What Were Some Of The Main Conflicts That The Spanish Empire At The End Of 18th Century

Well… I feel that “Spanish Empire” already implies that the colonies are included, cuz what else would it be otherwise? If it were to be reunited again today, it would be the biggest country in the world, in terms of geographical extension, with 19 millions of square km, although this might vary due to the ups and downs of the empire, with at its peak with 31 millions of square km and just something below a million at its lowest. But let's take the 19 millions of square km, because that was the extension the Empire had before the revolutions for independence. In terms of population, it would somewhat be the third most populated, behind China and India, with a number 500 millions of inhabitants. This quantity is taken from the fact that there are around 400 million Spanish native speakers, but not every inhabitants in the empire speaks the official language, as it was and still is a fact in some regions of the former Spanish empires, there are tons of co-official languages. In terms of GDP, the Empire might be the third or fourth economic power, with about 6 to 8 trillions GDP. This is due to the fact that Spain is the only developed country considered by many agencies, with the rest of the countries that comprise the empire either developing or undeveloped. Mexico has almost as much GDP as Spain does, but it doesn't mean it's developed, as it has like 100 millions of population with a total GDP of 1,38 trillion, and Spain is 46 millions of inhabitants with a GDP of 1,4 trillion. I'm not going to measure the prowess of the military, but in my humblest opinion, I still don't think it matters, with the leading country of the empire, Spain, having around 120K of military manpower and a military expenditure of 12 billion, less than 2% of the Spanish GDP. So if it were somehow to be reunited, the Spanish empire neither made it to the top in terms of economic and military power. With it being the biggest country and third most populated doesn't really mean it would be somehow a glorious and powerful empire.

The main enemy of Spanish Kings during 16th century was, in the first place, the Ottoman Empire. At that time the Turk were threatening Central Europe (Hungary) and fighting for the control of the Mediterranean Sea. Both areas were dominions of the Habsburg Dynasty. The Spanish King was also in some sense the main Christian power at the time, therefore he assumed the leading role in holding back Muslim (Ottoman) advances, which at that time was perceived as a serious threat to Western Christendom.Other antagonists such as France, or emergent powers such as the Protestant states in Germany, the Netherland provinces, and England, were probably not much resource-consuming if compared with the Turk, at least during the 16th century as a whole. By the end of the 16th century, once the Turk were effectively restrained, I think that England plus their Dutch allies gained the status of ‘main enemy’.

Having lived for long years in both the mother country and its most populous former colony, I find centuries-long decline and fall of the world's first truly global empire as fascinating as it is sad, both for the conquerors and the conquered, because all countries concerned are poorer than they ought to be to this day.According to a seminal work by Eduardo Galeano, whose title translates as "The Open Veins of Latin America", the reason was Spain's refusal to colonise rather than merely conquer, by which he meant the conquistadores did nothing to make their domains' economies even minimally self-sufficient, but merely plundered them, first for precious metals, then for cash crops. To make matters worse, the mother country had little industry, because hidalgos would not deign to work, so both Spain and its domains depended on imports, either legal or contraband, so very little of the gold looted from the Americas stayed in Seville's famous Torre de Oro.Compounding matters further was the fact that, as 19th-century British historian Thomas Macaulay said, Spain effectively put its imperial wealth and armies at the Vatican's service and fought holy wars until it went broke, both financially and in human terms. By the early 18th century, Spain was no longer able to control its own destiny, and other European powers fought amongst themselves in the War of the Spanish Succession to determine who would rule the country. Napoleon invading Spain in 1808 led nearly all of its Latin American colonies to follow the USA's example and declare their independence,  for they no longer had a country to obey. Even after Napoleon's eventual defeat, a seriously weakened Spain was unable to win the colonies back despite fighting a series of long and bloody wars.By 1898, Spain had been weakened yet again, this time by a series of civil wars, and had failed to industrialise on a large scale, so she was powerless to prevent the massively industrialised and expansionist USA from simply taking Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines and thus dealing the empire its final death blow. At the time, a whole generation of Spanish writers (e.g. Pío Baroja) agonised and did a lot of soul-searching over their country's fate and while they were correct in their diagnosis of its problems, modern historians like Julián Casanova have shown that the country was better off without them (as, of course, were the former colonies).

Thanks for the A2A!While the Spanish army had lost its preeminent role in Europe by 1700, it played a major role in the War of Spanish Succession, which saw the dawn of the 18th century (1701–1714). In that war, the Spanish army used the following weapons.[1]Muskets The British army fielded the more refined Doglock Musket, but the Spanish army used the more generic musket pictured below.PikesUsed in conjunction with muskets to protect from cavalry chargesHalberdsUsed mainly by artillery troops to protect during reloadingBayonetsUsed for infantry vs infantry melee combatSwordUsed by infantry if formation was broken by cavalry charges, as well as a primary cavalry weapon.Dragoon sword c 1700, British MuseumFlintlock PistolsMain weapon used by cavalry to disrupt pike formations without getting to close.Flintlock pistol, c 1700, Illinois State MuseumCannonMain artillery piece used in sieges, defense of fortresses, or battlefield support.Reenactors use a 1700 British cannon in FranceBy the time of Napoleon, just after the 18th century, the Spanish army had declined still further. While Napoleon’s troops could reliably fire 4 volleys per minute,[2] the Spanish troops struggled to fire 2, as the Spanish army used obsolete muskets and had poor training.[3] In the Napoleonic wars, halberds were no longer used, and pikes were only seen rarely. Spanish forces likely used the same muskets, artillery, and pistols they had used in 1700, illustrating the sharp decline of Spanish power after 1650, and making their forces markedly inferior to the French.Cheers!Footnotes[1] Weapons used in the Spanish Succession War[2] Napoleonic Wars : Musket Fire : Bayonet[3] Napoleonic Wars : Weapons : facing colours : Napoleonic Armies : Napoleon Guide