Spanish Succession and Mediterranean Power Shifts

The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713)

Charles II, who died childless, appointed Philip V as his successor. This marked the end of the Habsburg dynasty and the beginning of the Bourbons' reign in Spain. Soon, a faction formed both within and outside Spain that did not accept the new king and supported the pretender, Archduke Charles of Austria. Consequently, a civil war and a wider European conflict erupted.

The Spanish accession to the throne of Philip V represented French hegemony and the dreaded union of Spain and France under one monarch. England and the Netherlands supported the Austrian candidate, backed by the Habsburgs. Philip V represented the French centralist model, supported by the Crown of Castile, while Charles of Habsburg personified a regionalist model, supported by the Crown of Aragon and especially in Catalonia.

Philip V's Victory and International Shifts

Philip V emerged victorious. Alongside military victories, international developments played a crucial role: Charles of Habsburg inherited the Holy Roman Empire in 1711 and subsequently lost interest in his quest to reign in Spain. His allies, England and Holland, then shifted their focus to preventing the possible union of Spain and Austria under one monarch.

The Treaty of Utrecht (1713)

The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The treaty stipulated the following:

• Philip V was recognized by European powers as King of Spain, but he renounced his right to the French crown.
• The Spanish Netherlands and Italian territories (Naples and Sardinia) passed to Austria.
• Savoy annexed the island of Sicily.
• England gained Gibraltar, Minorca, the vessel permit (a limited right to trade with the Indies), and the asiento (permission for the Indies slave trade). This marked the beginning of British hegemony.

Spain's Mediterranean and North African Ambitions

While Castile embarked on Atlantic and American expansion, the Catholic Monarchs pursued a clear political objective in Italy, inherited from centuries of the Crown of Aragon: confrontation with France for dominance in the Italian peninsula. Sardinia and Sicily were integrated into the Crown of Aragon, and a bastard branch of Alfonso V the Magnanimous reigned in Naples.

Italian Campaigns and the Great Captain

At first, Ferdinand and the French King Charles VIII sought a compromise solution. The result of this approach was the Treaty of Barcelona (1493), which allowed Aragon to recover Roussillon and Cerdanya. The break, however, came when Charles VIII conquered Naples in 1495. The Spanish response was immediate: troops were sent, commanded by a Castilian nobleman, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, famously known as the Great Captain. After a long and complex campaign, the Spanish monarchy incorporated the Kingdom of Naples in 1505. Spain thus became a great European power.

North African Expansion and Barbary Pirates

In North Africa, the Spaniards, emboldened by the conquest of Granada, pursued an expansionist policy aimed at neutralizing the Barbary pirates, who were supported by the great power of the Eastern Mediterranean, the Ottoman Empire. The conquest of Melilla (1497) and Oran (1509), alongside the establishment of protectorates in Béjaïa, Tripoli, and Algiers, seemed to foreshadow the Spanish conquest of the Maghreb. However, the defeat on the islands of Djerba thwarted these expansionist dreams. The Hispanic monarchy maintained some strongholds in North Africa but failed to stop Berber piracy.