Spain – 1850-1855
In the last years of Carlos V’s reign Spanish international standing increased significantly as she restored influence to the Americas and fought wars in Asia.
One of the main problems faced by Spain during this period was the 4 Years’ War in Cuba. The war began in 1849 after a large section of the Creoles population rose up in revolt against the Spanish state across the invaluable island. There are several reasons for the war, amongst them harsh Spanish treatment of the island and encouragement for revolution from Mexico are very important. However the main reason was demographic change. Before Carlos’ ascension the locally born Creoles had been the dominant class, ruling over the island without interference. However from during the 1840s a massive wave of immigration from the Spanish mainland changed things forever. By 1849 20% of the country was made up of Spanish born Peninsulares. These Peninsulares were favoured by the government for jobs of administration and service in the military whilst the injection of wealth from the Spanish mainland had led to the process of the Creoles being demoted to a middle class between the Afro-Caribbean Slave population and the ruling Peninsulares. The Iberian born immigrants took over the farms of the Creoles and their sugar mills, the increase in the value of the more luxurious properties meant the Creoles could no longer afford them. The revolt was seen as a way to end this trend and restore the Creoles to their former position of power.
What followed was a long and bloody guerrilla war between the government army and the Creole militia (alongside large numbers of Slaves who fought with the Creoles, often against their will). At this stage aside from the farm owners the majority of Peninsulares still lived in the major cities such as Santiago de Cuba, Santa Clara and Havana. Within the cities the Peninsulares would remain safe but beyond them they were at risk of murder by the Cuban ‘patriots’. It is estimated that during the most active phase of the conflict, (1849-1851) when the countryside was all but abandoned to the Creoles, between 10,000 and 16,000 Peninsulares were murdered.
In 1851 Governor-General Arsenio Mertinez y Antion devised the strategy that would eventually lead to the defeat of the rebels. The militias were supported and supplied by the Creole villages that were dotted across Cuba. As there was no way of knowing which villagers supported the rebels and which did not the Governor-General decided to transplant whole villages to camps around the main cities. This brutal tactic was internationally condemned, especially by the USA who might have gone to war if they had not been engaged against the Confederacy. In the end the Reconcentrado Policy was an unmitigated success. Within a year the rebels were on the verge of defeat.
The last major action of the war occurred in 1852 at a time when the Spanish victory was almost complete, as the rebels had been forced into the mountainous highlands. The filibustering expedition of Narciso Lopez was highly publicised in America but ended in embarrassing failure and Lopez’s execution. The Venezuelan born American mercenary had recruited an army of several hundred Cuban exiles in New York and then sailed to Cuba to conquer the country for the USA. With one week of his arrival the Spanish army had crushed Lopez’s force and he had attempted to flee towards the mountains where the Creoles militia still hung on. On route Lopez was captured and executed, during this low point in Spanish-American relations Lopez’s bullet riddled body was sent back to New York alongside and angry letter from the Governor-General. In early 1853 the rebels finally surrender, the 4 Year’s War had claimed around 130,000 lives on all sides from both sides, including civilian casualties.
Between October 1850 and May 1851 Spain and Portugal fought a short war with the Netherlands. The Dutch went to war with the aim of annexing Portuguese Timor. The war was a total disaster for the Dutch as their army sent to invade Timor was badly beaten by the Portuguese garrison and closer to home their navy was mauled just 12 miles North-West of Amsterdam. The victorious Spanish fleet then set up a blockade across the entire Dutch mainland preventing all sea trade. So after a short conflict the Dutch agreed to peace.
This first half of the 1850s saw Spain take the lead in naval innovation. In 1850 Spanish engineers presented plans to Carlos for a new breed of warship. Steam powered and protected by either iron or steel plating these ‘ironclad’ warships would secure Spain’s maritime power for decades to come. New shipyards were constructed in Barcelona in 1850 and Valencia in 1853 whilst work on a grand new fleet began in 1852. The last of the new fleet was completed in the first weeks of 1855.
Since the acquisitions of Spanish colonies in East Africa and the annexation of Morocco the Spanish Imperialist lobby had grown in strength. The desire to expand the Empire had led planners to Indochina and the Empire of Annam. Recently engorged with the conquest of Siamese lands the rich lands of Indochina were now protected by a badly overstretched Empire. On December 12th 1851 War was declared and some 24,000 Spanish soldiers began their invasion.
The Annamese military was of little use against the modern Spanish army and they faced heavy defeats at Hue and near Saigon during the early days of the war. From then on the Annamese troops would concentrate on containing the Spanish advance rather than fighting to push them back.
Despite the best efforts of the Imperial army Annam was forced to sign a humiliating peace treaty on March 27th 1854. A new Spanish colony was created whilst Annam was forced to release Cambodia from its vassal ties to Hanoi.
Using the tool of the Madrid Pact Spain greatly expanded her influence during the early 1850s. Spanish influence returned to the American mainland in rather underwhelming style in 1852 as the Continent’s smallest nation, Uruguay, signed the Madrid Pact. The following year following the Council of Montevideo in which the Heads of 9 Latin American states met with representatives from Spain Ecuador, Peru, Chile and the United States of Central America all joined together to simultaneously sign the Madrid Pact. Access to the Spanish led internal market of the Madrid Pact coupled with the influence of the Spanish military and the chance for Latin American unity proved too much of a temptation for many Latin American states. Bolivia had decided against joining the Pact in 1853 but following a disastrous war with Brazil, the French supported bully of South America, Bolivia joined in 1854. Meanwhile in Egypt in 1855 Spain secured a much fuller level of dominion. The decline of Ottoman influence in the region had only heated up the battle between France and Spain for control of Egypt yet it was Spain that secured the precious country. A series of treaties were signed in 1855 that turned Egypt over to total economic and political domination by Spain; a permanent Spanish garrison was left in Egypt, Spaniards saturated Egypt’s government and the Egyptian economy was turned over to Spanish economic interests.
On March 10th 1855 Carlos V (1788-1855) died. He had ruled for 17 years between 1838 and 1855 and had successfully rejuvenated Spain. The Spanish economy had been turned around, her international influence was greater than it had been for decades and Carlos had begun the construction of a new Spanish Empire with the annexations of lands in East Africa, Morocco and Indochina. The great reactionary King had ruled as a harsh but loving father of the Spanish nation, for those who were opposed to the regime Spain was a terrible place to live but for the majority living conditions had improved noticeably over the course of Carlos’ stable 17 year reign.