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Spanish Decadence
Period of decline of the Spanish monarchy in the 17th century / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Spanish Decadence was the gradual process of exhaustion and attrition suffered by the Spanish Monarchy throughout the 17th century, during the reigns of the so-called minor Habsburgs (the last kings of the House of Austria. Philip III, Philip IV and Charles II). A historical process simultaneous to the so-called general crisis of the 17th century, but which was especially serious for Spain, to such an extent that it went from being the hegemonic power in Europe and the largest economy on the continent at the end of the 16th century to becoming a financially-exhausted, second-rate power by the end of the 17th.[1]
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The decline was reflected in all areas like demography (resurgence of the plague and other epidemics, depopulation of Spanish cities), economy (chronic fiscal problems, monetary alterations, inflation and the decline of precious metal remittances from America), socioeconomy (maintenance of religious and inquisitorial tension, expulsion of the Moors, refeudalization, search for escapist solutions such as ennoblement, the purchase of positions, the increased presence of religious orders and the picaresque). Also political and territorial, with the initiation of the truce of the twelve years and the maneuvers of the Duke of Lerma's valence, spectacularly manifested from the so-called crisis of 1640, after the attempt to restore the reputation of the monarchy with the aggressive policy of the Count Duke of Olivares. As evidenced with the Peace of Westphalia (1648) and the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), the pathetic[2] situation of the final half of the 17th century was a nadir for the vast Spanish Empire. Though the men of confidence surrounding Charles II had carried through some badly-needed economic reforms, all the European chancelleries talked of nothing but the highly uncertain future of the bewitched king and his hold on the Spanish throne, and the fate of his extraordinary inheritance that girdled the globe if he were to remain heirless. After a series of complex palace intrigues, Cardinal Luis Fernández Portocarrero supported passing on this vast global inheritance in favor of the interests of Louis XIV of France, who wanted the Spanish crown for his grandson Philip of Anjou. It was finally resolved after the death of Charles II of Spain with the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714) and the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), which divided its territories between the Habsburgs and the Bourbons, with substantial benefits for England. And that gave way to the Austracist exile and a violent Bourbon repression.
By contrast, the Spanish Decadence coincided with the most brilliant manifestations of art and culture, in what has been called the Spanish Golden Age (in Spanish: Siglo de Oro Español). In many of these artistic and cultural triumphs there is a true awareness of decadence, which in some cases has been described as negative introspection (Quevedo, the arbitristas). Specifically, the Spanish Baroque (the culteranismo or the churrigueresque) has been interpreted as an art of appearance, scenographic, which hides under the external tinsel the weakness of the structure or the poverty of content.[3]
The historiographic interpretation of the causes of the decadence has been a much-discussed issue, and on many occasions it has been attributed to the clichés that would characterize a Spanish national stereotype linked to the black legend present in the anti-Spanish propaganda circulating throughout Europe since the mid-16th century. Among these harmful stereotypes included pride of the old Christian caste, an obsession with an indolent nobility incompatible with work and industry and prone to violence in the defense of an archaic concept of honor, the uncritical submission (by superstition or fear rather than faith) to a despotic power, both political and religious, fanatical adherence to the most intolerant, cramped version of Catholicism, which led to quixotic adventures in Europe against the Protestants, and the cruel rule of the conquistadors forced upon the American Indians, which included mass forced conversions.[4]
An alternative pink legend attributes the achievements of the Spanish Empire to an unflagging fidelity to Catholicism, an interpretation of history popular with the reactionary side of Spanish nationalism[5]. At its most extravagant and conspiratorial, this reactionary nationalism attributes the decadence to an alleged international conspiracy, in which, in spite of the implausibility of such conspiracy theories, it gives a decisive role to the Jews and to the secret societies that they imagine as ancestors of Freemasonry (in addition to linking these crypto-powers to Protestants and Muslims).[6]
From objective points of view backed up by ample contemporaneous documentary evidence, current historiography tends to consider the central role of the authoritarian monarchy of the Habsburgs in undermining long-term Spanish economic power, especially an unhealthy and destabilizing overreliance on imports of New World gold and silver. Such overreliance led to constant budgetary crises for the Spanish government, sovereign bankruptcies and ruinous hyperinflations from the mid-1500s to around 1720. Such long-term economic instability, in turn, constantly sapped Spain's ability to build up large armed forces, and thus to project consistent diplomatic and military power throughout Europe. This undermining of economic power stands in stark contrast to the more cogent and rational economic policies of the absolute monarchy that the Bourbons were developing at the same time in France. The Bourbon absolute monarchy relied less on unpredictable imports of silver and gold and more on intensive taxation of the vast and productive French agricultural sector, by far the largest in Europe at the time. These predictable and ample tax revenues led to an enviable stability for the French government's budget and expenditures, which translated to a bigger army and navy and thus a greater projection of diplomatic and military power throughout the 1600s, eventually eclipsing that of Spain herself.[7] Nevertheless, the clear and definite divergences of the socio-economic models associated with Catholicism and Protestantism in different parts of Europe from the early 1500s to the late 1700s, as analyzed in the sociology of Max Weber (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 1905), continue to be considered.