Spanish Empire.

Spanish Empire. I INTRODUCTION Spanish Empire, overseas territories in North and South America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania that were colonized and administered by Spain. The Spanish Empire began in the 15th century as Europe began to expand overseas. Spain lost much of its empire as a result of the Latin American independence movement in the early 19th century. It lost control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam in 1898 as a consequence of the Spanish-American War. Today, only the Canary Islands, off the northwestern coast of Africa, and the North African exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, across the Strait of Gibraltar from the Spanish mainland, remain part of Spain. At its greatest extent in the Americas, Spanish territory stretched from Alaska through the western United States, Mexico, and Central America to southern Chile and Patagonia, and from the state of Georgia south to the Caribbean islands, Venezuela, Colombia, and Argentina. In Africa, at various times Spain occupied territories in the Western Sahara (present-day Morocco), and along the coast of what is now Equatorial Guinea, including the offshore island of Fernando Póo (now Bioko). In Asia, Spain ruled the Philippine Islands, which the Spanish named after King Philip II in 1542 . In Oceania, Spain held the Mariana Islands and later the Caroline Islands. Gibraltar, a rocky promontory connected to the Spanish mainland by a sandy isthmus, is a British dependency still claimed by Spain. II ORIGINS OF THE EMPIRE Spain's overseas empire dates from the joint rule of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragón, whose marriage in 1469 began the process of uniting their separate Iberian kingdoms into one Spanish nation. It was during their reign as Isabella I and Ferdinand V that the newly united country began to build an empire. Spanish expansion overseas began for a number of reasons. The monarchs wanted to secure neighboring areas for defense against Muslim raids originating from North Africa, to protect Castile's shipping activities and trade in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, and to use the neighboring areas as ports for export of gold and enslaved Africans. They also supported exploration of distant areas primarily to spread Christianity and to increase Spain's potential for trade with the Far East, thereby gaining wealth and international prestige. The concern to increase Spanish trade centered on the desire to overcome the advantage Portuguese explorers and traders had gained by establishing similar bases on the African continent and islands off of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean. Earlier in the 15th century Portuguese explorers had discovered and settled two of the small island groups, the Madeiras and the Azores. Between 1456 and 1460 Portugal occupied the Cape Verde Islands and soon established fortified trading posts in the Gulf of Guinea. In 1488 Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias sailed around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa and opened a sea route to the Far East. Portugal's growing international influence encouraged Spain to match its neighbor's achievements. Although claimed by both Portugal and Spain, the Canary Islands came under Spanish control through a 1479 treaty. In the 1480s and 1490s, papal decrees assigned the Canaries to Spain. Despite fierce resistance from the indigenous Guanche people, by 1496 all seven islands had come under Castilian control. Like the Portuguese islands in the Atlantic, the Canaries under Spain were essentially military enclaves and trading centers where paid laborers or sharecroppers worked for a few merchant proprietors. The Spanish introduced cows, pigs, horses, sheep, and Mediterranean plants to the Canaries. The islands proved valuable for their supplies of sugar and fish, as well as their proximity to the West African coast. In 1492 Spain's exploration took a dramatic turn when Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand sponsored an expedition led by Italian navigator Christopher Columbus. Columbus and his crew left Spain with three ships in search of a westward route to reach India or Asia. More than two months later, Columbus reached land in the Caribbean Sea. Because Columbus thought he had reached India, the Spanish called the area the Indies. Columbus's voyage occurred at an opportune time for Spain. In January 1492 Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand had conquered Granada, the last Muslim kingdom on the Iberian peninsula, completing what is called the Christian reconquest of Spain from Moorish control. Still, Islam was advancing elsewhere and posed a threat to Europe. Spain's rulers planned to extend Spain's Christian crusades overseas. They readied an armed expedition to North Africa, declaring Muslim-held Jerusalem as the ultimate goal, but that army was ultimately diverted to war in Italy. They also sponsored Columbus, who proposed to reach India or Asia by a westward route and so give Spain an alternate route to Jerusalem. They also hoped his voyage would bring Spain international prestige and fabled riches. Thus, Spain justified its imperial expansion on four grounds: to spread its religion; to reinforce national unity and identity by keeping alive a sense of national mission; to enhance Spain's international power; and to compete with Portugal for trade, territory, and glory. Columbus laid the foundation of the Spanish overseas empire by claiming for Spain the lands he explored in the Caribbean islands and establishing the first European colony there. At that time Europeans simply assumed that if representatives of Christian nations discovered previously unknown lands and peoples, they had the right and the responsibility to take charge of them. In 1493, to formalize their claims to the lands that Columbus discovered, Spain began diplomatic negotiations with Portugal and with the papacy, which served as a sort of international mediation agency. Because Spain and Portugal had similar desires to expand, the papacy helped reduce conflict between the two nations