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evade it, as the embargo also did great harm to Spanish economic interests, even to the extent that for a time a famine threatened in Spanish Naples when the Dutch carried grain trade was cut off Realizing that the local authorities often sabotaged the embargo, the Spanish crown built up an elaborate enforcement apparatus, the Almirantazgo de los paises septentrionales Admiralty of the northern countries in to make it more effective Part of the new system was a network of inspectors in neutral ports who inspected neutral shipping for goods with a Dutch connection and supplied certificates that protected neutral shippers against confiscation in Spanish ports The English and Hanseatics were only too happy to comply, and so contributed to the effectiveness of the embargo The embargo grew to an effective direct and indirect impediment for Dutch trade, as not only the direct trade between the Amsterdam Entrepôt and the lands of the Spanish empire was affected, but also the parts of Dutch trade that indirectly depended on it Baltic grain and naval stores destined for Spain were now provided by others, depressing the Dutch trade with the Baltic area the carrying trade between Spain and Italy now shifted to English shipping etc The embargo was a double edged sword, however, as some Spanish and Portuguese export activities likewise collapsed as a consequence of the embargo such as the Valencian and Portuguese salt exports Spain was also able to physically close off these inland waterways after for Dutch river traffic The Dutch were thus also deprived of their important transit trade with the neutral Prince Bishopric of Liège then not a part of the Southern Netherlands and the German hinterland in these years Dutch butter and cheese prices collapsed as a result of this blockade and rose steeply in the affected import areas , as did wine and herring prices the Dutch monopolised the French wine trade at the time , but the steep price rises in the Spanish Netherlands, sometimes accompanied by food shortages, led to an eventual relaxation of this embargo It was eventually abandoned, because it deprived the Brussels authorities from important revenues from custom duties The economic warfare measures of Spain were effective in the sense that they depressed economic activity in the Netherlands, thereby also depressing Dutch fiscal resources to finance the war effort, but also by structurally altering European trade relations, at least until the end of the war, after which they reverted in favour of the Dutch Neutrals benefited, but both the Dutch and the Spanish areas suffered economically, though not uniformly, as some industrial areas benefited from the artificial restriction of trade, which had a protectionist effect The new draperies textile industry in Holland permanently lost terrain to its competitors in Flanders and England, though this was compensated for by a shift to more expensive high quality woollens Nevertheless, the economic pressure and the slump of trade and industry it caused was not sufficient to bring the Republic to its knees There were a number of reasons for this The chartered companies, both VOC and WIC, provided employment on a large enough scale to compensate for the slump in other forms of trade and their trade brought great revenues Supplying the armies, both in the Netherlands and in Germany, proved a boon for the agricultural areas in the Dutch inland provinces The fiscal situation of the Dutch government also improved after the death of Maurice in He had been too successful in gathering all reins of government in his own hands after his coup in He completely dominated Dutch politics and diplomacy in his first years afterwards, even monopolising the abortive peace talks before the expiration of the Truce Likewise the political Counter



Remonstrants were temporarily in total control, but the downside of all this was that his government was overextended, with too few people doing the heavy lifting on the local level, which was essential to make the government machine run smoothly in the highly decentralised Dutch polity Holland's conventional role as leader of the political process was temporarily vacated, as Holland as a power center was eliminated Maurice had to do everything by himself with his small band of aristocratic managers in the States General This situation deteriorated even more, when he had to spend long periods in the field as commander in chief, during which he was unable to personally direct affairs in The Hague His health soon deteriorated, also detracting from his efficacy as a political and military leader The regime, depending on Maurice's personal qualities as a virtual dictator, therefore came under unbearable strain Not surprisingly, in the period up to his death the strategic and military position of the Republic deteriorated It had to increase the standing army to , men in , just to hold the defensive ring of fortresses, while Spain increased the Army of Flanders to , men at the same time This put a great strain on the Republic's finances at a time when tax rates were already dangerously high Yet at the same time the Republic had no other option than to sustain the imploding German Protestant forces financially For that reason the Dutch paid for the army of Count Ernst von Mansfeld that was cowering against the Dutch border in East Friesland after its defeats against the Spanish and Imperial forces it was hoped that in this way a complete encirclement of the Republic could be avoided For a while the Republic pinned its hope on Christian the Younger of Brunswick However, his Dutch financed army was crushed at Stadtlohn, near the Dutch border by the forces of the Catholic League under Tilly in August This setback necessitated a reinforcement of the Dutch IJssel line Spinola, however, failed to take advantage of the new situation, lulled into complacency by Maurice's unceasing peace feelers He was back in , however, besieging Breda, and Dutch morale slumped, despite the diplomatic success of the Treaty of Compiègne with Louis XIII of France, in which the latter agreed to support the Dutch military effort with an annual subsidy of a million guilders % of the Dutch war budget Maurice died, aged , in April , and was succeeded as Prince of Orange and captain general of the Union by his half brother Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange It took several months, however, to obtain his appointment as stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland, as it took time to agree on the terms of his commission This deprived the regime of leadership in a crucial time During this time the moderate Calvinist regents staged a return in Holland at the expense of the radical Counter Remonstrants This was an important development, as Frederick Henry, could not lean exclusively on the latter faction, but instead took a position above the parties , playing off the two factions against one another A side effect of this was that more normal political relations returned to the Republic, with Holland returning to its central political position Also, the persecution of the Remonstrants now abated with the Prince's connivance, and with this renewed climate of tolerance, political stability in the Republic also improved This improvement in internal affairs helped the Republic overcome the difficult years of the sharpest economic warfare phase During the lull in the military pressure by Spain after the fall of Breda in the Republic was able to steadily increase its standing army, owing to its improved financial situation This enabled the new stadtholder of Friesland and Groningen, Ernst Casimir, to recapture Oldenzaal, forcing the Spanish troops to evacuate Overijssel Diplomatically, the situation improved once England entered the war in as an ally Frederick Henry cleared the Spaniards from eastern Gelderland in after recapturing Grol The Dutch victory in the Battle in the Bay of Matanzas in , in which a Spanish treasure fleet was captured by Piet Pieterszoon Hein, contributed even more to the improving fiscal situation, at the same time depriving Spain of much needed money However, the greatest contribution to the relative improvement of the Dutch position in was made by the fact that Spain overextended itself again, when it participated in the War of the Mantuan Succession This caused such a depletion of Spanish troops and financial resources in the theatre of war in the Netherlands, that the Republic for the time being achieved a strategic superiority the Army of Flanders declined to , men while the States Army reached , in The Republic sallies forth – edit Meanwhile, the Imperial forces had surged in Germany after the initial setback from the intervention of Christian IV of Denmark in the war in Both the Danes and Mansfelt were defeated in and the Catholic League occupied the northern German lands that had hitherto acted as a buffer zone for the Republic For a while an invasion of the eastern part of the Republic seemed imminent in However, the relative might of Spain, the main player up to now in the German civil war, was ebbing fast By April the States Army counted , soldiers, half as much again as the Army of Flanders at that point in time This allowed Frederick Henry to raise a mobile army of , the other troops were used in the fixed garrisons of the Republic and invest 's Hertogenbosch During the siege of this strategic fortress city the imperialist and Spanish allies launched a diversionary attack from Germany's IJssel line After crossing this river, they invaded the Dutch heartland, getting as far as the city of Amersfoort, which promptly surrendered The States General, however, mobilised civic militias and scrounged garrison troops from fortresses all around the country, assembling an army that at the height of the emergency numbered no less than , troops This enabled Frederick Henry to maintain his siege of 's Hertogenbosch When Dutch troops surprised the Spanish fortress of Wesel, which acted as the principal Spanish supply base, this forced the invaders to retreat to the IJssel 's Hertogenbosch surrendered in September to Frederick Henry Frederick Henry and Ernst Casimir at the siege of 'sHertogenbosch by Pauwels van Hillegaert The loss of Wesel and 's Hertogenbosch a city that had been fortified according to the most modern standards, often incorporating Dutch innovations in fortification , in short succession, caused a sensation in Europe It demonstrated that the Dutch, for the moment, enjoyed strategic superiority 's Hertogenbosch was the linchpin of the ring of Spanish fortifications in Brabant its loss left a gaping hole in the Spanish front Thoroughly shaken, Philip IV now overruled Olivares and offered an unconditional truce The States General refused to consider this offer, until the Imperial forces had left Dutch territory Only after this had been accomplished they remitted the Spanish offer to the States of the provinces for consideration The popular debate that followed split the provinces Friesland, Groningen and Zeeland, predictably, rejected the proposal Frederick Henry appears to have favoured it personally, but he was hampered by the political divisions in the province of Holland where radical Counter Remonstrants and moderates were unable to agree The Counter Remonstrants urged in guarded terms a final eradication of Remonstrant tendencies in the Republic thus establishing internal unity before a truce could even be considered The radical Calvinist preachers urged a liberation of more of the Spanish Netherlands Shareholders in the WIC dreaded the prospect of a truce in the Americas, which would thwart the plans of that company to stage an invasion of Portuguese Brazil The peace party and the war party in the States of Holland therefore perfectly balanced each other and deadlock ensued Nothing was decided during and To break the deadlock in the States of Holland, Frederick Henry planned a sensational offensive in He intended to invade Flanders, and make a deep thrust toward Dunkirk, like his brother had done in His expedition was even larger He embarked , men and field guns on , rivercaft for his amphibious descent on IJzendijke From there he penetrated to the Bruges Ghent canal that the Brussels government had dug to circumvent the Dutch blockade of the coastal waters Unfortunately, at this stage a sizeable Spanish force appeared in his rear and this caused a row with panicky deputies in the field that, as usual, were micro managing the campaign for the States General The civilians prevailed, and a very angry Frederick Henry had to order an ignominious retreat of the Dutch invading force Finally, in , Frederick Henry was allowed to deliver his death blow The initial move in his offensive was to have a reluctant States General publish over the objections of the radical Calvinists a proclamation promising that the free exercise of the Catholic religion would be guaranteed in places that the Dutch army would conquer that year The inhabitants of the Southern Netherlands were invited to throw off the yoke of the Spaniards This piece of propaganda would prove to be very effective Frederick Henry now invaded the Meuse valley with , troops He took Venlo, Roermond and Sittard in short order As promised, the Catholic churches and clergy were left unmolested Then, on June, he laid siege to Maastricht A desperate effort of Spanish and Imperialist forces to relieve the city failed and on August , Frederick Henry sprang his mines, breaching the walls of the city It capitulated three days later Here also, the Catholic religion was allowed to remain The infanta Isabella was now forced to convene the southern States General for the first time since her inauguration in They met in September as it turned out for the last time under Spanish rule Most southern provinces advocated immediate peace talks with the Republic so as to preserve the integrity of the South and the free exercise of the Catholic religion A southern States General delegation met the northern States General, represented by its deputies in the field in Maastricht The southern delegates offered to negotiate on the strength of the authorisation given in by Philip IV However, Philip and Olivares secretly cancelled this authorisation, as they considered the initiative of the southern States General an usurpation of royal power They never intended to honour any agreement that might ensue On the Dutch side, there was the usual disunity Frederick Henry hoped to achieve a quick result, but Friesland, Groningen and Zeeland opposed the talks outright, while divided Holland dithered Eventually, those four provinces authorised talks with only the southern provinces, leaving Spain out Evidently, such an approach would make the resulting agreement worthless, as only Spain possessed any troops The peace party in the Republic finally brought about meaningful negotiations in December , when valuable time had already been lost, enabling Spain to send reinforcements Both sides presented demands that were unreconcilable at first, but after much palaver the southern demands were reduced to the evacuation of Portuguese Brazil which had been invaded by the WIC in by the Dutch In return, they offered Breda and an indemnity for the WIC for giving up Brazil The Dutch over the opposition of the war party that considered the demands too lenient reduced its demands to Breda, Geldern, and the Meierij area around 's Hertogenbosch, in addition to tariff concessions in the South Furthermore, as they realised that Spain would never concede Brazil, they proposed to limit the peace to Europe, continuing the war overseas By June the talks were on the verge of collapse A shift in Dutch politics now ensued, which would prove fateful for the Republic Frederick Henry, sensing that the talks were going nowhere, proposed to put an ultimatum to the other side to accept the Dutch demands However, he now lost the support of the peace party in Holland, led by Amsterdam These regents wanted to offer further concessions to gain peace The peace party gained the upper hand in Holland, for the first time since standing up to the stadtholder and the Counter Remonstrants Frederick Henry, however, managed to gain the support of the majority of the other provinces and those voted on December overruling Holland and Overijssel to break off the talks Franco Dutch Alliance – edit While the peace negotiations had been dragging on, events elsewhere in Europe of course had not stood still While Spain was busy fighting the Mantuan war, the Swedes had intervened in the Thirty Years' War in Germany under Gustavus Adolphus in , supported by French and Dutch subsidies The Swedes used the new Dutch infantry tactics enhanced with improved cavalry tactics with much more success against the Imperialist forces than the German Protestants had done and so gained a number of important successes, turning the tide in the war However, once Spain had her hands free again after the end of the war in Italy in , she was able to bring her forces in the northern theatre of war up to strength again The Cardinal Infante brought a strong army up, by way of the Spanish Road, and at the Battle of Nördlingen this army, combined with Imperialist forces, using the traditional Spanish tercio tactics, decisively defeated the Swedes He then marched immediately on Brussels, where he succeeded the old Infanta Isabella who had died in December Spain's strength in the Southern Netherlands was now appreciably enhanced citation needed The naval battle against the Spanish near Dunkerque, February The Dutch, now no longer any prospect of peace with Spain, and faced with a resurgent Spanish force, decided to take the French overtures for an offensive alliance against Spain more seriously This change in strategic policy was accompanied by a political sea change within the Republic The peace party around Amsterdam objected to the clause in the proposed treaty with France that bound the Republic's hands by prohibiting the conclusion of a separate peace with Spain This would shackle the Republic to French policies and so constrain its independence The resistance to the French alliance by the moderate regents caused a rupture in the relations with the stadtholder Henceforth Frederick Henry would be much more closely aligned with the radical Counter Remonstrants who supported the alliance This political shift promoted the concentration of power and influence in the Republic in the hands of a small group of the stadtholder's favourites These were the members of the several secrete besognes secret committees to which the States General more and more entrusted the conduct of diplomatic and military affairs Unfortunately, this shift to secret policy making by a few trusted courtiers also opened the way for foreign diplomats to influence policy making with bribes Some members of the inner circle performed prodigies of corruption For instance, Cornelis Musch, the griffier clerk of the States General received , livres for his services in pushing the French treaty through from Cardinal Richelieu, while the pliable Grand Pensionary Jacob Cats who had succeeded Adriaan Pauw, the leader of the opposition against the alliance , received , livres The Treaty of Alliance that was signed in Paris in February , committed the Republic to invade the Spanish Netherlands simultaneously with France in The treaty previewed a partitioning of that country between the two invaders If the inhabitants would rise against Spain, the Southern Netherlands would be afforded independence on the model of the Cantons of Switzerland, however with the Flemish seacoast, Namur and Thionville annexed by France, and Breda, Geldern and Hulst going to the Republic If the inhabitants resisted, the country would be partitioned outright, with the Francophone provinces and western Flanders going to France, and the remainder to the Republic The latter partitioning opened the prospect that Antwerp would be re united with the Republic, and the Scheldt reopened for trade on that city, something Amsterdam was very much opposed to The treaty also provided that the Catholic religion would be preserved in its entirety in the provinces to be apportioned to the Republic This provision was understandable from the French point of view, as the French government had recently suppressed the Huguenots in their strongpoint of La Rochelle with support of the Republic , and generally was reducing Protestant privileges It enraged the radical Calvinists in the Republic, however The treaty was not popular in the Republic for those reasons Siege of the Schenkenschans by Gerrit van Santen Dividing up the Spanish Netherlands proved more difficult than foreseen, however Olivares had drawn up a strategy for this two front war, that proved very effective Spain went on the defensive against the French forces that invaded in May and successfully held them at bay The Cardinal Infante brought his full offensive forces to bear on the Dutch, however, in hopes of knocking them out of the war in an early stage, after which France would soon come to terms herself, it was hoped The Army of Flanders now again numbered , men, at least at parity with the Dutch forces Once the force of the double invasion by France and the Republic had been broken, these troops emerged from their fortresses and attacked the recently conquered Dutch areas in a pincer movement In July Spanish troops from Geldern captured the strategically essential fortress of the Schenkenschans This was situated on an island in the Rhine near Cleves and dominated the back door into the Dutch heartland along the north bank of the river Rhine Cleves itself was soon captured by a combined Imperialist Spanish force and Spanish forces overran the Meierij The Republic could not let the capture of the Schenkenschans stand Frederick Henry therefore concentrated a huge force to besiege the fortress even during the winter months of Spain held tenaciously on to the fortress and its strategic corridor through Cleves She hoped that the pressure on this strategic point, and the threat of unhindered invasion of Gelderland and Utrecht, would force the Republic to give in The planned Spanish invasion never materialised, however, as the stadtholder forced the surrender of the Spanish garrison in Schenkenschans in April This was a severe blow for Spain The next year, thanks to the fact that the Cardinal Infante shifted the focus of his campaign to the French border in that year, Frederick Henry managed to recapture Breda with a relatively small force, at the successful fourth Siege of Breda, July– October This operation, which engaged his forces for a full season, was to be his last success for a long time, as the peace party in the Republic, over his objections, managed to cut war expenditure and shrink the size of the Dutch army These economies were pushed through despite the fact that the economic situation in the Republic had improved appreciably in the s, following the economic slump of the s caused by the Spanish embargoes The Spanish river blockade had ended in The end of the Polish–Swedish War in ended the disruption of Dutch Baltic trade The outbreak of the Franco Spanish War closed the alternate trade route through France for Flemish exports, forcing the South to pay the heavy Dutch wartime tariffs Increased German demand for foodstuffs and military supplies as a consequence of military developments in that country, contributed to the economic boom in the Republic, as did successes of the VOC in the Indies and the WIC in the Americas where the WIC had gained a foothold in Portuguese Brazil after its invasion, and now conducted a thriving sugar trade The boom generated much income and savings, but there were few investment possibilities in trade, due to the persisting Spanish trade embargoes As a consequence, the Republic experienced a number of speculative bubbles in housing, land the lakes in North Holland were drained during this period and, notoriously, tulips Despite this economic upswing, which translated into increased fiscal revenues, the Dutch regents showed little enthusiasm for maintaining the high level of military expenditures of the middle s The échec of the Battle of Kallo of June did little to get more support for Frederick Henry's campaigns in the next few years These proved unsuccessful his colleague in arms Hendrik Casimir, the Frisian stadtholder died in battle during the unsuccessful siege of Hulst in However, the Republic gained great victories at other locations The war with France had closed the Spanish Road for Spain, making it difficult to bring up reinforcements from Italy Olivares therefore decided to send , troops by sea from Spain in a large armada This fleet was destroyed by the Dutch navy under Maarten Tromp and Witte Corneliszoon de With in the Battle of the Downs of October This left little doubt that the Republic now possessed the strongest navy in the world, also because the Royal Navy was forced to stand by impotently while the battle raged in English territorial waters Endgame – edit Johan Maurits van Nassau Siegen by Jan de Baen In Asia and the Americas, the war had gone well for the Dutch Those parts of the war were mainly fought by proxies, especially the Dutch West and East India companies These companies, under charter from the Republic, possessed quasi sovereign powers, including the power to make war and conclude treaties on behalf of the Republic After the invasion of Portuguese Brazil by a WIC amphibious force in , the extent of New Holland, as the colony was called, grew gradually, especially under its governor general Johan Maurits of Nassau Siegen, in the period – It stretched from the Amazon river to Fort Maurits on the São Francisco River Soon a large number of sugar plantations flourished in this area, enabling the company to dominate the European sugar trade The colony was the base for conquests of Portuguese possessions in Africa also due to the peculiarities of the trade winds that make it convenient to sail to Africa from Brazil in the Southern Hemisphere Beginning in with the conquest of Portuguese Elmina Castle, the WIC gained control of the Gulf of Guinea area on the African coast, and with it of the hub of the slave trade to the Americas In , a WIC expedition sent from Brazil under command of Cornelis Jol conquered Portuguese Angola The Spanish island of Curaçao with important salt production was conquered in , followed by a number of other Caribbean islands The WIC empire in Brazil started to unravel, however, when the Portuguese colonists in its territory started a spontaneous insurrection in By that time the official war with Portugal was over, as Portugal itself had risen against the Spanish crown in December The Republic soon concluded a ten year truce with Portugal, but this was limited to Europe The overseas war was not affected by it By the end of the WIC had effectively lost control of north east Brazil There would be temporary reversals after , when the Republic sent a naval expedition, but by then the Eighty Years' War was over In the Far East the VOC captured three of the six main Portuguese strongholds in Portuguese Ceylon in the period – , in alliance with the king of Kandy In Portuguese Malacca was conquered Again, the main conquests of Portuguese territory would follow after the end of the war The results of the VOC in the war against the Spanish possessions in the Far East were less impressive The battles of Playa Honda in the Philippines in , and resulted in defeats for the Dutch An expedition in under Maarten Gerritsz de Vries equally ended in a number of defeats in the Battle of Puerto de Cavite and the Battles of La Naval de Manila However, these expeditions were primarily intended to harass Spanish commerce with China and capture the annual Manila galleon, not as is often assumed to invade and conquer the Philippines The revolts in Portugal and Catalonia, both in , weakened Spain's position appreciably Henceforth there would be increasing attempts by Spain to commence peace negotiations These were initially rebuffed by the stadtholder, who did not wish to endanger the alliance with France Cornelis Musch, as griffier of the States General, intercepted all correspondence the Brussels government attempted to send to the States on the subject and was lavishly compensated for these efforts by the French Frederick Henry also had an internal political motive to deflect the peace feelers, though The regime, as it had been founded by Maurice after his coup in , depended on the emasculation of Holland as a power center As long as Holland was divided the stadtholder reigned supreme Frederick Henry also depended for his supremacy on a divided Holland At first up to he therefore supported the weaker moderates against the Counter Remonstants in the States of Holland When the moderates gained the upper hand after , he shifted his stance to support of the Counter Remonstrants and the war party This policy of divide and conquer enabled him to achieve a monarchical position in all but name in the Republic He even strengthened it, when after the death of Hendrik Casimir, he deprived the latter's son William Frederick, Prince of Nassau Dietz of the stadtholderates of Groningen and Drenthe in an unseemly intrigue William Frederick only received the stadtholderate of Friesland and Frederick Henry after was stadtholder in the other six provinces But this position was only secure as long as Holland remained divided And after the opposition to the war more and more united Holland The reason, as often in the Republic's history was money the Holland regents were less and less inclined, in view of the diminished threat from Spain, to finance the huge military establishment the stadtholder had built up after Especially as this large army brought disappointing results anyway in only Gennep was captured The next year Amsterdam succeeded in getting a cutback of the army from over , to , accepted over the stadtholder's objections The Holland regents continued their attempts at whittling down the stadtholder's influence by breaking up the system of secrete besognes in the States General This helped wrest influence from the stadtholder's favourites, who dominated these committees It was an important development in the context of the general peace negotiations which the main participants in the Thirty Years' War France, Sweden, Spain, the Emperor and the Republic started in in Münster and Osnabrück The drafting of the instructions for the Dutch delegation occasioned spirited debate and Holland made sure that she was not barred from their formulation The Dutch demands that were eventually agreed upon were cession by Spain of the entire Meierij district recognition of Dutch conquests in the Indies both East and West permanent closure of the Scheldt to Antwerp commerce tariff concessions in the Flemish ports and lifting of the Spanish trade embargoes While the peace negotiations were progressing at a snail's pace, Frederick Henry managed a last few military successes in he captured Sas van Gent and Hulst in what was to become States Flanders In , however, Holland, sick of the feet dragging in the peace negotiations, refused to approve the annual war budget, unless progress was made in the negotiations Frederick Henry now gave in and began to promote the peace progress, instead of frustrating it Still, there was so much opposition from other quarters the partisans of France in the States General, Zeeland, Frederick Henry's son William that the peace could not be concluded before Frederick Henry's death on March The Peace of Münster edit Main article Peace of Münster The negotiations between Spain and the Republic formally started in January as part of the more general peace negotiations between the warring parties in the Thirty Years' War The States General sent eight delegates from several of the provinces as none trusted the others to represent them adequately They were Willem van Ripperda Overijssel , Frans van Donia Friesland , Adriaen Clant tot Stedum Groningen , Adriaen Pauw and Jan van Mathenesse Holland , Barthold van Gent Gelderland , Johan de Knuyt Zeeland , and Godert van Reede Utrecht The Spanish delegation was led by Gaspar de Bracamonte, rd Count of Peñaranda The negotiations were held in what is now the Haus der Niederlande in Münster The Dutch and Spanish delegations soon reached an agreement, that was based on the text of


