Editing History of Spain (section)

==Early modern Spain==
{{Main|Contemporary history of Spain|Habsburg Spain|Spanish Golden Age|Spain in the 17th century|History of Spain (1700–1810)|Enlightenment in Spain}}

===Dynastic union of the Catholic Monarchs===
[[File:Ferdinand of Aragon, Isabella of Castile (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Wedding portrait of the Catholic Monarchs]]
In the 15th century, the most important among all of the Christian kingdoms that made up the old [[Hispania]] were the [[Kingdom of Castile]], the [[Kingdom of Aragon]], and the [[Kingdom of Portugal]].  The rulers of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were allied with dynastic families in Portugal, France, and other neighboring kingdoms.

The death of King [[Henry IV of Castile]] in 1474 set off a struggle for power called the [[War of the Castilian Succession]] (1475–1479). Contenders for the throne of Castile were Henry's one-time heir [[Joanna la Beltraneja]], supported by Portugal and France, and Henry's half-sister Queen [[Isabella I of Castile]], supported by the Kingdom of Aragon and by the Castilian nobility.

Isabella retained the throne and ruled jointly with her husband, [[Ferdinand II of Aragon|King Ferdinand II]]. Isabella and Ferdinand had married in 1469.{{sfn|Thomas|2003|p=18}} Their marriage united both crowns and set the stage for the creation of the Kingdom of Spain, at the dawn of the modern era. That union, however, was a union in title only, as each region retained its own political and judicial structure. Pursuant to an agreement signed by Isabella and Ferdinand on January 15, 1474,{{sfn|Thomas|2003|p=21}} Isabella held more authority over the newly unified Spain than her husband, although their rule was shared.{{sfn|Thomas|2003|p=21}} Together, Isabella of [[Crown of Castile|Castile]] and Ferdinand of [[Crown of Aragon|Aragon]] were known as the "Catholic Monarchs" ({{langx|es|los Reyes Católicos|links=no}}), a title bestowed on them by [[Pope Alexander VI]].

==== Conclusion of the Reconquista and expulsions of Jews and Muslims ====
{{Further|Reconquista|Spanish Inquisition|Black legend (Spain)}}
The monarchs oversaw the final stages of the [[Reconquista]] of [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberian]] territory from the [[Moors]] with the conquest of [[Granada]], conquered the [[Canary Islands]], and expelled the Jews from Spain under the [[Alhambra Decree]].
Although until the 13th century religious minorities (Jews and Muslims) had enjoyed considerable tolerance in Castile and Aragon – the only Christian kingdoms where Jews were not restricted from any professional occupation – the situation of the Jews collapsed over the 14th century, reaching a climax in 1391 with large scale massacres in every major city except [[Ávila, Spain|Ávila]].

The Catholic Monarchs ordered the remaining Jews to convert or face expulsion from Spain in 1492, and extended the expulsion decrees to their territories on the Italian peninsula, including [[Sicily]] (1493), [[Naples]] (1542), and [[Milan]] (1597).<ref>{{cite book|title=Religious Refugees in the Early Modern World: An Alternative History of the Reformation|date=2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1107024564|page=108}}</ref>

Over the following decades, Muslims faced the same fate; and about 60 years after the Jews, they were also compelled to convert ("[[Moriscos]]") or be expelled. In the early 17th century, the converts were also expelled.

Isabella ensured long-term political stability in Spain by arranging strategic marriages for her five children. Her firstborn, [[Isabella, Princess of Asturias (1470–1498)|Isabella]], married [[Afonso, Prince of Portugal|Afonso of Portugal]], forging important ties between these two neighboring countries and hopefully ensuring future alliance, but the younger Isabella soon died before giving birth to an heir. [[Joanna of Castile|Juana]], Isabella's second daughter, married into the [[Habsburg dynasty]] when she wed [[Philip the Handsome|Philip the Fair]], the son of [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian I]], King of Bohemia (Austria) and likely heir to the crown of the [[Holy Roman Emperor]].

This ensured an alliance with the Habsburgs and the [[Holy Roman Empire]], a powerful, far-reaching territory that assured Spain's future political security. Isabella's only son, [[Juan, Prince of Asturias|Juan]], married [[Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy|Margaret of Austria]], further strengthening ties with the Habsburg dynasty. Isabella's fourth child, [[Maria of Aragon, Queen of Portugal|Maria]], married [[Manuel I of Portugal]], strengthening the link forged by her older sister's marriage. Her fifth child, [[Catherine of Aragon|Catherine]], married King [[Henry VIII of England]] and was mother to Queen [[Mary I of England]].