by establishing formal boundaries. A series of papal decrees confirmed Spain's claim to sovereignty in some of the lands that became known as America. The papacy based these decrees on what was considered to be the Spaniards' responsibility to spread Christianity and Christian ways of life to the inhabitants of those newly discovered lands. In 1493 Pope Alexander VI formally approved the division of the unexplored world between the two countries. This was incorporated into the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) between Portugal and Spain. This treaty established the so-called Line of Demarcation, which set the boundaries between areas that would become Spanish territories and those that would be Portuguese. As it turned out, the treaty determined where Hispanic culture would gain a foothold and where Portuguese culture would take root. III SPANISH AMERICA On his first voyage, Columbus sighted Cuba and landed on Española (now Hispaniola), the island now occupied by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He returned to Spain with small quantities of gold, native plants and animals, and six men of the indigenous Taíno people. Columbus made three more voyages to the Americas between 1494 and 1502. At that time the area was called the Spanish Indies because Columbus continued to claim that he had reached India. For this reason, the inhabitants of the Caribbean area were all called Indians, despite their diverse cultures. Many of the people who accompanied Columbus on his four voyages were veterans of the Spanish wars to take Granada from Muslim control. Others included peasant farmers, royal officials, a few priests and friars, some women, as well as a few Africans, most of whom were enslaved. On Columbus's second voyage, he took 17 ships carrying about 1500 colonists, to establish a permanent settlement on Española. Most of those people were peasant farmers, but some early immigrants to the Caribbean neither farmed nor settled. Instead, they relied on plentiful Indian labor and sought to find gold and return home rich. These immigrants were soon in conflict with both the native peoples and Columbus. By late 1494 many colonists opposed Columbus's policies, such as his handling of the native people's hostilities. They even filed grievances to the Spanish monarchy against Columbus in his role as administrator of the new lands. Spain's royal government quickly imposed its own officials, first to collect taxes and then to administer the colony. Its goal was to assert royal control over both settlers and indigenous peoples. In Spain the government established a House of Trade to supervise colonial affairs and to oversee, license, and tax all trade and commerce. As the royal government asserted more authority over colonial activities, Columbus lost effective power, and was eventually replaced by other colonial governors. Within a decade of Spanish settlement, only perhaps one-tenth of the original population of Española remained. Many Taínos died from European diseases and the disruption of their communities and daily lives; others were killed in battles with Spaniards or died from overwork. A The Conquistadors During the early 1500s, Spaniards used the major Caribbean islands as a base for expeditions to the mainland of Venezuela and Central America. Men called conquistadors recruited, equipped, and led these expeditions, often with the financial backing of merchants. Most hoped to find great riches or legendary places, such as the Seven Cities of Cíbola, which were supposed to have streets and houses adorned with gold and jewels, and the fountain of youth, a spring whose waters were said to have the power to restore youth. The conquistadors came from areas of Spain where fighting was a way of life. The wars against Muslims in Spain had lasted for centuries, and clashes between rival clans were common. These men were accustomed to achieving their goals of fame and fortune through military endeavor. By taking treasure, territory, and subjects for their country, they won recognition from the king. Many explorers also felt it was their moral responsibility to convert people to Christianity. With the blessing--but not the financial support--of the Spanish government, these conquistadors made their way through Central and South America claiming territory for Spain. The conquistadors' expeditions increased Spain's territory, wealth, and power. In 1513 Vasco Núñez de Balboa and his men crossed Central America and became the first Europeans to see the Pacific Ocean. Six years later Hernán Cortés led an expedition into Mexico and in 1521 captured Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec Empire. In the early 1530s Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire in Peru. Even so, native resistance to Spanish rule continued for years. From Peru, expeditions pushed north into Ecuador and Colombia and south into Chile. Conquistadors founded Buenos Aires, in what is now Argentina, in 1536 and Asunción, in what is now Paraguay, in 1537. Francisco de Orellana first explored the Amazon Basin in 1541 and 1542, searching for legendary chief El Dorado and his kingdom, which was rumored to abound in gold and precious stones. Other explorers ventured to the borderlands of northern Mexico and the Guiana Highlands, where they generally established only isolated and often temporary outposts. In the 16th century the major permanent settlements were in central Mexico and the Andes Mountains. By the 1550s Spain controlled the areas that are now Mexico, most of the South American continent, Central America, Florida, and Cuba. The European explorers of Central and South America encountered native civilizations far richer and more sophisticated than the Caribbean cultures--for example, the Maya and Aztec peoples in Mexico and the Incas in Peru. They came upon technology allowing relatively abundant crops and encountered forms of empire where citystates dominated smaller satellite communities. Their conquests brought dramatic changes to both the Americas and Spain. The conquistadors and colonizers introduced European culture and religion to the Americas, while Spain gained enormous wealth