Editing Spain (section)

=== Spanish Empire ===
{{Main|Spanish Empire}}
[[File:La sevilla del sigloXVI.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Late 16th-century Seville, the harbor enjoying the exclusive right to trade with the New World]]
In 1469, the crowns of the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were united by the marriage of their monarchs, Isabella I and Ferdinand II, respectively. In 1492, Jews were forced to choose between conversion to Catholicism or expulsion;<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16200-spanish-inquisition-left-genetic-legacy-in-iberia.html|title=Spanish Inquisition left genetic legacy in Iberia|work=New Scientist|date=4 December 2008|access-date=18 January 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140328024905/http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16200-spanish-inquisition-left-genetic-legacy-in-iberia.html|archive-date=28 March 2014 }}</ref> as many as 200,000 Jews were [[Expulsion of Jews from Spain|expelled from Castile and Aragon]]. The year 1492 also marked the arrival of [[Christopher Columbus]] in the [[New World]], during a voyage funded by Isabella. Columbus's first voyage crossed the Atlantic and reached the Caribbean Islands, beginning the European exploration and conquest of the Americas.

The [[Treaty of Granada]] guaranteed religious tolerance towards Muslims,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/treaty1492.html|title=The Treaty of Granada, 1492|publisher=Islamic Civilisation|access-date=13 August 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080924075453/http://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/treaty1492.html|archive-date=24 September 2008}}</ref> for a few years before Islam was outlawed in 1502 in Castile and 1527 in Aragon, leading the remaining Muslim population to become nominally Christian ''[[Morisco]]s''. About four decades after the [[War of the Alpujarras]] (1568–1571), over 300,000 [[Expulsion of the Moriscos|''moriscos'' were expelled]], settling primarily in North Africa.<ref name="cong">{{cite web|last1=Rinehart|first1=Robert|last2=Seeley|first2=Jo Ann Browning|title=A Country Study: Spain – The Golden Age|publisher=Library of Congress Country Series|year=1998|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/estoc.html|access-date=9 August 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080809003309/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/estoc.html|archive-date=9 August 2008 }}</ref>

[[File:Spanish Empire (diachronic).svg|thumb|upright=1.2|Diachronic map of the Spanish Empire]]
The unification of the crowns of Aragon and Castile by the marriage of their sovereigns laid the basis for modern Spain and the Spanish Empire, although each kingdom of Spain remained a separate country socially, politically, legally, and in currency and language.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/Imperial.html|title=Imperial Spain|access-date=13 August 2008|publisher=University of Calgary|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080629000351/http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/Imperial.html|archive-date=29 June 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y84wAgaXxo4C&pg=PA472|title=Handbook of European History|publisher=Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial España|isbn=90-04-09760-0|year=1994|access-date=4 January 2022|archive-date=12 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230912033400/https://books.google.com/books?id=Y84wAgaXxo4C&pg=PA472|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Habsburg Spain]] was one of the leading world powers throughout the 16th century and most of the 17th century, a position reinforced by trade and wealth from colonial possessions and became the world's leading [[Spanish Navy|maritime power]]. It reached its apogee during the reigns of the first two Spanish Habsburgs—[[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V/I]] (1516–1556) and [[Philip II of Spain|Philip II]] (1556–1598). This period saw the [[Italian Wars]], the [[Schmalkaldic War]], the [[Dutch Revolt]], the [[War of the Portuguese Succession]], clashes with the [[Ottoman–Habsburg wars|Ottomans]], intervention in the [[French Wars of Religion]] and the [[Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)|Anglo-Spanish War]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Payne|first=Stanley G.|title=A History of Spain and Portugal; Ch. 13 The Spanish Empire|publisher=The Library of Iberian Resources Online|year=1973|url=http://libro.uca.edu/payne1/spainport1.htm|access-date=9 August 2008|archive-date=8 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008122627/https://libro.uca.edu/payne1/spainport1.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Principales Rutas Comerciales del Imperio Español.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Main trade routes of the Spanish Empire]]
Through exploration and conquest or royal marriage alliances and inheritance, the [[Spanish Empire]] expanded across vast areas in the Americas, the Indo-Pacific, Africa as well as the European continent (including holdings in the Italian Peninsula, the [[Low Countries]] and the [[Franche-Comté]]). The so-called [[Age of Discovery]] featured explorations by sea and by land, the opening-up of new [[trade route]]s across oceans, conquests and the beginnings of European [[colonialism]]. [[Precious metal]]s, spices, luxuries, and previously unknown plants brought to the metropole played a leading part in transforming the European understanding of the globe.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thomas|first=Hugh|author-link=Hugh Thomas (writer)|title = Rivers of gold: the rise of the Spanish Empire|publisher=George Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2003|location=London|pages=passim|isbn=978-0-297-64563-4}}</ref> The cultural efflorescence witnessed during this period is now referred to as the [[Spanish Golden Age]]. The expansion of the empire caused immense upheaval in the Americas as the collapse of societies and empires and new diseases from Europe devastated American indigenous populations. The rise of [[humanism]], the [[Counter-Reformation]] and new geographical discoveries and conquests raised issues that were addressed by the intellectual movement now known as the [[School of Salamanca]], which developed the first modern theories of what are now known as [[international law]] and human rights.
[[File:Comuneros.jpg|thumb|right|"The ''Comuneros'' Padilla, Bravo and Maldonado in the ''Patíbulo''", by [[Antonio Gisbert]], 1860]]
Spain's 16th-century maritime supremacy was demonstrated by the victory over the [[Ottoman Empire]] at the [[Battle of Lepanto]] in 1571 and over Portugal at the [[Battle of Vila Franca do Campo|Battle of Ponta Delgada]] in 1582, and then after the setback of the [[Spanish Armada]] in 1588, in a series of victories against [[England]] in the [[Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)|Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604]]. However, during the middle decades of the 17th century Spain's maritime power went into a long decline with mounting defeats against the [[Dutch Republic]] ([[Battle of the Downs]]) and then England in the [[Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660)|Anglo-Spanish War of 1654–1660]]; by the 1660s it was struggling to defend its overseas possessions from pirates and privateers.

