|
Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
|
|
Join Writer Development Section Writer Development Member Section
This Day in Alternate History Blog
|
THE BANKER’S
WORLD. The following AH
timeline is rather ambitious on my behalf. Working from the premise of Spain’s
global empire of the later 16th and 17th centuries, I
tried to imagine a different way the Empire could go. This was originally
inspired by a comment a historian (and one of my personal heroes) Indro
Montanelli put in one of his books, commenting on the state of Italy in this
period: Italy was part of the Spanish Empire, a province that rose as the empire
rose and declined as the Empire decline. Any attempt to invert this decline
would have to address the problems in Spain. Therefore I created an AH where one
enlightened politician, a Milanese banker called Galeazzo Cazzaniga, enters
service in the Spanish government and has a profound impact.
Of course, one
event in one place has repercussions all over, with the end result that I found
myself writing a History of the World that is highly entertaining, for me, but
also time consuming and of course, easily open to corrections, comment and
criticism. Hopefully the readers will be tolerant of my errors and glaring
omissions. Still I hope I’ll have entertained you. This is chapter
one, going from 1599 to the early 1700s. Chapter two will go from that date to
the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars (yes there is a Napoleon; sue me) in 1810.
Chapter three will cover the 19th century until either 1848 circa or
the American Civil War. After that I’m projecting a chapter that would led up
to and include the Great War (with apologies to master Turtledove) of 1881 and
one follow up chapter reaching the Second Great War of 1920. A brief History of
Europe from 1599 onwards (a paper prepared for
the Imperial Accademy of Costantinople and his most serene Majesty, Emperor
Franz Constantine the 2nd, 18th of March 1999) Spain and Europe
at the end of the Seventeenth Century.
By the end of the sixteenth century, Spain was the mightiest nation on
Earth, but was a giant with extremely brittle clay feet. A series of major wars
in Europe had depleted its manpower. Peasantry and commoners were taxed into
serfdom. The Counter-Reformation that had gripped the Catholic world ran
rampant, obliterating any independent or non-conformist thought. And above all,
the massive deflation, triggered by the input of Latin American gold into the
European economy was destroying the banking systems and industries of what had
been once the most advanced capitalist areas of the world, Italy and the
Flanders. Land lied fallow and unproductive in Spain and Italy while the rabble
flocked to the cities to live off the scraps of the aristocracy’s table.
At this time, Spain counted on the largest empire in the world. Naples,
Sicily and Milan were Spanish colonies. Portugal and Belgium were likewise
Spanish provinces. The entirety of the South American continent and a good chunk
of the Northern were under the crown of Madrid. Spain had the resources and the
chance to become a timeless power. And it was all going wrong. Cultural bigotry,
economic mismanagement and religious fanaticism were going to ruin it all, was
SUPPOSED to ruin it all.
Until a Milanese banker one day shook his head and said: “This will
never do.”
His name was Galeazzo Cazzaniga, head of a small but active banking house
in Milan. While other firms were closing and the families moving to become
landed nobility, Cazzaniga had insisted on continuing his “dynasty’s”
traditions. Defying dogma and law, he also maintained intense commercial
relations with the Protestant north. He had his hand on the pulse of European
economy but was too small to affect it any. The Rise of Cazzaniga
That was until, under a series of circumstances involving the nephew of
the Spanish minister Duke Lerma and a letter of recommendation from a Cardinal
to a Protestant pastor, Cazzaniga managed to broker a loan of some two million
escudos to the Spanish crown from a group of Calvinist investors, on terms that
were beneficial for both parties. So impressed was Lerma by Cazzaniga’s skill
that he offered him the opportunity to act as his Minister for the Purse.
Cazzaniga had seen the economic chaos of Spanish rule and had some ideas as to
how to deal with it. The chance to serve in Madrid was also an opportunity to
put them in practise. Therefore on March the 5th 1599, a date long
remembered by historians afterwards, Cazzaniga took service under his majesty
King Philip IIIrd of Spain. Philip was indifferent to Cazzaniga: the Spanish
monarch cared only for the wars in the North-east and was interested in the
Italian only inasmuch as he would provide provender for his campaigns. The Duke
of Lerma was an ineffectual statesman and the Spanish government was in the
hands of noble factions. Cazzaniga’s administration Cazzaniga set out to restore prices and calm the monetary tempest. He
managed to sustain prices, reduce the amount of gold in circulation by building
up considerable reserves (that
would later be of priceless worth) and reduce taxation over a period of five
years. He had a series of advanced economic ideas that would later serve as the
foundation for modern economic thought. He introduced public bonds, centralised
banking and government subsidies. Once the cost of living had levelled, he was able to rationalise public
expenditure: he understood that the royal budget would always have to factor
two, if not more, major field armies at any given time and proceeded to set up
an office equivalent to that of the Quartermaster General that would take care
of military provisions and co-ordinate supply logistics. The Spanish nobles were
more then happy to let him deal with these matters, as it freed them to devote
time to consider strategies and tactics, the real concern of officers, hardly
something as plebeian as logistics! The restored monetary situation allowed the merchant houses of Italy,
Portugal and Belgium to emerge from obscurity and once again begin to involve
themselves in European affairs. Cazzaniga nourished and protected these houses
for they would be the backbone for the next stage in the great restoration of
the Spanish Empire. For one thing, the reformed and revolutionised Ministry of
War required provisions and these contracts were awarded to Italian, Portuguese
and Belgian entrepreneurs. The military expenditure of the Spanish government
therefore allowed the growth and development of an arms industry, as well as
industries devoted to the equipment of soldiers, from boots to tents. Already,
by the end of the 1610s, many a commentator would remark on the overall
excellence of Spanish equipment and provisions. Indeed had the Spanish army
officers as good at its quartermasters, it would be master of Europe. Industry
in Europe was still at a small artisan level, but the sheer volume of the orders
involved had a repercussion on the industrial technology of the time, with a
crude but effective division of labour and the creation of Empire-wide standards
in length and weight that would acquire importance in later years. It wasn’t
the true Industrial Revolution, but it was a beginning. As industry began to flourish once more in the European part of the
Spanish Empire, agriculture was a major concern. Land lay fallow in Spain and
Italy and a goodly portion was under the so-called “death-grip” of the
Church and its ecclesiastical orders. Cazzaniga managed to rise to the challenge
once more, with a ruthless policy of deportations. He conscripted colonists from
Italy and Belgium and settled them in mainland Spain. Numerous little towns with
Italian and Flemish names sprung up throughout the country. He also modernised
agricultural methods, by sending bright young students to observe cultivation
methods in France and the Netherlands. He likewise introduced a fiscal policy
that taxed all landowners an average of 5% of the nominal worth of their lands.