from the spoils of its conquests and from silver and gold mines in the newly conquered lands. B Spain's New Leaders Upon the death of Ferdinand in 1516, his grandson Charles of Ghent inherited Spain--which he ruled as Charles I--as well as its colonies and parts of Italy. Charles was also heir to the Habsburg possessions in what are now Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria. In 1519 he became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire as Charles V, and he ruled the largest Western empire since the Roman Empire. By the time Charles abdicated in favor of his son, Philip II, in 1556, the empire also included the kingdoms of New Spain (now Mexico) and Peru. When Charles abdicated, however, he divided his empire between his brother, Ferdinand, and his son Philip. As king of Spain, Philip held Spain, the Italian possessions, the Netherlands, and the Spanish Indies. Despite the division of lands, the Spanish Empire remained too large to be governed effectively. Spain tried to monopolize commerce within the empire. But by the 1520s the ships of the seafaring nations of northern Europe--England, France, and the emerging Netherlands--were intruding into the Caribbean Sea to pirate and trade. As the native peoples died, some of these European nations helped supply the Spanish colonies with African slaves. But for more than a century, other Europeans made few serious attempts to establish colonies of their own in the Americas. C Life in the American Colonies In America, relatively few Spaniards dominated a vast indigenous population. To gain control of Native American labor, the Spanish initially introduced the encomienda, an official grant giving a Spaniard jurisdiction over one or more native communities. They justified this practice as instructing Native Americans in Christianity, and they governed these communities by relying on existing native hierarchies and chiefs. The Spanish colonists tended to settle where the native population was most plentiful. These tended to be urban areas and many were sites where the Spanish had built their own city on an existing native city or town. Cortés provided a model for this when he built Mexico City over the conquered Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán. He introduced to Mexico many crops and industries familiar to Spaniards, such as sugar, silk, cattle, wheat, and cotton, and he instituted gold and silver mining and the slave trade. By the 1550s, Spanish settlements spread from Chile north to Mexico. Other Spaniards had ventured into Florida, California, and the present southwestern United States. Eventually, a chain of 250 Spanish towns spread through the Americas. About 2000 people a year sailed to Mexico and Peru from Sevilla, the only Spanish port allowed contact with the Americas. By mid-century the area was governed as two large administrative regions called viceroyalties. The viceroyalty of New Spain encompassed Mexico, most of Central America, and Spanish territory in the Caribbean; the viceroyalty of Peru included what is now Panama and almost all of Spanish South America. D Religion and the Church Representatives of the king called viceroys governed the viceroyalties. However, outside the cities, priests and friars were the most direct Spanish authorities. These clergy had the most ongoing contact with Native Americans through instructing native peoples in Christianity and European ways. Some early friars, such as Bartolomé de Las Casas, were among the greatest defenders of and advocates for the native peoples. Although some argued against mistreatment of the indigenous peoples, the presence of the clergy, as well as their devotion to Christian faith and Spain's king, strengthened imperial control over all segments of colonial society. The church played a vital role in the Spanish colonies. It served as a bank, a social welfare agency, and as a center of education. Spanish clergy furthered study of natural science and natural history. They learned native languages, produced dictionaries, studied indigenous societies, and taught Native Americans to write in their native languages. They also preserved a record of native societies, of the Spanish cultural elements flooding into them, and of the ways in which the native peoples adapted to the Spanish. The native peoples adapted the new European ways as they saw fit. Even after contact with Europeans, Native Americans continued to see their state as autonomous, with its own territory and traditions. As before, they viewed the ruler and the gods as embodiments of the people as a whole, but after the arrival of the Spanish, the emperor became a Spaniard and the gods had new names. Religion in the indigenous societies was inseparable from the culture, government, and social order. In addition, religion defined their understanding of the cosmos, human origins, destiny, social order, and their place in the universe. It also helped them to come to terms with the unknown. Catholic missionaries were most successful where they encountered practices or symbols similar to those in European Christianity. E Economics in the Colonies The colonial system of agriculture shifted in the mid-1500s as encomiendas were replaced by great estates called haciendas. These estates depended on a system of plantation slavery, which relied heavily on the labor of African slaves. Africans were brought into the colonies to replace the indigenous peoples who had died in large numbers following contact with the Europeans. In the Caribbean islands, these plantations produced mostly sugarcane. At first, most of the Africans who were brought to America arrived by way of the Seville slave market. Eventually, slaves were imported directly from Africa, mostly to the Caribbean and the tropical coasts of the mainland. Many were taken to America on the ships of other Europeans. Foreigners imported slaves both legally, as licensed by the Spanish government, and illegally, through smuggling. Slaves did a variety of work. Some became overseers, skilled artisans, herders, farmers, teamsters, miners, or domestic workers. Slaves also cut sugarcane and built and worked sugar mills. Some even escaped to found their