o-- primer --o
The harshness of the Morisco (ostensibly converted Moors) within Spain can be compared to their struggle against the Ottomans.
In 1568-1571, the Morisco people of Granada rebelled against a ban on their language and traditional dress, and instead of seeking help from the Ottomans, they were brutally suppressed, and a large number of rebels were slaughtered, partly by troops gathered by the Spanish aristocracy.
This social mobilization reflected the coercion of the ideological norms of the Catholic dictatorship, and in the Spanish countryside there was a great urgency to implement the reform program drawn up by the Council of Trento (1545-1563), and in the sixties and seventies of the sixteenth century, this strong willingness was praised by the Inquisition and the Inquisition, but the speed and extent of the various reforms still varied, and dissidents were harshly criticized.
For example, in 1568, a baby girl named Lucrecia de Leon was born into a civilian family, and since her adolescence, Lucresia was able to prophecy through dreams, which proponents believed to be a prophet who received revelation, and her dreams criticized the reign of Philip II.
In 1588, in all three dreams, Lucresia saw a dragon with seven deadly sins, which spewed flames from its mouth, and the fire engulfed Spain, Philip II ordered the Inquisition to arrest her for heresy and sedition, Lucrecia was tortured and then imprisoned in a convent, and the Inquisition's main duty was to ensure Christian legitimacy.
In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, in the lands of the Kingdom of Aragon, frequent acts of faith (burning at the stake) at the behest of the Inquisition were popular at the time, as the punishments were mostly outsiders, and the Inquisition of the Kingdom of Valencia was praised for its attempts to suppress extreme atrocities based on false doctrines.
By the 18th century, the Inquisition was still showing an astonishing ability to recruit new members, and at the same time, the uncertainty and sense of crisis caused by religious tensions was exhausting, and Spain supported causes that were in Catholic interest around the world, especially in France, the British Isles, and the Holy Roman Empire, where the founder of the Catholic Society of Jesus or Jesuit, Ignatius Loyola, was Spanish, and people could visit the remains of the sacred scene of his birth in Guipsqua.
o-- The Empire is burdened --o
At the time, no country in the world could match the achievements of the Spanish Empire, which had a large range of activities, raised many problems, and the empire had a long way to go, which in part explained Spain's long-standing dependence on military outsourcing and on private resources and capital, all in order to maintain Spain's military activities.
Spain was better able to handle the new challenges posed by large-scale, protracted wars than its enemies because of its own unique advantages: silver mining in the New World, credit, the ability to mobilize social resources as a composite monarchy, and the ability to use "subtle influences" to absorb resources from other countries, which masked Spain's inefficiency in the early modern period.
Since the mid-70s of the 16th century, Spain has put aside its conflict with the Ottoman Empire as it seeks to dominate the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598) in Western Europe, and Spain reoccupies most of the Low Countries.
The initial successful intervention in the Wars of Religion, the thwarting of British attacks on the New World under Western and Portuguese rule, and the continued domination of Italy all indicated that Spain was on the verge of reaching the peak of its unprecedented power, so it was wrong to think that Spain was at the end of the crossbow by the 90s of the 16th century.
O -- The misleading opera: Don Carlos --o
Based on Friedrich Schiller's play Don Carlos, Son of Spain (1787), Giuseppe Verdi composed the opera Don Carlos (1867), which is known for its authenticity, perhaps because of inbreeding, Carlos's capricious temperament, whose character problems were exacerbated after he fell down the steps in 1562.
In 1568, Prince Carlos (1545-1568), the heir to Philip II, was arrested by his father as he was preparing to flee the palace and died soon after, and in order to criticize Philip II, people soon began to fabricate various rumors around Carlos' death, portraying Carlos as a secret Protestant and advocate of Dutch freedom.
In addition, he had an affair with his young stepmother, Elisabeth de Valois, who was eventually poisoned, however, these claims are unfounded, and in the opera Carlos solemnly promised to dedicate himself to the cause of freedom, and he brought a group of Flemish representatives to Philip II, but Philip II refused their request for freedom.
The opera depicts a public burning of infidels at the stake in Madrid, with a heavenly voice calling for the soul of the inmate to ascend to heaven, the Grand Inquisition of the Inquisition strongly demanding the execution of the adulterer Carlos, while the undead of Charles V supported Carlos.
At the same time, the costs of war were unprecedentedly expensive and eventually led to a severe debt crisis, with defaults on loans shifting the burden to bankers, which meant forced debt rescheduling, and war severely disrupted the government's economy, financial system, and trade.
Moreover, under Philip II, Spain had difficulty in transforming its military achievements into political reconciliation, and for him it was too difficult to make compromises with the Low Countries, the British Isles, and France, and in his view religious legitimacy was an inevitable requirement made by God, dynasty, politics, and himself.