Therefore landowners were forced to develop their properties to obtain a return
equal at least to pay their taxes. It gave mixed results: in lands such as
northern Italy, the Flanders and Portugal, where a sprit of enterprise was
re-emerging, this brought about the creation of a class of agricultural
capitalists, careful to study land and technology and improve the quality of
their farms and plantations. IN other parts of the Empire, Spain and southern
Italy, that part of the aristocracy that wasn’t exempt of the tax, simply
increased their exploitation of their serfs and peasants. Ecclesiastical lands,
fully one fifth of all land, were likewise exempt from the tax and maintained
their primitive agricultural ways. Still, if very slowly, the new
entrepreneurial spirit would spread throughout the Empire. Cazzaniga built a corps of able-minded bureaucrats to assist him: second
sons of minor nobles, children of the upper middle classes and the scions of the
bankers and merchants filled the ranks of the various offices he created.
Cazzaniga created a school of administration, economics and agriculture. Spain
began to develop a government structure, and ironically almost a clandestine
one. The Duke of Lerma still believed himself to be Prime Minister but even the
members of his personal cabinet were either men formed by Cazzaniga’s school
or men who relied on them. The king hadn’t the slightest knowledge of how his
government worked. Only that it did, and quite well. Lerma got all the praise,
but Cazzaniga had done all the work. In 1610 Cazzaniga showed Lerma just who was calling the shots when he
managed to overturn the minister’s decision of expelling the Moriscos from
Spain. As it happened, due to intense pressure from the Church, some were
removed, but Cazzaniga had them settle in Sicily, just as he settled the
deported Marranos in Lombardy. The Settlement of South America Where Cazzaniga felt the Spanish Empire would be made or broke, was South
America. A strategy for the settling and exploitation of this continent had to
be worked out and implemented. Cazzaniga saw South America as a source of foods
and raw materials and goods and wanted this vision to become reality. He began
another policy of forced settlements, using Italians, Belgians, Portuguese and
anyone else he could find: Jews persecuted in Spain and Italy were granted safe
haven in the Americas. The islands of Trinidad and Tobago would become Jewish
strongholds for centuries to come. In South America he was able to use
pre-existing Native Americans’ cities and natural ports for locations. A
settlement would build its dwellings, a church and official buildings: unlike
English and Dutch exploitation of the Northern continent, which had a haphazard,
individualistic nature to it, in South America colonisation was managed by the
Crown, with the intent of setting permanent roots. The Spanish nobility didn’t notice this change in attitude at first.
All South America was for them was a cash cow to strip of gold and anything of
worth and let rot. Even the highest levels of the “official” Spanish
government didn’t take particular notice of this: once again, conceited nobles
only cared for war, hunting and glory, and not a bit for the hard work that went
into all of this. Latin America, as it began to be called, was divided into administrative
provinces: Mexico (including California and Texas), Cuba (comprising all the
Caribbean islands); Brazil, Columbia, Peru and Argentina. Every province would
have a governor appointed by Madrid. The provinces were broken down into Regions
and the Regions into constituent cities and shires, the latter awarded to
Spanish officers who became landed nobility. The Introduction of Slavery in Latin America While the colonies flourished, Cazzaniga felt they were developing too
slowly: more manpower was required to open up the Southern continent especially.
The Spanish nobility had already turned the native indios into serfs. But
Cazzaniga began to import African slaves into Southern America, at ever
increasing numbers. What would emerge as the Latin American landscape for some
time to come, was a class of landed nobility with Indios serfs in the
countryside; cities, either belonging exclusively to one ethnic group (Italians,
Belgians, Portuguese, Spanish), or a combination; and the outlying countryside
where plantations, usually owned by Europeans, would produce thanks to the slave
labour of the Africans. This social structure saw the Negroes at the bottom, the
Indios above them, a largish middle class formed by the European colonists and
the Spanish nobility on top. It was some twenty years after Cazzaniga had first been summoned the
Cortes, and the time was right for the Milanese banker to stage his “velvet
coup” in Madrid. The Velvet Coup In 1619 Philip the 3rd died and was succeeded by his young
son, Philip the 4th, who was fourteen at the time. Clearly regency
was needed and a quiet battle began amongst Spanish nobility for that
prestigious position. Cazzaniga threw the weight of his government structure and
his nascent espionage network behind an unlikely candidate, Count Olivares, in
whom Cazzaniga saw great potential. A clever and acute mind, Olivares had a clear view of the dangers Spain
faced, internal as well as external. He had already been collaborating with
Cazzaniga’s bureaucracy in many an occasion and was prominent enough so that
his name wasn’t a complete surprise as a candidate for the Regency. His only
problem was that he wasn’t a “pure” Castillian, he had Arab blood on his
grandmother’s side. Many nobles felt that this alone would eliminate him from
any serious consideration. Cazzaniga instead found in this perceived weakness
the key with which he could forge his alliance with Olivares: Cazzaniga wanted
to institute sweeping reforms in Spain and a shift in the Empire’s global
strategy but lacked sufficient backing in the Cortes. Olivares could build that
support but would always be vulnerable to his “impurity”. Together however,
the two could build a solid enough power base from which to hold off both
aristocratic and ecclesiastical pressure. In the short months following Philip’s death, Cazzaniga showed Olivares
just how powerful the government machine he had built could be: all other noble
pretenders to the Regency were either blackmailed into submission or taxed into
poverty. Olivares on the other hand, benefited by certain lines of credit that
allowed him the funds with which to buy the support he needed. By January of
1620, Olivares was Regent and Cazzaniga was Primado of Spain. Olivares’ Regency The shift in Spain’s global policy, as intended by Cazzaniga and
Olivares, was to consolidate and deepen Spain’s holdings world-wide and follow
a foreign policy more in line with the Empire’s interests rather then the