own communities. There were also nonAfrican slaves, including Muslims and Jews from Spain, most of them women. Although there were many slaves in the Spanish colonies, many were also freed, and at one point in the 18th century there were more free blacks than slaves in Spanish America. (see Blacks in Latin America) The American colonies also provided Spain with valuable gold and silver from mines worked by forced native labor. Together with agriculture, mining maintained Spain's empire in the Americas. The most noted silver mines were in Mexico and Potosí, a boomtown in present-day Bolivia at the eastern edge of the Andes. There, Native Americans worked the mines suffering harsh conditions and under a system of forced labor. America's precious metals (some gold but mostly silver) revolutionized European economies; banking prospered, commerce expanded, and prices soared. Spain, however, was unable to keep much of the silver. Large amounts of it left Spain to pay for costly wars, campaigns against heresy, luxuries for its kings and nobles, and administration of its global empire. In addition, a general European recession beginning in the 1620s hit Spain especially hard. Ultimately, much of the precious metals from Spain's colonies ended up in Asia to pay for Asian goods bought by Europeans. Potosí silver streamed through the Philippines, Turkey, Sumatra, and China, where Spain's ruler was known as the Silver King. Silver from the Americas sustained a global economy. F Other Europeans By the late 17th century, the Americas had become a focus of European rivalries for commerce and international balance of power. All ships trading between Spain and its American colonies stopped in the Caribbean, where they were targeted by English, Dutch, and French raiders. Notorious pirates waylaid treasure fleets, raided ports, smuggled merchandise, and sometimes settled on islands suitable for growing sugar--a highly profitable enterprise--and dealing in contraband. In this way, the English took over control of Jamaica, a center of Caribbean raiding, piracy, and bootlegging. Beginning in 1638 the English also occupied what is now Belize. In the 17th century the English, Dutch, and French all occupied the Guianas (now Suriname, French Guiana, and Guyana). Even so, at that point the other European powers preferred to profit indirectly from Spain's colonies in the Americas. During the 17th century, Spain suffered from a general European recession and domestic crises, and after 1620 the nation lost much of its imperial economic and commercial control. Contact with the Americas decreased, and the colonies were left increasingly on their own. The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) and other conflicts drained the budget, while famine and shortage of essential resources crippled the Spanish nation. As a result, the nation lost most of its wealth and was forced to reduce contact with the American colonies. G Shifting Identities With less interference from Spain, Spanish Americans increasingly developed their own new societies. Creoles, people of Spanish descent who were born in the Americas, developed a cultural identity shaped by both their Spanish roots and their American home. At the same time, the number of mestizos, people of mixed European and indigenous ancestry, increased. Art, architecture, and writing in the Americas reflected this cultural mixture. As Spain's American colonies became more economically and politically independent, Spanish Americans felt less connected to Spain. The population of Spanish America grew dramatically in the 18th century. Agricultural and mining production surged, and new towns were born. Spaniards founded settlements and missions in what are now California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. More products and metals were sold abroad. In the late 18th century, Spanish Americans increasingly exported animal hides, sugar, tobacco, cocoa beans, cotton, and indigo, a purple dye. Most valuable, however, was the rising output of gold and silver. H The Bourbon Reforms In the 18th century, the Bourbon kings of Spain initiated economic reforms to stimulate manufactures and technological advances in order to modernize Spain. They also hoped Spain would profit from reforms designed to make the administration of Spanish America more efficient and to promote its economic, commercial, and fiscal development. Beginning in the 1760s, King Charles III reorganized imperial administration and defenses and introduced a comprehensive package of commercial reforms largely expected to benefit Spain. In order to pay for the reforms, Charles taxed Spanish Americans. In 1776 Charles created a new viceroyalty, the Viceroyalty of the Río de La Plata, in the southern part of South America, with its capital at Buenos Aires. The new viceroyalty was made up of territory formerly governed under the Viceroyalty of Peru. It included the sparsely populated lands east of the Andes that now form Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Paraguay. I Collapse of the Empire in the Americas In the 1780s the Spanish presence extended over much of the continent, but growing British power threatened Spain's colonies in the Americas. In 1762 Spain entered the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) as an ally of France against Britain. When the British won, Spain gave up Florida but received the huge territory of Louisiana from France as compensation. France and Spain allied again in 1779 to support the American Revolution against Britain, and following Britain's loss Spain recovered Florida. Although trade between Spain and its American colonies increased, Spain was increasingly unable to prevent other nations from trading with them. Smuggling of foreign manufactured goods increased, and such goods were often carried on English ships or ships from Britain's American colonies. In addition, many of the goods that Spain shipped to its colonies had originally been manufactured in other nations. At the same time, Spanish reforms also introduced Creoles to ideas of enlightened development. For example, reformist viceroys encouraged Creoles to develop natural resources and to form