==== Conquest of the Canary Islands, Columbian expeditions to the New World, and African expansion ====
{{See also|Conquest of the Canary Islands|Kingdom of the Canary Islands|Voyages of Christopher Columbus}}
[[File:Landing of Columbus (2) (cropped).jpg|thumb|Christopher Columbus leads expedition to the New World, 1492, sponsored by Spanish crown]]
[[File:Cisneros en la Toma de Oran Juan De Borgoña 1514 (cropped).jpeg|thumb|right|Taking of Oran by [[Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros]] in 1509.]]
The Castilian conquest of the [[Canary Islands]], inhabited by Guanche people, took place between 1402 (with the conquest of [[Lanzarote]]) and 1496 (with the conquest of [[Tenerife]]). Two periods can be distinguished in this process: the noble conquest, carried out by the nobility in exchange for a pact of vassalage, and the royal conquest, carried out directly by the Crown, during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs.<ref name="Mercer1980">{{cite book|first=John|last=Mercer|title=The Canary Islanders: Their Prehistory, Conquest, and Survival|url=https://archive.org/details/canaryislanderst00merc|url-access=registration|year=1980|publisher=Collings|isbn=978-0-86036-126-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/canaryislanderst00merc/page/214 214]}}</ref> By 1520, European military technology combined with the devastating epidemics such as bubonic plague and pneumonia brought by the Castilians and enslavement and deportation of natives led to the extinction of the Guanches.
Isabella and [[Ferdinand VII of Spain|Ferdinand]] authorized the 1492 expedition of [[Christopher Columbus]], who became the first known European to reach the [[New World]] since [[Leif Ericson]]. This and subsequent expeditions led to an influx of wealth into Spain, supplementing income from within Castile for the state that was a dominant power in Europe for the next two centuries.

Spain established colonies in North Africa that ranged from the Atlantic Moroccan coast to [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]] in Libya. [[Melilla]] was occupied in 1497, [[Oran]] in 1509, [[Larache]] in 1610, and [[Ceuta]] was annexed from the Portuguese in 1668. Today, both Ceuta and Melilla still remain under Spanish control, together with smaller islets known as the ''[[presidio]]s menores'' ([[Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera]], [[Alhucemas Islands|las Islas de Alhucemas]], [[Chafarinas Islands|las Islas de Chafarinas]]).

