Periodisation

Question 1

Points of Reconquista

Answer 1

Steady reconquest from mid 11thc.
ended in 1492 with conquest of granada- they were paying protection money but Isabella and Ferdinand decided to conquer them
history written by victors

Question 2

dates of golden age

Answer 2

1520-1650s

Question 3

Reasons for Golden Age

Answer 3

Science - telescopes - military use
literature and art - Don Quixote, Velazquez
intellectual flourishing - new universities, libraries
language flourishing - Castilian
architecture - palaces
inherit European land
Discover South America - gold and silver

Question 4

Reasons against Golden Age

Answer 4

Inquisition
Spanish kings constantly in debt - more taxes - Charles V borrowed 29 million ducats at interest rate of 32% ; debt payments accounted for 84% of Spain’s revenues in 1565
impacted Spanish life severely

Question 5

Portugal Golden Age

Answer 5

Patronage

wealth let culture expand

Question 6

The Black Legend

Answer 6

Spaniards differet to rest of Europe
racially mixed - Jews and Muslims - other races, ‘darker’
Catholicism - anti-Catholic ideas
European enlightenment and condemnation of Spain, supposed barbarism of Spain
BUT Spanish people also saw it as backward, esp in ‘decline’

Question 7

Population decline in 17thc

Answer 7

Fell from 8.5 million to 7 million 1600-1700
plague epidemic - 1596-1602 - cost half a million lives, 10% of the population
agricultural decay - rural depopulation
1609-1614 - expulsion of moriscos

Question 8

17th c Economic Decline

Answer 8

taxes - 3/4 of imperial costs covered by Castile in 1616
decline in trade - shipments of gold and silver from spanish america falling
failure to modernise and invest

Question 9

Other Declines in 17th c (not economic or population)

Answer 9

societal decline - lack of morality, aristocrats too interested in prestige
no entrepenurial activity
church decline - intellectual crisis with priests, polluted by dangerous ideas eg Protestantism
by 1625, Spaniards aware they were living in a decline

Question 10

Reasons against decline narrative

Answer 10

History of the victors - justifying the Bourbon succession after 1714
propaganda of how Bourbons would bring Spain to a new age
was Spain strong in first place?
Decline of Spain? Castile? Wider European decline?

Question 11

Royal decline

Answer 11

anti-Hapsburg sentiment
monarchy changing in 17thc
Spanish monarchs lazy - delegating to officials
Carlos II - weak, imbecilic, impotent

Question 12

Evidence for a ‘Revival’ end of 17thc/18thc

Answer 12

Government reform - Conde de Oropesa - tax reforms, royal budget cuts
signs of regeneration - Castilian agriculture, intellectual stimulaiton

Question 13

18th c Bourbon Reforms

Answer 13

Local elections for town councils
Cultural and intellectual revival - eg palaces built
Population rises from 7.5 billion to 10 billion in less than 100 years
raise taxes for reforms - middle class opportunities
centralise power in Spain, one administration and currency
want to populate unpopulated areas - can’t have an industrial revolution without agricultural revolution

Question 14

Portugal - Pombal reforms, ‘revival’

Answer 14

economic reforms, state monopolies, private commerce

political reforms - middle class

Question 15

Liberalism in Portugal

Answer 15

continued economic development
power alternates between 2 different parties representing moderate and progressive strands of liberalism (but fixed elections)

Question 16

the questions liberalism tried to answer/argued over

Answer 16

relations between church and state
centralism vs regionalism
role of army
role of monarch

Question 17

Liberal reforms did change:

Answer 17

primary role of parliments
diminish role of catholic church in politics
liberalised economy
private property
elections introduced (although electoral fraud)

Question 18

Moderate liberalism - who supported them

Answer 18

supported by top middle servants, upper middle classes, high clergy

Question 19

progressive liberalism - who supported them?

Answer 19

lower middle class and artisans

Question 20

what did both strands of liberalism want?

Answer 20

to challenge the old ways
create opportunites for social groups
abolition of traditional privileges
encouragement of capitalism

Question 21

wider European backdrop

Answer 21

countries reacting to pressure of industrialisation, urbanisation, migration - capitalism.

Question 22

who opposed liberalism and why

Answer 22

spanish peasantry
due to traditions and the church
and very high taxes

Question 23

Political liberals

Answer 23

disintailment of church lands, high import tariffs

Question 24

economic liberals - what did they want and what did they do

Answer 24

reduction/abolition of import tariffs - free trade
by mid-19thc, winning
infrastructural improvements
foreign trade doubles 1852-62
state-power investment
tax breaks, land grants

Question 25

Downsides of liberalism

Answer 25

reliant on foreign capital
industrialisation patchy
60% illiterate
2/3 of population emplyed in agriculture by 1900

Question 26

decline started due to Catholicism?

Answer 26

French enlightenment idea? Protestant enemies
Inquisition keen to stop foreign ideas? - but ran through golden age
church not a block to flourishing - patrons science and art
Inquisition and church too interested?
mid 1500 - sacralise pagan rituals and make them christian. obsessed with sex

Question 27

General points of/reasons for decline

Answer 27

loss of armada in 1588
loss in 30 years war
loss of Netherlands, Jamaica, Portugal
revolts in Catalonia and Italy
population decline
famine
disease
emigration
expulsion of moriscos
economic decline
decline in trade
societal decline
church decline
royal decline