groups to promote their regional economies, scientific advances, and commerce with Spain. This increase in decision making stimulated the Creole leaders of Spanish colonial society to desire yet more control. They wished to trade freely and to govern and develop their regions themselves. As the Spanish government increasingly drained American treasure and resources, the colonists' resistance grew. Revolutionary movements in other areas inspired Spanish Americans. Britain's North American colonies gained their independence and formed their own nation in the American Revolution. In 1789 the French revolted against their king in the French Revolution. And in 1791 a group of black slaves led the Haitian slave revolt in the French colony of Hispaniola, which Spain had ceded to France in 1697. Economic motives also increased the desire for independence. In 1796 the British blockaded shipping between Spain and America. With Spain completely unable to control its colonies' trade, Spanish American products had many new markets. The colonies also had more sources for imports, which lowered import prices. The enormous population growth in the Americas also encouraged many to want autonomy from Spain. By 1800 the population of Spain's colonies was 17 million, dramatically more than Spain's domestic population of 10 million. Spain's power diminished further in the first decade of the 19th century, when the French army under Napoleon I invaded Spain, and Napoleon placed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, on the Spanish throne. The Spanish people rebelled against French control, providing another example of revolution for Spanish Americans. The colonies first declared their opposition to the French government in Spain, but then they began to demand independence. In 1810 the people and town councils of Caracas, Venezuela, and Buenos Aires rose against the local Spanish authorities. Many other cities, including Cartagena and Bogota in Colombia, Santiago in Chile, and Quito in Ecuador, followed their example. In South America, two leaders were particularly important in the movement for Latin American independence. Simón Bolívar fought against the Spanish in what are now Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. He also assisted José de San Martín, who had liberated Chile from Spanish control, to secure Peru's independence. Despite these successes, fighting among local and regional factions in what were essentially civil wars complicated the revolutions for independence. Creoles in Mexico City and Lima, for example, initially opposed independence, although they were motivated less by love of Spain than by fear of social upheaval. By 1824 Spain had lost all of its mainland territories. Cuba and Puerto Rico were the only American colonies remaining under Spanish rule. However, the value of Cuban trade--based largely on sugar--was greater than that of all Spain's former American colonies combined. Yet, as the 19th century progressed, these island territories were increasingly drawn into the economic orbit of the neighboring United States. Increasingly, Cubans perceived Spanish rule as repressive, and when Cuba revolted against Spain in 1895, the United States secretly aided the Cuban insurgents. In 1898 an American battleship, the USS Maine, mysteriously blew up in Havana Harbor. Many people in the United States blamed Spain, and the United States declared war. The Spanish-American War was brief but had huge consequences. The United States won the war, ending over 400 years of Spanish empire in the Americas. Under the peace agreement signed in December 1898, Cuba became independent, and the United States gained sovereignty over Puerto Rico. The Philippines and Guam, Spanish colonies in Asia and the Pacific, also became U.S. protectorates. IV SPANISH ASIA AND THE PACIFIC The Spanish presence in Asia and the Pacific Islands dates back to 1521, when Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan was attempting to find a westward route to the Spice Islands on behalf of Spain. Early in the year Magellan reached an island in the western Pacific, probably what is now Guam in the Mariana Islands. He later reached Mindanao and Cebu, two of the 7000 islands of an archipelago that now make up the Republic of the Philippines. A The Philippines On Mindanao, Magellan converted two local leaders to Christianity. On Cebu, Magellan and his crew encountered the Malay people and converted some of them as well. Magellan made a pact with Humabon, a chief on Cebu, agreeing to help him attack the nearby island of Mactan. When he and his sailors tried to land on Mactan, Magellan and most of his crew were killed by Mactan chief Lapulapu. The Spanish claim to the islands was disputed by Portugal. Portugal was already in possession of the nearby Moluccas and could invoke the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, which reserved the eastern hemisphere for Portuguese colonization. In 1542, however, a Spanish expedition reasserted Spain's claims and named the archipelago the Islas Filipinas, or Philippine Islands, in honor of Spain's royal heir, later King Philip II. In 1565 an expedition from Mexico led by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi founded colonies, first on Cebu and subsequently on Luzon. In 1571 a colonial capital was established on Luzon at Manila, from which Spain ruled the Philippines for more than 300 years. Under Philip II the Spanish government made the many islands a single political unit under Spanish control, and Manila became a valuable port for trade between Mexico and China. American silver was shipped to Manila where it was traded for silks and porcelain from Canton (now Guangzhou, China) and the Portuguese port of Macao. These Asian products were then shipped to Mexico and re-exported to South America or Europe. Although Philip tried to limit the amount of silver flowing to Manila, smuggling grew until it far surpassed legal trade. Chinese immigrants to Manila and other Philippine towns reaped much of the profits, causing the Spanish to view the islands as unprofitable. However, Spain still extended its control of the Philippines by playing one group