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ohh no the pictures are gone
I'm under ban from photobucket until Wednesday for exceeded bandwidth.
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I'm under ban from photobucket until Wednesday for exceeded bandwidth.
I'm under ban from photobucket until Wednesday for exceeded bandwidth.
Photobucket is the eternal enemy of AAR makers!
Is there a better service that I could use in the future? I will finish this AAR pretty soon, but there is more to do later.
I use imageshack which seems to be unlimited in capacity. If you use it, then download the 'uploader' utility as it makes setting up images for a post so much easier
[OOC: I'm back, baby! Woohoo!]
Chapter XVIII: Imperial Ambitions and Political Realities in the Reign of Carlos II
Carlos II implemented his plan for reorganizing his domains and pursued a more conciliatory foreign policy than his recent predecessors. Spain had all but reached its natural limits as a world power, and the king believed that his kingdom's status had to either be institutionalized or lost forever.
The project to Hispanize Italy bears its first fruits
A central tenet of this plan was to create a greater Spain that stretched from the royal holdings in Morocco across the Iberian Peninsula, across southern France and into Italy. His great-grandfather had begun this project by bringing the Kingdom of Naples more closely within the national culture. Castilian was made the official language in that kingdom, and the classes in the Royal University of Calabria, dedicated to Fernando VII, were all held in that language. In 1692, Calabria was deemed to be Castilian in culture and way of life, "more Spanish than the Spanish," as the official Gazette of Madrid proclaimed.
The grander cultural programs of the previous monarchs had succeeded to a surprising degree in influencing the popular culture of the Spanish people. The king subsidized traveling entertainment troupes, but also insisted that they pass through his court for his own amusement and that of his household. Life seemed more settled, and rebellions seem to have become a thing of the past. Carlos was, of course, getting far too sure of himself.
He boasted of his accomplishments to the royal council in August 1699: a full treasury, a content populace, and a secure succession once he went on to heavenly glory. It was at this point that the Francisco, the Duke of Alba, motioned that he wished to speak. The newly appointed Minister of the Treasury had spent the last six months organizing the kingdom's fiscal records and calculating economic trends at home and abroad.
"Your Majesty, Your Highness, My Lords," he began, "the policy of centralized government and restrictive trade regulations that your kingdom has been pursuing for generations has begun to cause harm. The most recent trade figures show that our national merchants have become lackluster in their pursuit of new opportunities and suggest that the trade income upon which we have come to rely will sooner or later fail us." The council chamber was awash with murmurs of disbelief. Spain had long dominated overseas trade in precious metals, tropical produce, wool, and wine. "I recommend that we allow more foreign competition, which according to more recent economic thinking should help restore some vigor to our trade."
"So," the king asked, "you would have me open our doors to every beggarly trader with a box of ribbons?"
"No, Your Majesty, I merely report what the numbers tell me. The national market is saturated with our colonial products, while others who desire our sugar, our tobacco, our cotton, are unable or unwilling to pay our prices."
Alba's suggestion was dismissed by the king outright, and he did not miss the uneasy stares that he received from other members of the council. He felt somewhat vindicated during the first council meeting of the new year, when the Minister of State the Count of Santiago de Compostela, reported on rebellions breaking out in marginal areas of the kingdom. The major trading cities had long had precedent over smaller ports. Roussillon rebelled first, followed in quick succession by Cremona. The wine merchants were unhappy over restrictions on exporting through their own home ports, while in northern Italy the rebellion was due to the local shepherds having to pay excessive duties on their wool, a legacy of outdated taxes raised to guarantee Lombardy's safety from the Swiss and Austrians during wartime. The war had ended decades before, but the tax remained.
