Sociales

1.       INTRODUCTION
The Catholic Monarchs had planned for their son Juan to inherit their territories. However, with his death, the crowns of Spain were transferred from the hands of the House of Trastamara to that of Habsburg. The Spain of the Habsburgs sought to become fully a Modern State and, with Carlos V, the crowns of Castile and Aragon will be definitively united.
The first Austrias, Carlos I and Felipe II (Austrias Mayores), will be those who exploit the American economic possibilities. They will be followed by Felipe III, Felipe IV and Carlos II (Austrias Menores), who will close the dynasty without descendants.
2.       CARLOS I OF SPAIN, V OF GERMANY
Charles V was born in Flanders and educated in the Netherlands. Due to matrimonial policies, Carlos (grandson of Fernando el Católico and Maximilian of Austria) inherited the Hispanic possessions from mother Juana la Loca (Castile, Aragon, Navarra, Naples and America) and the dominions of the House of Austria (Netherlands, Burgundy, Luxembourg, Austria and Corintia). And on the part of his father Felipe el Hermoso, he inherited the right to the imperial throne of the Holy Roman Empire. 
─           INTERNAL PROBLEMS: Outbreak of 2 revolts: 
a)      MOVIMIENTO COMUNERO
The main causes of this revolt were:
§  The discomfort over the submission of the Castilian interests to those of Flanders and the Holy Roman Empire. 
§  The disappointment with the new king: a foreigner and ignorant of the customs and language of the country, who also replaced the Castilian nobility with that of Flanders. 
§  The increase in taxes for defray the expenses of the election of Carlos as emperor → Carlos V had to bribe the selectors to be emperor (instead of Francis I), and for this he needed the financial support of Spain.
Because of that, some cities refused to pay and created a citizen militia that aimed to:
§  Dethrone Carlos V and return the crown to his mother, Juana la Loca.
§  Strengthen the role of the kingdom, through the Cortes, against the growing power of the king.
However, the nobility supported Carlos V as they had the same interests and the revolt was defeated in   VILLALAR by the royal power, and its leaders (BRAVO, PADILLA and MALDONADO) were beheaded. There was a city, led by MARÍA PACHECO, that resisted one more year. The direct consequence was the consolidation of authoritarian power.




b)      LAS GERMANÍAS 
It was a rebellion of the lower classes of Valencia against the crown. They rebelled because of the taxation and lack of protection they had, since the Turks of North Africa attacked and kidnapped the population to sell them as slaves, and the nobility refused to protect them.
Finally, the Germanías were also defeated, and the sentences were much more violent, since the objective of this rebellion was to destroy the social system (which did not benefit the nobility).
─          EXTERNAL PROBLEMS
a)       WARS AGAINST FRANCIS I (KING OF FRANCE). They fought for the city-states of Italy. There were many wars but, finally, the French king was defeated.
b)      CONFRONTATION WITH THE TURKS. Charles V tried to defeat the Turks in the Mediterranean because of increasing piracy. In addition, he wanted to defeat them in the city of Vienna because they tried to conquer it twice.
c)       CONCERN BECAUSE OF THE LUTHERAN REFORM. Charles V wanted to re-establish the Catholic religion in the Holy Roman Empire and stop Lutheranism. However, Luther allied himself with the Protestant German princes, who were united in the ESMALCALDA LEAGUE. This league was defeated in MÜHLBERG, but then they allied with Henry II of France and defeated Charles V. 
Finally, after the defeat of Innsbruck, Charles V had to sign the AUGSBURG peace treaty, in which he assumed the failure of his objective and accepted that the princes could choose the religion of their population (that could only be Lutheranism or Catholicism).
Carlos V abdicated because he thought he had failed in his most important purpose. He proposed his brother Fernando of Habsburg as Emperor, and gave to his son Felipe II the crowns of Castile and Aragon and Portugal (in addition to Naples, Netherlands and the Philippines).He spent his lasts years in the monastery of Yuste. 
3.       FELIPE II
Felipe, taciturn and austere, was very religious and fond of collecting and music. He would extreme the rigid Austrian protocol. He settled in the Court and the state machinery became very complex (he increased to 14 the 9 ministries). 
Felipe will seek during his reign the maintenance and expansion of the inherited empire and defense of the Catholic religion.
─          INTERNAL PROBLEMS:
REVOLT OF THE ALPUJARRAS. In the Alpujarras there was a large group of moriscos, suspected of continuing to practice their religion (as it was an isolated area that had no control). The Inquisition began to persecute them and there was a rebellion.