abstract goals of Protector of Christianity (i.e. Catholicism). Under this
mantle, Spain had entered a long series of wars with Protestant powers for no
other reason then because they were Protestant. From now on, Spain had to think
in terms of geo-political advantage. The first clear sign of this was the 1621
Treaty of Utrecht in which Spain formally recognised the independence of the
Protestant Dutch-speaking Netherlands. The two nations ceased all hostilities
and the Dutch were granted a series of concessions to Spanish trading routes and
ports. Far from subduing the Dutch, Cazzaniga and Olivares wanted to use them in
a greater strategy against England and France, who were perceived as long-term
threats. By tying the Dutch economy with the Spanish, they would present a
unified block against the British, and encourage Anglo-Dutch competition. This
strategy required time and patience but would eventually bear fruits. The internal repercussions of this treaty were the first real test of
Cazzaniga and Olivares’ regime: the nobles were furious at the concession of
independence to the rebel provinces and the clergy were outraged at Catholic
Spain dealing with “heretics”. One noble, Don Rodrigo de la Pena, went so
far as to muster a group of nobles and members of the Royal family in a
conspiracy, which was unmasked and denounced by, of all people, young king
Philip himself. The monarch had spent the last two years almost constantly in
the presence and under the wing of Olivares and Cazzaniga and, during the course
of this education, had changed considerably. His outlook, although somewhat
bigoted and Hispanic-centric was nevertheless far broader then before, and would
change even more. Cazzaniga and Olivares emerged from these trials far stronger
then before. France and Europe: the Thirty Years War and the First War of the Pyrenees The shift in politics also dealt with the immediate threat to Spain’s
role as pre-eminent power in Europe: France. Under the Bourbon dynasty, France
had begun to reorganise its government and State in order to better compete with
its neighbours in Europe. After the death of Charles, the regency of Richelieu,
the rule of Louis the XIIIth, the regency of Mazzarino, and finally the long
reign of Louis the XIVth later, turned France into a political and military
juggernaut. France eyed Spain’s possessions in the north, such as the Flanders
and France Comte: she wanted to eliminate all Spanish territory north of the
Pyrenees. Spain very much disagreed. IN 1618 what is referred to as the Thirty Years War began. Spain saw
central Europe erupt into religious and political wars of such magnitude as to
lay waste to the continent. Cazzaniga and Olivares agreed on a policy of
cautious engagement: they strengthened the strong points and garrisons in France
and Flanders and would offer limited, mostly logistical, support to Hapsburg
allies in Germany. Indeed, as Cazzaniga pointed out, a clear steering in the
wars could put Spain on top by simple virtue of stability. Pressure within the Spanish court to enter the war was intense. Spanish
culture was suffused with a warlike ethic and an exaltation of conflict that
made participation to such battles almost mandatory. However Cazzaniga and
Olivares both feared any intervention in Germany would strengthen the power of
the Church (that was invoking a great anti-Protestant crusade) and the more
reactionary elements of the Court and endanger the delicate openings with the
Dutch that they had initiated. The attempted counter-coup by De le Pena in 1622
was also inspired by this frustration at perceived inaction and weakness. Still,
once Phillip the 4th had exposed the plot and the co-conspirators,
Cazzaniga and Olivares were able to keep Spain out of the war. Some of the more
fiery nobles were allowed to serve under the Austrian Hapsburgs and were allowed
to spend part of their gold reserves to recruit and outfit an army (the
government saw nothing wrong in making some profit out of the hotheads
war-lust). The Charles Emanuel of Savoy was given command of an army in Franche
Comte, with an eye on Germany and France both and remained there unitl events
called him back in Italy. The bulk of Spanish forces however were kept in
reserve against the inevitable French attack. Cardinal Richelieu, arguably one of the greatest French statesmen of all
times, didn’t really want a war. He felt, with some reason, that with the
continent erupting in all out warfare, France’s interests were best served by
avoiding any extensive conflict. This was a fair assessment, and mirrored by
Cazzaniga and Olivares. However, as war raged all the more furiously to the east
and streams of refugees reached French territories west of the Rhine, more and
more French potentates felt that “something had to be done”, especially
against the one nation perceived, erroneously, as the cause of all these wars,
and, correctly, as France’s greatest enemy: Spain. Many French nobles
proclaimed the Rhine France’s natural eastern border and invoked a war to
eliminate any power between them and this river, Spain once again. There was, in
many circles, the mistaken perception that Spain was preoccupied with Germany
and would be unable to resist French aggression. What prevailed in France was the impression of being boxed in by the
Spanish, and this was a recurring theme in popular literature and politics.
Spain was felt to be an insufferable halter to France’s manifest destiny of
domination and this anti-Spanish sentiment would run high for centuries to come.
Richelieu faced therefore greater and greater pressure to intervene against the
Spanish and knew his very political career depended on how to deal with the
“Hawkish” factions of the French court. Therefore, quite against his better
judgement, he massed the French forces for war. The French attack took the Spanish by surprise: seeing that the Flanders
and France Comte were ready for a fight, in 1625 the French decided to lead a
major force across the Pyrenees and a secondary force south into Italy. With
northern Spain invaded, the Spanish forces had to rally at Bilbao and slowly
began the hard job of reclaiming their country. The force into Italy met with
initial success: Piedmont was unable to stand single-handedly against France,
but the Duke of Savoy was pragmatic enough to acknowledge this fact. He withdrew
his forces eastwards while the other powers formed a coalition, which included
Spanish troops, some Austrian forces and Swiss mercenaries. However the bulk of
this army, quite by surprise, was formed by Italian troops from the various
states, all afraid of a return to the Franco-Hispanic wars of conquest of the
previous two centuries which had ravaged the peninsula. This sudden appearance of a proto-Italian army wasn’t a total surprise.
