A History of Spain founded on the Historia de España y de la civilización española of Rafael Altamira

Spaniards are in the habit of discussing their recent national development with reference to the year 1898, which is recognized as a turning-point in Spanish life, a change held...

Prior to the era of the House of Austria it is possible to deal with the ecclesiastical institutions in Spain at the same time with other manifestations of a social, political,...

With the outbreak of the Spanish “War of Independence” against Napoleon the interest of Spain proper as affecting the Americas almost if not wholly ceased. Her gift to the new w...

The Bourbon kings aimed to complete the long evolution, dating from centuries before, toward the personal authority of the monarch in a pure absolutism. This movement had gone f...

The general conditions affecting literature and art in the _siglo de oro_ have already been alluded to in the preceding chapter. The influence of Humanism and the impulse of the...

In intellectual expression, as well as in other phases of Spain’s national life, the eighteenth century was a period of recovery from the degradation which marked the close of t...

The principle of absolute monarchy continued to be followed in Moslem Spain, and was even accentuated, whether in the eras of the _taifas_, or at times of a single dominion. Ind...

Two outstanding features marked the history of Spanish political institutions in the era of the House of Hapsburg, or Austria: the absolutism of the kings; and the development o...

The period of a little more than two centuries after the downfall of the caliphate was marked by a complete change from that preceding it, and in like manner was quite independe...

Under Charles III, Spain reached the highest point she has attained since the sixteenth century. In many respects the internal situation was better at this time than in the grea...

The eighteenth century in Spain was of intense import as affecting the ultimate interests of the Americas. It was an era of regeneration, of a somewhat remarkable recovery from...

If the kings of the House of Austria had displayed zeal in diminishing the range of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the Bourbon monarchs, with their accentuated ideal of absolutism...

As compared with the two preceding eras there was little in this period strikingly new in social history. In the main, society tended to become more thoroughly modern, but along...

In the relations of the seigniorial elements and the monarchy this was a critical period for the latter, deciding as a result of the virtual, though not at the time apparent, vi...

The Moslem period in Spanish history is the subject of a number of popular misconceptions. The Moslems are believed to have attained to a phenomenally high stage of culture and...

After the death of Ferdinand III and of Jaime I the reconquest of Spain from the Moslems came to a virtual standstill for over two centuries. Some slight accessions of territory...

FUNDAMENTALLY, there was no change in the classes of Spanish society in this period as regards their legal and social standing, except in the case of the rural population of Ara...

The unfortunate policies of Charles I and Philip II were continued during the seventeenth century in the reigns of Philip III, Philip IV, and Charles II, but Spain was no longer...

One of the popular misconceptions of the Moslem period in the history of Spain is that the Christians began a holy war almost from the time of the Moslem invasion, and continued...

While this era was marked by a brief period of prosperity, and while there was a noteworthy advance out of medievalism in the evolution of mercantile machinery, the keynote of t...

As regards social organization this period represents merely an evolution of the factors which had already appeared in the preceding era, and its chief results were the followin...

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries represent the highest point in the history of Spanish intellectual achievement in science, literature, and art. Two manifestations charac...

If a review of the political and ecclesiastical institutions of this period displays the enlightened despotism on its despotic side, a study of the economic reforms effected, or...

IF the reign of Charles III, despite the close union of the Bourbon crowns, had been characterized mainly in its external manifestations by the hostility of Spain to England, th...

From the standpoint of European history the period of the House of Hapsburg, or Austria, covering nearly two centuries, when Spain was one of the great powers of the world, shou...

In underlying essentials the reign of Philip II was a reproduction of that of Charles I. There were scattered dominions and family prestige to maintain, the enemies of the Catho...

The Roman influence in Spain did not end, even politically, in the year 409, which marked the first successful invasion of the peninsula by a Germanic people and the beginning o...

The general remarks made with respect to Castilian history in this period apply, with but few modifications, to that of the kingdom of Aragon. In Aragon the victory of monarchy...

This work, the first two volumes of which are now published, aims to show the continuity of the story of the reconquest of Spain from the Moors and of the conquest of her vast d...

With the advance of the Christian conquest against the Moslems the political centre had passed from the northern coast to the Castilian table-land, and thence to Andalusia, wher...

Undoubtedly the greatest single fact in the history of Spain was the long Roman occupation, lasting more than six centuries. All that Spain is or has done in the world can be tr...

So far as they have not already been discussed, in dealing with Castile and Aragon, the institutions of Majorca, Navarre, the Basque provinces, and Granada may be dealt with her...

The Iberian Peninsula has not always had the same form which it now has, or the same plants, animals, or climate which are found there today. For example, it is said that Spain...

The political vicissitudes of Moslem Spain could not fail to have an unfavorable effect on industry and commerce. The economic decline did not at once manifest itself and was no...

The most important events in Spain of a social character during the period of the Catholic Kings were the expulsion of the Jews and the conversion of the Castilian Mudéjares, wi...

It has already been pointed out that the union of Castile and Aragon under the Catholic Kings lacked a real political or institutional basis. Both monarchs signed papers applica...

The joint reign of Ferdinand (1479-1516) and Isabella (1474-1504), known as “the Catholic Kings,” witnessed the substantial fulfilment of the aims of medieval Hispanic royalty,...

The struggle of the kings against the seigniorial elements of Aragon and Valencia (in furtherance of their policy of absolutism and centralization) has already been traced up to...

The Catholic Kings attacked the economic problems of their era with much the same zeal they had displayed in social and political reforms, but without equal success, for medieva...

A continuation in this era of the factors which had tended in the preceding period to develop material resources brought about progress in agriculture, stock-raising, mining, in...

The Iberian Peninsula, embracing the modern states of Spain and Portugal, is entirely surrounded by the waters of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, except for a stri...