Habsburgs (Charles I and Philip II) that Spain reached its apogee. The Spanish Empire covered most territories of South and Central America, Mexico, the south of North America (New Spain), some of Eastern Asia (including the Philippines), the Iberian peninsula (including the Portuguese empire (from 1580), southern Italy, Sicily, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. It was the first empire about which it was said that the sun did not set. It was an Age of Discovery, with daring explorations by sea and by land, the opening up of new trade routes across oceans, conquests and the beginning of European colonialism. Along with the arrival of precious metals, spices, luxuries, and new agricultural plants the explorers, soldiers, sailors, traders and missionaries also brought back with them a flood of knowledge that transformed the European understanding of the world.

Of note during the 16th and 17th centuries was the cultural efflorescence now known as the Spanish Golden Age and the intellectual movement known as the School of Salamanca.

The lingering “decline of Spain” set in during the 17th century. This stagnation was a complex phenomena involving political, social and economic factors, but key to it was the strain of ever expanding military efforts. For a long time these were generally successful (with the notable exception in the north of the Low Countries) in defending the territorial and religious integrity of the scattered Habsburg’s empire. But these massive ongoing commitments ultimately bankrupted and bled Spain dry during the vast Thirty Years War that tore Europe apart. By 1640 rebellions led to the succession of Portugal and Catalonia. With forces stretched to the limit across Europe, Spain still managed to recover Catalonia and the Italian territories but not Portugal, thereby also losing those territories ruled from Lisbon, including Brazil, and strongholds in Africa and India and with it a good deal of the lucrative eastern spice trade and most of the Atlantic slave trade. The growing beggary forced many to live by their wits and picaresque literature flourished.

With the death of a childless Spanish Habsburg king controversy over succession to the throne consumed much of Europe during the first years of the 18th century. The War of Spanish Succession, which combined a wide ranging international conflict with a civil war, finally cost Spain its European empire and its postion as a leading power on the Continent, although it retained its overseas territories.

A new dynasty—the French Bourbons—was installed, and with it a true Spanish state was established when the absolutist first Bourbon king Philip V of Spain in 1707 dissolved the pro-parliamentary Aragon court and unified the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon into a single, unified Kingdom of Spain, abolishing many of the regional privileges and autonomies (fueros) that had hampered Habsburg rule. The National Day of Catalonia still commemorates this defeat.

Following the wars at its commencement the 18th century saw a long, slow recovery, with an expansion of the iron and steel industries in the Basque Country, a growth in ship building, a gradual increase in trade and the growth of Castile’s population. The new Bourbon monarchy drew on the French system in trying to modernize the administration and economy, in which it was much more successful in the former than the latter. With the ending of Cadiz's royally granted trade monopoly with the American territories trade finally began to grow strongly in the last years of the century. Spain's effective military assistance to the rebellious British colonies in the American War of Independence won it renewed international standing.

Napoleonic rule and its consequences

The reform efforts of Charles III and his ministers led to a profound gap between partisans of the Enlightenment (Afrancesados) and partisans of the Old Spain. The subsequent war with France in 1793 polarized the country in an apparent reaction against the Gallicised elites. Spain made peace with France in 1795, and in 1796, Spain, in support of France, declared war against Britain and Portugal. The disastrous Spanish economic situation, and controversial relations with the juggernaut that was Napoleonic France, led to the Mutiny of Aranjuez on March 17, 1808, and forced the abdication of the king in favour of Joseph Bonaparte. The abdication was masterminded by Napoleon, who distrusted the unreliable ally that Spain was under the House of Bourbon.

The new foreign monarch was regarded with scorn. On May 2, 1808, the people of Madrid took up arms in a nationalist uprising against the French army. A massively destructive and savage war ensued, known to the Spanish as the War of Independence, and to the English as the Peninsular War. Napoleon was forced to intervene personally, bringing the Spanish army to its knees and driving the Anglo-Portuguese forces out — but triggering a massive guerrilla war as a result. The guerrillas and Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese army were very effective: their actions, combined with Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, led to the ousting of the French from Spain in 1814, and the return of King Ferdinand VII.

The French invasion had numerous consequences for Spain. The war proved disastrous for Spain's economy, reversing the improvements of the late 18th century. It also brought a political and territorial legacy, and left a deeply divided country that was prone to political instability for more than a century. In 1812, the Liberal Courts of Cádiz redacted a Constitution, bringing to the country a new form of government under which future monarchs would be obliged to rule, more or less willingly. The power vacuum between 1808 and 1814 enabled local juntas in the Spanish colonies in the Americas to rule independently. Starting in 1809, the hemisphere began the process of freeing itself from Spanish rule. By 1825, Spain had lost all of its colonies in Latin America, with the exception of Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Spanish-American War

At the end of the 19th century, Spain lost all of its remaining old colonies in the Caribbean and Asia-Pacific regions, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, Philippines, and Guam to the United States after unwittingly and unwillingly being thrust into the Spanish-American War of 1898. In 1899 Spain sold its remaining Pacific possessions to Germany.

