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- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
domination.The Church stepped up the Inquisition
and Spain’s financial and administrative expertise,
traditionally found among its Jews and Moors, seeped
away. Finally, a series of incapable 17thcentury
monarchs, some say born of inbreeding, saw Spain
really hit the skids. When the childless, mentally
debilitated Carlos II died in 1700 it was all over for the
Habsburgs in Spain – an emerging superpower had
been royally ruined by Church, nobility and kings.
Empire building with theconquistadores
While home life went from bad to worse, overseas
the Habsburgs built a dazzling empire. Within 50 years
of Columbus’ first voyage, Mexico, Peru and Chile
had been claimed and the Aztec, Inca and Mayan
civilisations incomprehensibly demolished in the
process.Theconquistadores, usually battle-hardened
southerners, proceeded with mixed motives of piety,
prestige and personal wealth.They claimed land for
the Spanish Crown although had little help from the
monarch in winning it. Hernán Cortés subdued the
Aztecs in two years, while Francisco Pizarro took
control of the sizeable Inca Empire with just 180 men
in 1532. Both, however, only achieved their aims
with help from native allies, while the peoples they
conquered were often weakened by bloody infighting.
European diseases followed theconquistadores: the
lucky natives who survived smallpox and influenza
were often worked to death on the land or in the gold
and silver mines. Some estimates suggest that up to
80 per cent of Mexico and Peru’s native population
died in the 16thcentury conquests.The western side
of North America and Florida were later added to the
Spanish portfolio, followed by the Philippines, named
to massage Felipe II’s ego.
When the first
conquistador, Vasco
Núñez de Balboa, trekked
through the jungles of
Central America in 1513,
he emerged as the first
European to see the Pacific
Ocean. Panama’s currency,
thebalboa, is named in his
honour.
Creative high:
Spain’s Golden Age
Although the Habsburgs
were never far from
bankruptcy in the 16thand
17 thcenturies, the Crown
and Church set ample cash
aside for culture, funding
that converged with the
Renaissance and created
a so-called Golden Age
of Spanish architecture,
art, music and literature.
Felipe II’s vast palace
at El Escorial initiated
desornamentado, an
austere architectural style,
while painters like El Greco
and Diego de Velázquez left
a rich legacy. The latter
came from a flourishing
artistic scene in Seville, a
city that prospered as
the first port of call for
returningconquistadores.
Golden Age literature was
at its best when portraying
Spain’s domestic car crash:
picaresque novels likeEl
Lazarillo de Tormes(1554),
published anonymously,
and Miguel de Cervantes’
Don Quixote(1615) spoke
of decay and corruption.
Playwright Lope de Vega
and poet Luis de Góngora
took a similarly satirical
approach to the Spanish
malaise.