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carmel-nougat carmen-blonde carmen-de-la-torre carmen-moore carmen-rose carol-connors carol-cross carol-cummings carole-dubois carole-gire carole-pierac carol-titian carolyn-connoly carolyn-monroe carrie-cruise cassandra-leigh cassidy cassie-courtland cataline-bullock catherine-count catherine-crystal catherine-ringer catherine-tailleferre cathy-delorme cathy-menard cathy-stewart celeste-fox celine-gallone chanel-preston chanel-price chantal-virapin chanta-rose chantelle-stevens charisma charisma-cole charlie-latour charlie-waters charlotte-de-castille charmane-star chasey-lain chayse-manhattan chaz-vincent chelsea-sinclaire chennin-blanc cheri-janvier cheri-taylor cherry-hill chessie-moore cheyenne-hunter cheyenne-silver china-lee china-leigh china-moon chloe-cruize chloe-dior chloe-kez chloe-stevens chris-collins chris-jordan chris-petersen chrissie-beauchamp christa-abel christa-ludwig christie-ford christi-lake christina-berg christina-blond christina-evol christina-skye christine-black christine-chavert christine-neona christine-rigoler christy-canyon cicciolina cindi-stephens cindy-carver cindy-crawford cindy-more cindy-shepard cindy-wong cinthya-marinho clair-dia claire-robbins claude-janna claudia-jackson claudia-jamsson claudia-mehringer claudia-nero claudia-van-statt claudia-zante claudine-beccarie clea-carson cleo-nichole cleo-patra cody-lane cody-love cody-nicole coffee-brown colleen-brennan connie-bennett connie-peterson constance-money copper-penny coreena corey-everson corinne-lemoine corneliah cory-everson cory-wolf courtney courtney-cummz courtney-james cris-cassidy crissy-moran cris-taliana crystal-breeze crystal-dawn crystal-holland crystal-knight crystal-lake crystal-lovin crystal-sync csilla-kalnay cuban-bee cynara-fox cyndee-summers cynthia-black cynthia-brooks cynthia-hammers cynthia-lavigne dagmar-lost daisy-layne dallas-miko dana-dylan dana-lynn danica-rhea daniela-nanou daniela-schiffer daniele-troeger daniella daniella-schiffer danielle danielle-foxxx danielle-rodgers danny-ricci danyel-cheeks daphne daphne-rosen darby-lloyd-rains darla-crane darla-delovely davia-ardell dayton-rain debbie-northrup debbie-revenge debbie-van-gils debi-diamond debi-jointed debra-lynn deidra-hopkins deidre-holland delania-raffino delia-moore delphine-thail delta-force delta-white demi-moor denice-klarskov denise-derringer denise-dior denise-sloan desiree-cousteau desiree-foxx desiree-lane desiree-west deva-station devin-devasquez devinn-lane devon-shire dia diana-holt diana-kisabonyi diana-siefert diana-stevenson diane-dubois diane-richards diane-sloan diane-suresne dido-angel dillan-lauren dina-deville dina-jewel dina-pearl ditty-blue diva divinity-love djiana dolly-darkley dominique dominique-dewitt dominique-saint-claire donna-hart donna-marie dorle-buchner dorothy-lemay dorothy-onan drea drimla dru-berrymore dusty-rose dyanna-lauren ebony-ayes edina-blond edita-ungerova edwige-faillel eileen-wells elaine-southern elena-berkova elena-maria-ricci eleonore-melzer elisabeth-bure elis-black elise elise-di-medici elle-devyne elle-rio elodie-delage elsa-maroussia elza-brown emili-doll emily-evermoore emily-george emily-jewel emmanuelle-pareze envy-mi erica-boyer erica-eaton erica-havens erica-idol erica-lauren erika-bella erika-cool erika-heaven erika-lockett esme-monroe eva-allen eva-angel eva-dionisio eva-gross eva-kleber eva-lux eva-uettori eve-laurence evelyne-lang evie-delatosso fabiana-venturi faith-stevens fallon fanny-garreau fanny-steel faye-runaway flame flick-shagwell flore-soller flower france-lomay france-quenie francoise frankie-leigh gabriella gabriella-mirelba gabriella-vincze gail-force gail-palmer gail-sterling georgette-saunders georgia-peach georgina-spelvin gia-givanna gianna-lynn gili-sky gina-carrera gina-gianetti gina-janssen gina-lee gina-martell gina-valentino ginger-jay ginger-lee ginger-lynn ginny-noack giovanna gisela-schwarz giselle-monet gladys-laroche gloria-leonard gloria-todd golden-jade greta-carlson greta-milos guia-lauri-filzi gwenda-farnel hare-krane harley-raine hayley-jade hazel-young heather-deeley heather-ellis heather-hart heather-lere heather-lyn heather-manfield heather-thomas heather-torrance heather-wayne heather-young helen-madigan helen-thomas helga-sven helga-wild hillary-summers holly-hollywood holly-joy holly-page holly-ryder honey-winter hottie-hollie hyapatia-lee ida-fabry ildiko-smits illana-moor ines-ridere ingrid-choray isabella-dior isabella-soprano isabelle-allay isabelle-brell isabelle-marchall isobel-wren iveta ivette-blanche jackie-right jacqueline-lorians jacy-allen jada-stevens jade-east jade-hsu jade-marcela jade-summers jade-wong jahn-gold jamie-brooks jamie-james jamie-summers jana-irrova jana-mrazkova jane-baker jane-darling jane-iwanoff jane-lindsay jane-lixx janet-jacme janey-robbins jasmine-delatori jayden-simone jaylyn-rose jayna-woods jazella-moore jazmin-luna-gold jean-afrique jeanette-littledove jeanie-marie-sullivan jean-jennings jeanna-fine jeannie-pepper jenna-jameson jenna-jane jenna-presley jenna-wells jennifer-haussmann jennifer-janes jennifer-jordan jennifer-morante jennifer-noxt jennifer-stewart jennifer-welles jennifer-west jenny jenny-feeling jenny-fields jenny-wings jersey-jaxin jesie-st-james jesse-capelli jessica-bangkok jessica-bogart jessica-darlin jessica-fiorentino jessica-gabriel jessica-laine jessica-may jessica-road jessica-wylde jessi-foster jill-ferari jill-kelly joana-redgrave joan-devlon joanna-storm joanna-sweet jody-maxwell joelle-lequement joelle-petinot johnni-black jordana-james jordan-green jordan-nevaeh jordan-star josephine-carrington joslyn-james julia-chanel julia-dal-fuoco juliana-grandi julia-paes julia-parton julia-perrin julia-swen julia-thomas julie-meadows julie-rage julie-simone juliet-anderson juliet-graham juliette-carelton kacey-jordan kagney-linn-karter kaitlyn-ashley kalena-rios kami-andrews kamila-smith kandee-licks kandi-barbour kapri-styles kara-nox karen-summer kari-foxx karine-gambier karin-schubert karli-sweet karmen-kennedy karol-castro kascha kassi-nova kat kate-frost kate-jones kathia-nobili kathleen-gentry kathleen-white kathy-divan kathy-harcourt kathy-heart kathy-kash katie-cummings katja-love kat-langer katrina-isis katrina-kraven katy-borman katy-caro kaycee-dean kayla-kupcakes kay-parker k-c-valentine keama-kim keira-moon keisha keli-richards kelli-tyler kelly-adams kelly-blue kelly-broox kelly-hearn kelly-kay kelly-kline kelly-nichols kelly-royce kelly-skyline kendra-kay kenzi-marie keri-windsor ketthy-divan kianna-dior kiley-heart kim-alexis kimber-blake kimberly-carson kimberly-kane kimberly-kyle kim-de-place kim-holland kimi-gee kimkim-de kim-kitaine kimmie-lee kimmy-nipples kina-kara kira-eggers kira-red kirsty-waay kitty-langdon kitty-lynxxx kitty-marie kitty-shayne kitty-yung kora-cummings kris-lara krista-lane krista-maze kristara-barrington kristarah-knight kristi-klenot kristina-blonde kristina-king kristina-klevits kristina-soderszk kristine-heller kristin-steen krisztina-ventura krystal-de-boor krystal-steal kylee-karr kylee-nash kylie-brooks kylie-channel kylie-haze kylie-wylde kym-wilde kyoto-sun lachelle-marie lacy-rose lady-amanda-wyldefyre lady-stephanie laetitia-bisset lana-burner lana-cox lana-wood lara-amour lara-roxx lara-stevens lataya-roxx latoya laura-clair laura-lazare laura-lion laura-may laura-orsolya laura-paouck laura-zanzibar lauren-black laurence-boutin lauren-montgomery laurien-dominique laurien-wilde laurie-smith lauryl-canyon lauryn-may leah-wilde lea-magic lea-martini leanna-foxxx lee-caroll leigh-livingston leilani lenora-bruce leslie-winston lesllie-bovee letizia-bruni lexi-lane lexi-matthews lezley-zen lia-fire liliane-gray liliane-lemieuvre lili-marlene lily-gilder lily-labeau lily-rodgers lily-valentine linda-shaw linda-vale linda-wong linnea-quigley lisa-bright lisa-de-leeuw lisa-k-loring lisa-lake lisa-melendez lisa-sue-corey lise-pinson little-oral-annie liza-dwyer liza-harper lizzy-borden logan-labrent lois-ayres lola-cait long-jean-silver loni-bunny loni-sanders loona-luxx lorelei-lee lorelei-rand lorena-sanchez lori-alexia lori-blue lorrie-lovett luci-diamond lucie-doll lucie-theodorova lucy-van-dam lydia-baum lynn-franciss lynn-lemay lynn-ray lynn-stevens lynx-canon lysa-thatcher madelina-ray madison-parker magdalena-lynn maggie-randall mai-lin mandi-wine mandy-bright mandy-malone mandy-may mandy-mistery mandy-starr marcia-minor maren margit-ojetz margitta-hofer margo-stevens margot-mahler mariah-cherry marianne-aubert maria-tortuga marie-anne marie-christine-chireix marie-christine-veroda marie-claude-moreau marie-dominique-cabannes marie-france-morel marie-luise-lusewitz marie-sharp marilyn-chambers marilyne-leroy marilyn-gee marilyn-jess marilyn-martyn marilyn-star marina-hedman marion-webb marita-ekberg marita-kemper marlena marlene-willoughby marry-queen martine-grimaud martine-schultz maryanne-fisher mary-hubay mary-ramunno mary-stuart mascha-mouton maud-kennedy mauvais-denoir maxine-tyler maya-black maya-france megan-leigh megan-martinez megan-reece mei-ling melanie-hotlips melanie-scott melba-cruz melinda-russell melissa-bonsardo melissa-del-prado melissa-golden melissa-martinez melissa-melendez melissa-monet mercedes-dragon mercedes-lynn merle-michaels mesha-lynn mia-beck mia-lina mia-smiles michele-raven michelle-aston michelle-ferrari michelle-greco michelle-maren michelle-maylene michelle-monroe micki-lynn mika-barthel mika-tan mikki-taylor mimi-morgan mindy-rae ming-toy miranda-stevens miss-bunny miss-meadow miss-pomodoro missy missy-graham missy-stone missy-vega misti-jane mistress-candice misty-anderson misty-dawn misty-rain misty-regan mona-lisa mona-page moni monica-baal monica-swinn monika-peta monika-sandmayr monika-unco monique-bruno monique-cardin monique-charell monique-demoan monique-gabrielle monique-la-belle morgan-fairlane morrigan-hel moxxie-maddron mulani-rivera mysti-may nadege-arnaud nadia-styles nadine-bronx nadine-proutnal nadine-roussial nadi-phuket nanci-suiter nancy-hoffman nancy-vee natacha-delyro natalia-wood natalli-diangelo natascha-throat natasha-skyler naudia-nyce nessa-devil nessy-grant nesty nicki-hunter nicky-reed nicole-berg nicole-bernard nicole-black nicole-grey nicole-london nicole-parks nicole-scott nicole-taylor nicolette-fauludi nicole-west nika-blond nika-mamic niki-cole nikita-love nikita-rush nikki-charm nikki-grand nikki-king nikki-knight nikki-randall nikki-rhodes nikki-santana nikki-steele nikki-wilde niko nina-cherry nina-deponca nina-hartley nina-preta oana-efria obaya-roberts olesja-derevko olga-cabaeva olga-conti olga-pechova olga-petrova olivia-alize olivia-del-rio olivia-flores olivia-la-roche olivia-outre ophelia-tozzi orchidea-keresztes orsolya-blonde paige-turner paisley-hunter pamela-bocchi pamela-jennings pamela-mann pamela-stanford pamela-stealt pandora paola-albini pascale-vital pat-manning pat-rhea patricia-dale patricia-diamond patricia-kennedy patricia-rhomberg patrizia-predan patti-cakes patti-petite paula-brasile paula-harlow paula-morton paula-price paula-winters pauline-teutscher penelope-pumpkins penelope-valentin petra-hermanova petra-lamas peyton-lafferty phaedra-grant pia-snow piper-fawn pipi-anderson porsche-lynn porsha-carrera precious-silver priscillia-lenn purple-passion queeny-love rachel-ashley rachel-love rachel-luv rachel-roxxx rachel-ryan rachel-ryder racquel-darrian rane-revere raven reagan-maddux rebecca-bardoux regan-anthony regine-bardot regula-mertens reina-leone reka-gabor renae-cruz renee-foxx renee-lovins renee-morgan renee-perez renee-summers renee-tiffany rhonda-jo-petty rikki-blake riley-ray rio-mariah rita-ricardo roberta-gemma roberta-pedon robin-byrd robin-cannes robin-everett robin-sane rochell-starr rosa-lee-kimball rosemarie roxanne-blaze roxanne-hall roxanne-rollan ruby-richards sabina-k sabre sabrina-chimaera sabrina-dawn sabrina-jade sabrina-johnson sabrina-love-cox sabrina-mastrolorenzi sabrina-rose sabrina-scott sabrina-summers sacha-davril sahara sahara-sands sai-tai-tiger samantha-fox samantha-ryan samantha-sterlyng samantha-strong samueline-de-la-rosa sandra-cardinale sandra-de-marco sandra-kalermen sandra-russo sandy-lee sandy-pinney sandy-reed sandy-samuel sandy-style sandy-summers sara-brandy-canyon sara-faye sarah-bernard sarah-cabrera sarah-hevyn sarah-mills sarah-shine sara-sloane sasha sasha-hollander sasha-ligaya sasha-rose satine-phoenix satin-summer savannah-stern savanna-jane scarlet-scarleau scarlet-windsor seka selena serena serena-south severine-amoux shana-evans shanna-mccullough shannon-kelly shannon-rush shantell-day sharon-da-vale sharon-kane sharon-mitchell shaun-michelle shawna-sexton shawnee-cates shay-hendrix shayne-ryder sheena-horne sheer-delight shelby-star shelby-stevens shelly-berlin shelly-lyons sheri-st-clair sheyla-cats shonna-lynn shyla-foxxx shy-love sierra-sinn sierra-skye sigrun-theil silver-starr silvia-bella silvia-saint silvie-de-lux silvy-taylor simone-west sindee-coxx sindy-lange sindy-shy siobhan-hunter skylar-knight skylar-price skyler-dupree smokie-flame smoking-mary-jane solange-shannon sonya-summers sophia-santi sophie-call sophie-duflot sophie-evans sophie-guers stacey-donovan stacy-lords stacy-moran stacy-nichols stacy-silver stacy-thorn starla-fox starr-wood stefania-bruni stella-virgin stephanie-duvalle stephanie-rage stephanie-renee stevie-taylor summer-knight summer-rose sunny-day sunset-thomas sunshine-seiber susan-hart susanne-brend susan-nero susi-hotkiss suzanne-mcbain suzan-nielsen suzie-bartlett suzie-carina suzi-sparks sweet-nice sweety-pie sybille-rossani sylvia-benedict sylvia-bourdon sylvia-brand sylvia-engelmann syreeta-taylor syren-de-mer syvette szabina-black szilvia-lauren tai-ellis taija-rae taisa-banx talia-james tamara-lee tamara-longley tamara-n-joy tamara-west tami-white tammy tammy-lee tammy-reynolds tania-lorenzo tantala-ray tanya-danielle tanya-fox tanya-foxx tanya-lawson tanya-valis tara-aire tasha-voux tatjana-belousova tatjana-skomorokhova tawnee-lee tawny-pearl tayla-rox taylor-wane teddi-austin teddi-barrett tera-bond tera-heart tera-joy teresa-may teresa-orlowski teri-diver teri-weigel terri-dolan terri-hall tess-ferre tess-newheart thais-vieira tia-cherry tianna tiara tiffany-blake tiffany-clark tiffany-duponte tiffany-rayne tiffany-rousso tiffany-storm tiffany-towers tiffany-tyler tiger-lily tigr timea-vagvoelgyi tina-blair tina-burner tina-evil tina-gabriel tina-loren tina-marie tina-russell tish-ambrose tommi-rose tonisha-mills topsy-curvey tori-secrets tori-sinclair tori-welles tracey-adams traci-lords traci-topps traci-winn tracy-duzit tracy-love tracy-williams tricia-devereaux tricia-yen trinity-loren trisha-rey trista-post trixie-tyler ultramax ursula-gaussmann ursula-moore uschi-karnat valentina valerie-leveau valery-hilton vanessa-chase vanessa-del-rio vanessa-michaels vanessa-ozdanic vanilla-deville velvet-summers veri-knotty veronica-dol veronica-hart veronica-hill veronica-rayne veronica-sage veronika-vanoza via-paxton vicky-lindsay vicky-vicci victoria-evans victoria-gold victoria-knight victoria-luna victoria-paris victoria-slick victoria-zdrok viper virginie-caprice vivian-valentine vivien-martines wendi-white wendy-divine whitney-banks whitney-fears whitney-wonders wonder-tracey wow-nikki xanthia-berstein yasmine-fitzgerald yelena-shieffer yvonne-green zara-whites zsanett-egerhazi zuzie-boobies