"The Disaster" of 1898, as the Spanish-American War was called, gave increased impetus to Spain's cultural revival (Generation of '98) in which there was much critical self examination, and relieved it from the burden of its last major colonies. However, political stability in such a dispersed and variegated land, caught between pockets of modernity and large areas of extreme rural backwardness and strongly differentiated regional identities and deep divisions over legitimacy originating from the Napoleonic period, would elude the country for some decades yet, and was ultimately imposed only by a brutal dictatorship in 1939.

The 20th century

The 20th century initially brought little peace; Spain played a minor part in the scramble for Africa, with the colonization of Western Sahara, Spanish Morocco and Equatorial Guinea. However the area assigned to Spain was mostly abrupt terrain populated by warlike tribesmen with an age-old history of fighting outsiders. A poorly planned advance into the interior due to political pressure led to military disaster in Morocco in 1921. This contributed to discrediting the monarch and worsened political instability. A period of dictatorial rule under General Miguel Primo de Rivera (1923–1931) ended with the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic. The Republic offered political autonomy to the Basque Country, Catalonia and Galicia (where the autonomy did not have any effect due to the civil war) and gave voting rights to women.

Right-Left tensions continued to mount in spite of the 1936 elections, with the destruction of Church property and political assassinations. A coup failed but the bitterly fought Spanish Civil War (1936-39) ensued. Three years later the Nationalist forces, led by General Francisco Franco, emerged victorious with the support of Germany and Italy. The Republican side was supported by the Soviet Union and Mexico, but was crucially left isolated through the British-led policy of Non-Intervention. The Spanish Civil War has been called the first battle of the Second World War. Spanish involvement in the Second World War was in fact a continuation of its civil war. Under Franco Spain was neutral though sympathetic to the Axis.

Over a hundred thousand highly motivated Spanish Civil War veterans were to give both sides the benefit of their experience throughout the Second World War in Europe, the Eastern Front and North Africa. Many in the French Resistance were Spanish as was the 9th Armoured Company that spearheaded Général Leclerc's 2nd Armoured Division's liberation of Paris. On the other side, about 40,000 Spaniards fought against the Soviet Union in the Wehrmacht's División Azul (Blue Division).

The only legal party under Franco's regime (see Spain under Franco) was the Falange española tradicionalista y de las JONS, formed in 1937 by the forcible fusion of the pseudo-fascist Falange and the monarchist Carlist movement. The party emphasized anti-Communism, Catholicism, nationalism, and imperial expansion, and was one of the regime's major instruments of internal control.

After World War II Spain was politically and economically isolated, and was kept out of the United Nations until 1955, when it became strategically important for US president Eisenhower to establish a military presence in the Iberian peninsula. In the 1960s, Spain began to enjoy economic growth (Spanish miracle) which gradually transformed it into a modern industrial economy with a thriving tourism sector.

Upon the death of General Franco in November 1975, his personally designated heir Prince Juan Carlos assumed the position of king and head of state. With the approval of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the arrival of democracy, were given some political autonomy, which was then soon extended to all Spanish regions. In the Basque Country, moderate Basque nationalism coexists with radical nationalism supportive of the terrorist group ETA. In 1982, the Spanish Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE) came to power and played a crucial role leading the country down the road to Community membership. One of the essential objectives of the party was attaining EU membership, which they associated with modernization.
The scene of one of the Madrid bombings.
The scene of one of the Madrid bombings.

On January 1, 1999 Spain adopted the Euro as its national currency.

Since the current Constitution was passed in 1978, Spain has had 5 Presidentes del Gobierno (Prime Ministers) as of September 2006.

21st century

On November 18, 2002, the oil tanker Prestige sank near to the Galician coast, causing a huge oil spill. It has since been regarded as one of the worst environmental disasters in Spanish history.

On March 11, 2004, a series of bombs exploded in commuter trains in Madrid, Spain. This act of terror killed 191 people and wounded 1,460 more, besides having arguably a dramatic effect on the upcoming national elections. The 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings had an adverse effect on the then-ruling conservative party Partido Popular (PP) which polls were giving as a likely winner of the elections, thus helping the election of Zapatero's Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE). There were two nights of incidents around the PP headquarters, with PSOE accusing the PP of hiding the truth by saying that the incidents were caused by ETA even though new evidence that pointed to an islamic attack started appearing. These incidents are still a cause of discussion, since some factions of the PP suggest that the elections were "stolen" by means of the turmoil which followed the terrorist bombing, which was, according to this point of view, backed by the PSOE. These incidents did interfere with the last day of campaigning when, according to the Spanish electoral system regulations, any kind of political propaganda is prohibited and PP's candidate (Mariano Rajoy) appeared in some newspapers as interior minister. March 14 2004 saw the PSOE party elected into government, with Zapatero becoming the new PM of Spain. Since the PSOE's election victory Zapatero's government has withdrawn Spanish troops from Iraq and tackled a series of social issues, including same-sex marriages, gender-violence and divorce. Zapatero also presided over the Spanish Parliament's approval of the new (and controversial) Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia. Spain has also experienced increasing immigration since the start of the twenty-first century. On the 15 March 2006, ETA declared a "fire out" which ended on the 30 December 2006 after the killing of two Ecuadorians in a terrorist attack at Madrid Barajas International Airport.