Military history of Spain

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The capture of Rheinfelden (1633). Spain was Europe's dominant power for most of the 16th and 17th centuries and had the largest global empire until the beginning of the 19th century

The

modern Spain, as well as her former and current overseas possessions and territories
, and the military history of the people of Spain, regardless of geography.

Spain's

colonising the Philippines. Her tercio units, backed by imperial gold and silver, were dominant in Europe. It was not until the years after the Thirty Years' War that Spanish military power began to fade; even then, supported by a reinvigorated navy
, Spain remained a major military power throughout the 18th century, in competition with Britain and France on the global stage.

The Napoleonic Wars changed Spanish military history dramatically; the Peninsular War saw the development of guerrilla warfare against the occupying French forces. The collapse of central Spanish authority resulted in successful wars of independence amongst Spain's American colonies, drastically reducing the size of her empire, and in turn led to a sequence of civil wars in Spain itself, many fought by frustrated veterans of the French and colonial campaigns. Attempts to reassert imperial power during the mid-19th century, enabled by the development of the steam frigate ultimately failed, leading to the collapse of the remnants of Spain's empire in the Americas and Asia in 1898 at the hands of a rising power, the United States of America. The political tensions that had driven the Carlist Wars remained unchecked, spilling over once again in the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39. Bringing a foretaste of the tactics of the Second World War, several nations used the conflict as a testing ground for new aerial and armoured warfare tactics. In the post-war period, Spain has increasingly turned away from the last remaining colonial conflicts in Africa, and played a growing modern military role within the context of the NATO alliance.

The Classical period: the rise of Rome

In the

provincia
in 218 BC, beginning a century-long campaign to subdue the people of Iberia to Roman.

Relief from Trajan's Column, depicting the Hispanic-born Emperor's military successes.

After the expulsion of the Carthaginians from Hispania in the

Marius – secured him the loyalty of the populace and the army and his general success until his assassination. The Spanish era, a dating system predominant in Iberia until the close of the Middle Ages, began in 38 BC. The last region of Hispania to be subjected was the northwest, finally being conquered in the Cantabrian Wars, which ended in 19 BC.[1]

Under Roman rule, Hispania contributed, like the rest of empire, to the Roman military, providing both

alae cavalry. Hispania also shaped Roman military affairs more subtely. The famous Roman infantry sword, the Gladius, stemmed directly or indirectly from the Spanish development of the Gladius Hispaniensis; with minor alterations, this would form the standard Roman weapon for several centuries. Hispania also provided several of Rome's more famous military Emperors, including Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius
.

The collapse of Rome and barbarian invasions

During the third through 6th centuries, the Roman Empire was beset by numerous barbarian invaders, mostly

Straits of Gibraltar
into Africa. For almost thirty years, Spain was the location for vicious tribal conflicts.

The Visigothic kingdom at its height.

The first barbarians to settle were the Suevi, whose king Hermeric, a former foederatus of Rome, ratified a peace with the local Hispano-Roman population in 438. Weary of fighting, Hermeric abdicated in favour of his son Rechila. As the Visigothic kingdom expanded into Iberia, expelling the Vandals and Alans, the Suevi expanded their own realm as far south as Mérida. In 456, the new Catholic king, Rechiar, died in battle with the Visigoth king Theodoric II and the Suevi kingdom began to retreat under Gothic pressure. Beset by internal political conflict, the Suevi capitulated to the Visigoths in 585. Some resistance was maintained for a few years, but soon the last of Suevi resistance was erased.

The Visigoths consolidated a kingdom spanning most of Iberia and Gaul. For the next two centuries, they warred not only amongst themselves in a sequence of succession crises – which followed the election of a new king after every royal death,

Leovigild, the Suevi kingdom was annexed in 585 and the war of reconquest against the remainder of the Byzantine territories was begun, finally being completed under King Suintila in 624. The Visigoths faced no serious external threat from then on until the sudden Moorish invasion
of 711.

