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The Triumph of Evil: Spain 1808-1945

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I understand what you're trying to do, and I'm certainly going to be following every step of the way.

If the quality of this AAR is anywhere near that of your others, I'm looking forward to this already. Roll on the summer holidays! :cool:
 
Haven't seen many AARs with Spain and your explanation of how you plan to create a history that will lead to and culminate in the Spanish Civil War sounds very interesting. I'll keep an eye out for this AAR when summer comes around.

In the mean time, good luck with your exams. :)
 
Popcorn ready? Yes.

Ok, let's start then! :D
 
Ok guys, we have gotten through 3 out of 24 exams now. Next week that will have risen to 6 and then we have half term. I might, if you're lucky, be able to write an update in half-term, but I might save it. Not sure.

Have gone through the modding stages. Have implemented the territory changes (and have altered them slightly after further research). Have started making a few custom events, but nothing out of the ordinary. Until then!
 
I have 2. One in each subject, 6 hours each. On university level. Either you have a weirdo uni system, or I have.:p
 
Jingle_Bombs: You're doing 5 AS Levels? Brave man.

Nikolai: I ain't at university yet, mister Nikolai. I'm only 15, so still high school. What I am going through now is the hellish GCSEs; 24 exams in less than a month. Hand is already beginning to go numb after 6 exams.
 
Nikolai said:
I have 2. One in each subject, 6 hours each. On university level. Either you have a weirdo uni system, or I have.:p
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Six hours!? Good god man, what course are you taking?
 
American history and Newer World History. We have one, big six hour long exam at the end of the semester, and that's quite normal in most subjects in our unis. I have two each semester, as all my subjects are 15 point each, 30 per semester being the norm.

robou: 15? Man, I would never have guessed.:eek: At what I guess is senior high school(not having the same system as you I think), at ages 16-19, we had some 5-6 tentams spread over a few weeks, and one to two exams on top of that.
 
To All: I have seriously decieved you all, yet again. I was not quite aware of how much free time I would have during the exam period, but seeing I finished all my exams for this week on Teusday, and it is half-term next week, I may as well sit down and write the first update today; got home from optional lessons a little early anyway, so can get everything else out of the way first.

Nikolai: What you are talking about is most likely closer to our A-Levels (AS and A2). That is 3, 4 or 5 exams (depending on how many subjects you're taking) and is from 17 upwards.
 
From 13 to 15, in the three years we have at something I think best resembles your junior high, we have some 3-4 tentams each semester and two exams at the end of the three years.
 
Part I: On Rotten Foundations (1504-1808)

At the dawn of the 19th Century, Spain was a nation as troubled as it would be over one-hundred and thirty years later. The previous century had seen a slow decline in Spain’s once unbreakable status as the world’s most powerful nation. Unlike nations such as the United Kingdom and France, the enlightenment, the Ilustración, proved to be an age of loss and defeat. Although the new Spanish royal dynasty, the Bourbons, ushered in during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-‘14), at first seemed as if they could change the huge set backs of earlier centuries, there proved to be few ways to get out of a the dire situation the Hapsburgs had left.

The era of the Hapsburgs had ended, probably for the better of Spain, with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713). In the preceding decades, Spain had been allowed to stagnate through poor economic and diplomatic policies which can be entirely blamed on the monarchs, which culminated in the rule of the final Hapsburg Monarch; Charles II. When he died, unsurprisingly, without an heir, the Succession War began. During the Hapsburg’s reign, though, Spain saw its glory and, while the dynasty did not see its fall, it is the primary cause for the destruction of the Spanish Empire.

With the conquest, and almost entire annihilation, of the Aztecs, Incas and Maya to name only the major civilisations on the American continent, the fabled New World, Spain rose from a mediocre power, struggling to keep the powerful French at bay while they also were attempting to conquer Morocco, to the world’s leading nation. Incan gold and slaves fuelled the Spanish economy and paid for vast armies and massive bribes. In but a few decades, Spain had been transformed. Acquiring territory in Italy and the Low Countries through cunning diplomacy and well executed wars, Spain expanded her influence in Europe and widened her eyes to new found horizons. For about sixty-five years (1504-‘71) Spanish hegemony over most of Europe was undisputable; this was made only stronger with a blood-tied alliance with Austria.