The annual opening of the estates of the realm in January 1702 gave opportunity for the disgruntled among the upper classes to air their grievances. Castilian, Portuguese, and Aragonese representation within the combined estates had diminished steadily with the annexation of more French and Italian territory. Fernando VII, Fernando VIII, and Carlos II had worked this to their advantage, by favoring Sicilian, Occitan, Frankish, and Lombard delegates over those representing peninsular provinces. The king's speech from the throne was Carlos II's attempt to gain his subjects' support for his bid for the imperial throne. He suggested "patriotic donations" of funds from each province in his domains to curry the support of the German princes who, his vassal the Pope assured him, actually decided who would become emperor. Even his most ardent supporters among the delegations were less than enthusiastic.
Following his embarrassment before the estates, Carlos took a different stance. On Alba's advice, he took the unprecedented step of selling noble titles to wealthy merchants. The royal council of notables grew by a third with parvenus, including five dukes, seven counts, four viscounts, and half a dozen marquises. Only Carlos II seemed surprised that this move was not all that popular with the old noble families.
After all the political scandal that his bid for the imperial throne had caused, he fell flat. None of the German electors would hear of throwing their support behind him, no matter how much silver they were offered. Fernando VII's wars in Italy were still very much in their minds. He did spend some of the money from selling titles on a fine marble statue of himself dressed as a Roman patrician, complete with golden laurels.
Despite all his eccentricities, Carlos remained rather popular with his subjects. He had strengthened the realm and did not start any wars. He did become embroiled in the great rebellions that swept through Great Britain beginning in 1708. The estates of Brittany were chafing for independence after ten years of disastrous regency government. The British position in France was strong enough to prevent the success of any upheaval there, but Ireland was different. Under the regal name of Brian III, an Anglo-Irish count in western Leinster had raised the banner of rebellion. By early 1709, Spain had been drawn into her ally's conflict with an emergent Irish kingdom. An expeditionary force of Spaniards, Toulousans, and Algerians came down hard on Ireland, and Brian III was forced to beg for peace. On behalf of the whole alliance, Spain did not return Ireland to British control. Carlos II thought it more prudent to recognize Brian III's claim to the Irish throne as his vassal. The queen regent wrote him a sharply worded letter from London, but did nothing else about it.
The long, quiet reign of Carlos II ended in January 1709, amid the conclusion of the Irish Revolution. The king passed quietly from this world in his sleep, and Prince Felipe was proclaimed king at the tender age of 45. His father was popularly remembered as a good king, despite Spain's slowly declining economy and his own imperial ambitions. Felipe V promised to maintain the course in his coronation speech. The future still looked bright, for the sun still always shone on the flag of Spain.
[OOC: Okay, I had a CTD here, so dates might not exactly line up. The king is dead. Long live the king!]
Chapter XVIII: Imperial Ambitions and Political Realities in the Reign of Carlos II
Carlos II implemented his plan for reorganizing his domains and pursued a more conciliatory foreign policy than his recent predecessors. Spain had all but reached its natural limits as a world power, and the king believed that his kingdom's status had to either be institutionalized or lost forever.
The project to Hispanize Italy bears its first fruits
A central tenet of this plan was to create a greater Spain that stretched from the royal holdings in Morocco across the Iberian Peninsula, across southern France and into Italy. His great-grandfather had begun this project by bringing the Kingdom of Naples more closely within the national culture. Castilian was made the official language in that kingdom, and the classes in the Royal University of Calabria, dedicated to Fernando VII, were all held in that language. In 1692, Calabria was deemed to be Castilian in culture and way of life, "more Spanish than the Spanish," as the official Gazette of Madrid proclaimed.
The grander cultural programs of the previous monarchs had succeeded to a surprising degree in influencing the popular culture of the Spanish people. The king subsidized traveling entertainment troupes, but also insisted that they pass through his court for his own amusement and that of his household. Life seemed more settled, and rebellions seem to have become a thing of the past. Carlos was, of course, getting far too sure of himself.