Islamic conquest and Reconquista

For almost seven hundred years, Spain was the battleground for the opposing forces of the Islamic

Berber Tariq ibn Ziyad. Tariq won a swift victory at the Guadalete and defeated and killed the reigning Gothic king, Roderic.[5] In a campaign lasting eight years, the whole of Iberia was subjected to Umayyad authority, except for the Asturias mountain range in the far northwest and the pockets of resistance in Navarre. The Islamic offensive ultimately paused after the losses it suffered in Frankland and in the Asturias, where battles such as those at Tours and Covadonga showed some of the potential weaknesses of the Arab methods of warfare.[6]

Moorish and Christian Reconquista battle, taken from the Cantigas de Santa María

The Islamic conquest was only very slowly undone, over the course of seven centuries in what the Christians of Spain called the

Carolingian rulers took up the cause of reconquest along the Mediterranean littoral. By 797, Charlemagne's son, Louis the Pious, captured Barcelona, establishing a clear bulwark against future invasions. The Basques extended their kingdom as far as Nájera, and a widespread repoblación of the depopulated areas began, extending Christian borders southwards.[7]

Despite a resurgence during the 10th century, the

Jerez and Cádiz, effectively bringing the bulk of the reconquista
to a conclusion.

Unification of Castile and Aragon

La rendición de Granada (1882) by Francisco Pradilla Ortiz, showing a romanticised version of the final act of the Spanish Reconquista under a unified Castile and Aragon.

Late medieval Spain was divided into the three Christian kingdoms of Navarre, Castile and Aragon, alongside the small, last remaining Islamic state of Granada. The civil wars and conflicts of the late 14th and early 15th century would result in the unification of the Christian kingdoms; combined with advances in naval technology, this would pave the way for the rise of Spain as a dominant European power.

Castile, a medium-sized kingdom with a strong maritime tradition, was plunged into civil war following the death of

Pedro of Castile and Henry II of Castile became bound up with the wider politics of the Hundred Years' War. With France supporting Henry and his descendants, England exploited opportunities to destabilise the regime. Attempts by John I, Henry's son, to unify Castile and Portugal, resulted in a Portuguese uprising and the intervention of the English John of Gaunt, claiming the Castilian throne by right of marriage. Not until 1387 was the civil war finally concluded, with John of Gaunt accepting a cash settlement.[8] Aragon, a smaller kingdom but with widespread claims to lands across the Mediterranean, also saw internal clashes over dynastic inheritance; Peter IV
fought a harsh campaign against his nobles from 1346 to 1349 over his daughter's right to inherit the throne.

The threat of internal stability remained until the marriage of

Kingdom of Granada, the last Islamic state in the Iberian peninsula, which was completed by 1492. In that same year, the Alhambra Decree
was issued, expelling all Jews from both Castile and Aragon. Now unified, Spain now enjoyed relative internal stability; rights and lands across the Mediterranean; and a strong tradition of seafaring in both the Atlantic and Mediterranean, which it would maximise in the coming decades.

The conquest of the Americas and the beginnings of empire

The defeat of the Incas by Spanish forces at the battle of Cajamarca, 16 November 1532.

After

Plazas de Soberania
.

The most dramatic impact of Spanish military power, however, lay in the

conquistadors – who were mostly veterans of Spain's European or North African campaigns, were backed by local allies and defeated well established empires, shared many similarities. The highly proficient conquistadors benefited from their access to cavalry, steel swords, axes, spears, pikes, halberds, bows, crossbows, helmets and armour, not to mention small cannon, none of which were familiar to local forces. The Spanish also benefited from their immunity to many common European diseases which were to decimate their local enemies.[11]

Spain had one of its worst military defeats in the War by Fire and blood (also known as the

Chichimeca war
). They were defeated by the native allies of the Great Chichimeca north of the Aztec empire. This war was very distinct considering the natives created arrows that were very effective at penetrating armor. They had to pay the natives for peace.

