Maria Camila Acosta

History of Spain 2020

Causes of Spain’s Decline as a World Leader

From Columbus’s voyages in 1492 during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs Isabel and

Ferdinand, to the powerful House of Habsburg acquiring the throne while ruling the Holy Roman

Empire, Spain was projected to be the greatest empire of all. But by the mid 1600’s this great

kingdom which had dominated the world scene for a great portion of a century encountered itself

in the verge of collapse. So, the big question for history is: what was the cause? What caused

Spain to lose its leadership in Europe and the rest of the world? If one has ever learned

something from playing the strategy board game “Risk”, is that conquering and forming an

empire is one thing; but maintaining it is quite another. And even though there are hundreds of

theories and facts on what happened, the aforementioned question will be answered through the

analysis of two documents, one of them written at the beginning of the decline and the other one

mid-way through it, these are: the count-duke of Olivares’ “Instructions on Government” (also

known as the Gran Memorial), and Philip V’s, “Decrees on Political Centralization”. Through

the analysis of these, I’ll further explain how back in the 17th and 18th centuries there were

serious concerns about Spain’s declining global position, and how the solutions they suggested at

the time, still failed to help.

First and foremost, it is important to, as the saying goes, “paint the whole picture”, and to

understand how great Spain really was before it suffered its decline. With the marriage of Isabel

of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon and the union of their respective thrones, one can say this

was the true foundation of the Spanish Monarchy. They were the ones that, after imposing the

Inquisition, took the kingdom back entirely from Muslims. After this came the “discovery of a

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new world” by Columbus in 1492, funded by no other but the king and queen, making the

already rich empire even richer. Then, as history continued to be made, Charles I was crowned in

1516 not only as king of Spain but also as Holy Roman Emperor, giving him control of nearly all

of Western Europe. He came closer than anyone to ruling all of Europe through these two joint

empires. After him came Philip II, and it was then when Spain was at the height of its power.

Philip ruled one of the world largest empires and his kingship began a period of cultural growth

also known as The Golden Age.

What followed after these great times was a fall, which takes me to the first document:

The count-duke of Olivares’s “Instructions on Government”. Gaspar de Guzmán also known as

the count-duke of Olivares, one of the highest-ranking nobles in Spain, was the closest adviser to

King Philip IV, becoming by 1623 the king’s favorite, or chief minister. During these years,

European kingdoms were trying to remove all interference from rival powers like France and

England, and Olivares pursued to govern Spain in that same vein (Cowans, 2003), he wanted to

keep other powers out of the Spanish Empire and make the Habsburg alliance the dominant in

Europe. But even though he was known to be one of the most effective bureaucrats in all of

Europe, many of his economic reforms and military and diplomatic policies didn’t attain any of

his goals. Reason why in 1643, after revolts in Catalonia and Portugal, and protests against his

policies, King Philip gave in to the pressures from the royal court and removed him from his

position.

But before all of this happened, in 1624 Olivares wrote the Gran Memorial, a document

addressed to the young king Philip IV. Philip was about to take on the position as king, and even

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though the count-duke continued to govern, he offered this confidential advice on a range of

intriguing issues which he considered threatening to the empire, revealing elements of his

political philosophy and offering advice on solutions. “Considering how young Your Majesty is

(…) I believe it is my obligation to provide Your Majesty with instructions on some general

principles concerning the government of Castile and of Spain” (Cowans, 2003), Olivares points

out concerns that could evolve into risks for Spain, such as the immense wealth of the

ecclesiastical state, or the Church, which was at the time the most powerful institution in wealth,

revenues and properties at the time. He exposed how it was the most important and delicate

domestic matter the king was going to face, as it was “reducing all the substance of these

kingdoms and drawing it toward itself” (Cowans, 2003). Right after bringing out the problem he

suggests a solution: ask for more money. Even though the church made important contributions

to the throne and to the general good, Olivares believed they still had much more to offer, and in

order to obtain these, appointment to church positions should be made carefully and strategically,

paying more attention to what he called “the candidates’ intrinsic value”.

It is important to know that Olivares’ main goal was to maintain and enhance power and

reputation of Spain and its monarchy (Fowler, 2020), so most of his next concerns presented on

the document where mainly directed on the relationship between the throne, and the rest of social

classes that existed at the time. He wrote about the infants, who are the sons and daughters of the

king, and how important it was that they were respected by everyone bellow them, including the

grandees, as this will somehow humble them. The count-duke suggested to prohibit

communication among grandees and important ministers, in order to avoid conspiracies or

schemes. Olivares continues to name other classes of nobility such as the grandees of castile,

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which need to be favored but kept under control, as it would be a threat if they grew to mighty,

reason why he shouldn’t place them in high offices.

