Why Did the Spanish Empire Decline and Fall?
The first” empire upon which the Sun never set”
Five centuries ago, Spain, or better said, the Spanish Empire, was the greatest power in Europe and one of the greatest powers in the world.
Yet, as all great powers, with time, the Spanish Empire also began to decline, and following Napoleon’s botched attempt to depose its Bourbon ruling dynasty, the South and Central American colonies of the empire one by one began to secede from the control of Madrid.
To understand why the Spanish Empire began to decline and eventually collapse, first, we need to give a glance at its rise, as the unusual method through which the House of Habsburg gathered so much land under its control played no small part in this process.
The Rise of the Spanish Empire
Most historians date the beginning of the Spanish Empire to 1469, and I will also use this date as my starting point.
Why is that you may ask? The answer is simple it was in 1469 when the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon, married, a marriage that with time, led to the unification of their kingdoms in a personal union.
Still, the unification process was not complete just yet, and nor was it finished until the 18th century, as the two…