The Spanish were to fare less well against the less centralised societies of southern Chile, however, particularly once local forces began to adapt to, or actually adopt similar military technologies. Although Pedro de Valdivia was able to successfully invade Chile in 1540, the first great rebellion of the Arauco wars was to begin only 1553 later, marking the beginning of a conflict that would last until the 19th century.[12] Spanish forces, operating at huge distances from their European or even Caribbean centres of power, were frequently available in small numbers; Valdivia had great difficulty in recruiting even the 150 Spanish soldiers he used to invade Chile, and the frequent reversals during the Arauco wars led to losses that often took several years to replace. As time progressed, the advantages of the Spanish began to increasingly centre on their access to early modern firearms, especially the musket, rather than the technologies that had won them their early successes.[13]

The 16th and 17th centuries, Spain's 'Golden Age'

The Battle of Pavia, 1525. Spanish forces capture the French king, Francois I

During the 16th century,

French civil wars and fighting, England during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)
.

By one modern estimate, the Spanish army in 1625 was 230,000 regulars (80,000 in field armies, 150,000 in garrisons), exclusive of naval personnel and militia.[17] By another the Spanish army grew in size from around 20,000 in the 1470s, to around 300,000 by the 1630s during the Thirty Years' War that tore Europe apart, requiring the recruitment of soldiers from across Europe.[18] King Philip IV himself stated in 1626: "Last year, 1625, we had nearly 300,000 infantry and cavalry in our pay, and over 500,000 men of the militia under arms, whilst the fortresses of Spain are being put into a thorough state of defence. The fleet rose at one time in 1625 to 108 ships of war at sea, without counting the vessels at Flanders, and the crews are the most skillfull mariners this realm ever possessed. This very year of 1626 we have had two royal armies in Flanders and one in the Palatinate, and yet all the power of France, England, Sweden, Venice, Savoy, Denmark, Holland, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Weimar could not save them from our victorious arms."[19]

With such numbers involved, Spain had trouble funding the war efforts on so many fronts. The non-payment of troops led to many mutinies and events such as the Sack of Antwerp (1576), when unpaid tercio units looted the Dutch city. Spain's holdings in Italy and the Low Countries contributed large amounts of men and treasure to the empire's army: each province was allotted a number of troops it had to pay for (including the ethnic Spanish garrisons) and recruits it had to provide. Troops were generally sent outside of the areas they were recruited in.[20] From 1635 to 1659, the Duchy of Milan provided 100,000 soldiers to the Spanish army, while the Kingdom of Naples provided 53,500 (plus a naval expedition) from 1631 to 1636 alone.[21]

In the east, Habsburg Spain fought alongside other Christian allies against the

galleys by both sides. In the middle of the century, Spain developed the galleon for naval warfare, using them in convoys to link her possessions in the Philippines, the Americas and Europe.[22][23]
The
Manila galleons sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean, whilst the Spanish treasure fleets linked Mexico back to Europe.[24]

The Battle of Lepanto, 1571, ended in victory for the Spanish led Christian navy against the Ottoman navy

Spain fought the

Bruneian Empire. Spanish forces attempted to conquer Cambodia in the Cambodian–Spanish War but were defeated. The Moros fought against the Spanish invasion for centuries in the Spanish–Moro conflict. The Igorot people
resisted and fought against the Spanish.

The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) drew in Spain alongside most other European states. Spain entered the conflict with a strong position, but the ongoing fighting gradually eroded her advantages; first Dutch, then Swedish innovations had made the tercio more vulnerable, having less flexibility and firepower than its more modern equivalents.[25] Nevertheless, Spanish armies continued to win major battles and sieges throughout this period across large swathes of Europe. French entry into the war in 1635 put additional pressure on Spain, with the French victory at the Battle of Rocroi in 1643 being a major boost for the French, though it proved far from decisive in the long-running Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659). By the signing of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which brought an end to most of the fighting, Spain was clearly exhausted. Politics too had begun to count against Spain. While Spain was fighting France, Portugal – which had been under personal union with Spain for 60 years – acclaimed John IV of Braganza as king in 1640.

The Surrender of Breda, 1625. The Spanish receive the Dutch surrender after a long siege. A tercio unit's pikes can be seen on the right

Spain was forced to accept the independence of the

treaty of Ryswick
.