expansion was allowed, beginning with the conquest of Melilla in Struggles for Italy edit See also Italian Wars The death of French general Gaston de Foix at the Battle of Ravenna The Catholic Monarchs had developed a strategy of marriages for their children in order to isolate their long time enemy France The Spanish princes married the heirs of Portugal, England and the House of Habsburg Following the same strategy, the Catholic Monarchs decided to support the Catalan Aragonese house of Naples against Charles VIII of France in the Italian Wars from As King of Aragon, Ferdinand had been involved in the struggle against France and Venice for control of Italy these conflicts became the center of Ferdinand's foreign policy as king In these battles, which established the supremacy of the Spanish Tercios in European battlefields, the forces of the kings of Spain acquired a reputation for invincibility that would last until the mid th century After the death of Queen Isabella, Ferdinand, as Spain's sole monarch, adopted a more aggressive policy than he had as Isabella's husband, enlarging Spain's sphere of influence in Italy and against France Ferdinand's first deployment of Spanish forces came in the War of the League of Cambrai against Venice, where the Spanish soldiers distinguished themselves on the field alongside their French allies at the Battle of Agnadello Only a year later, Ferdinand became part of the Holy League against France, seeing a chance at taking both Milan — to which he held a dynastic claim – and Navarre This war was less of a success than the war against Venice, and in , France agreed to a truce that left Milan in its control and recognized Spanish control of Upper Navarre Papal Bulls and the Indies edit Upon the death of Ferdinand the Catholic, the lordship of the Spanish Indies became Kingdoms of the Indies The Papal Bull Inter caetera of by Alexander VI, a Valencian known as Rodrigo Borgia prior to his election as pope, vested government and jurisdiction of newly found lands in the kings of Castile and León and their successors According to the Concord of Segovia of , Ferdinand was mentioned in the bulls as king of Castile and upon his death the title of the Indies was to be incorporated into the Crown of Castile The territories were incorporated by the Catholic Monarchs as jointly held assets In the Treaty of Villafáfila king Ferdinand the Catholic renounced not only the government of Castile in favour of his son in law Philip I of Castile but also the lordship of the Indies, withholding a half of the income of the kingdoms of the Indies Joanna of Castile and Philip immediately added to their titles the kingdoms of Indies, Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea But the Treaty of Villafáfila did not hold for long because of the death of Philip Ferdinand returned as regent of Castile and as lord the Indies According to the domain granted by Papal bulls and the wills of queen Isabella of Castile in and king Ferdinand of Aragon in , such property become definitely a property of the Crown of Castile This arrangement was ratified by successive monarchs, beginning with Charles I in in a decree that spelt out the juridical status of the new overseas territories The lordship of the discovery territories conveyed by papal bulls was private as public to kings of Castile and León The political condition of the Indias were to transform from Lordship of the Catholic monarchs to Kingdoms for the heirs of Castile Although the Alexandrine Bulls gave full, free and omnipotent power to Catholic Monarchs, they did not rule them as a private property but as a public property through the public bodies and authorities from Castile, and when those territories were incorporated into the Crown of Castile the royal power was subject to the laws of Castile First settlements in the Americas and Crown control edit See also Voyages of Christopher Columbus and Treaty of Tordesillas The Crown of Castile's Capitulations of Santa Fe granted expansive power to Christopher Columbus, including exploration, settlement, political power, and revenues, with sovereignty reserved to the Crown of Castile The first voyage established sovereignty for the crown and the crown acted on the assumption that Columbus's grandiose assessment of what he found was true, so that Spain negotiated the Treaty of Tordesillas with Portugal to protect their territory on the Spanish side of the line The crown fairly quickly reassessed its relationship to Columbus and moved to assert more direct crown control over the territory and extinguish his privileges With that lesson learned, the crown was far more prudent in the specifying the terms of exploration, conquest, and settlement in new areas The pattern in the Caribbean that played out over the larger Spanish Indies was exploration of an unknown area and claim of sovereignty for the crown conquest of indigenous peoples or assumption of control without direct violence settlement by Spaniards who were awarded the labour of indigenous people via the encomienda and the existing settlements becoming the launch point for further exploration, conquest, and settlement, followed by the establishment institutions with officials appointed by the crown The patterns set in the Caribbean were replicated throughout the expanding Spanish sphere, so although the importance of the Caribbean quickly faded after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire and the Spanish conquest of the Incas, many of those participating in those conquests had started their exploits in the Caribbean The first permanent European settlements in the New World were established in the Caribbean, initially on the island of Hispaniola, later Cuba and Puerto Rico As a Genoese with the connections to Portugal, Columbus considered settlement to be on the pattern of trading forts and factories, with salaried employees to trade with locals and to identify exploitable resources However, Spanish settlement in the New World was based on a pattern of a large, permanent settlements with the entire complex of institutions and material life to replicate Castilian life in a different venue Columbus's second voyage in had a large contingent of settlers and goods to accomplish that On Hispaniola, the city of Santo Domingo was founded in by Christopher Columbus's brother Bartholomew Columbus and became a stone built, permanent city The early history of the first settlements are deeply entwined with Christopher Columbus and his extended family and the crown's attempts to limit the expansive powers granted by the crown's first contract with Columbus, the Capitulations of Santa Fe Although Columbus staunchly asserted and believed that the lands he encountered were in Asia, the paucity of material wealth and the relative lack of complexity of indigenous society meant that the Crown of Castile initially was not concerned with the extensive powers granted Columbus However, as the Caribbean became a draw for Spanish settlement and as Columbus and his extended Genoese family failed to be recognized as officials worthy of the titles they held, there was unrest Catholic Monarchs reacted when Columbus encountered the mainland in They learned of his discovery in May , and, taking advantage of a revolt against Columbus in Hispaniola, they appointed Francisco de Bobadilla as governor of the Indies with civil and criminal jurisdiction over the lands discovered by Columbus He, however, was soon replaced by Nicolás de Ovando in September Henceforth, the Crown would authorize to individuals voyages to discover territories in the Indies only with previous royal license, and since , the monopoly of the Crown was assured by the establishment of Casa de Contratación House of Trade at Seville But the successors of Columbus litigated against the Crown until for the fulfillment of the Capitulations of Santa Fe in the pleitos colombinos Spanish territories in the New World around In metropolitan Spain, the direction of the issues of the Indies was taken over by the Bishop Fonseca between and , and again between and , after a brief period of Jean le Sauvage After the figure of the secretary was added, so then between and Gaspar de Gricio took charge, between and Lope de Conchillos followed him, and since , Francisco de los Cobos In , the Junta of The Indies was constituted as a standing committee belonging to the Council of Castile to address issues of the Indies, and this junta constituted the origin of the Council of the Indies in Following the settlement of Hispaniola which was successful towards the end of the s, the settlers began searching elsewhere to begin new settlements, since there was little apparent wealth and the numbers of indigenous were declining Those from the less prosperous Hispaniola were eager to search for new success in a new settlement From there Juan Ponce de León conquered Puerto Rico and Diego Velázquez took Cuba In , the Board of Navigators met in Burgos concurred the need to establish settlements on the mainland, a project entrusted to Alonso de Ojeda and Diego de Nicuesa as governors, subordinated to the governor of Hispaniola, who was the newly appointed Diego Columbus, with the same legal authority that Ovando The first settlement on the mainland was Santa María la Antigua del Darién in Castilla de Oro now Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia , settled by Vasco Núñez de Balboa in In , Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, and led the first European expedition to see the Pacific Ocean from the West coast of the New World In an action with enduring historical import, Balboa claimed the Pacific Ocean and all the lands adjoining it for the Spanish Crown The judgment of Seville of May recognized the viceregal title to Diego Columbus, but limited it to Hispaniola and to the islands discovered by his father, Christopher Columbus, nevertheless his power was limited by royal officers and magistrates constituting a dual regime of government Therefore, the king Ferdinand II of Aragon as regent of his daughter the queen Joanna separated the territories of mainland, designated as Castilla de Oro, from the viceroy of Hispaniola, establishing as General Lieutenant to Pedrarias Dávila in with functions similar to those of a viceroy, remaining Balboa subordinated as governing of Panama and Coiba on the Pacific Coast, and that after his death returned to Castilla de Oro The territory of Castilla de Oro did not include either Veragua which was comprised approximately between the river Chagres and cape Gracias a Dios , due to this territory was subject to a lawsuit between the Crown and Diego Columbus, or the region farther north, towards the Yucatán peninsula, explored by Yáñez Pinzón and Solís in – , due to its remoteness The conflicts of the viceroy Columbus with the royal officers and with the Audiencia, created in Santo Domingo in , caused his return to the Peninsula in Campaigns in Africa edit After the conquest of Melilla in , the Spanish expansionist policy in North Africa was developed during the regency of Ferdinand the Catholic in Castile, stimulated by the Cardinal Cisneros, once the Reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula was finished That way, several towns and outposts in the North African coast were conquered and occupied by Castile Mazalquivir , Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera , Oran , Algiers , Bugia , and Tripoli In the Atlantic coast, Spain took possession of the outpost of Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña with support from the Canary Islands, and it was retained until with the consent of the treaty of Cintra The Spanish Habsburgs The Sun Never Sets – edit Further information Habsburg Spain, Spanish Habsburgs and Iberian Union The period of the th to the mid th century is known as the Golden Age of Spain in Spanish, Siglo de Oro As a result of the marriage politics of the Catholic Monarchs in Spanish, Reyes Católicos , their Habsburg grandson Charles inherited the Castilian empire in America, the Possessions of the Crown of Aragon in the Mediterranean including a large portion of modern Italy , lands in Germany, the Low Countries, Franche Comté, and Austria this one, along with the rest of hereditary Habsburg domains was almost immediately transferred to Ferdinand, the Emperor's brother While not directly an inheritance, Charles was elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire after the death of his grandfather Emperor Maximilian thanks to prodigious bribes paid the prince electors Charles became the most powerful man in Europe, his rule stretching over an empire in Europe unrivaled in extent until the Napoleonic era It was often said during this time that it was the empire on which the sun never set This sprawling overseas empire of the Spanish Golden Age was controlled, not from inland Valladolid, but from Seville, citation needed where the Casa de Contratación House of Trade regulated commerce with the Indies, as well as licenses for emigration The supreme body for administering the Indies was the Council of the Indies, established in The Castilian Empire abroad was initially a disappointment It did stimulate some trade and industry, but the trading opportunities encountered were limited Matters began to change in the s with the large scale extraction of silver from the rich deposits of Mexico's Guanajuato region, but it was the opening of the silver mines in Mexico's Zacatecas and Potosí in Upper Peru modern day Bolivia in that became legendary During the th century, Spain held the equivalent of US$ trillion terms in gold and silver received from New Spain Ultimately, however, these imports diverted investment away from other forms of industry and contributed to inflation in Spain in the last decades of the th century I learnt a proverb here , said a French traveler in Everything is dear in Spain except silver This situation was aggravated by the loss of much of the commercial and artisan classes with the expulsions of the Jews and Moriscos The vast imports of silver ultimately made Spain overly dependent on foreign sources of raw materials and manufactured goods citation needed The wealthy preferred to invest their fortunes in public debt juros , which were backed by these silver imports, rather than in production of manufactures and the improvement of agriculture This helped perpetuate the medieval aristocratic prejudice that saw manual work as dishonorable long after this attitude had started to decline in other west European countries The silver and gold whose circulation helped facilitate the economic and social revolutions in the Low Countries, France and England and other parts of Europe helped stifle them in Spain The problems caused by inflation were discussed by scholars at the School of Salamanca and arbitristas but they had no impact on the Habsburg government citation needed The Habsburg dynasty spent the Castilian and American riches in wars across Europe on behalf of Habsburg interests, defaulted on their debt several times, and left Spain bankrupt several times These problems led to a number of revolts across his empire, notably that of Castilian rebels in the Revolt of the Comuneros, but these rebellions were put down The Habsburgs' political goals were several Access to the resources of the Americas gold, silver, sugar and products of Asia porcelain, spices, silk Undermining the power of France and containing it in its eastern borders Maintaining Catholic Habsburg hegemony in Germany, defending Catholicism against the Protestant Reformation Charles attempted to quell the Reformation at the Diet of Worms but Martin Luther refused to recant his 'heresy ' However, Charles's piety could not stop his mutinying troops from plundering the Holy See in the Sacco di Roma Defending Europe against Islam, notably the Ottoman Empire To spread religion to the unconverted souls of the new world With conflict between Catholics and Protestants raging in Europe, the new world was an ideal place for more Catholics to be recruited The Pillars of Hercules with the motto Plus Ultra as symbol of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in the Town Hall of Seville th century Spanish intervention in Europe edit Struggles of Charles V for Italy edit See also Italian Wars With the ascent of the king Charles I in and his election as sovereign of the Holy Roman Empire in , Francis I of France found himself surrounded by Habsburg territories, invaded the Spanish possessions in Italy in , and inaugurated the second war of Franco Spanish conflict The war was a disaster for France, which suffered defeat at the Battle of Biccoca , the Battle of Pavia , at which Francis was captured , and the Battle of Landriano before Francis relented and abandoned Milan to Spain The Battle of Pavia King Charles I Charles V Holy Roman Emperor achieved victory at the Battle of Pavia in and surprised many Italians and Germans and elicited concerns that Charles would endeavor to gain ever greater power citation needed Pope Clement VII switched sides and now joined forces with France and prominent Italian states against the Habsburg Emperor, resulting in the War of the League of Cognac Charles grew exhausted with the pope's meddling in what he viewed as purely secular affairs In , Charles' army of mercenaries in northern Italy, underpaid and desiring to plunder the city of Rome, mutinied, advanced southward toward Rome, and sacked the city The sack of Rome, while unintended by Charles, embarrassed the papacy sufficiently enough that Clement, and succeeding popes, were considerably more circumspect in their dealings with secular authorities citation needed In , Clement's refusal to annul the first marriage of King Henry VIII of England to Catherine of Aragon may have been partly or entirely motivated by his unwillingness to offend the emperor and have his capital sacked for perhaps a second time The Peace of Barcelona, signed between Charles V and the Pope in , established a more cordial relationship between the two leaders Spain was effectively named the protector of the Catholic cause and Charles was crowned as King of Italy Lombardy in return for Spanish intervention in overthrowing the rebellious Florentine Republic In , the great admiral Andrea Doria allied with the Emperor to oust the French and restore Genoa's independence, opening the prospect for financial renewal marks the first loan from Genoese banks to Charles In , the king of France Francis I announced his unprecedented alliance with the Islamic sultan of the Ottoman, Suleiman the Magnificent, by occupying the Spanish controlled city of Nice in concert with Ottoman forces Henry VIII of England, who bore a greater grudge