against another in local feuds. It also developed the major islands as a source of gold and spices. Those commodities and the silks and porcelain re-exported from the Philippines lured Dutch ships and merchants, as well as Dutch privateers and some Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, and English raiders. British activity in the Pacific grew during the 18th century, and British forces occupied Manila from 1762 to 1764, as a result of the Seven Years' War. In the 19th century Spain's control over colonial trade declined, opening opportunities for Filipinos to develop their economy. Different regions in the Philippines began to specialize in a single export crop, such as indigo, sugar, rice, hemp, or tobacco, which they sold to English and American merchants. A large number of Chinese immigrants continued to settle in provincial towns and played a large role in business life by buying and selling the crops, making loans, and becoming shopkeepers. As in the American colonies, foreign trade introduced foreign ideas. At first the people of the Philippines identified themselves with their language groups, but in the 1890s a sense of national Filipino identity evolved. The term Filipino originally denoted a person of Spanish descent born in the Philippines and was comparable to the term Creole in the Spanish-American colonies. Filipinos began demanding social, religious, and administrative reforms from the Spanish government. Spain's response fluctuated between repression and conciliation. In 1892 Filipinos organized several secret societies to act against the Spanish authorities. The foremost of these was the Philippine League, founded by celebrated novelist José Rizal in 1891. Rizal was critical of the power exercised by Roman Catholic religious orders in his country and demanded political rights and equality for Filipinos. In 1896, after being accused of inciting a rebellion, Rizal was executed by the Spanish authorities. He became a martyr and a symbol of his nation. The rebellion led Spain to agree to reforms, but before these were implemented, the Spanish-American War erupted in 1898. Filipino nationalists proclaimed independence, but following the U.S. victory, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States. B Oceania When Magellan stopped at the Mariana Islands in 1521, he and his crew encountered the native Chamorro people. He named the archipelago Islas de Ladrones, or Islands of Thieves, because he claimed that some of the Chamorro stole Spanish supplies. Other Spanish explorers followed Magellan, and in 1565 Legazpi's fleet took possession of the islands on Spain's behalf while en route to Manila. Later, the islands were named for Mariana of Austria, Queen Regent of Spain, who sent Jesuit missionaries to the area in 1668. Spain governed Guam from Manila and stationed a garrison on the island to discourage sporadic Chamorro uprisings. In the late 17th century, Guam became a regular stopping place for all the ships that sailed the trade route between Acapulco and Manila. When those ships ceased to sail in 1815, the island served chiefly as a provisioning port for non-Spanish whaling ships. At the end of the 16th century, Spanish friars on Guam chronicled Chamorro customs and culture as it existed before other peoples began to arrive and change the culture and ethnic makeup of the islands. These included survivors of Spanish shipwrecks, immigrants from the Carolina Islands, trading and whaling crews of various nationalities, and missionaries, soldiers, and other people from the Philippines. In the 19th century Spain established a military government and a general system of primary education on Guam. Spanish rule ended in 1898, when the United States defeated Spain in the Spanish-American War. Like the Philippines, Guam became a U.S. possession, but the other Mariana Islands were sold to Germany. C Caroline Islands The Caroline Islands consist of a chain of approximately 600 islands spread across 3000 miles in Micronesia. The major islands are Palau, Yap, Chuuk (formerly Truk), Pohnpei (formerly Ponape), and Kosrae. Although Spanish explorers arrived in the Caroline Islands during the late 1520s, Spain only began to press formal claims for international recognition of its rights to the group in the 1870s, when Germany expressed an interest in occupying the islands. Spain's diminishing power and its concerns with other colonies prevented it from exerting much influence, and the Carolines were considered only a minor Spanish possession. In 1898 Spain lost the Spanish-American War to the United States, and in 1899 Germany bought the Caroline Islands from Spain. V SPANISH AFRICA AND GIBRALTAR Spanish influence in Africa dates back to the beginning of Spain's imperial expansion. Melilla, in North Africa, was among the earliest of Spain's foreign claims, and it remains a Spanish possession today. Gibraltar, a part of the Iberian peninsula, is owned by Britain but claimed by Spain. A North Africa In the late 15th and early 16th centuries Spain established a number of small exclaves along the North African coast. Spain's goals were to maintain fortified positions along the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts in order to protect fishing, shipping, and trade; to promote mercantile and missionary activity; and to fend off the aims of other powers interested in expansion. Among the first of these was Melilla, on the Strait of Gibraltar. It came under Spanish control in 1497, about the same time that Spain established a garrison at Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña (now Ifni) on the Atlantic coast opposite the Canary Islands. Spain took other areas between 1505 and 1510, including Oran and Bejaïa in what is now Algeria; Tunis, in what is now Tunisia; and Tripoli, in what is now Libya. In 1580 Spain acquired Ceuta, an outpost on the North African coast, from Portugal. Ceuta served as a major Mediterranean port for goods (gold, ivory, and slaves) transported from the interior of Africa along the trade routes that crossed the Sahara Desert. In 1847 Spain made Ceuta the administrative headquarters for all its African coastal settlements. The boundaries