European rivalry in the 18th century

The Anglo-Dutch victory in Vigo Bay over a Franco-Spanish convoy in 1702 had unexpected financial consequences

The centre of Spanish military power shifted dramatically in the early 18th century. The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) was both a civil and international war in which the French backed the Bourbon contender for the Spanish throne and an alliance led by Austria, the Netherlands and Britain backed the Habsburg contender while a divided Spain fought on both sides. The war secured the Spanish throne for the Bourbon Philip as Philip V of Spain at the Peace of Utrecht but in the war's settlement, Spain had to give up the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, Milan, Sardinia, Sicily, Gibraltar and Menorca to the Habsburg allies. Spain's defeat by the combined alliance of France, Britain, the Netherlands and Austria in the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718–1720) confirmed the decline from her former dominance, whilst the successful deployment of the Britain's Royal Navy into the Mediterranean, by exploiting the fortress of Gibraltar, gained in 1704 by an Anglo-Dutch force during the war of succession, would create considerable difficulties in the following years.[27]

Globally, Spain remained an important naval and military power, depending on critical

War of Jenkin's Ear and a disastrous attempt to capture the port of Cartegena in 1741.[29] During the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), Britain attempted to leverage its existing island bases along the Spanish Main and the Spanish West Indies, capturing Havana and Manila, but in each case practical and strategic considerations led to their return in exchange for Florida. During the American War of Independence, Spanish forces reconquered Florida and assisted the American rebels with arms and soldiers and by attacks on British trade and supplies. Both Spain and Britain made extensive use of privateers throughout the war, the Spanish fully exploiting the British aversion to using the convoy system to protect its expensive merchant assets in times of war. The earlier War of the Polish Succession was still seen as positive for Spain, as the kingdom did recover the territories lost after the war of Spanish succession, in Italy. However, during the Seven Years' War, three Spanish attempts to conquer Portugal
ended in crushing disasters.

Battle of Cartagena de Indias, 1741. Spanish forces repulse a British amphibious expedition in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias.

The huge distances involved in warfare between European powers in the Americas usually counted in favour of the defenders. Attacks on Spanish possessions, such as the amphibious assaults launched during the War of Jenkins' Ear usually ended in failure as their overstretched forces failed to overcome well led defensive actions. Spain's

invasion of Menorca in 1781,[30] and the capture of West Florida and East Florida from the British, showed a renewed strength in the New World, although the British defence of Gibraltar prevented the Spanish achieving all their war goals.[31]

The Napoleonic Wars and the loss of the Americas

Main article: Spanish Army (Peninsular War)
guerrilla
resistance to the Napoleonic French invasion of Spain at the Battle of Valdepeñas.

The

guerrilleros wore down the occupiers.[33] As to the role played by the Spanish armies, David Gates notes, "Furthermore, irrespective of the quality of their men, the Spanish armies constituted a threat that the French quite simply could not ignore. Any sizeable concentration of enemy soldiers had to be engaged, or at least contained, by a sufficiently strong force of Imperial troops; otherwise they were free to go on the rampage with impunity. Consequently, a colossal percentage of the French army was rendered unavailable for operations against Wellington because innumerable Spanish contingents kept materialising all over the country."[33] Acting in concert, regular and irregular allied forces prevented Napoleon's marshals from subduing the rebellious Spanish provinces.[34] The Spanish navy, put to sea in support of France during the War of the Third Coalition in 1805, suffered terrible losses at the Battle of Trafalgar, having been weakened by yellow fever
in the preceding years; in many ways this marked the nadir of Spanish naval history.

The Battle of Ayacucho (1824) ensured the ultimate independence of South America

The events in mainland Spain had extensive consequences for her empire. Spain's colonies in the Americas had shown an increasing independence in the years running up to the

Spanish rule
.

19th century Carlist Wars and the final days of empire

The Chincha Islands of Peru, being occupied by Spanish sailors on April 14, 1864

In the aftermath of the

Carlos VII, decided that only force of arms could win him the throne. This Third Carlist War lasted until 1876.[39]

Battle of Manila Bay, 1898. Old Spanish warships were put back into service and were comprehensively beaten.