against France than he held against the Emperor for standing in the way of his divorce, joined Charles V in his invasion of France Although the Spanish were defeated at the Battle of Ceresole in Savoy the French army was unable to seriously threaten Spanish controlled Milan, whilst suffering defeat in the north at the hands of Henry, thereby being forced to accept unfavourable terms The Austrians, led by Charles's younger brother Ferdinand, continued to fight the Ottomans in the east Charles went to take care of an older problem the Schmalkaldic League Religious conflicts in the Holy Empire edit A map of the dominion of the Habsburgs following the abdication of Charles V as depicted in The Cambridge Modern History Atlas Habsburg lands are shaded green From the lands in a line from the Netherlands, through to the east of France, to the south of Italy and the islands were retained by the Spanish Habsburgs The Schmalkaldic League had allied itself to the French, and efforts in Germany to undermine the League had been rebuffed Francis's defeat in led to the annulment of the alliance with the Protestants, and Charles took advantage of the opportunity He first tried the path of negotiation at the Council of Trent in , but the Protestant leadership, feeling betrayed by the stance taken by the Catholics at the council, went to war, led by the Saxon elector Maurice In response, Charles invaded Germany at the head of a mixed Dutch–Spanish army, hoping to restore the Imperial authority The emperor personally inflicted a decisive defeat on the Protestants at the historic Battle of Mühlberg in In , Charles signed the Peace of Augsburg with the Protestant states and restored stability in Germany on his principle of cuius regio, eius religio, a position unpopular with Spanish and Italian clergymen Charles's involvement in Germany would establish a role for Spain as protector of the Catholic, Habsburg cause in the Holy Roman Empire the precedent would lead, seven decades later, to involvement in the war that would decisively end Spain as Europe's leading power Defeat of France edit Charles V's only legitimate son, Philip II of Spain r – parted the Austrian possessions with his uncle Ferdinand Philip treated Castile as the foundation of his empire, but the population of Castile was never great enough to provide the soldiers needed to support the Empire When he married Mary Tudor, England was allied to Spain The celebrations following the Peace of Cateau Cambrésis between Spain and France Spain was not yet at peace, as Henry II of France came to the throne in and immediately renewed conflict with Spain Charles's successor, Philip II, aggressively prosecuted the war against France, crushing a French army at the Battle of St Quentin in Picardy in and defeating Henry again at the Battle of Gravelines The Peace of Cateau Cambrésis, signed in , permanently recognized Spanish claims in Italy In the celebrations that followed the treaty, Henry was killed by a stray splinter from a lance France was stricken for the next thirty years by chronic civil war and unrest see French Wars of Religion and, during this period, removed from effectively competing with Spain and the Habsburg family in European power games Freed from effective French opposition, Spain saw the apogee of its might and territorial reach in the period – The opening for the Genoese banking consortium was the state bankruptcy of Philip II in , which threw the German banking houses into chaos and ended the reign of the Fuggers as Spanish financiers The Genoese bankers provided the unwieldy Habsburg system with fluid credit and a dependably regular income In return the less dependable shipments of American silver were rapidly transferred from Seville to Genoa, to provide capital for further ventures European conflicts at the time of Philip II edit The time for rejoicing in Madrid was short lived In , Calvinist led riots in the Netherlands prompted the Duke of Alba to march into the country to restore order In , William of Orange, better known as William the Silent, led a failed attempt to drive Alba from the Netherlands These battles are generally considered to signal the start of the Eighty Years' War that ended with the independence of the United Provinces The Spanish, who derived a great deal of wealth from the Netherlands and particularly from the vital port of Antwerp, were committed to restoring order and maintaining their hold on the provinces According to Luc Normand Tellier, It is estimated that the port of Antwerp was earning the Spanish crown seven times more revenues than the Americas In , a band of rebel Dutch privateers known as the watergeuzen Sea Beggars seized a number of Dutch coastal towns, proclaimed their support for William and denounced the Spanish leadership Otto van Veen The Relief of Leiden after the Dutch had broken their dykes in the Eighty Years' War For Spain, the war became an endless quagmire, sometimes literally In , the Spanish army under Luis de Requeséns was repulsed from the Siege of Leiden after the Dutch broke the dykes, thus causing extensive flooding In , faced with the bills from his , man army of occupation in the Netherlands, the cost of his fleet that had won at Lepanto, together with the growing threat of piracy in the open seas reducing his income from his American colonies, Philip was forced to accept bankruptcy The army in the Netherlands mutinied not long after, seizing Antwerp and looting the southern Netherlands, prompting several cities in the previously peaceful southern provinces to join the rebellion The Spanish chose to negotiate, and pacified most of the southern provinces again with the Union of Arras in In response, the Netherlands created the Union of Utrecht, as an alliance between the northern provinces, later that month They officially deposed Philip in when they enacted the Act of Abjuration Under the Arras agreement the southern states of the Spanish Netherlands, today in Belgium and the Nord Pas de Calais and Picardy régions in France, expressed their loyalty to the Spanish king Philip II and recognized his Governor General, Don Juan of Austria In , this gave King Philip the opportunity to strengthen his position when the last member of the Portuguese royal family, Cardinal Henry of Portugal, died Philip asserted his claim to the Portuguese throne and in June sent the Duke of Alba with an army to Lisbon to assure his succession Though the Duke of Alba and the Spanish occupation, however, was little more popular in Lisbon than in Rotterdam, the combined Spanish and Portuguese empires placed into Philip's hands almost the entirety of the explored New World along with a vast trading empire in Africa and Asia In , when Philip II moved his court back to Madrid from the Atlantic port of Lisbon where he had temporarily settled to pacify his new Portuguese kingdom, the pattern was sealed, in spite of what every observant commentator privately noted Sea power is more important to the ruler of Spain than any other prince wrote a commentator, for it is only by sea power that a single community can be created out of so many so far apart A writer on tactics in observed, The might most suited to the arms of Spain is that which is placed on the seas, but this matter of state is so well known that I should not discuss it, even if I thought it opportune to do so The defense of Cádiz, by Zurbarán Portugal required an extensive occupation force to keep it under control, and Spain was still reeling from the bankruptcy In , William the Silent was assassinated by a half deranged Catholic, and the death of the popular Dutch resistance leader was hoped to bring an end to the war It did not In , Queen Elizabeth I of England, sent support to the Protestant causes in the Netherlands and France, and Sir Francis Drake launched attacks against Spanish merchants in the Caribbean and the Pacific, along with a particularly aggressive attack on the port of Cadiz In , hoping to put a stop to Elizabeth's intervention, Philip sent the Spanish Armada to attack England Unfavourable weather, plus heavily armed and manœuvrable English ships, and the fact that the English had been warned by their spies in the Netherlands and were ready for the attack resulted in defeat for the Armada However, the failure of the Drake–Norris Expedition to Portugal and the Azores in marked a turning point in the on off – Anglo–Spanish War The Spanish fleets became more effective in transporting greatly increased quantities of silver and gold from the Americas, while English attacks suffered costly failures The Spanish Armada leaving the Bay of Ferrol Spain had invested itself in the religious warfare in France after Henry II's death In , Henry III, the last of the Valois lineage, died at the walls of Paris His successor, Henry IV of Navarre, the first Bourbon king of France, was a man of great ability, winning key victories against the Catholic League at Arques and Ivry Committed to stopping Henry of Navarre from becoming King of France, the Spanish divided their army in the Netherlands and invaded France in This proved a disaster The pacification at the time of Philip III edit Faced with wars against France, England and the Netherlands, each led by capable leaders, the bankrupted empire found itself competing against two strong adversaries Continuing piracy against its shipping in the Atlantic and the costly colonial enterprises forced Spain to renegotiate its debts in The crown attempted to reduce its exposure to the different conflicts, first signing the Treaty of Vervins with France in , recognizing Henry IV since a Catholic as king of France, and restoring many of the stipulations of the previous Peace of Cateau Cambrésis The Kingdom of England, suffering from a series of repulses at sea and from an endless guerrilla war by Catholics in Ireland, who were supported by Spain, agreed to the Treaty of London, , following the accession of the more tractable Stuart King James I Castile provided the Spanish crown with most of its revenues and its best troops The plague devastated Castilian lands between and , causing the deaths of some , people A great number of Castilians went to America or died in battle In , the great majority of the Morisco population of Spain was expelled It is estimated that Castile lost about % of its population between and Such a dramatic drop in the population meant the basis for the Crown's revenues was dangerously weakened in a time when it was engaged in continuous conflict in Europe Peace with England and France gave Spain an opportunity to focus its energies on restoring its rule to the Dutch provinces The Dutch, led by Maurice of Nassau, the son of William the Silent and perhaps the greatest strategist of his time, had succeeded in taking a number of border cities since , including the fortress of Breda Following the peace with England, the new Spanish commander Ambrogio Spinola, a general with the ability to match Maurice, pressed hard against the Dutch and was prevented from conquering the Netherlands only by Spain's latest bankruptcy in In , the Twelve Years' Truce was signed between Spain and the United Provinces At last, Spain was at peace – the Pax Hispanica Spain made a fair recovery during the truce, putting its finances in order and doing much to restore its prestige and stability in the run up to the last truly great war in which she would play a leading part Philip II's successor, Philip III, was a man of limited ability, uninterested in politics and preferring to delegate management of the empire to others citation needed His chief minister was the capable Duke of Lerma The Surrender of Breda to Ambrogio Spinola, by Velázquez This victory came to symbolize the renewed period of Spanish military vigour in the Thirty Years' War The Duke of Lerma and to a large extent Philip II had been uninterested in the affairs of their ally, Austria In , the king replaced him with Don Baltasar de Zúñiga, a veteran ambassador to Vienna Don Balthasar believed that the key to restraining the resurgent French and eliminating the Dutch was a closer alliance with Habsburg Austria In , beginning with the Defenestration of Prague, Austria and the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II, embarked on a campaign against the Protestant Union and Bohemia Don Balthasar encouraged Philip to join the Austrian Habsburgs in the war, and Spinola, the rising star of the Spanish army in the Netherlands, was sent at the head of the Army of Flanders to intervene Thus, Spain entered into the Thirty Years' War The road to Rocroi edit In , Philip III was succeeded by the considerably more religious Philip IV The following year, Don Balthasar was replaced by Gaspar de Guzmán, Count Duke of Olivares, a reasonably honest and able man After certain initial setbacks, the Bohemians were defeated at White Mountain in , and again at Stadtlohn in The war with the Netherlands was renewed in with Spinola taking the fortress of Breda in The intervention of Christian IV of Denmark in the war threatened the Spanish position, but the victory of the Imperial general Albert of Wallenstein over the Danes at Dessau Bridge and again at Lutter both in , eliminated that threat There was hope in Madrid that the Netherlands might finally be reincorporated into the Empire, and after the defeat of Denmark the Protestants in Germany seemed crushed France was once again involved in its own instabilities the famous Siege of La Rochelle began in , and Spain's eminence seemed clear The Count Duke Olivares stridently affirmed, God is Spanish and fights for our nation these days Olivares realized that Spain needed to reform, and to reform it needed peace, first and foremost with the United Provinces However, Olivares aimed for peace with honour which meant in practice a peace settlement which would have restored to Spain something of its predominant position in the Netherlands This was unacceptable to the United Provinces and the inevitable consequence of that was the constant hope that one more victory would after all lead to peace with honour – perpetuating the ruinous war which Olivare had wanted to avoid to begin with To illustrate the precarious economic situation of Spain at the time, it is sufficient to recall that it was actually Dutch bankers who financed the East India merchants of Seville during the truce, presumably At the same time, everywhere in the world Dutch entrepreneurship and colonists were undermining Spanish and Portuguese hegemony Spain badly needed time and peace to repair its finances and to rebuild its economy While Spinola and the Spanish army were focused on the Netherlands, the war seemed to go in Spain's favor But saw the collapse of the Castilian economy The Habsburgs had been debasing their currency to pay for the war and prices exploded, just as they had in previous years in Austria Until , parts of Castile operated on a barter economy owing to the currency crisis, and the government was unable to collect any meaningful taxes from the peasantry and had to depend on revenue from its colonies The Spanish armies, like others in German territories, resorted to paying themselves on the land Battle of Nördlingen Decisive victory for the Catholic Imperial army and Spain over the Swedes Olivares had backed certain taxation reforms in Spain pending the end of the war, but was blamed for another embarrassing and fruitless war in Italy The Dutch, who during the Twelve Years' Truce had made increasing their navy a priority, which showed its maturing potency at the Battle of Gibraltar , managed to strike a great blow against Spanish maritime trade with the capture by captain Piet Hein of the Spanish treasure fleet on which Spain had become dependent after the economic collapse Spanish military resources were stretched across Europe and also at sea as they sought to protect maritime trade against the greatly improved Dutch and French fleets, while still occupied with the Ottoman and associated Barbary pirate threat in the Mediterranean In the meantime the aim of choking Dutch shipping was carried out by the Dunkirkers with considerable success In a Spanish Portuguese fleet, under Admiral Fradique de Toledo, regained the strategically vital Brazilian city of Salvador da Bahia from the Dutch Elsewhere, the isolated and undermanned Portuguese forts in Africa and the Asia proved vulnerable to Dutch and English raids and takeovers or simply being bypassed as important trading posts In , Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, one of history's most noted commanders, landed in Germany and relieved the port of Stralsund, the last continental stronghold of German forces