By now a generation of Italians had been raised in the prosperity and relative
peace of the Cazzaniga era. Cazzaniga had included more and more of them in the
government of Imperial Spain and a perception of the merits of this empire had
spread into the Italian aristocracy and re-merging bourgeoisie. Many a local
duke and potentate saw a vested interest in maintaining a functioning status-quo
in Italy and, inspired by the Spanish example, were prepared to defend these
interests. This wasn’t a national sentiment, as poets would later decant,
every member of the Italian contingent was defending his local interests and
would have stared blankly at any mention of an Italian nation. But it was the
first time something like a military back-bone was emerged from the bustling
lands of the Italian peninsula. France therefore managed, briefly, to unite Italy, if only against
herself. Charles Emanuel of Savoy was a veteran of many a campaign under the
Spanish crown and took the disparate forces of the coalition and turned them
into an effective, if fractious army. The French were defeated at Cuneo (8th
of July 1626) and driven out of Italy and Savoy. The French invasion would have
long-reaching repercussions in Italy. By the end of September 1626, the French
were driven out of Northern Spain but managed to seize and keep Rousillion,
Burgundy and Charlerois. This situation was ratified by the Treaty of Artois of
February 1627. So ended that which historians call the First War of the
Pyrenees, a misleading name and/or numbering, but one which would stick
especially to enumerate the successive (repeated) wars between Spain and France. The English Civil War As the war in Germany raged on, between ups and downs, and France and
Spain temporarily deposed their arms, England fell into civil war between the
Catholic royalists and the Protestant Parliamentarians. Although the root causes
of this war were different to some extent from the events in Germany,
nevertheless the dates of the war 1637-1645 put the English Civil War smack in
the second half of the Thirty Years War. Such a turn of events had been a long time brewing. England was one of
the kingdoms that had found in its Germanic, feudalistic origins and
institutions a workable system that in many ways limited the power of the
monarchs. However the diffusion of Roman law, with its centralistic and
absolutist implications had the favour of the Stuart dynasty. The Stuarts also
felt the need to simplify the countless local liberties and prerogatives and
customs, uniforming the entire realm to one law, a law that the king would
impose over a powerless Parliament. Whereas the growing mercantile classes could appreciate the need for
administrative clarity and legal certainty, deep religious and economic reasons
put them in opposition to the king’s plans. Economically, as long as
Parliament had the power of the purse, the gentry and landed classes could avoid
the danger of fiscal vexation and harassment. Also they could steer English
policies in directions more closer to their economic needs. Likewise the wide
spread of Puritanism caused many a man to openly question the source and
foundation of any authority other then God’s: this was a mindset clearly in
opposition with the “divine right” principle of most monarchies. Conflict was political initially: Charles the 1st was deeply
involved in Scottish affairs. However when his requests for money to levy armies
began to be regularly rejected by Parliament, he decided to bypass Westminster
and begin raising taxes directly. As opposition and refusal to pay lead to
arbitrary arrests and violence, the gentry of the land began to form in two
factions, one in favour of the King and one against. Finally, in 1642, when
Charles tried to ignore Habeas Corpus and arrest five members of Parliament, the
situation became irreparable. The divide also began to take on religious
overtones, with Catholics siding with the king, Puritans with Protestants and
Anglicans divided. As the armies formed and skirmishing began, Charles was so overcome with
rage that he forgot himself and his country and accepted the offer of aid from
Spain. Cazzaniga, who had so carefully kept Spain out of the bulk of the
fighting in Central Europe, saw in th English Civil War a chance to render the
isle a Spanish vassal. If one also considers that England was encroaching on
some Spanish possessions in the new world and that the English kings had
traditionally backed the notorious privateers that had greatly harassed Spanish
shipping routes, an intervention in English affairs was an advisable path. If
anything, it would through this “rogue state” into internal chaos for a few
years and allow Spain to bolster her fleets. The Stuart-Spanish Alliance immediately fragmented the loyalist camp.