He boasted of his accomplishments to the royal council in August 1699: a full treasury, a content populace, and a secure succession once he went on to heavenly glory. It was at this point that the Francisco, the Duke of Alba, motioned that he wished to speak. The newly appointed Minister of the Treasury had spent the last six months organizing the kingdom's fiscal records and calculating economic trends at home and abroad.
"Your Majesty, Your Highness, My Lords," he began, "the policy of centralized government and restrictive trade regulations that your kingdom has been pursuing for generations has begun to cause harm. The most recent trade figures show that our national merchants have become lackluster in their pursuit of new opportunities and suggest that the trade income upon which we have come to rely will sooner or later fail us." The council chamber was awash with murmurs of disbelief. Spain had long dominated overseas trade in precious metals, tropical produce, wool, and wine. "I recommend that we allow more foreign competition, which according to more recent economic thinking should help restore some vigor to our trade."
"So," the king asked, "you would have me open our doors to every beggarly trader with a box of ribbons?"
"No, Your Majesty, I merely report what the numbers tell me. The national market is saturated with our colonial products, while others who desire our sugar, our tobacco, our cotton, are unable or unwilling to pay our prices."
Alba's suggestion was dismissed by the king outright, and he did not miss the uneasy stares that he received from other members of the council. He felt somewhat vindicated during the first council meeting of the new year, when the Minister of State the Count of Santiago de Compostela, reported on rebellions breaking out in marginal areas of the kingdom. The major trading cities had long had precedent over smaller ports. Roussillon rebelled first, followed in quick succession by Cremona. The wine merchants were unhappy over restrictions on exporting through their own home ports, while in northern Italy the rebellion was due to the local shepherds having to pay excessive duties on their wool, a legacy of outdated taxes raised to guarantee Lombardy's safety from the Swiss and Austrians during wartime. The war had ended decades before, but the tax remained.
The annual opening of the estates of the realm in January 1702 gave opportunity for the disgruntled among the upper classes to air their grievances. Castilian, Portuguese, and Aragonese representation within the combined estates had diminished steadily with the annexation of more French and Italian territory. Fernando VII, Fernando VIII, and Carlos II had worked this to their advantage, by favoring Sicilian, Occitan, Frankish, and Lombard delegates over those representing peninsular provinces. The king's speech from the throne was Carlos II's attempt to gain his subjects' support for his bid for the imperial throne. He suggested "patriotic donations" of funds from each province in his domains to curry the support of the German princes who, his vassal the Pope assured him, actually decided who would become emperor. Even his most ardent supporters among the delegations were less than enthusiastic.
Following his embarrassment before the estates, Carlos took a different stance. On Alba's advice, he took the unprecedented step of selling noble titles to wealthy merchants. The royal council of notables grew by a third with parvenus, including five dukes, seven counts, four viscounts, and half a dozen marquises. Only Carlos II seemed surprised that this move was not all that popular with the old noble families.
After all the political scandal that his bid for the imperial throne had caused, he fell flat. None of the German electors would hear of throwing their support behind him, no matter how much silver they were offered. Fernando VII's wars in Italy were still very much in their minds. He did spend some of the money from selling titles on a fine marble statue of himself dressed as a Roman patrician, complete with golden laurels.
Despite all his eccentricities, Carlos remained rather popular with his subjects. He had strengthened the realm and did not start any wars. He did become embroiled in the great rebellions that swept through Great Britain beginning in 1708. The estates of Brittany were chafing for independence after ten years of disastrous regency government. The British position in France was strong enough to prevent the success of any upheaval there, but Ireland was different. Under the regal name of Brian III, an Anglo-Irish count in western Leinster had raised the banner of rebellion. By early 1709, Spain had been drawn into her ally's conflict with an emergent Irish kingdom. An expeditionary force of Spaniards, Toulousans, and Algerians came down hard on Ireland, and Brian III was forced to beg for peace. On behalf of the whole alliance, Spain did not return Ireland to British control. Carlos II thought it more prudent to recognize Brian III's claim to the Irish throne as his vassal. The queen regent wrote him a sharply worded letter from London, but did nothing else about it.