belligerent to the Emperor Gustavus then marched south and won notable victories at Breitenfeld and Lützen, attracting more Protestant support with every step he took The situation for the Catholics improved with Gustavus's death at Lutzen in , and a key victory at Nordlingen was won in From a position of strength, the Emperor approached the war weary German states with a peace offering in many accepted, including the two most powerful, Brandenburg and Saxony But then France entered the war, and diplomatic calculations were once again thrown into confusion The Battle of Rocroi , the symbolic end of Spain's grandeur Cardinal Richelieu of France had been a strong supporter of the Dutch and Protestants since the beginning of the war, sending funds and equipment in an attempt to stem Habsburg strength in Europe Richelieu decided that the recently signed Peace of Prague was contrary to French interests and declared war on the Holy Roman Emperor and Spain within months of the peace being signed In the war that followed, the more experienced Spanish forces scored initial successes Olivares ordered a lightning campaign into northern France from the Spanish Netherlands, hoping to shatter the resolve of King Louis XIII's ministers and topple Richelieu In the année de Corbie , , Spanish forces advanced as far south as Corbie, and such was the threat to Paris that the war came close to a conclusion on Spanish terms After , however, Olivares halted the advance, fearful of provoking another crown bankruptcy The hesitation in pressing home the advantage proved fateful French forces regrouped and pushed the Spanish back towards the border The Spanish army would never again penetrate so far At the Battle of the Downs in a Spanish fleet carrying troops was destroyed by the Dutch navy, and the Spanish found themselves unable to supply and reinforce their forces adequately in the Netherlands The Army of Flanders, which represented the finest of Spanish soldiery and leadership, faced a French assault led by Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé in northern France at Rocroi in The Spanish, led by Francisco de Melo, were beaten by the French After a closely fought battle the Spanish were forced to surrender on honorable terms As a result, while the defeat was not a rout, the high status of the Army of Flanders was ended at Rocroi The defeat at Rocroi also led to the dismissal of the embattled Olivares, who was confined to his estates by the king's order and died two years later, broken and mad The Last Spanish Habsburgs edit Main article Habsburg Spain in the seventeenth century Traditionally, historians mark the Battle of Rocroi as the end of Spanish dominance in Europe but the war was not finished and after a severe setback, more Spanish victories followed Supported by the French, the Catalans, Neapolitans, and Portuguese rose up in revolt against the Spanish in the s With the Spanish Netherlands caught between the tightening grip of French and Dutch forces after the Battle of Lens in , the Spanish made peace with the Dutch and recognized the independent United Provinces in the Peace of Westphalia that ended both the Eighty Years' War and the Thirty Years' War The meeting of Philip IV of Spain and Louis XIV of France on July at Pheasant Island War with France continued for eleven more years Although France suffered from a civil war from to see Wars of the Fronde , Spain had been exhausted by the Thirty Years' War and the ongoing revolts of Portugal, Catalonia and Naples With the war against the United Provinces at an end in , the Spanish drove the French out of Naples that year and Catalonia in , recaptured Dunkirk and occupied several northern French forts that they held until peace was made but the war came to an end soon after the Battle of the Dunes where the French army under Viscount Turenne retook Dunkirk Spain agreed to the Peace of the Pyrenees in that ceded to France the Spanish Netherlands territory of Artois and the northern Catalan county of Roussillon Portugal had rebelled in under the leadership of John of Braganza, a pretender to the throne He had received widespread support from the Portuguese people, and Spain—which had to deal with rebellions elsewhere, along with the war against France – was unable to respond adequately John mounted the throne as King John IV of Portugal and the Spanish and Portuguese co existed in a de facto state of peace from to When John died in , the Spanish attempted to wrest Portugal from his son Alfonso VI of Portugal but were defeated at Ameixial and Montes Claros , leading to Spain's recognition of Portugal's independence in Spain still had a huge overseas empire, but France was now the dominant power in Europe and the United Provinces were in the Atlantic The Great Plague of Seville – killed up to % of Seville's population citation needed Sevilla, and indeed the economy of Andalucía, would never recover from so complete a devastation Altogether Spain was thought to have lost , people, out of a population of slightly fewer than , , , or nearly % of its entire population Historians reckon the total cost in human lives due to these plagues throughout Spain, throughout the entire th century, to be a minimum of nearly million The regency of the young Spanish king Charles II was incompetent in dealing with the War of Devolution that Louis XIV of France prosecuted against the Spanish Netherlands in – , losing considerable prestige and territory, including the cities of Lille and Charleroi In the Franco Dutch War of – , Spain lost still more territory when it came to the assistance of its former Dutch enemies, most notably Franche Comté In the Nine Years' War – Louis once again invaded the Spanish Netherlands French forces led by the Duke of Luxembourg defeated the Spanish at Fleurus , and subsequently defeated Dutch forces under William III of Orange, who fought on Spain's side The war ended with most of the Spanish Netherlands under French occupation, including the important cities of Ghent and Luxembourg The war revealed to Europe how vulnerable the Spanish defenses and bureaucracy were Also, the ineffective Spanish Habsburg government took no action to improve them The final decades of the th century saw utter decay and stagnation in Spain while the rest of Western Europe went through exciting changes in government and society – the Glorious Revolution in England and the reign of the Sun King in France – Spain remained adrift The Spanish bureaucracy that had built up around the charismatic, industrious, and intelligent Charles I and Philip II demanded a strong and hardworking monarch the weakness and lack of interest of Philip III and Philip IV contributed to Spain's decay Charles II was mentally retarded and impotent He was therefore childless, and in his final will he left his throne to a French prince, the Bourbon Philip of Anjou, rather than to a fellow Habsburg, albeit from Austria This resulted in the War of the Spanish Succession Africa and the Mediterranean edit By the th century, the Ottomans had become an existential threat to Europe Ottoman conquests in Europe made significant gains with a decisive victory at Mohács Charles had preferred to suppress the Ottomans through a considerably more maritime strategy, hampering Ottoman landings on the Venetian territories in the Eastern Mediterranean The coastal villages and towns of Spain, Italy and the Mediterranean islands were frequently attacked by Barbary pirates from North Africa the Formentera was even temporarily left by its population and long stretches of the Spanish and Italian coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants The most famous corsair was the Turkish Barbarossa Redbeard According to Robert C Davis, between million and million Europeans were captured by North African pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa and Ottoman Empire between the th and th centuries The reign of Charles V saw a decline in the presence of Spain in the North of Africa, even if Tunis and its port, La Goleta, were taken in One after the other, most of the Spanish possessions were lost Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera , Santa Cruz de Mar Pequeña , Algiers , Tripoli , Bujia , and La Goleta and Tunis Only in response to Barbary pirates' raids on the eastern coast of Spain did Charles lead attacks against Tunis and Algiers The Battle of Lepanto , marked the end of the Ottoman naval supremacy in the Mediterranean Sea In , the Spanish defeated an Ottoman landing on the strategic island of Malta, defended by the Knights of St John Suleiman the Magnificent's death the following year and his succession by his less capable son Selim the Sot emboldened Philip, and he resolved to carry the war to the sultan himself In , Spanish and Venetian warships, joined by volunteers across Europe, led by Charles's illegitimate son Don John of Austria annihilated the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto, in what is perhaps the most decisive battle in modern naval history citation needed The battle ended the threat of Ottoman naval hegemony in the Mediterranean This mission marked the height of the respectability of Spain and its sovereign abroad as Philip bore the burden of leading the Counter Reformation The Ottomans recovered soon They reconquered Tunis in , and they helped to restore an ally, Abu Marwan Abd al Malik I Saadi, in the throne of Morocco, in The death of the Persian shah, Tahmasp I was an opportunity for the Ottoman sultan to intervene in that country, so, in was agreed a truce in the Mediterranean with Philip II Nonetheless, the Spanish at Lepanto eliminated the best sailors of the Ottoman fleet, and the Ottoman Empire would never recover in quality what they could in numbers Lepanto was the decisive turning point in control of the Mediterranean away from centuries of Muslim control to European control, initiated by the Spanish Empire and its allies In the first half of the th century, Spanish ships attacked the Anatolian coast, defeating larger Ottoman fleets at the Battle of Cape Celidonia and the Battle of Cape Corvo Larache and La Mamora, in the Moroccan Atlantic coast, and the island of Alhucemas, in the Mediterranean, were taken, but during the second half of the th century, Larache and La Mamora were also lost The New World edit Explorers and conquistadors edit After Columbus, the Spanish colonization of the Americas was led by a series of warrior explorers called conquistadors The Spanish forces, in addition to significant armament and equestrian advantages, exploited the rivalries between competing indigenous peoples, tribes, and nations, some of which were willing to form alliances with the Spanish in order to defeat their more powerful enemies, such as the Aztecs or Incas—a tactic that would be extensively used by later European colonial powers The Spanish conquest was also facilitated by the spread of diseases e g smallpox , common in Europe but never present in the New World, which reduced the indigenous populations in the Americas This sometimes caused a labour shortage for plantations and public works and so the colonists informally and gradually, at first, initiated the Atlantic slave trade see Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas Emperor Atahualpa is shown surrounded on his palanquin at the Battle of Cajamarca One of the most accomplished conquistadors was Hernán Cortés, who leading a relatively small Spanish force but with local translators and the crucial support of thousands of native allies, achieved the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in the campaigns of – This territory later became the Viceroyalty of New Spain, present day Mexico Of equal importance was the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire by Francisco Pizarro, which would become the Viceroyalty of Peru After the conquest of Mexico, rumours of golden cities Quivira and Cíbola in North America and El Dorado in South America motivated several other expeditions Many of those returned without having found their goal, or finding it much less valuable than was hoped Indeed, the New World colonies only began to yield a substantial part of the Crown's revenues with the establishment of mines such as that of Potosí Bolivia and Zacatecas Mexico both started in By the late th century, silver from the Americas accounted for one fifth of Spain's total budget Eventually the world's stock of precious metal was doubled or even tripled by silver from the Americas Official records indicate that at least % of the silver was taken across the Atlantic to Spain and no more than % across the Pacific to China Some modern researchers argue that due to rampant smuggling about % went to China In the th century perhaps , Europeans entered American ports Further Spanish settlements were progressively established in the New World New Granada in the s later in the Viceroyalty of New Granada in and present day Colombia , Lima in as the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru, Buenos Aires in later in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in , and Santiago in Cristóbal de Olid leads Spanish soldiers with Tlaxcalan allies in the conquests of Jalisco, From Lienzo de Tlaxcala Spanish settlements in Chile before the Destruction of the Seven Cities in , all settlements south Biobío River except those in Chiloé had fallen Florida was colonized in by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés when he founded Saint Augustine and then promptly defeated an attempt led by the French Captain Jean Ribault and of his countrymen to establish a French foothold in Spanish Florida territory Saint Augustine quickly became a strategic defensive base for the Spanish ships full of gold and silver being sent to Spain from its New World dominions The Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan died while in the Philippines commanding a Castilian expedition in which was the first to circumnavigate the globe The Basque commander Juan Sebastián Elcano would lead the expedition to success Therefore, Spain sought to enforce their rights in the Moluccan islands, which led a conflict with the Portuguese, but the issue was resolved with the Treaty of Zaragoza , settling the location of the antimeridian of Tordesillas, which would divide the world into two equal hemispheres Thenceforth, maritime expeditions led to the discovery of several archipelagos in the South Pacific as the Pitcairn Islands, the Marquesas, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands or New Guinea On April , the first permanent Spanish settlement in the Philippines was founded by Miguel López de Legazpi and the service of Manila Galleons was inaugurated The Manilla Galleons shipped goods from all over Asia across the Pacific to Acapulco on the coast of Mexico From there, the goods were transshipped across Mexico to the Spanish treasure fleets, for shipment to Spain The Spanish trading post of Manila was established to facilitate this trade in The control of Guam, Mariana Islands, Caroline Islands, and Palau was later, from the end of the th century, and remained under Spanish control until Organization and administration edit From the beginning of the exploration and conquest of the Indies, the Crown assumed the control of the venture turning away the Columbus family In the Casa de Contratación House of Trade was founded to control migration to the New World, which was restricted to old Christians especially families and women In addition, the Casa de Contratación took charge of the fiscal organization, and of the organization and judicial control of the trade with the Indies The system of government in Spain was constituted by a polisynodial system of Councils which advised the monarch and made decisions on his behalf about specific matters of government In it was established the Council of the Indies, based in Castile, with the assignment of the governance of the Indies, thus it was responsible for drafting legislation, proposing the appointments to the King and pronouncing judicial sentences as maximum authority in the ultramarine territories, the Council of The Indies took over both the institutions in the Indies as the defense of the interests of the Crown and of the aborigens The Laws of the Indies resulted in the Laws of Burgos, – , which were the first codified set of laws governing the behavior of Spanish settlers in the Americas, particularly with regards to treatment of native Indians They forbade the maltreatment of natives, and endorsed the Indian Reductions with attempts of conversion to Catholicism Upon their failure, they were replaced by the New Laws founding of Santiago