However, American gold was having a destructive effect on the Spanish economy. While it was a ready source of income, Spain and her sprawling Empire was beginning to break under the weight of her treasure fleets. The injection of solid currency into the European markets brought in a spout of inflation that would not be matched, though it is hard to estimate with changes in currency, until the Wall Street Crash in 1929. As prices went through the roof, the use of gold quickly deflated. This was especially important as England and France began, although I am now going forward too far, turning to a new banking system rather than relying on solid currency. Whilst English and French economies skyrocketed, Spain plummeted. The situation was made only worse during the reign of Phillip II (1556-1598) and onwards. Spain now found itself at war with half of Europe, during a series of religious and independence wars, including the Eighty and Thirty Years Wars. Such defeats as the infamous Spanish Armada (1588) and Compiègne (1636) were as costly in prestige and manpower as they were in money; but it was the money that Spain could not afford to lose.

Indeed, to fight such wars, Spain had been stripped bare of much of her male population. Military prowess and upkeep had taken up the money the Empire made, and the economy was left unattended and woefully backwards¹. When, as has been said, the price of gold collapsed, the Spanish economy was all but non-existent. With no financial system behind her and several wars ahead, it was during the years following the Empire’s heyday that Spain began to show signs of cracking. Debasing the economy failed to achieve results, and in most of Spain, money was routinely replaced with bartering. Spain’s reliance on her Empire and its gold had finally brought her to her knees. A crushing defeat at Rocroi (1643) ended Spanish hopes of reviving their economy through conquest and destroyed any myths of Spanish invincibility. Within another decade, much of Italy and the Low Countries had been lost. I digress somewhat, but the effects of these events will be felt in the period we wish to study. The destruction of the Hapsburgs, and their own destruction of Spanish hopes for greatness, are some of the most important reasons for what happened in future years.


Felipe_V_Rey_de_Espaa.png

The Destroyer of Decedence, Dawn of a New Era: His Most Catholic Majesty Phillip V​


For the most part of the Ilustración, Spain recovered itself, somewhat, under a number of reasonable monarchs. Although Spain continued to rely on American gold, there were improvements elsewhere. However, as we draw ever closer to our starting date, 1808, there is a major event which cannot be underestimated: The French Revolution. Spain at first fought against the Revolution, bound as they were to support the Bourbons in France. However, a series of crushing defeats led to Spain joining forces with France to avoid ruin. Following the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), Spain’s use to France became debateable. When an invasion of Portugal was proposed by the French, as the Portuguese refused to become part of the Continental System, Spain eagerly participated in destroying her Iberian cousin.

However, the French, now under the rule of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, under the pretences of assisting in occupying Portugal, infiltrated three armies into Spain and seized important fortifications and cities. Napoleon’s mistrust of Spanish Aristocratic intentions were so much, due to them replacing Charles IV with the pro-British Ferdinand VII that he had ordered the new monarch deposed, the Spanish nobility repressed, the country taken over and his brother, Joseph, installed as King. Most fled with their Ferdinand to exile, while some regrouped in the mountains of Galicia and Léon². Within a few weeks, Napoleon’s ‘invasion by stealth’ was complete. However, his actions had set alight a sleeping tiger. Spain might have been, as a nation, tired, decadent and dying, but its people were full of a spirit for a fight and a fight they would get. Napoleon would not leave Spain and neither, predictably, would the Spanish. What this ended in was the destruction of the French Empire. Spain’s second rise had begun.



Notes:
¹. It would not be until the 1930’s that Spain would begin taking measures to change away from traditional peasant farms.

². The number of Aristocrats who supported Napoleon’s ‘Light of Reason’ was, in fact, very small.


 
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Ah, now you see that's what I like about your AARs, I always learn something when reading them. Great update. Anyway, lucky you with your free time! I have 3 more exams to do, and practically every minute of the day is spent revising. *sigh*. I guess it's the downside to A-Levels; so much stuff to remember!

You're not seriously 15 though are you? My brother is 15 and until now I considered him unusually intelligent for his age. But then he does spend way too much time playing video games. [irony!]
 
Edzako said:
Liked the update, good sum up of decaying world power. And are you really 15 ? If you aren't screwing around you are as like to average 15 years old as Yao Ming is to average Chinese (in good sense).
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Eh, I would say most the prominent people (not mods, but commenters and such) are around 15 (Me, Enewald, Demokratickid, Robou IIRC). I happen to be 16 and Rob should have a birthday coming up ;)

Anyways it seems that you are going to describe some guerrilla warfare next against Napoleon...no one could leave him alone.
 
Well summarized. A rising Empire wasted and defeated by its own success.
 
Jingle_Bombs said:
You're not seriously 15 though are you? My brother is 15 and until now I considered him unusually intelligent for his age. But then he does spend way too much time playing video games. [irony!]
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We kids tend to be odd nowadays. :p
Visiting pdox-forums and stuff.
Even interested in history sometimes.
 
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