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Spain History - Birth of Spain - (1479 - 1517)
Prior to their ultimate goal the royal couple proceeded to cement their hold on
their kingdom. The two main problem areas outside that of the Moors was the power
of the Church and the other was often the rebel nobility within
their own ranks. They forced the nobles
out of the parliaments and took control of the "Santa Hermandades". (This name
refers to bands of crossbow men who acted as policemen and were paid by the town
elders). These now became a form of national vigilante force principally serving
the royal interests. However, the nobles were well established and they contributed
2 per cent of the population and owning 97 per cent of the land. One such noble was
the Duke of Infantado who controlled 900 villages and 90,000 peasants. The income
from such lands was tied to the wool trade which was exported.
The Bishop of Toledo led the Church, and he was not only the second power to the King
but also very corrupt and with little human consideration. Under the guise of reforming these abuses,
Hernando Talvera was appointed to do the King's will. Both England and France had
during their histories already persecuted the Jews so it was not difficult for the
Queen to obtain the Pope's agreement in 1478 to set up the "Inquisition" under the
acceptable pretext of weeding out "false" Christians. These were basically Jews who
had converted by accepting the Christian faith and had acquired titles and property.
The first "auto de fe" took place in 1481 in Seville and six heretics were burned.
In the 1480s there were some 2,000 executions dealt out by the "Inquisition". The
victims chosen for "religious examination", after being tortured and relieved of
their wealth were sometimes fortunate enough to keep their lives.
Cardinal Cisneros was appointed confessor to the Queen and he introduced reforms
within the church that caused over 1,000 priests to flee the country with their
mistresses rather than conform to the new rules. This Cardinal also ruled the
Inquisition and the Muslims were the next in line with 300,000 converted to
Christianity in mass ceremonies with their language, dress style, books, all
banned. Curiously, this Cardinal was also a Renaissance man at heart and he was
responsible for introducing Universities, the Polyglot Bible which
was written in
Hebrew, Latin and Greek. He also furthered the use of the Castellan language as
the official one of the Court in teaching.
In the year 1491 the armies of King Fernando and Queen Isabel built a base camp
at short distance from Granada at Santa Fe. This was in preparation for a
determined siege on the last part of the Iberian Peninsular to be under Moor
control. Granada contained an estimated 60,000 inhabitants. The earlier fall of
the Ottoman Empire in 1453 had inspired the Christians and the crusade lasted
ten years (1482-1492), and was greatly assisted by the internal power struggles
within the ruling Moors in Granada. Money was short and Queen Isabel even pawned
the crown jewels to raise money to keep the campaign in the field. In 1487 Málaga
fell to the Christians and later so did Almeria. The Muslim ruler Boabdil agreed
to surrender against generous terms in November of 1491. The town inhabitants
revolted on hearing this news and let the Christian forces march in on January
the 2nd of 1492. The Spanish kept their word and gave Boabdil 30,000 gold coins
and a land to the south of Granada. As he left the city crying his mother said
"You do well to weep as a woman for that you could not defend as a man".
Three months after the surrender an edict was issued stating that any Jew who did
not accept Christian baptism was to be expelled. Any religion other than Catholicism
was considered to be treasonable and all possessions to be confiscated. There is
a story that the crusade had been greatly financed by two Jews who were then also
refused royal leniency and lost all. It is estimated that some 50,000 converted to
the Christianity whilst 200,000 fled to North Africa and elsewhere becoming known
as "Sephardic Jews". With this act Spain lost its main urban middle class and wealth
fell into the hands of the church and the crown. Interestingly, in 1982 Spain
passed
a law inviting "Sephardic Jews" to become Spanish after 490 years in exile.
In was also in 1492 that a recently newcomer to the court finally received approval
for his ambitious exploration plans. Christopher Columbus (Crístobal Colón),
originating possibly from Genoa, and arriving in Spain via Madeira and Lisbon, had
succeeded in eventually winning Queen Isabel's consent so that on August the 3rd three small ships
with 120 men left the port of Palos. He returned victorious and was
financed for a second
expedition in 1493, consisted of 17 larger ships with 1,500 men.