de Chile Spain passed some laws for the protection of the indigenous peoples of its New World colonies, the first such in the legal thought behind them was the basis of modern international law citation needed Taking advantage of their extreme remoteness, the European colonists revolted when they saw their power being reduced, forcing a partial revoking of these New Laws Later, weaker laws were introduced to protect the indigenous peoples but records show their effect was limited citation needed The restored Encomenderos increasingly used native Indian workforce The politics of implantation of the royal authority opposite to Columbus caused the suppression of the unit of government of the Indies and the appearance of governorates under royal authority These governorates, also called as provinces, were the basic circumscriptions of the territorial government of the Indies, and arose as the territories were conquered and colonized To carry out the expedition entrada , which entailed exploration, conquest, and initial settlement of the territory, the king, as owner of the Indies, agreed capitulación an itemized contract with the specifics of the conditions of the expedition in a particular territory The individual leaders of expeditions adelantados assumed the expenses of the venture and in return received as reward the grant from the government of the conquered territories and in addition, they received instructions about treating the aborigens After the end of the period of conquests, it was necessary to manage extensive and different territories with a strong bureaucracy In the face of the impossibility of the Castilian institutions to take care of the New World affairs, other new institutions were created As the basic political entity it was the governorate, the governors exercised judicial ordinary functions of first instance, and prerogatives of government legislating by ordinances To these political functions of the governor, it could be joined the military ones, according to military requirements, with the rank of Captain general The office of captain general involved to be the supreme military chief of the whole territory and he was responsible for recruiting and providing troops, the fortification of the territory, the supply and the shipbuilding Beginning in in the newly conquered Mexico, government units in the Spanish Empire, from viceroyalties down to governorships provinces , had a royal treasury controlled by a set of officiales reales royal officials There were also sub treasuries at important ports and mining districts The officials of the royal treasury at each level of government typically included two to four positions a tesorero treasurer , the senior official who guarded money on hand and made payments a contador accountant or comptroller , who recorded income and payments, maintained records, and interpreted royal instructions a factor, who guarded weapons and supplies belonging to the king, and disposed of tribute collected in the province and a veedor overseer , who was responsible for contacts with native inhabitants of the province, and collected the king's share of any war booty The veedor, or overseer, position quickly disappeared in most jurisdictions, subsumed into the position of factor Depending on the conditions in a jurisdiction, the position of factor veedor was often eliminated, as well The treasury officials were appointed by the king, and were largely independent of the authority of the viceroy, audencia president or governor On the death, unauthorized absence, retirement or removal of a governor, the treasury officials would jointly govern the province until a new governor appointed by the king could take up his duties Treasury officials were supposed to be paid out of the income from the province, and were normally prohibited from engaging in income producing activities The impossibility of the physical presence of the monarch was replaced by viceroys, the post of viceroy the direct representation of the monarch The functions of the viceroy were governor, captain general, president of the Audiencia, superintendent of the Royal Treasury and vicepatronage of the Church Thus, the territories of the viceroyalties emerged to affirm the authority of the king in a specific territory The territory which comprised the viceroyalty was divided in provinces —also called governorates— headed by the governor In the th century the Spanish overseas territories were divided in two viceroyalties New Spain for North America, Antilles, the Philippines and Venezuela, and Peru for South America, which was divided in the th century Audiencias, the High Courts edit On the other hand, the Audiencias were constituted as a key administrative institution due to receive the confidence of the Crown as depositaries of an impartial authority opposite to conquerors and settlers Their main function was that of being a court of justice of second instance —court of appeal— in penal and civil matters, but also the Audiencias were courts the first instance in the city where it had its headquarters, and also in the cases involving the Royal Treasury Besides court of justice, the Audiencias had functions of government as counterweight the authority of the viceroys, since they could communicate with both the Council of the Indies and the king without the requirement of requesting authorization from the viceroy This direct correspondence of the Audiencia with the Council of The Indies made possible that the Council gave to the Audiencia all kinds of orientations about general aspects of government The fact that the presidents were not habitually either magistrates or lawyers, but men clad in sword and cape, caused that they did not have any vote in court cases, and the court did not submit to their authority, but in representation that of the king Thus, the authority of the president, when he was not a magistrate, was void in judicial matter and merely signed the verdicts The Audiencias chaired by the viceroy were called viceregal Audiencias, and the chaired ones by a governor captain general were the pretorial Audiencias As the pretorial Audiencias were chaired by a governor captain general, this situation caused to appear the post of president governor of major districts, with direct rule over a province and superior control of other provinces included inside the territorial district of the Audiencia, so that they exercised functions similar to the viceroys Thus, another administrative division appeared while the territories in charge of a governor were the minor provinces, the juridisdiccional scope of the Audiencias constituted the major provinces Former Viceregal Palace and seat of the Audiencia of Mexico, nowadays, the National Palace The members oidores of the Audiencia met with the president in a committee called royal agreement real acuerdo , to take measurements for the government concerning the review of bylaws, appointments of commissioners jueces pesquisidores , or retention of bulls, but the advice did not correspond to the Audiencia as

as Emperor from the moment of his father's abdication, and therefore reigned as opposed to ruled as Emperor for fifteen days, June to July Elba edit Since May , the Sovereign Principality of Elba was created a miniature non hereditary Monarchy under the exiled French Emperor Napoleon I Napoleon I was allowed, by the treaty of Fontainebleau with April , to enjoy, for life, the imperial title The islands were not restyled an empire On February , Napoleon abandoned Elba for France, reviving the French Empire for a Hundred Days the Allies declared an end to Napoleon's sovereignty over Elba on March , and on March Elba was ceded to the restored Grand Duchy of Tuscany by the Congress of Vienna After his final defeat, Napoleon was treated as a general by the British authorities during his second exile to Atlantic Isle of St Helena His title was a matter of dispute with the governor of St Helena, who insisted on addressing him as General Bonaparte , despite the historical reality that he had been an emperor and therefore retained the title Second French Empire edit See also Second French Empire Napoleon I's nephew, Napoleon III, resurrected the title of emperor on December , after establishing the Second French Empire in a presidential coup, subsequently approved by a plebiscite His reign was marked by large scale public works, the development of social policy, and the extension of France's influence throughout the world During his reign, he also set about creating the Second Mexican Empire headed by his choice of Maximilian I of Mexico, a member of the House of Habsburg , to regain France's hold in the Americas and to achieve greatness for the 'Latin' race Napoleon III was deposed on September , after France's defeat in the Franco Prussian War The Third Republic followed and after the death of his son Napoleon IV , in during the Zulu War, the Bonapartist movement split, and the Third Republic was to last until Iberian Peninsula edit The origin of the title Imperator totius Hispaniae Latin for Emperor of All Spain is murky It was associated with the Leonese monarchy perhaps as far back as Alfonso the Great r – The last two kings of its Pérez Dynasty were called emperors in a contemporary source King Sancho III of Navarre conquered Leon in and began using it His son, Ferdinand I of Castile also took the title in Ferdinand's son, Alfonso VI of León and Castile took the title in It then passed to his son in law, Alfonso I of Aragon in His stepson and Alfonso VI's grandson, Alfonso VII was the only one who actually had an imperial coronation in The title was not exactly hereditary but self proclaimed by those who had, wholly or partially, united the Christian northern part of the Iberian Peninsula, often at the expense of killing rival siblings The popes and Holy Roman emperors protested at the usage of the imperial title as a usurpation of leadership in western Christendom After Alfonso VII's death in , the title was abandoned, and the kings who used it are not commonly mentioned as having been emperors , in Spanish or other historiography After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the legitimate heir to the throne, Andreas Palaiologos, willed away his claim to Ferdinand and Isabella in This claim seems to have been forgotten or abandoned quietly for the last years Britain edit Main article British Emperor In the late rd century, by the end of the epoch of the barracks emperors in Rome, there were two Britannic Emperors, reigning for about a decade After the end of Roman rule in Britain, the Imperator Cunedda forged the Kingdom of Gwynedd in northern Wales, but all his successors were titled kings and princes England edit There was no set title for the king of England before and monarchs chose to style themselves as they pleased Imperial titles were used inconsistently beginning with Athelstan in and ended with the Norman conquest of England Empress Matilda – is the only British monarch commonly referred to as emperor or empress , but acquired her title through her marriage to Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, and had little legitimacy as Queen of England During the rule of Henry VIII an Act of Parliament declared that 'this realm of England is an Empire governed by one Supreme Head and King having the dignity and royal estate of the imperial Crown of the same' This was in the context of the divorce of Catherine of Aragon and the English Reformation, to emphasize that England had never accepted the quasi imperial claims of the papacy Hence England and, by extension its modern successor state, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is according to English law an Empire ruled by a King endowed with the imperial dignity However, this has not led to the creation of the title of Emperor in England or in the United Kingdom itself United Kingdom edit George V, King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, Emperor of India In , George III rejected the title of Emperor when offered The only period when British monarchs held the title of Emperor in a dynastic succession started when the title Empress of India was created for Queen Victoria The government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, conferred the additional title upon her by an Act of Parliament, reputedly to assuage the monarch's irritation at being, as a mere Queen, notionally inferior to her own daughter Princess Victoria, who was the wife of the reigning German Emperor the Indian Imperial designation was also formally justified as the expression of Britain succeeding the former Mughal Emperor as suzerain over hundreds of princely states The title was relinquished by George VI when India became independent on August The last Empress of India was George VI's wife, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother German Empire edit Main article German Empire Wilhelm II, German Emperor and the King of Prussia Under the guise of idealism giving way to realism, German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic character in to Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarck's authoritarian Realpolitik Bismarck wanted to unify the rival German states to achieve his aim of a conservative, Prussian dominated Germany Three wars led to military successes and helped to convince German people to do this the Second war of Schleswig against Denmark in , the Austro Prussian War against Austria in , and the Franco Prussian War against the Second French Empire in – During the Siege of Paris in , the North German Confederation, supported by its allies from southern Germany, formed the German Empire with the proclamation of the Prussian king Wilhelm I as German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, to the humiliation of the French, who ceased to resist only days later After his death he was succeeded by his son Frederick III who was only emperor for days In the same year his son Wilhelm II became the third emperor within a year He was the last German emperor After the empire's defeat in World War I the empire ceased to exist Russia edit Empress of Russia Catherine the Great In , the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, Sophia Palaiologina, married Ivan III, grand prince of Moscow, who began championing the idea of Russia being the successor to the Byzantine Empire This idea was represented more emphatically in the composition the monk Filofej addressed to their son Vasili III After ending Muscovy's dependence on its Mongol overlords in , Ivan III began the usage of the titles Tsar and Autocrat samoderzhets His insistence on recognition as such by the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire since resulted in the granting of this recognition in by Emperor Maximilian I to Vasili III His son Ivan IV emphatically crowned himself Tsar of Russia on January The word Tsar derives from Latin Caesar, but this title was used in Russia as equivalent to King the error occurred when medieval Russian clerics referred to the biblical Jewish kings with the same title that was used to designate Roman and Byzantine rulers — Caesar On October , Peter I was proclaimed Emperor by the Senate The title used was Latin Imperator , which is a westernizing form equivalent to the traditional Slavic title Tsar He based his claim partially upon a letter discovered in written in from Maximilian I to Vasili III, in which the Holy Roman Emperor used the term in referring to Vasili A formal address to the ruling Russian monarch adopted thereafter was 'Your Imperial Majesty' The crown prince was addressed as 'Your Imperial Highness' The title has not been used in Russia since the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II on March Imperial Russia produced four reigning Empresses, all in the eighteenth century Serbia edit Main article Emperor of Serbia In , the Serbian King Stefan Uroš IV Dušan proclaimed himself Emperor Tsar and was crowned as such at Skopje on Easter by the newly created Patriarch of Serbia, and by the Patriarch of Bulgaria and the autocephalous Archbishop of Ohrid His imperial title was recognized by Bulgaria and various other neighbors and trading partners but not by the Byzantine Empire In its final simplified form, the Serbian imperial title read Emperor of Serbs and Greeks ??? ???? ? ???? in modern Serbian It was only employed by Stefan Uroš IV Dušan and his son Stefan Uroš V in Serbia until his death in , after which it became extinct A half brother of Dušan, Simeon Uroš, and then his son Jovan Uroš, claimed the same title, until the latter's abdication in , while ruling as dynasts in Thessaly The Greek