===Spanish empire===
{{Main|Spanish Empire}}
{{See also|Habsburg Spain}}
[[File:Spanish Empire (diachronic).svg|thumb|upright=1.2|Map of territories that were once part of the Spanish Empire]]
The Spanish Empire was one of the first [[Global Empire|global empires]]. It was also one of the [[List of largest empires|largest empires]] in world history. In the 16th century, Spain and Portugal were in the vanguard of European global exploration and colonial expansion. The two kingdoms on the conquest and Iberian Peninsula competed with each other in opening of trade routes across the oceans. Spanish imperial conquest and colonization began with the Canary Islands in 1312 and 1402.{{sfn|Thomas|2003|p=58}} which began the [[Canary Islands#Castilian conquest|Castilian conquest]] of the Canary Islands, completed in 1495.
[[File:Conquista-de-México-por-Cortés-Tenochtitlan-Painting.png|thumb|right|The Conquest of Tenochtitlán]]
In the 15th and 16th centuries, trade flourished across the Atlantic between Spain and the Americas and across the Pacific between East Asia and Mexico via the Philippines. Spanish [[Conquistador]]s, operating privately, deposed the [[Aztec]], [[Inca Empire|Inca]] and [[Maya civilization|Maya]] governments with extensive help from local factions and took control of vast stretches of land.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kamen|first=Henry Arthur Francis|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/760583486|title=Empire : how Spain became a world power, 1492–1763|date=2004|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=0-06-019476-6|oclc=760583486}}</ref> In the Philippines, the Spanish, using Mexican Conquistadors like [[Juan de Salcedo]], conquered the [[History of the Philippines (900–1565)|kingdoms and sultanates of the islands]] by pitting Pagans and Muslims against each other, employing the principle of "Divide and Conquer".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Guillermo|first1=Artemio|access-date=September 11, 2020|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=wmgX9M_yETIC|page=374}}|year=2012|title=Historical Dictionary of the Philippines|publisher=The Scarecrow Press Inc.|orig-year=2012|page=374|isbn=978-0810875111|quote=To pursue their mission of conquest, the Spaniards dealt individually with each settlement or village and with each province or island until the entire Philippine archipelago was brought under imperial control. They saw to it that the people remained divided or compartmentalized and with the minimum of contact or communication. The Spaniards adopted the policy of divide et impera (divide and conquer).}}</ref> They considered their war against the Muslims of the Southeast Asia an extension of the Spanish [[Reconquista]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hawkley|first=Ethan|title=Reviving the Reconquista in Southeast Asia: Moros and the Making of the Philippines, 1565–1662|journal=Journal of World History|publisher=University of Hawai'i Press|year=2014|volume=25|issue=2–3|page=288|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276488434|doi=10.1353/jwh.2014.0014|quote=The early modern revival of the Reconquista in the Philippines had a profound effect on the islands, one that is still being felt today. As described above, the Spanish Reconquista served to unify Christians against a common Moro enemy, helping to bring together Castilian, Catalan, Galician, and Basque peoples into a single political unit: Spain. In precolonial times, the Philippine islands were a divided and unspecified part of the Malay archipelago, one inhabited by dozens of ethnolinguistic groups, residing in countless independent villages, strewn across thousands of islands. By the end of the seventeenth century, however, a dramatic change had happened in the archipelago. A multiethnic community had come together to form the colonial beginnings of a someday nation: the Philippines. The powerful influence of Christian-Moro antagonisms on the formation of the early Philippines remains evident more than four hundred years later, as the Philippine national government continues to grapple with Moro separatists groups, even in 2013.|s2cid=143692647}}</ref>

This New World empire was at first a disappointment, as the natives had little to trade. Diseases such as smallpox and measles that arrived with the colonizers devastated the native populations, especially in the densely populated regions of the Aztec, Maya and Inca civilizations, and this reduced their economic potential. Estimates of the pre-Columbian population of the Americas vary but possibly stood at 100&nbsp;million—one fifth of humanity in 1492. Between 1500 and 1600 the population of the Americas was halved. In Mexico alone, it has been estimated that the pre-conquest population of around 25&nbsp;million was reduced within 80 years to about 1.3&nbsp;million.

In the 1520s, large-scale extraction of silver from the rich deposits of Mexico's [[Guanajuato]] began to be greatly augmented by the silver mines in Mexico's [[Zacatecas]] and Bolivia's [[Potosí]] from 1546. These silver shipments re-oriented the Spanish economy, leading to the importation of luxuries and grain. The resource-rich colonies of Spain thus caused large cash inflows.<ref>{{cite book|last=Baten|first=Jörg|title=A History of the Global Economy. From 1500 to the Present.|date=2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=159|isbn=978-1107507180}}</ref> They also became indispensable in financing the military capability of [[Habsburg Spain]] in its long series of European and North African wars.
[[File:La sevilla del sigloXVI.jpg|thumb|right|The Port of [[Seville]] in the late 16th century. Seville became one of the most populous and cosmopolitan European cities after the expeditions to the New World.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Auge y decadencia del puerto de Sevilla como cabecera de las rutas indianas|first=Pablo E.|last=Pérez-Mallaína|issn=2272-9828|journal=Caravelle. Cahiers du monde hispanique et luso-brésilien|year=1997|issue=69|url=https://www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/carav_1147-6753_1997_num_69_1_2753.pdf|pages=23–24}}</ref>]]
Spain enjoyed a [[Spanish Golden Age|cultural golden age]] in the 16th and 17th centuries. For a time, the Spanish Empire dominated the oceans with its experienced [[Spanish navy|navy]] and ruled the European battlefield with its well trained infantry, the ''{{lang|es|[[tercio]]s}}''.