However, in 1500 Columbus fell into temporary disgrace and was
relieved of his command of Hispaniola and returned to Spain in
chains. On arrival he was pardoned and set free.
Meanwhile, an
equally important event took place in Rome in 1493 when Rodrigo Borgia,
the elected
Pope Alexander VI issued his edict. He was to become a good ally to the Spanish throne
for he proclaimed that all lands 100 leagues west of Cape Verde
Island were to be considered Spanish possessions. However in the
following year an adjustment was made in the Treaty of Tordesillas
to 370 leagues which enabled Portugal to claim Brazil as their own.
In 1499 Alonso de Ojeda finds the Guinanas and Venezuela and the
following year Diego Diaz explores some of the Brazilian coastline.
In 1503 the Spanish throne established the "Casa de
Contratación" in Seville with the sole rights on all trading
with these newly discovered possessions.
Another problem on the horizon was the ambitious
territorial desires shown by France under King Charles III. In 1495
Spain joined with Milan, Venice and the Pope to form the Holy League
whose aim was to protect each other from invasion from France. The
French army entered Naples the same year but the Holy League drove
them quickly back to France. But the French returned to take both
Rome and Naples in 1501. In 1509 Alonso de Ojen established the town
of San Sebastián in Columbia.
The Spanish Empire was growing with their American discoveries whilst in 1504 in
the Mediterranean the Spanish were granted Sicily and Sardinia after
their final tussle
with France over Naples at Garigliano in 1503. With usual royal manipulation the offspring of Fernando and Isabel
were used to make political marriages. At a double event their son Juan married
Princess Margaret of Hapsburg, and their elder daughter married Archduke Philip
of Hapsburg. Another daughter Catarina married Henry VII of England
and after his death to Henry VIII giving
birth to the future Queen of England, Mary Tudor. These moves crumbled when their son died
at a young age and without heir. Their daughter who was to shortly inherited the
Spanish throne found her young husband "Felipe the Fair" of Burgundy and the heir
to the Holy Roman Empire also to be a rampant womanizer. Unable to accept his
various mistresses and "amours", she became quite deranged thus justifying her
nickname "Juana la Loca"(Joanna the Mad).
When Queen Isabel died in 1504 she had previously appointed her husband Fernando
as her mad daughter's Regent over the throne of Castille. Felipe then gained
support and forced Fernando to relinquish his powers and Juana was crowned Queen
only for her husband Felipe to die two months later. Juana remained
Queen with her father as Regent until his death in 1516. In 1512 Fernando
managed
to annex the state of Navarra thereby completing the land unification of Spain.
Also, the Castilian army was modernized and was to become an unbeatable force for the
next 100 years. This also continued to be a time for exploration and discovery in the
Americas with Vasco Nuñez de Balboa crossing the breath of the new territory.
On discovering
the Pacific Ocean in 1513 (which he did not name), he had confirmed the fact that the Americas
was a new separate continent having already founded in 1510 the city
of Darién (now named Panama). The honour of this discovery in history went to Fernão de
Magalhais who passed around the Cape Horn and carried on through the Indian Ocean,
returning home from his epic voyage proving for the first time that the world was
spherical.
The exploration continued at a fast pace and in 1511 the Islands of
Puerto Rico and Cuba were conquered. In 1512 Juan Ponce de León
encountered land which is now named Florida. In 1517 Francisco
Hernandez de Córdoba discovers Yucatán in Mexico. In the same year
the explorer Vasco Nuñez de Bilboa was beheaded by his enemies. Two
years later the infamous explorer Hernán Cortez led 600 men against
the Aztecs nation in Mexico and with little effort made a prisoner
of their ruler Emperor Montezuma II, removing the first of many
parts of their hoard of gold. This was to set the trend for many
years when the principal object of future expeditions was to return
with gold in any form. In the same year Alvárez Pineda mapped the
Gulf of Mexico, in 1521 Francisco de Gordillo explored northward to
South Carolina and in 1522 Spanish explorers also reached Peru and
in 1932 Francisco Pizarro captured the Inca Emperor,
Atahualpa. However, all these new discoveries were not to be
without problems for in 1524 the Spanish had to deal with native
revolts in Mexico, Salvador and Honduras.
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