It was Don Juan of Austria who was in charge of defeating them, because he thought they were messengers from North Africa (which would be bad for Spain).
─          EXTERNAL PROBLEMS: 
Felipe’s foreign affairs had been the same as his father.
a)       ITALY. Felipe II had a war against the King of France for the control of Italy, and he was defeated by Felipe in the Battle of San Quintín in the XVI century.
          France stopped fighting these battles because it had to deal with its Wars of Religion (Huguenots against Catholics), because, although the kings were Catholic, there were many Huguenot nobles. That is why the war was complicated.
          On the Night of Saint Bartolomé, the kings of France celebrated their wedding and invited all the Huguenot nobles. At dawn, there was a massacre in which all the Huguenots were killed. However, they resisted and more battles ensued. The war ended with the disappearance of the Valois family and Henry IV (Bourbon king) was forced to convert to Catholicism to govern. With this king, Huguenots and Catholics coexisted in France. 
b)      OTTOMAN TURKS. The Turks had taken control of much of the Mediterranean Sea, where piracy began to increase. That is why Felipe organized the Holy League (an alliance between Spain, Genoa, the papacy, and Venice) to fight the Turks. The leader of the galley fleet was Don Juan de Austria (bastard son of Carlos V and half-brother of Felipe). This war is called the Battle of Lepanto, whose victory increased the morale of the victors. 
c)       WAR OF FLANDERS. In the 80 – year war, Spain fought against the Netherlands. Much of Holland was Protestant and they also considered that the taxation was not fair, so they rebelled.
          Although the war could have been solved with diplomacy, the Duke of Alba (whom the king sent to solve the problems) proved to be very inflexible and declared war on them. When he reached the Netherlands, he killed all the nobles except William of Orange.


Because of this, major problems were created and the Netherlands fought against Spain, as it was very rich and powerful. Felipe left Spain bankrupt for financing this war.
d)      ENGLAND. Henry VIII, King of England, created the Anglican Church. His daughter, Maria Tudor, re – established the Catholic religion when her father died, and later, her sister Elizabeth I established again the Act of Supremacy. 
          She had a rivalry with the Queen of Scotland, Mary Stuart, who was a Catholic. For this reason, Elisabeth captured Stuart and beheaded her.
          King Felipe II, consequently, sent an army of Tercios to England to dethrone her. The fleet, whose objective was to cross the English Channel, was led by Álvaro de Bazán (but he died before and they had to choose another admiral). When they went to England, they had to continue sailing north due to the storm, and there they had to fight against the Dutch. They had to surround the islands and, during that trip, many Spaniards died because of the storm.
          And this was when the English called this armada “The Invincible Armada”, because it had been defeated by the elements. This event was embellished by English propaganda.
Sir Francis Drake led the English army that tried to fight in La Coruña against the Spanish, called the “Contra Armada”, that was won by the Spanish.
Due to these wars, Felipe left Spain bankrupt and his son inherited all his debts.
Ø  Felipe ordered the construction of the El Escorial palace, in Madrid, which has a Herrerian style (its builder was Herrera), neither Renaissance nor Baroque.
It is austere, with thick and strong roofs.
The XVII century was a period of great crisis in Spain: it was bankrupt and, due to the Ice Age and the continuous wars, the population decreased. 
4.       FELIPE III
           He was a weak king and delegated his tasks to his valido. They exercised the functions of prime minister, although they didn´t occupy that position. The valido was part of the high nobility and had a lot of power, because he was the person of trust and closest to the king. 
          Sometimes, the validos manipulated kings and took advantage of their privileges for their own benefit (could handle the charges being awarded and to whom they were awarded). 
          The DUKE OF LERMA was the valido of Felipe III. He was a corrupt and manipulative man, and he benefited from the privileges his position offered him. He made a fortune by changing the capital of his location in Spain.
─          INTERNAL PROBLEMS 
THE EXPULSION OF THE MORISCOS. During the 12-year truce, the Duke of Lerma convinced the king to expel the moriscos from Spain. The objective of this was that the population didn´t rebel, since the truce had been a humiliation. The population approved the expulsion of the moriscos, as they were very good workers, and that did not benefit them. However, it damaged the economy and made the population decrease a lot.
─          EXTERNAL PROBLEMS
a)       12 – YEAR TRUCE. As they needed resources to continue the war, Spain decided to establish a truce with the Netherlands, which lasted 12 years.
b)      30 – YEAR WAR. During the 12-year truce, Spain got into this war (XVIII century), which was initiated because the Emperor tried to impose different conditions on the population of Bohemia.