component in the Serbian imperial title indicates both rulership over Greeks and the derivation of the imperial tradition from the Romans Emperors in the Americas edit Pre Columbian traditions edit The Aztec and Inca traditions are unrelated to one another Both were conquered under the reign of King Charles I of Spain who was simultaneously emperor elect of the Holy Roman Empire during the fall of the Aztecs and fully emperor during the fall of the Incas Incidentally by being king of Spain, he was also Roman Byzantine emperor in pretence through Andreas Palaiologos The translations of their titles were provided by the Spanish Aztec Empire edit The only pre Columbian North American rulers to be commonly called emperors were the Hueyi Tlatoani of the Aztec Empire – It was an elected monarchy chosen by the elite Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés slew Emperor Cuauhtémoc and installed puppet rulers who became vassals for Spain Mexican Emperor Maximilian built his palace, Chapultepec Castle, over the ruins of an Aztec one Inca Empire edit The only pre Columbian South American rulers to be commonly called emperors were the Sapa Inca of the Inca Empire – Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, conquered the Inca for Spain, killed Emperor Atahualpa, and installed puppets as well Atahualpa may actually be considered a usurper as he had achieved power by killing his half brother and he did not perform the required coronation with the imperial crown mascaipacha by the Huillaq Uma high priest Post Columbian Americas edit Brazil edit Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, in regalia at the opening of the General Assembly oil painting by Pedro Américo When Napoleon I ordered the invasion of Portugal in because it refused to join the Continental System, the Portuguese Braganzas moved their capital to Rio de Janeiro to avoid the fate of the Spanish Bourbons Napoleon I arrested them and made his brother Joseph king When the French general Jean Andoche Junot arrived in Lisbon, the Portuguese fleet had already left with all the local elite In , under a British naval escort, the fleet arrived in Brazil Later, in , the Portuguese Prince Regent since King João VI proclaimed the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, as a union of three kingdoms, lifting Brazil from its colonial status After the fall of Napoleon I and the Liberal revolution in Portugal, the Portuguese Royals returned to Europe Prince Pedro of Braganza King João's older son stayed in South America acting as regent of the local kingdom, but, two years later in , he proclaimed himself Pedro I, first Emperor of Brazil He did, however, recognize his father, João VI, as Titular Emperor of Brazil —a purely honorific title—until João VI's death in The empire came to an end in , with the overthrow of Emperor Pedro II Pedro I's son and successor , when the Brazilian republic was proclaimed Haiti edit Haiti was declared an empire by its ruler, Jean Jacques Dessalines, who made himself Jacques I, in May He was assassinated the next year Haiti again became an empire from to under Faustin Soulouque Mexico edit Portrait of Maximilian I of Mexico, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter In Mexico, the First Mexican Empire was the first of two empires created After the declaration of independence on September , , it was the intention of the Mexican parliament to establish a commonwealth whereby the King of Spain, Ferdinand VII, would also be Emperor of Mexico, but in which both countries were to be governed by separate laws and with their own legislative offices Should the king refuse the position, the law provided for a member of the House of Bourbon to accede to the Mexican throne Ferdinand VII, however, did not recognize the independence and said that Spain would not allow any other European prince to take the throne of Mexico By request of Parliament, the president of the regency Agustín de Iturbide was proclaimed emperor of Mexico in July as Agustín I Agustín de Iturbide was the general who helped secure Mexican independence from Spanish rule, but was overthrown by the Plan of Casa Mata In , the invading French, under Napoleon III see above , in alliance with Mexican conservatives and nobility, helped create the Second Mexican Empire, and invited Archduke Maximilian, of the House of Habsburg Lorraine, younger brother of the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef I, to become emperor Maximilian I of Mexico The childless Maximilian and his consort Empress Carlota of Mexico, daughter of Leopold I of Belgium, adopted Agustín's grandsons Agustin and Salvador as his heirs to bolster his claim to the throne of Mexico Maximilian and Carlota made Chapultepec Castle their home, which has been the only palace in North America to house sovereigns After the withdrawal of French protection in , Maximilian was captured and executed by the liberal forces of Benito Juárez This empire led to French influence in the Mexican culture and also immigration from France, Belgium, and Switzerland to Mexico Persia Iran edit Further information Shah and King of Kings In Persia, from the time of Darius the Great, Persian rulers used the title King of Kings Shahanshah in Persian since they had dominion over peoples from India to Greece and Egypt Alexander probably crowned himself shahanshah after conquering Persia citation needed , bringing the phrase basileus toon basileoon to Greek It is also known that Tigranes the Great, king of Armenia, was named as the king of kings when he made his empire after defeating the Parthians Georgian title mephet'mephe has the same meaning The last shahanshah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was ousted in following the Iranian Revolution Shahanshah is usually translated as king of kings or simply king for ancient rulers of the Achaemenid, Arsacid, and Sassanid dynasties, and often shortened to shah for rulers since the Safavid dynasty in the th century Iranian rulers were typically regarded in the West as emperors Indian subcontinent edit Main article Chakravartin The Sanskrit word for emperor is Samra? or Chakravarti word stem samraj This word has been used as an epithet of various Vedic deities, like Varuna, and has been attested in the Holy Rig Veda, possibly the oldest compiled book among the Indo Europeans Chakravarti refers to the king of kings A Chakravarti is not only a sovereign ruler but also has feudatories Typically, in the later Vedic age, a Hindu high king Maharajah was only called Samra? after performing the Vedic Rajasuya sacrifice, enabling him by religious tradition to claim superiority over the other kings and princes Another word for emperor is sarvabhauma The title of Samra? has been used by many rulers of the Indian subcontinent as claimed by the Hindu mythologies In proper history, most historians call Chandragupta Maurya the first samra? emperor of the Indian subcontinent, because of the huge empire he ruled The most famous Buddhist emperor was his grandson Ashoka the Great Other dynasties that are considered imperial by historians are the Kushanas, Guptas, Vijayanagara, Kakatiya, Hoysala and the Cholas Rudhramadevi – was one of the most prominent rulers of the Kakatiya dynasty on the Deccan Plateau, being one of the few ruling queens empress in Indian history After India was invaded by the Mongol Khans and Turkic Muslims, the rulers of their major states on the subcontinent were titled Sultan, In this manner, the only empress regnant ever to have actually sat on the throne of Delhi was Razia Sultan The Mughal Emperors were the only Indian rulers for whom the term was consistently used by Western contemporaries For the period from to when British Emperors ruled British India as the pearl in the crown of the British Empire, see above Africa edit Ethiopia edit This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed February Main article Emperor of Ethiopia In Ethiopia, the Solomonic dynasty used, beginning in , the title of n?gusä nägäst which is literally King of Kings The use of the king of kings style began a millennium earlier in this region, however, with the title being used by the Kings of Aksum, beginning with Sembrouthes in the rd century Another title used by this dynasty was Itegue Zetopia Itegue translates as Empress, and was also used by the only female reigning Empress, Zauditu, along with the official title Negiste Negest Queen of Kings In , the Italian king Victor Emmanuel III claimed the title of Emperor of Ethiopia after Ethiopia was occupied by Italy during the Second Italo Abyssinian War After the defeat of the Italians by the Ethiopians who were assisted by soldiers from Britain in , Haile Selassie was restored to the throne but Victor Emmanuel did not relinquish his claim to the title until Central African Empire edit Main article Emperor of Central Africa In , President Jean Bédel Bokassa of the Central African Republic, proclaimed the country to be an autocratic Central African Empire, and made himself Emperor as Bokassa I The expenses of his coronation ceremony actually bankrupted the country He was overthrown three years later and the republic was restored East Asian tradition edit This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed June The rulers of China and once Westerners became aware of the role Japan were always accepted in the West as emperors, and referred to as such The claims of other East Asian monarchies to the title may have been accepted for diplomatic purposes, but it was not necessarily used in more general contexts China edit Main article Emperor of China Qin Shi Huang The East Asian tradition is different from the Roman tradition, having arisen separately What links them together is the use of the Chinese logographs ? huáng and ? dì which together or individually are imperial Because of the cultural influence of China, China's neighbors adopted these titles or had their native titles conform in hanzi Anyone who spoke to the emperor was to address him as bìxià ??, lit the Bottom of the Steps , corresponding to Imperial Majesty shèngshàng ??, lit Holy Highness or wànsuì ??, lit You, of Ten Thousand Years In BC, Ying Zheng, who was king of Qin at the time, proclaimed himself Shi Huangdi ??? , which translates as first emperor Huangdi is composed of huang august one , ? and di sage king , ? , and referred to legendary mythological sage emperors living several millennia earlier, of which three were huang and five were di Thus Zheng became Qin Shi Huang, abolishing the system where the huang di titles were reserved to dead and or mythological rulers Since then, the title king became a lower ranked title, and later divided into two grades Although not as popular, the title ? wang king or prince was still used by many monarchs and dynasties in China up to the Taipings in the th century ? is pronounced vuong in Vietnamese, o in Japanese, and wang in Korean The imperial title continued in China until the Qing Dynasty was overthrown in The title was briefly revived from December to March by President Yuan Shikai and again in early July when General Zhang Xun attempted to restore last Qing emperor Puyi to the throne Puyi retained the title and attributes of a foreign emperor, as a personal status, until After the Japanese occupied Manchuria in , they proclaimed it to be the Empire of Manchukuo, and Puyi became emperor of Manchukuo This empire ceased to exist when it was occupied by the Soviet Red Army in citation needed In general, an emperor would have one empress Huanghou, ?? at one time, although posthumous entitlement to empress for a concubine was not uncommon The earliest known usage of huanghou was in the Han Dynasty The emperor would generally select the empress from his concubines In subsequent dynasties, when the distinction between wife and concubine became more accentuated, the crown prince would have chosen an empress designate before his reign Imperial China produced only one reigning empress, Wu Zetian, and she used the same Chinese title as an emperor Huangdi, ?? Wu Zetian then reigned for about years – AD Korea edit Emperor Gojong of the Korean Empire The rulers of Goguryeo BC AD used the title of Taewang Hangul ??, Hanja ?? , literally translated as the Greatest of the Kings Also some Silla BC AD rulers including Beopheung and Jinheung used this title for their declaration of independence from the influence of Goguryeo However, it does not signify emperor itself The rulers of Balhae – internally called themselves Seongwang Hangul ??, Hanja ?? In the th century, Gwangjong of Goryeo took the title of emperor himself as a means of enhancing the prestige of the monarchy, and it was first used in Korea Many Goryeo sovereign alternately used both supreme king and emperor After the Mongolian invasions – , however, Korea relinquished the imperial title The rulers of the Joseon Dynasty – still used the term King of the Joseon Hangul ????, Hanja ???? In the First Sino Japanese War of –' , Japan defeated the Qing Dynasty China, and the Treaty of Shimonoseki was concluded in which Japan had China recognize the independence and autonomy of Korea However, King Gojong used term of His Majesty the Great Monarch Hangul ?????, Hanja ????? not officlal imperial title In , King Gojong proclaimed the founding of the Korean Empire – , and became emperor of Korea Emperor Gojong declared the new era name Gwangmu Hangul ??, Hanja ??, Warrior of light The Korean Empire maintained their state until — though it was an Empire by name, it was in fact in the process of being absorbed by Japan Japan edit Main article Emperor of Japan Emperor Hirohito ?? , or the Showa Emperor ???? , the last Japanese Emperor having ruled with prerogative powers, combined with assumption of divinity photographed This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards The specific problem is The second paragraph contains many grammar mistakes Please help improve this section if you can June The earliest Emperor recorded in Kojiki and Nihon Shoki is Emperor Jimmu, who is said to be a descendant of Amaterasu's grandson Ninigi who descended from Heaven Tenson korin If one believes what is written in Nihon Shoki, the Emperors have an unbroken direct male lineage that goes back more than , years In ancient Japan, the earliest titles for the sovereign were either ????? ?? yamato okimi, Grand King of Yamato , ?? ??? wao wakokuo, King of Wa, used externally , or ????? amenoshita shiroshimesu okimi, Grand King who rules all under heaven, used internally As early as the th century the word ?? which can be read either as sumera no mikoto, divine order, or as tenno, Heavenly Emperor, the latter being derived from a Tang Chinese term referring to the Pole star around which all other stars revolve began to be used The earliest use of this term is found on a wooden slat, or mokkan, unearthed in Asuka mura, Nara Prefecture in The slat dated back to the reign of Emperor Temmu and Empress Jito The reading 'Tenno' has become the standard title for the Japanese sovereign up to the present age The term ? mikado, Emperor is also found in literary sources Japanese monarchs were given the official title by Chinese emperor The new Japanese monarch after coming into power would send a representative to China and receive the anointment They would receive their official title on several golden plates of several meters tall Since the Japanese monarchs changed their title to ?? Heavenly Emperor in , the Chinese emperor refused to anoint the Japanese king, thus, ending relations with Japan for the next few hundred years With Chinese emperors in titulary terms citation needed , but rarely was the Chinese style Son of Heaven term used In the Japanese language, the word tenno is restricted to Japan's own monarch kotei ?? is used for foreign emperors Historically, retired emperors often kept power over a child emperor as de facto Regent For a fairly long time, a shogun formally the imperial generalissimo, but made hereditary or regent wielded actual political power In fact, through much of Japanese history, the emperor has been little more than a figurehead Oceania UK ?o???'??ni?, ?o?s? or US ?o??i?'æni? , also known as Oceanica, is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean Opinions of what constitutes Oceania range from its three subregions of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia to, more broadly, the entire insular region between Southeast Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago The term is often used more specifically to denote a continent comprising Australia and proximate islands or biogeographically as a synonym for either