The financial burden within the peninsula was on the backs of the peasant class while the nobility enjoyed an increasingly lavish lifestyle. From the incorporation of the [[Portuguese Empire]] in 1580 (lost in 1640) until the loss of its American colonies in the 19th century, Spain maintained one of the largest empires in the world even though it suffered military and economic misfortunes from the 1640s. The thought that Spain could bring Christianity to the New World and protect Catholicism in Europe played a strong role in the expansion of Spain's empire.{{sfn|Carr|2000|pp= 116–172}}

===Spanish Kingdoms under the 'Great' Habsburgs (16th century)===
====Charles I, Holy Emperor====
[[File:Emperor charles v.png|thumb|[[Charles I of Spain]] (better known in the English-speaking world as the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] Charles V) was the most powerful European monarch of his day.<ref name="Patrick2007">{{cite book|first=James|last=Patrick|title=Renaissance and Reformation|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=i6ZJlLHLPY8C|page=207}}|access-date=19 August 2013|year=2007|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|isbn=978-0-7614-7651-1|page=207}}</ref>]]
Spain's world empire reached its greatest territorial extent in the late 18th century but it was under the [[Habsburg]] dynasty in the 16th and 17th centuries it reached the peak of its power and declined. The [[Iberian Union]] with Portugal meant that the monarch of Castile was also the monarch of Portugal, but they were ruled as separate entities both on the peninsula and in Spanish America and Brazil. In 1640, the [[House of Braganza]] revolted against Spanish rule and reasserted Portugal's independence.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lockhart|first=James|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1048770408|title=Early Latin America : a history of colonial Spanish America and Brazil|date=30 September 1983|isbn=978-0-521-29929-9|oclc=1048770408|page=250|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref>

When Spain's first Habsburg ruler [[Charles I of Spain|Charles I]] became king of Spain in 1516 (with his mother and co-monarch Queen Juana I effectively powerless and kept imprisoned till her death in 1555), Spain became central to the dynastic struggles of Europe. Charles also became [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor]] and because of his widely scattered domains was not often in Spain.

In 1556 Charles abdicated, giving his Spanish empire to his only surviving son, [[Philip II of Spain]], and the Holy Roman Empire to his brother, Ferdinand. Philip treated Castile as the foundation of his empire, but the population of Castile (about a third of France's) was never large enough to provide the soldiers needed. His marriage to [[Mary I of England|Mary Tudor]] allied England with Spain.

====Philip II and the wars of religion====
[[File:Asedio de San Quintín.jpg|thumb|[[Battle of St. Quentin (1557)|Battle of St. Quentin]]]]

In the 1560s, plans to consolidate control of the Netherlands led to unrest, which gradually led to the [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] leadership of the revolt and the [[Eighty Years' War]]. The Dutch armies waged a war of [[maneuver warfare|maneuver]] and [[siege]], successfully avoiding [[pitched battle]]. This conflict consumed much Spanish expenditure during the later 16th century. Other extremely expensive failures included an attempt to invade Protestant England in 1588 that produced the worst military disaster in Spanish history when the [[Spanish Armada]]—costing 10&nbsp;million ducats—was scattered by a storm.

Economic and administrative problems multiplied in [[Castile (historical region)|Castile]], and the weakness of the native economy became evident in the following century. Rising [[price revolution|inflation]], financially draining wars in Europe, the ongoing aftermath of the [[Expulsion of Jews from Spain|expulsion of the Jews]] and Moors from Spain, and Spain's growing dependency on the silver imports, combined to cause several bankruptcies that caused economic crisis in the country, especially in heavily burdened Castile. The [[Great Plague of Seville|great plague]] of 1596–1602 killed 600,000 to 700,000, or about 10% of the population. Altogether more than 1,250,000 deaths resulted from the extreme incidence of plague in 17th-century Spain.{{sfn|Payne|1973a|loc=[http://libro.uca.edu/payne1/payne15.htm Chapter 15 The Seventeenth-Century Decline]}} Economically, the plague destroyed the labor force as well as creating a psychological blow.{{sfn|Elliott|2002|p=298}}

[[File:Europe map 1648.PNG|thumb|A map of Europe in 1648, after the [[Peace of Westphalia]]]]

===Cultural Golden Age (''Siglo de Oro'')===
{{Main|Spanish Golden Age}}
[[File:El Greco View of Toledo.jpg|thumb|''[[View of Toledo]]'' by [[El Greco]], between 1596 and 1600]]
The Spanish Golden Age (''[[Siglo de Oro]]'') was a period of flourishing arts and letters in the [[Spanish Empire]] (now Spain and the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America), coinciding with the political decline and fall of the [[Habsburg]]s. Arts flourished despite the decline of the empire in the 17th century. The last great writer of the age, Sor [[Juana Inés de la Cruz]], died in [[New Spain]] in 1695.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Thomas|first=Hugh|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=6uadJumfBakC}}|title=The Golden Age: The Spanish Empire of Charles V|date=2011|publisher=Penguin UK|isbn=978-0-241-96118-6}}</ref>