The long, quiet reign of Carlos II ended in January 1709, amid the conclusion of the Irish Revolution. The king passed quietly from this world in his sleep, and Prince Felipe was proclaimed king at the tender age of 45. His father was popularly remembered as a good king, despite Spain's slowly declining economy and his own imperial ambitions. Felipe V promised to maintain the course in his coronation speech. The future still looked bright, for the sun still always shone on the flag of Spain.
[OOC: Okay, I had a CTD here, so dates might not exactly line up. The king is dead. Long live the king!]
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Ha, no HRE for Spain...of course inheriting Ferrara will make that even more remote.
Chapter XIX: Felipe V and the Empire
Felipe V came to the throne at a rather advanced age, much like his great-grandfather Fernando VIII. His reign was short, but he carried on his father's dream of peaceful expansion. Unlike Carlos II, Felipe actually possessed the personal qualities that encouraged others to follow him. He met privately with members of the royal council and key delegates in the estates to discover how much to push for reform and who was willing to help him, for patriotic or personal reasons. His long career in the military--he was promoted to the rank of brigadier largely on his own merits--gave him contacts in the royal army officer corps that only bolstered his ability to rule the realm. If all these efforts failed to impress some prominent political figures, he had money enough to bribe them, without raising special taxes.
The royal investment in cultural matters over the previous century and a half also helped Felipe V consolidate his rule over his far-flung empire. He espoused a free press against the advice of his councilors, and continued to fund free grammar schools, public entertainment, and literary societies in the Castilian language. Under his patronage, the great philosopher Alfonso de Moncada supervised the creation of a new encyclopedia, a summation of human knowledge published in forty-five thick volumes.
He also actively sought an understanding with the Holy Roman Empire. His great-great grandfather Fernando VII had decisively broken with the empire over the Kingdom of Italy and the Spanish inheritance of Lombardy. Felipe petitioned Emperor Friedrich VI von Hohenzollern to readmit the Lombard principalities under Spanish rule to the empire and to extend membership to Spanish possessions in Occitania. Friedrich and Felipe celebrated the new mutual relationship with the marriage of the emperor's daughter Anne of Austria to José, the Prince of Asturias, in March 1712.
Felipe's interest in diplomatic matters attracted better talent to his court. Bartolome Elhuyar was made Minister of State to reorganize the Spanish diplomatic corps and to oversee negotiations with foreign emissaries. By early 1718, Elhuyar's efforts on his master's behalf had gained what his father had long sought, support for a Spanish candidate for emperor. Felipe V's position as defender of the Catholic faith and copious "pious donations" had by this time convinced the three "spiritual" electors, the Archbishops of Mainz, Cologne, and Trier, to vote for the King of Spain should His Imperial Majesty Friedrich VI be called to heavenly glory.
The diplomatic missions to the imperial court and those of the electors proved much more successful than either Felipe V nor any of his ministers could have predicted. Early in 1720, the royal council was divided rather evenly over how to proceed. Elhuyar pushed for a yet more aggressive stance, while a more conservative faction led by Alfonso Moncada called for caution and recoiled at the sums being used to buy favor among the German princes. Felipe decided on Moncada's side, arguing that according to the Spanish interpretation of imperial succession laws that the next emperor will be Spanish and that no further diplomatic entreaties were necessary. Each of the "temporal" lords had traditional patterns of voting: the King of Bohemia always for himself, the Elector of Luxembourg for his patron the Duke of Burgundy, and the Electors of the Palatinate and Saxony for their patrons the Archduke of Austria.
Felipe V died before his ambition for the imperial crown could be realized. On his deathbed, barely able to talk for the phlegm that filled his lungs, the king told his son José to think of him when the Pope placed Charlemagne's crown on his head. With that, he sunk into a coma from which he never recovered.