between Morocco and Spain's exclaves--Melilla and Ceuta--were formally established in 1860 under a treaty following Spain's invasion of Morocco. In 1881 the Society of Canary-African Fishermen, a prominent commercial organization, established an enclave and trading post on the Río de Oro, an inlet opposite the Canary Islands in the region later known as the Spanish Sahara. In 1884, in response to British interest in the area, Spain declared a protectorate over the coast from Cape Bojador to Cape Blanc. The site on the Río de Oro became Villa Cisneros (now Ad Dakhla), the administrative center of Spanish Sahara. Between 1916 and the 1930s Spain established a few other military garrisons on the coast. In 1904, as Germany's interest in North Africa increased, Spain made a secret treaty with France distinguishing respective spheres of influence and confirming the Spanish protectorate over Ifni and Spanish Sahara. From 1908 to 1912 native rebellion against foreign intervention resulted in civil war in the Moroccan cities of Casablanca and Fez. The French occupied Fez, and an international crisis threatened after a German gunboat arrived at Agadir. Britain convinced Germany to withdraw, allowing France and Spain to sign an agreement partitioning Morocco in 1912. In 1913 Spain designated its protectorate as Spanish Morocco, and various administrative and name changes took place thereafter. The Spanish area was far smaller than the French section and consisted of two zones 500 miles apart. Although the southern zone theoretically extended 150 miles inland, the Spanish presence actually remained confined to the region of Villa Cisneros. In the northern zone, Berber tribesmen of the Rif area resisted French raids, causing France to pressure Spain to exert more control. From 1909 to 1926 the Spanish and French repeatedly fought the Rifs. In 1921 Riffian leader Abd el-Krim guided his tribe in an attack against a Spanish military post in Er Rif, capturing it and massacring 16,000 soldiers. The war against the Rifs was unpopular in Spain. Many viewed it as too expensive and serving the narrow interests of a group within the army. The Spanish government continued to waver in its Moroccan policy, neither ending the war nor supplying the army sufficiently to win it. In 1926 the government placed a military administration over the Rif region, and began developing it. Private investment financed railways and mining. In addition, public funds were used to improve urban areas. Spain's Moroccan holdings were significant during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). General Francisco Franco, who became the leader of the antigovernment Nationalist side during the war, had become a military hero for his service in Morocco. In early 1920s, he organized and commanded troops that helped subdue uprisings in Spanish Morocco. In 1936 Franco had his elite Army of Africa airlifted to the Spanish mainland to help the Nationalist military uprising against the Spanish government. During the war, Spain's North African territories remained under the control of the military rebels. During World War II (1939-1945), American troops occupied Morocco and used it as a major supply base. Following the war, Moroccan and pan-Arab nationalism increased, challenging Spanish control. In 1946 Spain designated the territories of Ifni and Spanish Sahara as Spanish West Africa. In 1956 French Morocco achieved its independence, and Spain recognized that it could be facing a losing battle to keep control of Spanish Morocco. Between 1956 and 1958, Spain withdrew from Morocco but retained its holdings in Spanish West Africa, Ceuta, and Melilla. After Morocco became independent, a radical group called the Army of Liberation used it as a base to wage guerrilla warfare against Spanish West Africa. In response, Spain tightened control by again dividing Spanish West Africa into Ifni and Spanish Sahara and making each a province of Spain. In 1959 Spain formally incorporated Ceuta, Melilla, and some offshore islands as part of Spain itself, not just as protectorates or colonies. In 1960 the United Nations (UN) passed a resolution abolishing colonialism. This act required nations to relinquish their colonies abroad. To comply with the UN resolution, Spain ceded Ifni to Morocco in 1969. Spain withdrew from Spanish Sahara in 1975, and it is now known as Western Sahara. Since Spain's withdrawal, the country has been in the middle of disputes between Morocco and a Western Saharan group, known as the Polisario Front, backed by Algeria. In 1988 the United Nations proposed a settlement plan that Spain supported. As part of the plan, Spain has scheduled a referendum for December of 1999 in which Western Sahara will decide on its sovereignty. Today, Ceuta and Melilla remain a point of contention between Spain and Morocco. Morocco wants to annex them, but the two exclaves now have predominantly Spanish populations. B The Gulf of Guinea In the late 18th century, Portugal ceded its areas in the Gulf of Guinea off western Africa to Spain in exchange for Spain's recognition of Portugal's expanded territory in Brazil. Spain received the islands of Fernando Póo (now Bioko) and Annobón (now San Antonio de Palé), as well as the territory of Río Muni (now Mbini) on the African mainland. In 1827 Spain leased the region to the British as a base for intercepting slave traders to America and as a settlement for former slaves. In 1858 Spain founded a coastal colony called Spanish Guinea, and in the 1870s a private Spanish group, known as the Society of Africanists and Colonists, acquired more territory there through treaties with the inhabitants. The first effective Spanish settlements on Fernando Póo were founded in the 1850s, when Catalan migrants began to establish rich cocoa plantations. The indigenous people, the Bubi, were largely assimilated into Spanish colonial culture. Colonization of mainland Río Muni, between the Niger and Ogooué rivers, never penetrated beyond the coastal strip. The Spanish explored the mainland interior only in the 1920s, where they met intermittent resistance from the dominant ethnic group, the Fang. As in North Africa, an African nationalist