Under

fought a short war with Morocco, resulting in a stronger Spanish position in North Africa. By the 1860s, Spain had built up a very large navy again, and in 1864 Spain intervened along the South American cost, seizing the guano-rich Chincha Islands from its former colony of Peru. Although the new Spanish steam frigates were superior to local vessels, the huge distances and lack of land support ultimately concluded with Spain handing back the islands at the end of the Chincha Islands War. An attempt to recolonise Santo Domingo
similarly failed by 1865 in the face of fierce guerrilla resistance.

Spain faced a sequence of challenges across her colonies in the second half of the century that would result in a total defeat of empire at the hands of the growing power of the United States. Spain's colony of

Spanish Morocco, the Spanish Sahara and Spanish Guinea
, all in Africa.

Early 20th century and the Civil War

Although Spain

chemical weapons by air, dropping mustard gas from aircraft.[46]

Nationalist aircraft bomb Madrid in 1936; the conflict saw the first modern aerial warfare
against urban areas.

In 1931, following the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, the armed forces of the Spanish Kingdom became the Spanish Republican Armed Forces. The

Spanish State, led by caudillo Francisco Franco, the leader of the Nationalist
army.

The civil war was marked by the

Fascist Italy, with several new technologies being trialled as a result.[48] The Nationalist side conducted aerial bombing of cities in Republican territory, carried out mainly by the Luftwaffe volunteers of the Condor Legion[49] and the Italian air force volunteers of the Corpo Truppe Volontarie – the most notorious example of this tactic of terror bombings was the bombing of Guernica.[50] The first combat use of the Stuka occurred during the conflict. The civil war influenced European military thinking on the alleged supremacy of the bomber. Armoured warfare was also trialled by Nationalist supporters; German volunteers first used armor in live field conditions in the form of the Panzer Battalion 88, a force built around three companies of PzKpfw I tanks
that functioned as a training cadre for Nationalists.

Weakened and politically still fragile, Spain

Free French Forces; particularly of note is the Ninth Armoured Company under General Leclerc's Second Division. The first Allied unit to enter Paris
in 1944, it was almost entirely made up of Spanish exiles.

The post-war period

See also: Spanish Armed Forces during the period of Francoism
Light Infantry in Afghanistan, operating as part of Spain's military commitment to the NATO
alliance.

In the post-war period, Spain was initially still heavily influenced by events in North Africa, particularly surrounding its colony of

Polisario, resulted in the Western Sahara War
(1973–1991), with Spain withdrawing from its colony in 1975 and transferring its support in the continuing conflict to Morocco.

From the 1950s onwards, however, Spain began to build increasingly close links with the U.S. armed forces. The

Afghanistan and Iraq
.

Spanish military cultural legacy

Historically, in addition to Latin military terms that came down from Roman times into modern Spanish through the language, the Spanish adopted a number of Arabic military terms from their Muslim rivals. Subsequently, a number of Spanish military terms have been adopted into French, English and other languages.

Spanish term Original language Original meaning Modern English term Notes
alcaide Arabic
kaid
 		master, leader Medieval Spanish military commander or castellan.
alcazaba
 		Arabic al-casbah walled citadel
alcázar Arabic al-qasr castle or palace Could refer to a residence, citadel, or hilltop fortress.
alférez Arabic horseman Used in medieval Castile-León and Navarre to denote the standard-bearer and commander of the royal military household. In modern usage in Spain and Equatorial Guinea, a second lieutenant.
almirante Arabic amir-al-bahr commander of the seas admiral Adopted in
Siculo-Normans
and later brought to Spain by the Catalans after Sicily became part of the Aragonese Crown.
armada Spanish armed (fem.), later navy, fleet armada Came into English usage after the defeat of the
Great Armada
in 1588.
caballero villano Spanish "commoner knight" A villein who owned a horse and armour and owed cavalry service.
coronel
 		Spanish or Italian (colonnello), ultimately Latin (columnella) diminutive of colonna/columna (column) colonel Rank popularised by the tercios.
destructor Spanish destroyer A large torpedo gunboat, built in Britain for the Spanish Navy to protect the fleet against torpedo boats, a precursor of the modern destroyer type of ship.
flotilla Diminutive of Spanish flota, from French flotte (little) fleet flotilla
granada Spanish pomegranate grenade
guerrilla
 		Spanish diminutive of guerra (war) guerrilla
Quinta Columna Spanish fifth column
Fifth Column
 First used during the Spanish Civil War by Emilio Mola at the siege of Madrid in reference to his supporters within the city.
tercio Spanish third part Infantry unit developed by Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba during the Italian Wars.

