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The Spanish Empire,[b] sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy[c] or the Catholic Monarchy,[d][4][5][6] was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976.[7][8] In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It achieved a global scale,[9] controlling vast portions of the Americas, Africa, various islands in Asia and Oceania, as well as territory in other parts of Europe.[10] It was one of the most powerful empires of the early modern period, becoming known as "the empire on which the sun never sets".[11] At its greatest extent in the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Spanish Empire covered over 13 million square kilometres (5 million square miles), making it one of the largest empires in history.[3]
Beginning with the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus and continuing for over three centuries, the Spanish Empire would expand across the Caribbean Islands, half of South America, most of Central America and much of North America. The Magellan-Elcano circumnavigation—the first circumnavigation of the Earth—laid the foundation for Spain's Pacific empire and for Spanish control over the East Indies. The influx of gold and silver from the mines in Zacatecas and Guanajuato in Mexico and Potosí in Bolivia enriched the Spanish crown and financed military endeavors and territorial expansion. Another crucial element of the empire's expansion was the financial support provided by Genoese bankers, who financed royal expeditions and military campaigns.[12]
In 1700, Philip V became king of Spain after the death of Charles II, the last Habsburg monarch of Spain, who died without an heir. His ascension triggered the War of the Spanish Succession, as various European powers contested his claim to the throne. The conflict concluded with the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, allowing Philip, the first Bourbon king of Spain, to retain the throne but resulting in territorial losses for Spain: Gibraltar, Menorca, the Spanish Netherlands and Spanish Italy. In 1763, after the Seven Years' War, Spain ceded both East Florida and West Florida to Great Britain while gaining Louisiana from France.[13] However, in 1783, following the American Revolutionary War, Britain ceded both Floridas back to Spain as part of the Treaty of Paris. Spain had recaptured West Florida in 1781 through military operations.[14] Both Floridas were ceded to the United States in 1819 as part of the Adams-Onís Treaty. Louisiana was ceded back to France in 1801 in the Treaty of Aranjuez.[15]
The Bourbon monarchy implemented reforms like the Nueva Planta decrees, which centralized power and abolished regional privileges. Economic policies promoted trade with the colonies, enhancing Spanish influence in the Americas. Socially, tensions emerged between the ruling elite and the rising bourgeoisie, as well as divisions between peninsular Spaniards and Creoles in the Americas.[16] These factors ultimately set the stage for the independence movements that began in the early 19th century, leading to the gradual disintegration of Spanish colonial authority.[17] By the mid-1820s, Spain had lost its territories in Mexico, Central America, and South America. By 1900, it had also lost Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippine Islands, and Guam in the Mariana Islands following the Spanish–American War.[18]
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- ^ Monarchy nominally restored in 1947
- ^ Government proclaimed in 1936
- ^ a b Taagepera, Rein (September 1997). "Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia" (PDF). International Studies Quarterly. 41 (3): 492–502. doi:10.1111/0020-8833.00053. JSTOR 2600793. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 July 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
- ^ Fernández Álvarez, Manuel (1979). España y los españoles en los tiempos modernos (in Spanish). University of Salamanca. p. 128.
- ^ Schneider, Reinhold, 'El Rey de Dios', Belacqva (2002)
- ^ Hugh Thomas, 'World Without End: The Global Empire of Philip II', Penguin; first edition (2015)
- ^ Wright, Edmund, ed. (2015). A Dictionary of World History (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780192807007.001.0001. ISBN 978-0191726927.
- ^ Echávez-Solano, Nelsy; Dworkin y Méndez, Kenya C., eds. (2007). Spanish and Empire. Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press. pp. xi–xvi. doi:10.2307/j.ctv16755vb.3. ISBN 978-0826515667. S2CID 242814420.
- ^ Beaule, Christine; Douglass, John G., eds. (2020). The Global Spanish Empire: Five Hundred Years of Place Making and Pluralism. Amerind Studies in Anthropology. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. pp. 3–15. doi:10.2307/j.ctv105bb41. ISBN 978-0816545711. JSTOR j.ctv105bb41. S2CID 241500499. Archived from the original on 30 August 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021 – via Open Research Library.
- ^ Gibson, p. 91; Lockhart & Schwartz 1983, p. 19.
- ^ Márquez, Carlos E. (2016). "Plus Ultra and the Empire Upon Which the Sun Never Set". In Tarver, H. Micheal; Slape, Emily (eds.). The Spanish Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia [2 volumes]: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 161. ISBN 978-1610694223. Archived from the original on 14 January 2023. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
- ^ Kamen 2003, p. 69.
- ^ Kamen 2003, p. 484.
- ^ Marley 2008, p. 512.
- ^ Kamen 2003, p. 485.
- ^ Kamen 2003, p. 506.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Scheina 2003, p. 424.