movement evolved in Guinea following World War II. Beginning in 1958, Africans increasingly participated in political administration of the area. In 1963 Spain granted the region limited autonomy, and in 1968 Spain's king, Juan Carlos I, conceded its independence under the name of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea. C Gibraltar A narrow, sandy isthmus separates Gibraltar, a rocky promontory on Spain's southern coast, from the Spanish mainland. It has always been strategically important because of its location as the western entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. It serves as a point from which to monitor traffic passing between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean and between North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. The Moors held Gibraltar from 1333 to 1462, the year that a private Spanish expedition took it over. In 1502 Gibraltar came under the authority of the Spanish government. In 1713 Spain ceded it to Britain as part of the Peace of Utrecht, the treaty that ended the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1964, when the United Kingdom gave Gibraltar almost complete control over its internal affairs, Spain contended that it should acquire sovereignty over Gibraltar under terms of the Peace of Utrecht. However, in a 1967 referendum, the people of Gibraltar voted overwhelmingly to remain under Britain and to reject ties to Spain. Despite this, Spain pursued its claim and in 1969 closed its border to the 5000 Spanish workers who worked in Gibraltar. After negotiations, Spain reopened the border in 1985, although the issue of Gibraltar's sovereignty remains controversial. VI EFFECTS AND LEGACIES OF THE EMPIRE Spain had common goals in its many colonial areas, and as a result its colonies share many similar characteristics. In Spanish America and Spanish Asia, Roman Catholicism and Spanish culture merged with the indigenous languages and religions. In Spanish Africa, the cultural legacies are much less noticeable, although Spanish is spoken in Ceuta and Melilla, as well as much of Morocco. Catholic populations remain throughout Latin America and in the Philippines, and Spanish-speakers are now the third largest language group in the world. Other legacies remain as well--for example people in Guam celebrate Magellan's Day every March 6. However, the area most deeply influenced by Spain's legacy is Latin America. A Legacy in Latin America After Latin American independence, the boundaries of the new nations were based largely on the old Spanish imperial jurisdictional divisions, but with central Spanish authority gone, localism surged and strained national governments. National economies continued to be based on the export of raw materials. Societies remained stratified, although mestizos did gain some political and economic standing. In Latin American society, much of the Spanish heritage remained, and it continues today. In areas that historically contained dense Native American populations, European customs have long since fused with indigenous practices, forming a mixture of cultures. Throughout much of Latin America, Spanish has remained the predominant language, and Roman Catholicism has remained the dominant faith. Many towns retain forms of Spanish city planning, with a central square anchored by a church and a city hall and streets radiating out from it. In some places Spanish customs, such as bullfighting and the afternoon siesta, remain. During the late 1800s, expressions of hispanidad (Spanish cultural identity) became important, especially to writers and intellectuals who condemned the spread of materialism and the influence of the United States. As resentment of the United States grew, it replaced old resentments of Spanish domination. In the 20th century, a strong sense of Hispanic identity endures among Latin Americans, giving a sense of shared history, culture, and language. B Effects on Spain Expansion throughout the world made Spain the most powerful European nation from the early 16th century until the mid-17th century. Then it began a long decline. Spain lost most of its American colonies during the Napoleonic wars and their unsettled aftermath, but it retained Cuba, its wealthiest colony, and a firm belief in its imperial destiny. The Spanish people reacted strongly to their country's decline only after Spain lost Cuba and the Philippines at the end of the 19th century, a time when standing in the international community depended on success in the race for colonies. The loss of the empire exposed government inadequacies and led many Spaniards to criticize the government. But Spain was divided on how to proceed, and Spanish society eventually became polarized. One result was the rise of new political parties based on personalities and regions within Spain that challenged the old parliamentary system. These parties brought to power a succession of coalition governments and strongmen, culminating in the Spanish Civil War. C Spanish-Speaking World Today Since World War II, advances in communications and transportation have increased contact between Spain and Latin America. Spain's economy flourished, and its trade increased, particularly with the former Spanish colonies. When Spain returned to democracy in the mid-1970s following Franco's nearly 40-year regime, its relations with Latin America grew. King Juan Carlos made official visits, and Spanish investment there increased. In 1982, when the United Kingdom and Argentina fought over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Spain supported Argentina's claim. In 1985 Spain instituted a special assistance program for Latin America. Since then Spanish companies have invested billions of dollars in the area. Spain also began collaborating with Latin American republics to bring peace during wars in Central America. Today, the Spanish king joins Latin American heads of state in annual summit meetings. Spain continues to pursue a policy of increasing its influence in and cooperation with Latin America, emphasizing common ties based on shared history, language, culture, and religion. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.