See also

References

  1. ^ Syme, 1970.
  2. ^ Montgomery, p. 12.
  3. ^ Montgomery, p.11.
  4. ^ Bury, pp. 286–288.
  5. ^ Montgomery, p. 13.
  6. ^ Davis, p. 105.
  7. ^ O'Callaghan, 2002.
  8. ^ Holmes, pp. 62–63.
  9. ^ Holmes, p. 258.
  10. ^ Zaide and Zaide, 2004.
  11. ^ Diamond, pp. 358–359.
  12. ^ Villalobos, p. 55.
  13. ^ Diamond, 1997.
  14. ^ Davies, 1961
  15. ^ Wedgewood, p. 31.
  16. ^ Elton, p. 181.
  17. ^ Gregory Hanlon. "The Twilight Of A Military Tradition: Italian Aristocrats And European Conflicts, 1560–1800." Routledge: 1997. Page 101.
  18. ^ Anderson, p. 17.
  19. ^ Martin Hume. The Court of Philip IV: Spain in Decadence." London 1907, p. 157. Quoting Philip IV's address to the Council of Castile in 1626.
  20. ^ Hanlon 1997, p. 48.
  21. ^ Gregory Hanlon. "The Hero of Italy: Odoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma, his Soldiers, and his Subjects in the Thirty Years' War." Routledge: May 2014. Page 116.
  22. ^ "The galleon evolved in response to Spain's need for an ocean-crossing cargo ship that could beat off corsairs. Pedro de Menéndez, along with Álvaro de Bazán (hero of Lepanto), is credited with developing the prototypes which had the long hull – and sometimes the oars – of a galley married to the poop and prow of a nao or merchantman. Galeones were classed as 1-, 2- or 3-deckers, and stepped two or more masts rigged with square sails and topsails (except for a lateen sail on the mizzenmast). Capacity ranged up to 900 tons or more. Menéndez' San Pelayo of 1565 was a 900 ton galleon which was also called a nao and galeaza. She carried 77 crewmen, 18 gunners, transported 317 soldiers and 26 families, as well as provisions and cargo. Her armament was iron." p. 100 Menéndez: Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Captain General of the Ocean Sea Albert C. Manucy, published 1992 by Pineapple Press, Inc
  23. ^ Holmes, p. 235.
  24. ^ Glyn, p. 4
  25. ^ Meade, p. 180.
  26. ^ Anderson, pp. 109–110.
  27. ^ Simms, p. 135.
  28. ^ Walton, p. 177.
  29. ^ Olson, pp. 1121–1122
  30. ^ Chartrand, pp. 54–56.
  31. ^ Chartrand, p. 84.
  32. ^ Laqueur, p. 350.
  33. ^ a b Gates, pp. 33–34.
  34. ^ Chandler, p. 164.
  35. ^ Fletcher, 1991.
  36. ^ Chasteen, p. 53.
  37. ^ Palmer, p. 67.
  38. ^ Fehrenbach, 1970.
  39. ^ a b Holt, 1967.
  40. ^ Fernandez, D. Fernando Sánchez Principales Campañas.
  41. ^ Chapuis, p. 195.
  42. ^ "Máximo Gómez Báez :: Guerra de los diez años (1868–1878)". Archived from the original on 2007-08-09. Retrieved 2005-12-26..
  43. ^ Navarro, p. 50.
  44. ^ Navarro, 1998.
  45. ^ McEvoy, William P. (May 10, 2003). "Spain During the First World War". FirstWorldWar.com. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  46. ^ Balfour, p. 142.
  47. ^ Baxell, 2004.
  48. ^ Tierney, pp. 68–69.
  49. ^ Edwards, p. 145.
  50. ^ Corum 2007, p. 200.
  51. ^ Casas de la Vega, 1985.

Bibliography

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Military_history_of_Spain&oldid=1212483872"