The [[Habsburgs]] were great patrons of art in their countries. ''[[El Escorial]]'', the great royal monastery built by King [[Philip II of Spain|Philip II]], invited the attention of some of Europe's greatest architects and painters. [[Diego Velázquez]], regarded as one of the most influential painters of European history and a greatly respected artist in his own time, cultivated a relationship with King Philip IV and his chief minister, the [[Count-Duke of Olivares]], leaving several portraits that demonstrate his style and skill. [[El Greco]], a respected Greek artist from the period, settled in Spain, and infused Spanish art with the styles of the Italian renaissance and helped create a uniquely Spanish style of painting.

Some of Spain's greatest music is regarded as having been written in the period. Such composers as [[Tomás Luis de Victoria]], [[Luis de Milán]] and [[Alonso Lobo]] helped to shape [[Renaissance music]] and the styles of [[counterpoint]] and [[polychoral]] music, and their influence lasted into the [[Baroque music|Baroque period]].

Spanish literature blossomed as well, most famously demonstrated in the work of [[Miguel de Cervantes]], the author of ''[[Don Quixote]]''. Spain's most prolific playwright, [[Lope de Vega]], wrote possibly as many as one thousand plays over his lifetime, over four hundred of which survive.

===Decline under the 'Minor' Habsburgs (17th century)===
{{See also|Decline of Spain}}
Spain's severe financial difficulties began in the middle 16th century, and continued for the remainder of Habsburg rule. Despite the successes of Spanish armies, the period was marked by monetary inflation, [[mercantilism]], and a variety of government monopolies and interventions. Spanish kings were forced to declare [[sovereign default]]s nine times between 1557 and 1666.<ref>{{Citation|last1=Fernández-Renau Atienza|first1=Daniel|last2=Howden|first2=David|title=Three Centuries of Boom-Bust in Spain|publisher=Mises Institute|date=21 January 2016|url=https://mises.org/library/three-centuries-boom-bust-spain}}</ref>

Philip II died in 1598, and was succeeded by his son [[Philip III of Spain|Philip III]]. In his reign (1598–1621) a ten-year truce with the Dutch was overshadowed in 1618 by Spain's involvement in the European-wide [[Thirty Years' War]]. Philip III was succeeded in 1621 by his son [[Philip IV of Spain]] (reigned 1621–65). Much of the policy was conducted by the [[Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares|Count-Duke of Olivares]], the inept prime minister from 1621 to 1643. He over-exerted Spain in foreign affairs and unsuccessfully attempted domestic reform. His policy of committing Spain to recapture Holland led to a renewal of the Eighty Years' War while Spain was also embroiled in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). His attempts to centralise power and increase wartime taxation led to revolts in Catalonia and in Portugal, which brought about his downfall.<ref name="Elliott1989">{{cite book|first=J. H.|last=Elliott|title=The Count-Duke of Olivares: The Statesman in an Age of Decline|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=xsGfUv6l2PEC|page=601}}|date=1989|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-04499-7|page=601}}</ref>

During the Thirty Years' War, in which various Protestant forces battled Imperial armies, France provided subsidies to Habsburg enemies, especially Sweden. Sweden lost and France's First Minister, [[Cardinal Richelieu]], in 1635 declared war on Spain. The open [[Franco-Spanish War (1635–59)|war]] with Spain started with a victory for the French at [[Battle of Les Avins|Les Avins]] in 1635. The following year Spanish forces based in the Southern Netherlands hit back with devastating lightning campaigns in northern France that left the economy of the region in tatters. After 1636, however, Olivares, fearful of provoking another bankruptcy, stopped the advance. In 1640, both [[Portuguese Restoration War|Portugal]] and [[Reapers' War|Catalonia]] rebelled. Portugal was lost for good; in northern Italy and most of Catalonia, French forces were expelled and Catalonia's independence was suppressed. In 1643, the French defeated one of Spain's best armies at [[Rocroi]], northern France.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Friedrich|first=Carl J.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/463189393|title=The age of the baroque : 1610–1660|date=1962|publisher=Harper & Row|oclc=463189393|pages=222–225}}</ref>