Aversion to Spain was a constant in English politics and was felt by all
parties, even some Catholics. The moment Charles accepted Spanish aid the Civil
War became a nationalist war of liberation. The Parliamentarians’ Army, under
Oliver Crowell would swell with Anglicans and other sects while Charles would be
abandoned by many of his loyalists. The two armies met at Turnham Green and the
Spanish army was defeated. As Charles fled to the South, the Parliamentarians
reconvened in London and voted the deposition of Charles the 1st as
King of England and tried him in absentia, condemning him to death for treason. Cromwell was appointed Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and lead the
reformed army south, with the intention of rooting out the Spaniards. At New
Milton, in Hampshire, in 1645, the second Spanish expeditionary force was
defeated, but at great cost. Charles was captured and killed on the fields and
the Spanish were repealed once and for all. Cromwell remained Lord Protector until his death in 1665, at which point,
after some debate, the Stuarts were allowed back on the throne. Charles the 2nd
swore to uphold Parliament’s prerogatives but dreamed of avenging his father. The End of the Thirty Years War As for the rest of
the War in Germany, Gustav Adolph of Sweden, after having avoided a fatal injury
at Lutzen, succeeded in uniting the northern Protestant princes of Germany and
Scandinavia into a Evangelical Confederation of the North, including Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, Prussia and Saxony (amongst others) in 1639. The peace of
Westphalia was signed in 1648 and recognised the formal dissolution of the Holy
Roman Empire (not that the Holy Roman Empire had never been united to begin
with). While Southern Germany would become a theatre for political intrigue
between France and the Hapsburgs, Northern Germany would flourish and prosper
under a stable and productive political system. Europe after the Thirty Years War The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the creation of the
Evangelical Confederation in the north were in many ways the final conclusion of
the schism that Martin Luther had began over a century before with his 104
Arguments. After the fall of the ancient Roman Empire, the Catholic Church had
maintained an idea of “Romanitas”, of the Empire as a “Res Publica
Christiana”, the natural community of all Christians. It was with idea of a
universal community that the Church had moved, had converted the barbarians, had
defended the Classic Culture and had, with the Renaissance, aided European
culture to flourish. As long as the Empire existed, especially in its Holy Roman
form, the Church could still nurture the idea of reuniting all the people of
Europe under her spiritual authority. The fracture in Christian Unity that
Martin Luther had caused (successfully when other heresies such as Huss’ had
failed) was the first ending of this universal ambition and ideal. With the end
of the Empire, the last pillar of an imagined universal Catholic Christianity
also ended. Spain after the Thirty Years War Spain emerged from the Thirty Years War still the first power in Europe,
but France was now a very close second. Austria was distracted with the settling
of her lands after the War. England, who had sat most of the war out, saw the
Northern Confederation as a potential threat to her long-term goals and to her
control of the northern seas. Holland would become the theatre for much
intrigue. After the War, Sweden, England, France and Spain would try to win the
loyalties of the Provinces (who took the bribes and did what they pleased). Spain also emerged without Cazzaniga. The Milanese banker died at the age
of eighty-nine in 1648, having spent the last fifty years patiently reforming
the Spanish economy and empire. His death was a day of national mourning
throughout the Empire (although many a Castillian noble secretly toasted to his
demise). Philip and Olivares continued on his policies of consolidation and
growth, aided by Cazzaniga’s youngest son, Matteo, who, at forty, had learned
much from his father and would become as priceless a minister to the crown as
his father was. Italy after the Thirty Years War: the Rise of the Italian Entete As a result of the French invasion, the situation was changing in Italy
as well. Piedmont realised that if she wanted to keep her freedom from the
French crown, she needed to be able to put up a decent resistance. The Savoy
began a process of modernisation of the army that became one of the first
conscription armies in modern Europe. The economy of this region was also
developed with a mercantile, Colbertian approach, the State creating the
industries necessary to equip the new army. Piedmont would later be called the
“Southern Prussia”, although such a label is misleading in that the Savoy
had started policies of militarisation before the Hohenzollern. In this policy, Piedmont received the aid of Tuscany, Genoa and Venice.
These independent Italian states for the first time had awareness of a common
Italian identity, of shared interests and above all, of the potential fragility
of Spanish protection. Piedmont would receive funds from Venetian and Florentine
bankers and officers and soldiers from all Italy would serve in the Piedmontese
army. While a watchdog against France, Piedmont would engage in border
skirmishes with the Swiss, flexing her newfound muscles and trying to lure the
southern, Catholic cantons away from the Calvinists in the north. This would
succeed towards the end of the seventeenth century when Piedmont would claim the
French-speaking Valais and the Italian-speaking Ticino cantons from Switzerland
(1691). The French Invasion of 1625 therefore was the initial cause for the
birth of what historians call the Italian Entete, that is a coalition of three
Italian states, Venice, Florence and Piedmont, in order to protect their realms
and limit further foreign interference into Italy (although with half the nation
under Spanish rule such a goal was perhaps lofty). The Spanish Empire after Olivares The next twenty years would see Spain recover from the War, as would the
rest of Europe. Olivares continued to act as Primado until his death in 1659.
Philip ruled with energy and intelligence: much of Cazzaniga the Older and
Olivares had rubbed off on him, not least the understanding of a king’s
duties: he sired some six children from his Polish Sobieski wife, of which four
sons. France underwent the happy regency of Mazarin, waiting for Louis the XIVth
to achieve his majority. Italy was increasing in prosperity and wealth, although
the peninsula never again would be the centre of European capitalism it once
was. The Flanders, with their Atlantic access grew at a faster rate. Italian
merchants and bankers invested heavily in this area, where they’d import
workers. Portugal was also more and more integrated into mainland Spain. In 1653
the Braganza family attempted a popular rebellion that was quickly crushed. From
that date onwards, no further significant nationalistic rebellion would occur in
Portugal, which ceased to exist as a separate political entity. The constituent
realms of Spain, Castille, Catalonia, Aragona, the Basque lands, etc. all found
their place and space in the regime and order of the empire. Settlement in
Spanish America continued. Spanish Expansionism: Northern Africa Spain however got “itchy feet”. Although the country had never been
so prosperous, Spanish nobility craved action, war, conquest. The Americas were
carved up and offered no further room for development, unless one wanted to
engage in the hard pioneer and settler work necessary, something most Spanish
nobles would avoid like the plague. Matteo Cazzaniga saw an opportunity to the
south. IN 1660, under the pretext of piracy (true enough), Spain invaded
Morocco. The Hashemite dynasty was powerless to resist the modern Spanish army.
Casablanca and Rabat fell within a couple of years. Not satisfied with this
victory, the Spanish pushed eastwards, conquering Algiers (1664) and Tunis
(1666). Administration of these lands would prove to be a new challenge for the
Spanish Crown. Old king Philip found himself master over lands where
Christianity was a minority and the prevailing culture wouldn’t easily be
overwhelmed as the Native Americans. Islam was old, and had deep roots. The
Catholic clergy wanted to initiate a violent inquisition and forced conversion
of the population, but Philip and Matteo both knew this was a recipe for
disaster and constant revolt. Ironically, the key to administrate the Islamic
lands was given them by Islam itself: they applied the Arab practices of taxing
Muslims and Jews extra fees for their faith (under Islamic rule it was the
Christians who were taxed extra). As many a city had resisted the Spanish
invasion, they used this as a pretext to invoke the precedent of Sha’ria and
convert the larger mosques to Christian churches. Soon the calls of the Imams
would be drowned out by the bells of the cathedrals. Spain also added the
Northern Africans to her pool of manpower for the Americas. Muslim communities
were created in South America, Chile and Ecuador getting the bulk of them. Still
the Arab lands would be a source of periodical revolts for the next few decades.