The [[Protestant Reformation]] increased Spain's involvement in religiously charged wars, forcing ever-expanding military efforts across Europe and in the Mediterranean.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://libro.uca.edu/payne1/payne15.htm|title=The Seventeenth-Century Decline|access-date=13 August 2008|publisher=The Library of Iberian resources online|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921003150/http://libro.uca.edu/payne1/payne15.htm|archive-date=21 September 2013}}</ref> By the middle decades of a war- and [[Great Plague of Seville|plague]]-ridden 17th-century Europe, the Spanish Habsburgs had enmeshed the country in continent-wide religious-political conflicts. These conflicts drained it of resources and undermined the economy generally. Spain managed to hold on to most of the scattered Habsburg empire, and help the imperial forces of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] reverse a large part of the advances made by Protestant forces, but it was finally forced to recognise the [[Portuguese Restoration War|separation of Portugal]] and the United Provinces (Dutch Republic), and eventually suffered some serious military reverses to France in the latter stages of the immensely destructive, Europe-wide [[Thirty Years' War]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Payne|first=Stanley G.|title=A History of Spain and Portugal; Ch. 14 Spanish Society and Economics in the Imperial Age|publisher=The Library of Iberian Resources Online|year=1973|url=http://libro.uca.edu/payne1/spainport1.htm|access-date=9 August 2008|archive-date=8 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008122627/https://libro.uca.edu/payne1/spainport1.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> In the latter half of the 17th century, Spain went into a gradual decline, during which it surrendered several small territories to France and England; however, it maintained and enlarged its vast overseas empire, which remained intact until the beginning of the 19th century.

====18th century====
[[File:La familia de Felipe V (Van Loo).jpg|thumb|[[The Family of Philip V (1743)|The family of Philip V]]. During the [[Enlightenment in Spain]] a new royal family reigned, the [[House of Bourbon]].]]
The decline culminated in a controversy over succession to the throne which consumed the first years of the 18th century. The [[War of the Spanish Succession]] was a wide-ranging international conflict combined with a civil war, and was to cost the kingdom its European possessions and its position as a leading European power.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Rinehart|first1=Robert|last2=Seeley|first2=Jo Ann Browning|title=A Country Study: Spain – Spain in Decline|publisher=Library of Congress Country Series|year=1998|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/estoc.html|access-date=9 August 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080809003309/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/estoc.html|archive-date=9 August 2008 }}</ref>

During this war, a new dynasty originating in France, the [[House of Bourbon|Bourbons]], was installed. The Crowns of Castile and Aragon had been long united only by the Monarchy and the common institution of the Inquisition's [[Spanish Inquisition|Holy Office]].<ref>{{Cite journal|page=75|journal=Revista de Dret Històric Català|volume=18|year=2019|publisher=Societat Catalana d'Estudis Jurídics|issn=1578-5300|doi=10.2436/20.3004.01.119|title=Una aproximación a la Corona de Aragón de Fernando el Católico|first=Josep|last=Serrano Daura|issue=18 }}</ref> A number of reform policies (the so-called [[Bourbon Reforms]]) were pursued by the Monarchy with the overarching goal of centralised authority and administrative uniformity.<ref>{{Cite book|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|title=A Concise History of Spain|first1=William D.|last1=Phillips|first2=Carla Rahn|year=2010|isbn=9780521845137|last2=Phillips|page=175}}</ref> They included the abolishment of many of the old regional privileges and laws,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Rinehart|first1=Robert|last2=Seeley|first2=Jo Ann Browning|title=A Country Study: Spain – Bourbon Spain|publisher=Library of Congress Country Series|year=1998|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/estoc.html|access-date=9 August 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080809003309/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/estoc.html|archive-date=9 August 2008 }}</ref> as well as the customs barrier between the Crowns of Aragon and Castile in 1717, followed by the introduction of new property taxes in the Aragonese kingdoms.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Early Modern Spain: A Social History|first=James|last=Casey|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=1999|isbn=9780415138130|page=83}}</ref>

The 18th century saw a gradual recovery and an increase in prosperity through much of the empire. The predominant economic policy was an interventionist one, and the State also pursued policies aiming towards infrastructure development as well as the abolition of internal customs and the reduction of export tariffs.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/5589876.pdf|chapter=El Despotismo Ilustrado en España: entre la continuidad y el cambio|author-link=Carlos Martínez Shaw|first=Carlos|last=Martínez Shaw|title=El Siglo de las Luces: III Centenario del Nacimiento de José de Hermosilla (1715-1776)|year=2016|isbn=978-84-608-8037-0|page=14|publisher=Sociedad Extremeña de Historia|access-date=13 April 2022|archive-date=19 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220419023430/https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/5589876.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Projects of agricultural colonisation with new settlements took place in the south of mainland Spain.{{Sfn|Martínez Shaw|2016|pp=14; 23}} [[Enlightenment in Spain|Enlightenment]] ideas began to gain ground among some of the kingdom's elite and monarchy.