{{Main|Spain in the 17th century}}
[[File:Traite-Pyrenees.jpg|thumb|right|Louis XIV of France and Philip IV of Spain at the [[Meeting on the Isle of Pheasants]] in June 1660, part of the process to put an end to the [[Franco-Spanish War (1635–59)]].]]
The Spanish "Golden Age" politically ends no later than 1659, with the [[Treaty of the Pyrenees]], ratified between France and [[Habsburg Spain]].

During the long regency for [[Charles II of Spain|Charles II]], the last of the Spanish Habsburgs, favouritism milked Spain's treasury, and Spain's government operated principally as a dispenser of patronage. Plague, famine, floods, drought, and renewed war with France wasted the country. The Peace of the Pyrenees (1659) had ended fifty years of warfare with France, whose king, [[Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV]], found the temptation to exploit a weakened Spain too great. Louis instigated the [[War of Devolution]] (1667–68) to acquire the [[Spanish Netherlands]].

By the 17th century, the Catholic Church and Spain had a close bond, attesting to the fact that Spain was virtually free of Protestantism during the 16th century. In 1620, there were 100,000 Spaniards in the clergy; by 1660 the number had grown to about 200,000, and the Church owned 20% of all the land in Spain. The Spanish bureaucracy in this period was highly centralized, and totally reliant on the king for its efficient functioning. Under Charles II, the councils became the sinecures of wealthy aristocrats despite attempts at reform. Political commentators in Spain, known as [[arbitrista]]s, proposed a number of measures to reverse the decline of the Spanish economy, with limited success. In rural areas, heavy taxation of peasants reduced agricultural output as peasants migrated to the cities. The influx of [[silver from the Americas]] has been cited as the cause of inflation, although only the ''[[quinto real]]'' (royal fifth) actually went to Spain. A prominent internal factor was the Spanish economy's dependence on the export of luxurious [[Merino wool]], which had its markets in northern Europe reduced by war and growing competition from cheaper textiles.

The once proud Spanish army was falling far behind its foes. It did badly at [[Bergen op Zoom]] in 1622.  The Dutch won very easily at [['s-Hertogenbosch]] and [[Wesel]] in 1629. In 1632 the Dutch captured the strategic fortress town of [[Maastricht]], repulsing three relief armies and dooming the Spanish to defeat.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kamen|first=Henry|title=The Decline of Spain: A Historical Myth?|date=1978|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/past/81.1.24|journal=Past and Present|issue=81|pages=24–50|doi=10.1093/past/81.1.24|issn=0031-2746}}</ref>

While Spain built a rich American Empire that exported a silver treasure fleet every year, it was unable to focus its financial, military, and diplomatic power on building up its Spanish base. The Crown's dedication to destroying Protestantism through almost constant warfare created a cultural ethos among Spanish leaders that undermined the opportunity for economic modernization or industrialization. When Philip II died in 1598, his treasury spent most of its income on funding the huge deficit, which continued to grow. In peninsular Spain, the productive forces were undermined by steady inflation, heavy taxation, immigration of ambitious youth to the colonies, and by depopulation. Industry went into reverse – Seville in 1621 operated 400 looms, where it had 16,000 a century before. Religiosity led by saints and mystics, missionaries and crusaders, theologians and friars dominated Spanish culture, with the psychology of a reward in the next world. Palmer and Colton argue:
: the generations of crusading against infidels, even, heathens and heretics had produced an exceptionally large number of minor aristocrats, chevaliers, dons, and hidalgos, who as a class were contemptuous of work and who were numerous enough and close enough to the common people to impress their haughty indifference upon the country as a whole.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Palmer|first=Robert Roswell|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=oBpHvgEACAAJ|page=127}}|page=127|title=A History of the Modern World|date=1950|publisher=Knopf}}</ref> Elliott cites the achievements of Castille in many areas, especially high culture. He finds:{{sfn|Elliott|2002|p=404}}
:A certain paradox in the fact that the achievement of the two most outstanding creative artists of Castile – Cervantes and Velázquez – was shot through with a deep sense of disillusionment and failure; but the paradox was itself a faithful reflection of the paradox of sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Castile. For here was a country which had climbed to the heights and sunk to the depths; which had achieved everything and lost everything; which had conquered the world only to be vanquished itself. The Spanish achievement of the sixteenth century was essentially the work of Castile, but so also was the Spanish disaster of the seventeenth; and it was [[José Ortega y Gasset|Ortega y Gasset]]  who expressed the paradox most clearly when he wrote what may serve as an epitaph on the Spain of the House of Austria: ‘Castile has made Spain, and Castile has destroyed it.’