Moving on, he mentions lords, who didn’t have as much power but when united their

influence was huge. These should be treated with respect, and most importantly, in order to

preserve the rivalry between them and the grandees he should make it clear that he esteemed

some of the title lords as much as the grandees, an example of how the duke thought strategically

of relationships and tried to avoid big alliances that could be a threat to the crown. He continued

by talking about the fourth class, the knights, who much be sent to war, where they were

“useful”, and finally concluded with what should be the king’s first concern: the people, lowest

in quality but greatest power (Cowans, 2003). Olivares knew the power they had, because they

were huge in number, so he asked the king to be just and vigilant with them, punishing with

penalties and constant intimidation to avoid revolts. The king should know that they wouldn’t

put up with lack of “bread and sustenance”, so these should never lack but they should work in

order for it to be abundant, engaging into a culture of “hard work, high pay”. His best advice was

to always pay attention to the voice of the people, as the ultimate royal ambition was “to be

greatly loved by your vassals”, but it is impossible for a king to be loved without being feared

(Cowans, 2003). His ultimate solutions to all of the presented problems were: to watch closely

over religion, behavior, lives, customs and learning of the ecclesiastical estate; distribute favors

and administer justice with temperance, moderation and care; let no one assume that he’d

tolerate any grave error committed out of malice, presumption or self-interest; favor commerce

and mercantile companies, all with the idea of increasing royal revenues by all mean possible.

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But as it is known, during King Philip IV’s reign Spain foreign power declined

completely and entered into a religious turned political war also known as the Thirty Years’ War,

one of the most destructive conflicts of human history. After years of millions of deaths and

violence, Spain worst decade by far was the 1640’s, with Portuguese and Catalan revolts, the

Dutch earning their independence and much more, this great kingdom had a huge blow on their

reputation and power, and lowered into the second rate power in Europe (Fowler, 2020), the first

being France, who ultimately was the great winner of the war. But things kept getting worse, as

Philip IV’s son, Charles II, dies childless in 1700, putting an end to the Habsburg dynasty and

opening a debate on who would succeed him. This started a new conflict known as the war of the

Spanish Succession in 1701.

There were 3 main contenders to inherit the Spanish Crown, these from Bavaria, Austria

and France. the French candidate, Philip of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV, prevailed, but no one

wanted to see Spain and France under one power, so the war was also joined by England and

Austria, and in Catalonia many feared that Philip would create a centralized absolutist regime

like that of his grandfather. But ultimately Philip of Anjou, crowned himself as Philip V,

renouncing any claims to the French crown for him or his descendants and marking the

beginning of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain.

This new Bourbon king made some reforms for the failing empire, all based on Catalans

greatest fear: Centralization. This was an imitation of the immense centralization of France at

this time which gave more control to the local government, which takes me to the next

document, a decree made in 1707 by the king in response to the Catalan rebellion and confirming

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all suspicions about the Bourbons: “Decrees on Political Centralization”. As he thought people

were breaking their oaths and fidelity sworn to him, affecting dominion of kingdoms like Aragon

and Valencia, Philip V addressed this issue by reducing all of its kingdoms in Spain to the

“uniformity of one set of laws, usages, customs and tribunals” with all being governed equally

by the laws of Castile (Cowans, 2003). He granted the right of Castillians to obtain offices and

positions in Aragon and Valencia, and the Aragonese and the Valencians could also have this

privilege in Castile.

Still, Catalans fought on against Philip’s troops, holding out in Barcelona until 1714. But

whether it was an act of punishment for the rebellion or the fulfillment of prior intentions to

impose a new political centralization on Spain, Philip V did indeed impose a new system of rule

in Catalonia after the war (Cowans, 2003). As some may know, the Catalan movement that went

from the 19th century and through the 20th was, on its essence, an attempt for Catalans to

recover linguistic, political and other rights and powers that were lost at this time of

centralization. In 1716 Philip V finally entirely pacified the principality of Catalonia and

continued his regime by imposing new laws and policies. One of them was the formation of an

audiencia, ruled by the commanding general and taking place on what was previously used for

the Diputación (a Catalan political institution whose task included guarding Catalan Liberties).

This audiencia was composed of 10 ministers for its civil brand and five for its criminal branch,

plus two public prosecutors and a high constable (Cowans, 2003). All cases in the royal

audiencia were to be argued in Castilian language, in order to attain the greatest possible

satisfaction of the parties involved. Philip also abolished any other office that existed in the

municipality previous to his reign, and suppressed any militias or military juntas, treating them

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as subversives. And as the ultimate ending point, the king ended all prohibitions based on

foreignness, this because his intention was that “in my kingdoms the dignities and honors should

be conferred equally to my vassals based on merit and not on birth in one or the other of the

provinces” (Cowans, 2003)

To conclude, and as shown in the mentioned documents, Spain’s decline was an issue

that was predicted from before it even happened, but there were many causes to its deterioration

as a world power, so the question “what was the cause of Spain’s decline” is simply incorrect,

as there were numerous factors that contributed to it, not just one. Olivares promoted

centralization, but this led to revolts and increased the Empire’s internal fragility, and his

“instructions on government” weren’t successful, and didn’t save the kingdom from the war that

later came, nor attained the idea of saving the Habsburg dynasty. On the other hand, even though

king Philip V actually achieved the centralization of the kingdoms, that didn’t help them to get

where they once were, and Spain could never recover itself. There were too many problems, and

as Benito Feijoo, a Spanish professor of theology once said, “the combination of all of them

form an almost insurmountable obstacle”. But still, one can just wonder, was there a way to save

the empire? Could the Spanish kingdom have done something different and save its position? Or

was it always doomed to fall?

Works cited:

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Cowans, J. (2003). Early modern Spain: A documentary history. Philadelphia: University

of Pennsylvania Press

Fowler, J. (2020). Class slides [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from URL:

https://campus.ie.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?

course_id=_114250848_1&content_id=_2324342_1&mode=reset