Felipe V came to the throne at a rather advanced age, much like his great-grandfather Fernando VIII. His reign was short, but he carried on his father's dream of peaceful expansion. Unlike Carlos II, Felipe actually possessed the personal qualities that encouraged others to follow him. He met privately with members of the royal council and key delegates in the estates to discover how much to push for reform and who was willing to help him, for patriotic or personal reasons. His long career in the military--he was promoted to the rank of brigadier largely on his own merits--gave him contacts in the royal army officer corps that only bolstered his ability to rule the realm. If all these efforts failed to impress some prominent political figures, he had money enough to bribe them, without raising special taxes.
The royal investment in cultural matters over the previous century and a half also helped Felipe V consolidate his rule over his far-flung empire. He espoused a free press against the advice of his councilors, and continued to fund free grammar schools, public entertainment, and literary societies in the Castilian language. Under his patronage, the great philosopher Alfonso de Moncada supervised the creation of a new encyclopedia, a summation of human knowledge published in forty-five thick volumes.
He also actively sought an understanding with the Holy Roman Empire. His great-great grandfather Fernando VII had decisively broken with the empire over the Kingdom of Italy and the Spanish inheritance of Lombardy. Felipe petitioned Emperor Friedrich VI von Hohenzollern to readmit the Lombard principalities under Spanish rule to the empire and to extend membership to Spanish possessions in Occitania. Friedrich and Felipe celebrated the new mutual relationship with the marriage of the emperor's daughter Anne of Austria to José, the Prince of Asturias, in March 1712.
Felipe's interest in diplomatic matters attracted better talent to his court. Bartolome Elhuyar was made Minister of State to reorganize the Spanish diplomatic corps and to oversee negotiations with foreign emissaries. By early 1718, Elhuyar's efforts on his master's behalf had gained what his father had long sought, support for a Spanish candidate for emperor. Felipe V's position as defender of the Catholic faith and copious "pious donations" had by this time convinced the three "spiritual" electors, the Archbishops of Mainz, Cologne, and Trier, to vote for the King of Spain should His Imperial Majesty Friedrich VI be called to heavenly glory.
The diplomatic missions to the imperial court and those of the electors proved much more successful than either Felipe V nor any of his ministers could have predicted. Early in 1720, the royal council was divided rather evenly over how to proceed. Elhuyar pushed for a yet more aggressive stance, while a more conservative faction led by Alfonso Moncada called for caution and recoiled at the sums being used to buy favor among the German princes. Felipe decided on Moncada's side, arguing that according to the Spanish interpretation of imperial succession laws that the next emperor will be Spanish and that no further diplomatic entreaties were necessary. Each of the "temporal" lords had traditional patterns of voting: the King of Bohemia always for himself, the Elector of Luxembourg for his patron the Duke of Burgundy, and the Electors of the Palatinate and Saxony for their patrons the Archduke of Austria.
Felipe V died before his ambition for the imperial crown could be realized. On his deathbed, barely able to talk for the phlegm that filled his lungs, the king told his son José to think of him when the Pope placed Charlemagne's crown on his head. With that, he sunk into a coma from which he never recovered.
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Let's hope that Jose (the first of that name, IIRC) fulfills the wishes and dreams of his late father.
You've hit the Imageshack issue where it automatically resizes your screenshots for you. Can you adjust the post to show them at a decent size?
Thanks for pointing this out. I'll get it done as soon as I have a chance on my home computer.
EDIT: All done. Hope it is an improvement.
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So, only a century left of Spanish history to tell! When will we learn of King José's story?
you may find it easier to use their 'uploader' (its a bit of freeware on the image shack site) - it really makes it easier to gather the images for a post together and avoids the problem of imageshack resizing your images
Right, using their own uploader for lord of the ocean is easier although its usability is pretty bad in my opinion. But still better than using imageshack or similar providers.
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