          It was a conflict of war and religion between the different European powers. Although Spain had nothing to gain, fought on the side of the Netherlands. 
As the Duke of Lerma had been very corrupt and the king could no longer cover up his crimes, he became a Cardinal, because in this way justice could not judge him.
Felipe III died in 1621 and his son Felipe IV succeeded the throne. 
5.       FELIPE IV
Although Felipe IV was in charge of some of his duties, he had a valid called Conde – Duque of Olivares, that was hard-working and intelligent, although ambitious and impulsive.
The Conde – Duque de Olivares had an enmity with the valid of the French king Louis XIII, the Cardinal Richeleur, because they had the same ideas and objectives. 
─          INTERNAL PROBLEMS 
UNION OF ARMAS. The Conde – Duque de Olivares and the Cardinal Richeleur wanted to ensure that the king could be above the law and had more power than it. It was a very controversial process, since both countries were against it.


However, Olivares created the “Union of Arms” to form a unified country with all the kingdoms of Spain. The objective was to increase taxation to finance wars. 
But the rebellions of Portugal and Aragon were provoked in 1640, and they had to accept that Portugal became an independent kingdom, since they could not fight both rebellions and they decided to maintain Aragon. Ø  The Count – Duke of Olivares ceased to be the king’s valid because he made a mistake: he convinced the king to go to Catalonia as the main commander and, thus, enlarge the image of the king
But they lost the battle and the king was humiliated. This is why he dispensed with Olivares, as he did not want him to continue rendering his services to the crown.
─          EXTERNAL PROBLEMS 
PEACE OF WESTFALIA. In 1648, the 30 – year war ended. The Holy Roman Empire disappeared and Spain had to recognize the independence of the Netherlands. This peace marked the end of the war, but Spain and France continued to fight and it was not until 1659 that France defeated Spain and the war ended. In the battle of Rocroi, the Spanish Tercios were defeated and Spain started to decline, while France was becoming more powerful. 
6.      CARLOS II
 During the reign of Louis XIV, France became an absolute monarchy, in which the power of the king was above the law. He had had to flee from France with his mother and his valid (Mazarino) due to the war of Fonda. When he returned, he changed the system: he surrounded himself with trusted nobles (whom he controlled) in the Palace of Versailles; controlled the positions of the Church proposing them himself; controlled the Parliaments and Ministries; and conquered many territories. 
          While France became powerful, Spain weakened, as Charles II “El Hechizado”, a sick and weak king, manipulated by the nobility, came to the throne. He was the last member of the Habsburg dynasty, dying in 1701 without heirs. While Carlos was still alive, the nobles began to argue who would be the heir to the throne. They proposed two candidates: the grandson of Luis XIV, Felipe de Anjou (Bourbon) and Carlos de Habsburgo (of the Habsburgs of Austria).
WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION 
When Carlos died, the War of the Spanish Succession started to decide who would be the heir to the throne, since the small countries of Europe didn´t agree in the fact that Felipe de Anjou governed, since he would be a very powerful king.
 EUROPE: International war between France and Austria, England and the Netherlands.  When Luis XIV believed that he was going to lose the war, the emperor Leopoldo (grandfather of Charles of Habsburg) died and Charles was proclaimed emperor. As the Netherlands and England did not want great powers to rule, they decided to negotiate.
          In the Utrecht treaty it was established that the king of France couldn´t be king of France and Spain at the same time and that they couldn´t unite more than one power. In addition, they set up two bases in Spain: one in Gibraltar and the other in Menorca. 
         This peace treaty supposed the end of the war and that the Bourbon dynasty to be recognized the dynasty of Spain.
SPAIN: There was a civil war. Castile supported France because they needed an absolute monarchy with a strong king. However, Aragon supported the Habsburg family, because the nobility didn´t agree to have an absolute monarchy.
Once the war ended, Aragon continued to fight on the side of Charles of Habsburg but, finally, they were defeated. For this reason, Felipe de Anjou (V of Spain) punished these territories (Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia) with the “Decretos de Nueva Planta”, which established that Aragon should adopt the law of Castile, thus making Spain an absolute monarchy. 
          The fueros (laws of Aragon) were eradicated and a centralized model was established where all decisions were made in Castile and Spanish was the official language.  
          Felipe maintained the “Basque fueros”, since the Basque Country and Navarre had supported him.