Ironically, only the French-influenced reforms of the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries would give the Arabs in the Spanish Empire the opportunity
to feel like full citizens. France under Louis the XIVth: the Second War of the Pyrenees In 1661 Louis the XIVth began his decades long reign. Phillip died in
1668, having reigned for 51 years. He was succeeded by Charles the 2nd.
Charles was still young and although Matteo Cazzaniga was a capable Primado,
Louis saw the situation in Spain as the chance for major expansion in Europe. He
started the Second War of the Pyrenees (1670) and attacked Franche Comte’ and
Artois. The Spanish armies managed to block him in the north and east but had to
evacuate Navarre after a few months of skirmishes. Louis also started the
“Afternoon War” in which a French army attacked Savoy once again. This time
however, the Piedmontese put up a strong enough resistance that the French had
to pause: they had the numbers to crush Piedmont, certainly, but with the bulk
of their forces committed in the other campaigns, they didn’t want to open yet
another front (a very rare demonstration of caution on behalf of Louis). The
name Afternoon War comes from the fact that only one battle was fought between
French and Piedmontese (with a convincing Italian victory) one afternoon in May.
War raged across the Pyrenees and north-eastern France for a couple of years but
ultimately the Second Treaty of Artois of 1673 sanctioned the French occupation
of Navarre. Repercussions in the Spanish Empire With this peace, Spain began a slow yet sure process of withdrawal from
northern Europe, a process that would end with the Napoleonic wars. At the time,
the rage for the defeat at Navarre was tempered with the occupation of Tripoli
in 1673. Still Matteo Cazzaniga had a difficult time keeping his position. The
truth was that despite the sweeping reforms of the previous decades, Spain still
had a series of congenital limitations that hampered the monarchy’s global
aspirations. Still some twenty percent of arable and productive land was in the
Church’s death-grip and contributed nothing to the national economy. The upper
classes in Spain still had antiquated and archaic values and a disregard for
enterprise and labour. The thousands of Italian, Flemish, Portuguese and even
Arabic colonists (great irony there) who were settled in Spain had revitalised
the land but still the Spaniards themselves were in many ways unproductive, or
swept up in unproductive activities, such as wars of various kinds. Spain
didn’t have a blossoming middle class like France, England, Holland and the
other nations of Europe, at least not on the mainland. Such classes had to be
imported from the provinces and thus considered foreign, alien. They would come
either from Italy, Belgium and Portugal. The Spanish Empire in America over the years flourished. The constant
stream of settlers from Europe (and slaves and servants from Africa) gave the
land the manpower it required. Spanish government in Latin America was
surprisingly efficient and productive. Certain colonies in particular were
modern success stories: Brazil and Argentina were beginning to approach GNPs
similar to those of some of the medium European states. Cuba and the islands as
well were thriving economies. The less-developed areas were ironically Mexico and Peru, where there had
been pre-existing evolved civilisations. Here Spanish had come as conquerors
rather then settlers. The lords effectively imported a feudal organisation of
society to these lands, and an extremely reactionary one at that. As most of the
lands in question had previously been developed to a certain level of prosperity
(by the Azteks and the Incas), there wasn’t the need for enterprise and
settling in the way the other parts of Latin America required. So while initial
conquest and colonisation was easy, these lands and their new masters had less
incentive to grow or adapt. This disparity in development would be apparent all
the more in the eighteenth century and the colonial wars that would follow. Ironically, the opportunities in America ended up draining mainland Spain
of some of the more ambitious and energetic native citizens who would rather
start a new life in America then live under the old constraints in Europe. Europe: the Fall of the Ottoman Empire After the Second War of the Pyrenees, France began to cautiously
manoeuvre in Europe. Spain was still a check on Louis’ ambitions and with
Artois and Franche Comte still maintained their strong points. Western Europe
would stay in a delicate balance and major changes would come from the east,
where Austria was about to crush the Ottoman Empire once and for all. In the second half of the seventeenth century, the Ottomans were
overwhelming all of the lesser Balkan kingdoms. Rumania and Hungary both were
falling to the advancing Turk. Such an advance was expensive, in financial and
manpower terms but was so far successful. Finally, after a series of
engagements, in 1682 the Ottomans lay siege to Vienna. The Hapsburgs called on
their allies in Germany, but many of them were living in fear of France and
wouldn’t spare any forces. The Northern Confederation might have helped but
was blocked by internal squabbling: Prussia wanted to with-hold any forces until
after the fall of Vienna, so as to eliminate what she perceived as her main
rival in central and Eastern Europe. It fell therefore on Poland and her current king-elect Stanislav Sobieski,
to ride to Austria’s defence and lift the siege in 1683. The rallying
Austrian-Polish army, lead by Stansilav and Leopold of Austria and soon aided by
Bavarian and Venetian forces, began a series of counter-strikes deep into
Ottoman territory. What surprised the Christians was just how tenuous the
Ottoman hinterland actually was: the Turks had overextended their supply lines
and the bulk of their forces and had difficulty both co-ordinating the various
armies and keeping them supplied. A series of quick wars suddenly opened up the
entirety of Hungary. Buda and Pest were taken in 1685. From there onwards, the
Austrian armies began the so-called “March of Liberation”: province after
province of the Ottomans’ Balkan holdings fell to the Austrians: Belgrade,
Sarajevo, Bucarest were all taken by 1690, the Hapsburgs were on the Danube by
1691. At this point a meeting was held by the Hapsburgs and all their allies to
“think the unthinkable”: the fall of Costantinople, the “liberation” of
the ancient Eastern Roman empire. Plans were laid out: the participating powers
would be Austria and Poland from the north and Spain, Piedmont, Venice and Genoa
from the south. The Pope gave his blessing and a few companies of Swiss guards. In 1692 a Venetian-Genoese fleet of some five hundred galleys transported
a sizeable Spanish army to the coasts of Greece. The landing army wasn’t met
with cheering crowds (old memories of the last Western invasions were still
there) but not even with total hostility. The Greeks sat this fight out. Athens
was attacked and liberated in 1693. The Italo-Spanish army marched into northern
Greece, causing panic amongst the Ottomans and caution amongst the Greeks.