The Habsburg dynasty became extinct in Spain with Charles II's death in 1700, and the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] ensued in which the other European powers tried to assume control of the Spanish monarchy. King [[Louis XIV of France]] eventually lost the [[War of the Spanish Succession]]. The victors were Britain, the Dutch Republic and Austria. They allowed the crown of Spain to pass to the [[Bourbon dynasty]], provided that Spain and France never merged.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lesaffer|first1=Randall|title=The peace of Utrecht and the balance of power|url=https://blog.oup.com/2014/11/utrecht-peace-treaty-balance-power-europe/|website=OUP Blog|access-date=5 July 2018|date=2014-11-10}}</ref>

After the [[War of the Spanish Succession]], the assimilation of the [[Crown of Aragon]] by the [[Crown of Castile|Castilian Crown]], through the [[Nueva Planta decrees|Nueva Planta Decrees]], was the first step in the creation of the Spanish [[nation state]]. And like other European nation-states in formation,<ref>{{cite journal|year=1978|last=Connor|first=Walker|doi=10.1080/01419870.1978.9993240|journal=Ethnic and Racial Studies|issue=4|pages=377–400|title=A Nation is a Nation, is a State, is an Ethnic Group, is a...|volume=1}}</ref> it was not on a uniform [[Ethnic group|ethnic]] basis, but by imposing the political and cultural characteristics of the dominant ethnic group, in this case the Castilian, on those of the other ethnic groups, so they become [[national minorities]] to be assimilated.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sobrequés i Callicó|first=Jaume|year=2021|publisher=Departament de Justícia de la Generalitat de Catalunya|isbn=978-84-18601-20-0|language=Catalan|title=Repressió borbònica i resistència identitària a la Catalunya del segle XVIII}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=2006|title=L'Espill, nº 24|url=https://roderic.uv.es/handle/10550/34591|language=ca|first=Antoni|last=Simon|pages=45–46|journal=L'Espill|issue=24|publisher=Universitat de València}}</ref> Nationalist policies, sometimes very aggressive,<ref>{{cite book|first=Ferrer Gironès|publisher=Edicions 62|isbn=978-8429723632|language=Catalan|last=Francesc|page=320|title=La persecució política de la llengua catalana|year=1985}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Benet|year=1995|publisher=Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat|isbn=84-7826-620-8|language=Catalan|last=Josep|author-link=Josep Benet i Morell|title=L'intent franquista de genocidi cultural contra Catalunya}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Lluís|publisher=Base|isbn=978-8418434983|language=Catalan|last=García Sevilla|page=300|title=Recopilació d'accions genocides contra la nació catalana|year=2022}}</ref><ref name=":03">{{cite book|first=Llaudó Avila|year=2021|edition=7th|publisher=Parcir|isbn=978-8418849107|place=Manresa|last=Eduard|title=Racisme i supremacisme polítics a l'Espanya contemporània}}</ref> and still in force,<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Plataforma per la llengua|title=Novetats legislatives en matèria lingüística aprovades el 2018 que afecten els territoris de parla catalana|url=https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/pdf/novetats_legislatives_en_materia_linguistic02_1571310685.pdf|date=June 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=July 2021|title=Novetats legislatives en matèria lingüística aprovades el 2019 que afecten els territoris de parla catalana|url=https://plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/arxius/ambits-treball/Drets%20Ling%C3%BC%C3%ADstics/Novetats_legislatives_en_mat%C3%A8ria_ling%C3%BC%C3%ADstic-2019-ok.pdf|publisher=Plataforma per la llengua}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=December 2019|publisher=Plataforma per la llengua|title=Comportament lingüístic davant dels cossos policials espanyols|url=https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/pdf/linguisticcossospolicials_1576579756.pdf}}</ref> have been and are the seeds of repeated territorial conflicts within the state.