Spain the land of bulls, tomato fetish, and some unexpected inquisitions. Spain may look harmless and tourists did today, but back in the day, Spain was a big bully in Europe and a major global maritime power The Spanish empire was the pioneer of European colonization in the Americas and its legacy can be seen in its language where Spanish is an official language in many countries in general, the global influence of the European colonial powers declined after World War Two. But unlike its contemporaries like Britain and France, Spain's decline started way earlier.
So why did the Spanish empire lose its great power status and losing the status quite early on? Well, generally speaking, if you have an earlier decline, it means that you have an earlier rise to power. Spain's rise to power can be traced back to the 15th century, when this dude and this lady got married and joined these two kingdoms together forming the backbone of what we call Spain today.
During those days, a king can inherit lands via marriage. The Hapsburg monarchs were the experts in marrying their way up the ladder and they eventually became the rulers of Spain. Plus some other chunks of European lens Spain's next-door neighbour. Portugal had a head start in exploring the world. Finding new trade routes to Africa and India, making itself very rich. Spain was not happy and being competitive, hired this Italian guy here to find India by sailing west. He found the Americas, but named the local natives, Indians, American natives, and Indian subcontinent dudes look different by the way, the discovery of the Americas kick-started the Spanish colonization of the American continents. As the pope divided the world between Portugal and Spain, Spain also gets to colonize the Philippines at the other end of the world. This is why a lot of people in the Philippines have Spanish-sounding names Today.
Back in the Americas, if you are Aztec or Inca people, you will say that the Spanish empire is the evilest shite, the universe ever created. If you are the Spanish king, you will say that the discovery of America is the best thing ever happened Spain conquered and settled the Americas, establishing towns and spreading catholic Jesus to the natives. Spain also mind the shit out of the Americas, transporting all those silver to Europe, making itself very rich With this newfound wealth, Spain became a great power in Europe, with its king controlling huge chunks of Europe, including Portugal at some point, Spain also experienced Golden Age during the 16th Century where Arts and Literature are flourished in Spain. After this German dude flips the middle finger to the church, it kick-started the reformation in Europe. More and more people abandoned catholic Jesus for protestant Jesus Spain was a hardcore catholic Fanboy and it was not happy with those protestant countries abandoning catholic Jesus being the top dog in Europe.
Spain felt compelled to champion the catholic cause across Europe to suppress the protestant movements and boy did Spain fought hard for its catholic Jesus. Nevertheless, when you are the top dog in Europe, you will get a lot of haters. Some haters of Spain include the dutch people during the dutch revolt, The Ottomans in the mediterranean sea, the Italians and french during the Italian wars and this English queen war is costly and Spain bankrupted several times to add salt to the wound. England asked its pirates to attack those sexy Spanish ships carrying silver and treasures. After the de facto independence of the Dutch republic from Spain, the Dutch Republic began to compete with Spain in the global maritime trade. Eventually pushing off Spain from naval trade supremacy. To make matters worse, the rule of economy stated that the more silver, the more inflation the more worthless year silver become.
Hence, exports of silver were one of the main reasons for both the rise and the fall of the Spanish empire. A blessing and occurs. The reliance on natural resources extraction meant that the Spanish empire did not focus on entrepreneurship, manufactured goods, and work in tile is of which the Dutch empire, the English slash British empire, and the french empire had mastered Later Spain got involved in the 30 years war because Catholic Jesus was very important to Spain as Spain had to raise taxes to fund its army and government spending Spain faced a lot of internal unrests and revolts during this time, Portugal regained its independence The 30 years war weakened Spain significantly. At this point, France had largely replaced Spain as a dominant power in continental Europe. In the seas, the Dutch Republic England, and France had largely replaced Spain and Portugal as naval top dogs.
Nevertheless, Spain managed to hold onto its colonies and still a major colonial power to be reckoned with. When this Hapsburg Spanish king dies, the Spanish succession war started because Europe was not happy with the prospect of a union between France and Spain, which would upset the European balance of power. Spain was fucked over as its European buddies gang up to tear its empire apart, fighting over which king and land Spain should have. The war of Spanish succession marked the definite decline of Spain, as Spain was no longer a great power of Europe and lost some of its colonies, Britain got hold of Gibraltar a thorn under Spain's belly. During the 18th century, the bourbon kings of Spain implemented reforms to make Spain great again and it kind of worked. Trade increased army strengthened and the colonies maintained good stuff going on for Spain. Then Napoleon came along and he became Spain's worst nightmare, Napoleon invaded and occupied.
Spain chose his brother to be the king of Spain. Of course, Spain was not happy and it revolted kicking the french back across the Pyrenees with the help of the brits. The Napoleonic wars had shown to the Spanish colonies in the Americas that Spain can no longer protect them and hence they revolted and fought for their independence from Spain. The idea of liberty promoted by Napoleon was quite appealing indeed. Towards the mid 19th century, Spain had largely lost its American colonies, with only a handful of islands and small land still under Spanish control The scramble for Africa feature, little involvement from Spain. Then the United States came along and got into a beef with Spain because the United States wanted to give some American freedom to the people in Cuba. Spain lost and Cuba gained its independence, Spain also had to see Guam, Puerto, Rico, and the Philippines to the United States.
The Spanish-American war marked the beginning of the United States' rise as a global power Spain was said sadly indeed. In World War One Spain State neutral and got some flu fun facts. The Spanish flu was not from Spain. During the interwar period, Spain experienced civil war, which tears the country apart. The Spanish civil war can also be described as a European proxy war where the European powers tested their military tactics on Spanish soil. The main victim was of course the Spanish people in World War Two. Spain again states neutral. although Germany wanted Spain to be on its side. After World War Two, everyone in Europe was doing decolonization Whether willingly or unwillingly Spain granted independence to the remnants of its colonies. During this time, Spain experienced an economic miracle, making itself rich again, made itself democratic, got its king back, and here we are today.
Nowadays, Spain still gets to dominate the world, usually in sports. So what is the point of knowing some history of the Spanish empire? Well, the lesson here is that do not rely too much on natural resources extraction for your country's wealth. Some economic diversification like manufacturing and trading might be a good idea to sustain your country's economy and strength. The long-term legacy of the Spanish empire can be seen in its linguistic, religious, and cultural influence around the world, particularly in the Western Hemisphere. The Spanish empire also facilitated the Columbian exchange, where lots of plants and animals were exchanged between the Old world and the New world For example, the potatoes used in British fish and chips were not as British as you think and it is made possible by those Spanish dudes today. The remnants of the Spanish empire can be seen in the Spanish cities on the North African coast.
To the annoyance of Morocco Conversely, Spain is quite annoyed with the United Kingdom holding on to Gibraltar as it is a remnant of the British empire on the Spanish mainland. When you visit Spain please do not. Just head to the beach and get drunk all day long and becoming a self-entitled asshole tourist please take some time to appreciate Spain's amazing cultural heritage, its people, and its glorious history because the Spanish empire had directly or indirectly shaped who you are and what you eat today. Thanks for watching