Meanwhile the Italian fleets effectively blocked the Dardanelles, isolating the
capital from outside aid. When Sophia fell to the Austrians in 1694, the two
armies met up amidst great celebrations. The siege of Costantinople began in
1695. There is something to the ancient walls and streets of Costantinople, to
the accumulated centuries of history in that city, that seems to bring out the
best of the sovereigns who sit there: just as Constantine the Paleologist stood
his ground against the Turks in 1453, so too did the Sultan stand against the
Hapsburgs, and with much the same result. The Hapsburg armies aimed their
cannons and their muskets at the ancient walls and these fell. On July the 4th,
1695, after a four-month siege, Constantinople fell to the invading Christians,
putting an end to two hundred and fifty years of Muslim rule in Europe. The
Sultan was slain defending his Imperial palaces. With the fall of Constantinople, great enthusiasm exploded throughout the
Christian world. For the first time in decades, Catholics and Protestants could
find a common cause of celebration. The liberation of the ancient Roman capital
also inspired the Pope of Rome to perform the greatest propaganda coup in the
history of the modern world. He sailed to Constantinople, carrying two crowns
and two Edicts. Within the halls of Haga Sophia, once more a Christian church,
he proclaimed king Charles of Spain Emperor of the West and Leopold of Austria
Emperor of the East. The Two Roman empires were now once more on Earth. The Conquest of the Middle East The first dilemma which faced the new emperors was whether or not to
continue the campaign in the East. Leopold might have preferred waiting some
time to consolidate the Balkans and pacify the potentially dangerous new
subjects. Charles however pushed for further campaigning: the Ottomans were in
disarray after the death of the sultan Ali Pasha: his four surviving sons were
tearing down what was left of the empire in civil war. Now was the time to
strike and eliminate the Muslim threat once and for all. Finally Leopold gave
way. As “Roman” troops, as they liked to call themselves, landed in
Anatolia, revolts erupted both amongst the Kurds and the Armenians. The Ottoman
army was ambushed and bushwhacked repeatedly before actually managing to
confront the Westerners at Alexandreta. It was to no avail however, and the
Ottomans were crushed in 1698. After that battle the Ottomans were unable to
field a serious army against the Romans. One by one, all the major Eastern
cities fell: Damascus in 1701, Antioch in 1703, Bayreuth in 1704 and Amman in
1705. When the Romans reached Palestine however, command of the expedition and
later administration of the Holy Land was given to the Pope of Rome and his
generals. One of them, the halfway-competent Count Farnese managed to lead his
troops into Jerusalem after moderate losses. In 1708, Palestine was once again
under Christian rule, after over four hundred years. Venice and Egypt Just as Palestine was given to Rome, so was Egypt “given” to Venice.
The Venetian Doge wanted no monetary compensation for Venice’s role in this
new great Crusade: he wanted land and insisted on Egypt, and on the Sinai in
particular. Somewhat reluctantly, Austria and Spain acquiesced. IN 1708 A first
Venetian-Piedmontese-Tuscan force stormed Alexandria. It would take the Italian
forces some five years but by 1713 all of Egypt was under the rule of the
Serenissima. Why Venice insisted on Egypt would be made clear two years later,
once work began on the Canal of St. Catherine. Therefore, by 1715, autonomous
political Islamic presence in the Mediterranean was gone. For the first time in
over one thousand years, the Mediterranean was a Christian sea once again. In
the distribution of lands and isles, Venice managed to snatch Malta, Genoa was
given Sardinia (which she didn’t want) and Crete and Spain claimed Cyprus. Austrian Administration of the Middle East Administration of the Muslim lands would prove an interesting challenge
for the new masters of the East, as would administration of the Orthodox
territories. The Orthodox lands were put in the position of having to make a
series of unpalatable decisions. Austria was devoutly catholic and had no
intention of hiding this. Leopold had himself crowned Avtokrator of the East
following Byzantine ritual, but it was the Pope of Rome who anointed him. The
eastern patriarchs were therefore forced to accept the supremacy of the
Patriarch of Rome, something they had long contested. Likewise, theological
concessions had to be made to the catholic rite, which however would be recited
in Greek and according to Greek liturgy. This process was by no means peaceful
or quick and would take decades before some semblance of compromise would be
reached. Many an Orthodox soon missed the rule of the sultans who were heathens
but at least left the Christians alone. On the other hand, the pressure from the
West, not just military but also political and cultural, demanded adaptations.
There were areas in the Balkans that conformed to Catholicism quickly, such as
Rumania and Bulgaria. Others, such as Serbia and Greece, would stay true to
Orthodoxy. It’s perhaps ironic that the catholic Leopold’s solution would be
suggested by a Protestant ruler, Elisabeth of England. Leopold ended up
imitating much of the English queen’s legislation by which she pacified the
sects and schisms in England during her reign. Only Catholics were allowed full
access to government positions, but in local authorities the Emperor wouldn’t
look too closely at the candidates’ personal beliefs. All major government
officials were expected to attend Sunday Mass at the Catholic church or
cathedral but other then that weren’t too closely scrutinised. This gradual
assimilation would be the policy followed by the other European powers in the
former Ottoman Empire, with the exception of Rome in Palestine. The Muslim inhabitants underwent the same treatment the Spanish reserved
them in Africa: a surtax on their faith and the forced conversion of some of
their larger mosques into churches. This domination wasn’t easily accepted and
revolts would occur but the efficient administration of the Hapsburgs would go a
very long way to pacify the more moderate elements of the Muslim population. The
Jews underwent a similar treatment. The Return of Persia Roman forces advanced eastwards towards Mesopotamia, and here they met
their first and final stop: Persia. With the collapse of the Ottoman empire and
the end of Islam as a political (though not religious or cultural force) in the
Mediterranean, Persia suddenly saw an opportunity to move to the west, reclaim
Mesopotamia and re-enter the European milieu. More will be said of Persia later
on. Let it be said now that contact with Europe would lead to profound changes
in Persia, who would rise the crescent banner and become a rallying point for
all Muslims throughout the world. Italian Rule in Egypt The Venetian occupation of Egypt was more complex, if only because Egypt
outnumbered Venice in terms of population. Outright exploitation of the land
would therefore be impractical. Venice hadn’t taken the land alone either. She
had acted in concert with Piedmont and Tuscany and had used their own strengths
to complement her own. The Piedmontese by now had the best army in Italy (which
wasn’t saying much) but also one of the best in Europe, if a touch small.
