I
n the late 18th century, the United
States became the first American
colony to throw off European rule. It
succeeded with the help of Spain, includ-
ing the Spanish colonial governor
Bernardo de Gálvez. Ironically, American
independence soon came back to haunt
Spain, as the new nation absorbed pieces
of what had been Spanish America
(Louisiana and Florida) and set a revolu-
tionary example to the remaining pieces.
Weakened by centuries of war, over-
spending, and political turmoil, and faced
with the difficulty of continuing to
enforce authority over distant and rebel-
lious peoples, Spain lost one of the largest
empires ever built. By the mid-1820s
nothing remained of Spain’s American
domains except Cuba and Puerto Rico,
and even these would be gone by centu-
ry’s end. Most of Spain’s other American
colonies began new lives as independent
nations, and in so doing, they created new
traditions for the Hispanic Americans
who trace their lineage to them.SPAIN AND THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONGiven that Spain still held a vast
American empire at the time of the
American Revolution, it may seem odd
that Spain would aid colonial rebels who
espoused independence from their moth-
er country. To understand why and how
Spain aided American rebels against
Britain, one must first realize how differ-
ent the declining Spain of the late 18th
century was from the aggressive young
Spain of Columbus’s day.The Rise and Fall of Spain
For Spain, the 16th century was more
than just the era when its American
empire was established. It was also the
time when Spain rose to the greatest sta-
tus it would ever have among European
nations and enjoyed a cultural floweringso pronounced as to be called Spain’s
“Golden Age.” Gold and silver from the
New World fueled this expansion of
Spanish power and wealth, but even more
essential was the unique political position
enjoyed by Spanish monarchs during that
period. At the end of the 15th century,
Ferdinand and Isabella had unified Spain
and centralized control in royal hands.
Throughout the 16th century, their heirs
brought Spain to a peak of preeminence it
would never know again.
Through canny diplomacy and mili-
tary prowess, Ferdinand expanded Spain’s
power in Europe at the expense of its
rivals, especially France. He formed an
alliance with the Hapsburg dynasty, rulers
of the Holy Roman Empire, marrying his
daughter Joanna to a Hapsburg heir,
making Joanna’s son Charles (1500–1558)
the heir to the Spanish throne on his
mother’s side and to the throne of the
Holy Roman Empire on his father’s side.
As a result, when the time for his succes-
sion came, Charles reigned simultane-
ously as both King Charles I of Spain
(1516–1556) and Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V (1519–1558). Charles gov-
erned a vast empire that included Spain,
Spanish America, the Philippines (after
1542), the Holy Roman Empire’s base in
what is now Germany and Austria, the
Netherlands, Burgundy (now part of
France), and parts of Italy. Though
Charles could not even speak Spanish, he
became quite popular with his Spanish
subjects, as the economy thrived, manu-
facturing increased, population grew, and
the empire swelled.
Charles engaged Spain in a seeming-
ly endless series of wars with France and
the Ottoman Empire, increasing Spanish
dominance in Italy and the Mediter-
ranean at the cost of much blood and
treasure. In 1556, Philip turned over the
Spanish crown to his son Philip II
(1527–1598; reigned 1556–1598) and the
Holy Roman Empire to his brother
Ferdinand (1503–1564; reigned 1556–
1564). The younger Philip inherited
Spain, Spanish America, the Netherlands,
and the Italian territories, and he addedIndependence in the New World
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