With the death of John II. of Aragon in 1479 the history of Spain enters on an entirely new period. Hitherto it has been the story of a national development. The process did not cease, but, during the reign of Isabella the Catholic (1474-1504) until the death of her husband Ferdinand in 1516, was carried, not to completion, but to the stopping place at which it was destined to rest for two centuries. The voyage of Columbus in 1492, and the intervention of Ferdinand in the great conflict of France, the em pire and the papacy for predominance in Italy, had, simul taneously, the effect of opening to her the world of conquest and adventure in America, and of committing her to incessant wars in the Italian peninsula. The death of John, the only son of Ferdi nand and Isabella, the worst misfortune which ever happened to Spain, opened the succession to all the crowns and coronets worn by the Catholic sovereigns to Charles of Habsburg—the emperor Charles V. From that day Spain became a part—the leader, then the paymaster, then the dupe—of the international monarchical confederation called "the illustrious House of Austria." The Spaniard became the swordsman and executioner of the counter Reformation, because the power of the House of Austria de pended on the imposition of religious unity in Europe. The de cision of Charles V., king of Spain and emperor, to leave the Netherlands to his son Philip II., committed the Spaniards to con flict on the sea with England, and to the insane attempt to secure a safe road for their armies across Europe from the shores of the Mediterranean to the North sea. Meanwhile the Spaniards were endeavouring to check the advance of the Turks in the Mediter ranean, and to exclude all Europe from the waters of the New World.
Ferdinand and Isabella were pro claimed king and queen of Castile together, although the Crown was hers alone, and although she never consented to part with her sovereign authority. In the purely internal affairs of Castile it was always she who decided on questions of administration. They immediately began the work of establishing order and obedience in their dominions. The line of policy followed by the Catholic sov ereigns was to keep the old forms, but draw the substance of power to themselves. This course was followed with the cortes. It continued to be summoned by the Catholic sovereigns and their successors of the Habsburg line, but it was needed only to grant money. The nobles and the clergy, who as exempt from taxation had no vote, became purely ornamental parts of the cortes. The representatives of the third estate were confined by the indiffer ence of the Castilians to 18 towns, whose procurators were named by the councils either from among themselves in rotation, or from particular families. The Catholic sovereigns provided themselves with a revenue by the customary wholesale resumptions of grants made during the reigns of John II. and Henry IV., and by the suppression or reduction of the pensions they had granted with profusion. Encouragement of industry was not wanting ; the State undertook to develop the herds of merino sheep, by issuing prohibitions against inclosures, which proved the ruin of agri culture, and gave premiums for large merchant ships, which ruined the owners of small vessels and reduced the merchant navy of Spain to a handful of galleons. Tasas, fixed prices, were placed on everything. The weaver, the fuller, the armourer, the potter, the shoemaker were told exactly how to do their own work. All this did not bear its full fruit during the reign of the Catho lic sovereigns, but by the end of the 16th century it had reduced Spain to a state of Byzantine regulation in which every kind of work had to be done under the eye and subject to the interference of a vast swarm of Government officials, all ill paid, and often not paid, all corrupt. All this also did not bear its full fruit till later times, but by the 17th century it had made Spain one of the two "most beggarly nations in Europe"—the other being Portugal.
The policy of the Catholic sover eigns towards the Church was of essentially the same character as their treatment of the nobles or the cities. They aimed at using it as an instrument of government. One of the first measures adopted by them in Castile, before the union with Aragon, was to stop the nomination of foreigners to Spanish benefices by the pope. But the most characteristic part of their ecclesiastical policy was the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition (q.v.). By the bull of Sixtus IV. of 1478 they obtained authority to appoint three inquisitors, whom they were empowered to remove or re place, and who were independent of, and superior to, the inquisi torial courts of the bishops. The Inquisition was at first estab lished (in 1480) in the dominions of Castile only, but it was ex tended in 1486 to Catalonia and in 1487 to Aragon, in spite of strong protests. The first duties of the Inquisition were to deal with the converted Jews and Mohammedans, respectively known as Marranos and Moriscos. Professed Jews were expelled in 1492, and the Mohammedans or Mudejares in 1502. Both were indus trious classes, and the loss of their services was disastrous to Spain —the first of a long series of similar measures which culminated in the final expulsion of the Moriscos in 161o. The converted Jews and Mohammedans presented greater difficulties to the Inquisition. Many of the higher ecclesiastics and of the nobility were of Jewish, or partially Jewish, descent.
Between 1481 and 1492 the Catholic sovereigns completed the work of the reconquest by subjugating the one surviving Mohammedan State of Granada. Their task was materially facilitated by dissensions among the Moors. The surrender of Granada on Jan. 2, 1492, was partly secured by promises of toleration, which were soon violated. A revolt had to be suppressed in 1501. Having secured the unity of their terri tory in the peninsula, the Catholic sovereigns were free to begin the work of expansion. In 1492 Columbus (q.v.) sailed on his first voyage to the west. In 1493 Ferdinand secured the restora tion of Roussillon from Charles VIII. of France by the fallacious treaty in which he undertook to remain neutral during the king's expedition to Italy. The voyage of Columbus had unforeseen consequences which led to diplomatic difficulties with Portugal, and the Treaty of Tordesillas in
which defined the respec tive spheres of influence of the two Powers in the New World and in Asia. In 1497 Ferdinand, with the support of his wife, en tered on those wars of Italy in which the Spanish regular soldiers first gained their reputation, and which made Spain for a time the dominant Power in the Italian peninsula (see CORDOBA, GON ZALO F. DE). They endeavoured to strengthen themselves against France by marriages with the royal family of England (see CATHERINE OF ARAGON) and the Habsburgs. The marriage of Juana, called the Mad, with Philip of Habsburg, son of the em peror Maximilian (q.v.), brought a new dynasty to Spain. On the death of Queen Isabella in 1504 her son-in-law claimed the regency, and was supported by the Castilian nobles. His death in I5o6 and the insanity of his widow left the Castilians no choice but to restore Ferdinand as regent. During the next ten years Ferdinand governed with the very able assistance of the arch bishop of Toledo, Jimenez de Cisneros (q.v.). He annexed the southern part of Navarre, which was held by the representatives of his half-sister. The archbishop organized and directed the ex pedition which conquered Oran, Tripoli and other points on the African coast. Here beyond all doubt lay the proper field for the expansion of Spain. She was drawn from it on the death of Ferdinand in 1516. He was succeeded by his grandson Charles of Habsburg, and when Charles was elected to the empire in 1519 Spain was dragged into the wars and politics of Central Europe.
(A. E. Ho. ; A. B.)