Contrary to the above, the Catholic faith shared by Spain and Portugal helped Philip II to take over Portugal smoothly, on the one hand, he paid bribes; On the other hand, in 1580 he launched a successful land and sea invasion, before which he inspected the army that was about to attack Portugal at Badajos.
The willingness to maintain the clarity of authority and the unique customs and privileges of the institutions also contributed to Philip's takeover, and in 1578, King Sebastian of Portugal was killed in his own foolish Moroccan invasion, without Sebastian as a formidable enemy.
At the same time, because Philip II's mother was Princess Isabel of Portugal, he was able to successfully inherit the Portuguese throne and become King Philip I of Portugal, and in this battle for the Portuguese throne, Antonio, the candidate supported by the United Kingdom, lacked appeal.
The Iberian Peninsula was divided and ruled by four rulers in 1470, and although Philip II ruled the peninsula as ruler in 1580, he did not directly merge Spain and Portugal, which is not only Philip's prudent move, but also reflects how deeply rooted the orthodoxy that influenced the rulers and elites was.
Philip then captured the Azores in 1582–1583, but his navy was defeated by England in 1588, and although the defeat of the Spanish Armada was seen as a divine intervention, in fact, the English attacks in Portugal and the Caribbean were not fatal to the Spanish Empire's main system.
However, the British still inflicted a lot of damage on Spain, the most prominent of which was the Anglo-Dutch joint military operation in 1596, when the combined English and Dutch forces of 6,000 soldiers raided Cadiz, where the Spanish warships were supported by artillery in the city, but the Anglo-Dutch army still struggled to enter the moorings under the Spanish guard, and then successfully broke through and landed.
Subsequently, the Anglo-Dutch forces captured the unfortified Cadiz under onslaught, and in this battle, the strength of the British naval gunners played a key role, and the Allies' desire to obtain spoils from the city and merchant ships strongly drove the soldiers and sailors to fight bravely.
O -- El Escorial Monastery --o
A must-visit in Spanish history, the Monastery of El Escorial, a royal site located 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Madrid, near the town of El Escorial, officially known as the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo, is listed by UNESCO on the World Heritage List.
This combination was a royal palace and monastery, and this combination was requested by Philip II, who chose Juan Bautista from Toledo as the royal architect to take charge of the overall design, and Philip II wanted to show Spain's status as a guardian of Christianity.
In 1567, after the death of the royal architect, the work was handed over to Juan de Herrera, which later became the imperial tomb, the foundation stone was laid in 1563, and the construction was completed in 1584, and there are many opinions about the rectangular plan of the building, some say it is to commemorate San Lorenzo, who was roasted alive on the grill that year, others say it is an imitation of Solomon's temple, because Philip II was very interested in Solomon.
Although the monastery of El Escorial is mainly made of gray granite, it is magnificent and has many masterpieces of art, and the library here is particularly famous, and more in line with the tastes of Philip II's time, this monastery has the largest collection of saintly bones in the world, totaling about 7,500 pieces, and Philip II died in El Escorial in 1598.
Spain faced a multifaceted economic burden, including gold production, taxes, and borrowing, and the Americas played a particularly important role in gold production, especially in the large silver-producing center of Potosí, which was built in present-day Bolivia.
In addition, Mexico was also a major center of silver production, and in Spain and Spain under Spain's Italy, especially in Naples, the tax burden was heavy, and the international credit system at that time proved to play a key role in the proper functioning of the Spanish system.
With the help of German and Italian bankers, especially Augsburg and Genoa, Spain was able to tap into the potential wealth of silver mines and taxes, and in fact, the consolidation of a series of regional economies at that time was so significant for the success of the empire, however, bankers were affected by the bankruptcies of the government in 1557 and 1596, or the suspension of debt payments.
o-- 结语 --o
These circumstances forced bankers to renegotiate loans, while the sale of debt securities (juros) made more people accountable to the Spanish system of government, where agriculture and mining were the main sources of wealth, and finance and credit were linked to trade, especially for rulers who had to pay soldiers and contractors in cash.
However, the Spanish economy did not benefit greatly from the inflow of gold, which was used to finance activities elsewhere abroad, rather than within Spain.
In Spanish industry, the export of finished products was not developed, on the contrary, gold was exported abroad as raw materials along with wool, and the transfer of taxes to foreign bankers weakened Spain's control over taxation and reduced the benefits that taxation could bring to Spain.
During this period, institutions and groups cited history extensively in order to promote their claims, especially continuing the medieval practice of fabricating chronicles, and these writers seemed to think that their works could go down in history, for example, the fictional chronicle written by Julían Pérez, which was highly anticipated in the nineties of the 16th century, made it clear that the Mozalebs of Toledo held a firm Christian position, while also making Toledo more interesting in the history of Spain.
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