Which of the following south american countries was not part of the spanish empire?
|
The Spanish Empire (Imperio español) lasted from the time of Christopher Columbus to c. 1900 and in that time was the starting point for many of the famous European explorers and the home of an empire that, for hundreds of years, ruled most of the Americas. Show
Understand[edit] For hundreds of years, the Moorish people (Muslims from Northwest Africa) controlled parts of Spain. Eventually, however, Christian leaders - ultimately led by just-married monarchs Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon - pushed the Moorish rulers off the European continent, concluding the Reconquista, and forced Muslims and Jews to convert or leave, enabling the ruling couple to claim the title Los Reyes Católicos and to focus on exploring new lands. The Spanish government supported Christopher Columbus' voyage to the west, which resulted in the "discovery" of the North American continent (of course, the Native Americans, and later the Vikings, had already discovered North America). The Spanish took advantage of Columbus' discovery and the posterior circumnavigation by Ferdinand Magellan, and quickly got large portions of the Americas and the Pacific islands under control; the British and the French would lag behind the Spanish until the 1600s. During its Golden Age, Spain was ruled by the House of Habsburg, a different branch of which also had power over the Austrian Empire, dominating continental Europe until defeated by the anti-Habsburg alliance of the Thirty Years War. The Spanish Habsburgs engaged in a lot of marrying within their family and ultimately died out when Charles II, plagued by many hereditary ailments, was unable to produce an heir. The greatest geographic loss of the Spanish Empire came with the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s, where French troops invaded Spain, and caused instability in which Latin America became independent from Spanish rule. The problems for Spain began with the death of Charles III in 1788 who had been a capable ruler who implemented many reforms throughout his empire, some of which however rubbed the criollo elites (native born people of European descent) the wrong way. His successor Charles IV was more interested in hunting than governance and had his prime minister (and possibly the lover of his wife, the queen) Manuel Godoy run most day to day business, which in turn infuriated the crown prince Ferdinand, who tried several times to depose his father. In 1808 finally, Napoleon Bonaparte had had enough of this and invited both claimants to the throne to Bayonne with the excuse of mediating the dispute. Instead he forced both to abdicate in favor of his brother Joseph which was received with shock in Spain leading to the formation of Juntas to keep royal administration going. Ultimately those juntas drafted a remarkably liberal constitution in 1812 and Ferdinand VII swore to abide by it in order to become king. Juntas were likewise set up in Latin America, ostensibly to express loyalty to the Spanish Bourbons over the Bonapartist usurper. However, Ferdinand's hard absolutist turn lost him many sympathies and those same leaders who had set up the juntas started breaking away from him until an 1820 mutiny among troops that were supposed to crush the Spanish American independence movements put an end to all hopes of reinforcements for the colonial governments ultimately resulting in their defeat. However, a mere look at a map can be deceiving and while the Spanish Empire did indeed declare (and in many case have said declarations recognized by other European powers) rule over vast swaths of territory, often they just replaced the very top layer of native society with Spaniards and only slowly spread their rule and the Spanish language further, sometimes even relying on native languages like Nahuatl in Mexico or Guaraní in what is today Paraguay. Some countries had to engage in "nation building" or even outright conquest of de facto indigenous polities even after independence. Nicaragua only got control of Caribbean Nicaragua a hundred years after the Spanish Empire lost control over Central America and Chile only subdued its southernmost parts after independence. During most of the reign of the Spanish Habsburgs, which came to an end in 1700 after the death of the severely inbred and childless Charles II, Spain spent untold treasures trying to hold onto the "Spanish Netherlands" today largely the country of Belgium but also parts of the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The Spanish Empire largely ceased to exist following the 1898 Spanish-American War, when much of Spain's final colonial possessions (notably among them Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines) were surrendered to the United States. It retained control of its African colonies, however: Equatorial Guinea until 1968, and Western Sahara until 1975. Western Sahara has been in a state of limbo since then as a disputed territory; part of it is controlled by Morocco, and part of it is controlled by the unrecognised Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. The long "frozen" conflict flared up again in 2020. The Coat of Arms of Fernando de Aragón and Isabella de Castilla, which has elements still part of Spanish royal iconography today, shows a few aspects of Spain's history and political claims. The yoke (Latin iugum) and the arrows (Spanish flechas) at its base stand for a claim to power; as well as the first names "Fernando" and "Isabela" of the ruling monarchs, they also formed the symbol of Spain's ruling fascist party under Francisco Franco much later. This iconography is reminiscent of the fasces of fascism. The castles on the Coat represent Castille, while the lion represents the Kingdom of León. The red and yellow stripes (today part of the flags of Spain and Catalonia) represent the Kingdom of Aragón, which is combined with the eagle of Sicily to form the Coat of Arms of Aragonese Sicily. The Pomegranate (Spanish Granada) at the bottom symbolizes Granada, the last Muslim stronghold in Andalusia, which the Catholic Monarchs had conquered in 1492. In many Spanish Coats of Arms, from the reign of Fernando and Isabella's grandson Charles V Habsburg (known as Carlos I in Spain) onwards, there are also two columns which symbolize the Strait of Gibraltar and the words Plus Ultra, Latin for "[There is something] further beyond", implicating Spain's claim to the Canary Islands and the Americas. Before European contact with the Americas, it sometimes said non plus ultra ("there is nothing beyond") symbolizing the belief that the world ended where Spain ended. As put by modern historians, whereas the "body politic" of the Spanish Empire is no more, its "body historic" is very much alive and thriving. Spain continues to control the Canary Islands just off the western coast of Africa, as well as territories in North Africa, and is also home to large communities of Latin American origin, as a legacy of its former colonial empire. Regions once part of the Spanish Empire[edit]
Historical destinations[edit]Mission San Jose
Battle sites[edit]
See also[edit]
Other colonial empires[edit]
What was not part of the Spanish empire?Spain began colonizing the Americas under the Crown of Castile and was spearheaded by the Spanish conquistadors. The Americas were invaded and incorporated into the Spanish Empire, with the exception of Brazil, British America, and some small regions of South America and the Caribbean.
What was part of the Spanish empire?One of the largest empires in history, it was, in conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, the first to usher the European Age of Discovery and achieve a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, territories in Western Europe, Africa, and various islands in Oceania and Asia.
Was South America part of Spain?The extensive Spanish colonies in North, Central and South America (which included half of South America, present-day Mexico, Florida, islands in the Caribbean and the southwestern United States) declared independence from Spanish rule in the early nineteenth century and by the turn of the twentieth century, the ...
What states were part of the Spanish empire?Florida, Louisiana, Texas, California, Colorado and quite a few southwestern states in the United States were once part of the Spanish Empire; some eventually were part of the Mexican Empire after Mexican independence in 1821 and before the 1846-1848 Mexican-American War (see Old West).
|