Italians had flocked to Turin from the other independent states and bolstered
its numbers. The campaigns in Egypt were a welcome opportunity to flex its
muscles in ways the European context wouldn’t allow. Tuscany had been
developing a reputation for good administration, which was very much deserved.
As Piedmontese soldiers and Venetian merchants cleared the way, Florentine
officials and administrators worked to ensure that the Italian presence in Egypt
would not be transitory. The Venetians split the Egyptian population into
factions. The Coptic Christians were on top (and the patriarch of Alexandria was
able to maintain a certain independence from Rome). Next followed the city
inhabitants and the middle classes. Last were the rural inhabitants. All of
these could, however, look down at the Negro who was enslaved (although it must
be said the slave trade ceased under Venetian rule: no new slaves were
imported). Ultimately however, the
occupation of Egypt was a necessary step in Venice’s real plan: the digging of
a canal between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, thus allowing a direct
maritime route to India and Asia. Venetian engineers had argued the case for
such a canal before the Great Council itself, in a series of secret meetings
that were of strategic importance for Venice’s future. With that Canal, made
possible thanks to gunpowder and improved technology, Venice could once again
claim a central role in world-wide commerce. Work on the Canal of St. Catherine
began in 1714 and progressed far faster then Venice had dared hope. By 1720 the
canal had been dug. In 1721, Venetian ships docked at Lahore. Venice took the
opportunity to modernise her efficient but antiquated fleet. The Frigates and
galleys she hadn’t built for the Atlantic, she built for the Indian Ocean.
With possession of the Canal, Venice reclaimed her position as a major economic
and commercial player in world-wide finance. Suddenly Italy was important once
again and this importance would be felt in the later decades. The Reaction of Louis the XIVth: the Third War of the Pyrenees To say that Louis the 14th was unhappy with the developments
in the east would be an euphemism. With Spain and Austria suddenly claiming
imperial status, Louis wanted a similar title for himself. IN 1709, he massed
his armies and marched them towards the Rhine, this time with the intent of
smashing Hapsburg resistance. Invasions into the north and south-east were checked but Louis did manage
to smash the Spanish forces in Alsace, which he claimed as his own. However the
Hapsburg coalition of nations managed to halt any further conquests. After the
battle of Thionville in 1710, the old and tired Louis the XIVth accepted the
Treaty of Luxembourg which essentially ratified French control of Alsace but
little else. It was clear that any French empire would have to be claimed
elsewhere. Louis died, bitter and disappointed in 1715. Europe after Louis the XIVth: Spain Charles the 2nd passed away in 1716 and was succeeded by
Philip the 5th. Matteo Cazzaniga had died in 1691, at the ripe age of
eighty two, but not before preparing his successor, his son-in-law Adelfio Della
Rocca, husband of Matteo’s youngest daughter Vanessa. Della Rocca was an
accomplished financier and economist (such a profession was now legitimate after
almost a century of Cazzaniga’s governmental reforms) and had caught
Matteo’s eye in a series of political manoeuvres in the Cortes and in the
Milanese Senate. Della Rocca picked up the mantle that Matteo’s death had let
fall. It should be said however that by now, the relationship between the
monarch and the Primado had altered. Far from the war-obsessed, detached rule of
the first few Philips, all the kings since Philip the 3rd had
undergone a deep and rigorous training and intensive studies. The reigns of
Philip the 4rd, Charles the 2nd and now Philip the 5th
would see energetic kings, who were capable statesmen and administrators as well
as valiant men-at-arms. The Primados, more and more, were executors of the
king’s commands rather then initiators of policy themselves. At Cazzaniga’s
behest, the king had never dissolved the Cortes but kept them active, if mostly
powerless. This parliament would offer various nobles and dignitaries the forum
to vent their objections, fears and positions, and allow the rulers a clear
understanding of the mood of the still powerful and influent aristocracy. Spain
prospered, but was still slowly losing ground to the new powers in the north. England between
the XVIIth and XVIIIth century In England, after the Dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell, the Stuarts were recalled to the throne. They showed, however, to have scarce learned the lesson of the Civil War and within a few short years were conspiring against the Parliament. Finally, the parliamentarians could stand it no more and deposed King Charles and the House of Stuart from the royal throne forevermore. Instead, Parliament resolved to call a Protestant lord to the throne and after a few months of debate (in which candidates such as the Duke William of Orange, a minor Dutch noble, were vetted and rejected) finally the choice fell on the cadet line of the ruling House of Sweden. Oswald of Trondheim-Vasa landed in England in 1689 with a small but tough Swedish expedition, and, flanked by cheering crowds, marched into London where he took an oath to respect and obey Parliament’s prerogatives and defend the Faith (he converted from strict Lutheranism to Anglicanism: “London is worth a mass” he said, paraphrasing a French king). Such was the Glorious Revolution. England would emerge from the wars of the seventeenth century as arguably the most democratic of European governments. Power was now clearly in the hands of the landed gentry and the merchant houses. Such power was used to step up British exploration of the world and colonisation. IN 1701 England bought the Bahamas from Spain. In 1705, with the Act of Union, Scotland and England were united into one nation. Holland Holland continued her mission of exploration and exploitation. A few
short wars with the English had clearly shown this nation the difficulties of
competing with larger countries. By the end of the seventeenth century, Holland
had lost most if not all her possessions in the New World. Instead, cautiously,
carefully, Holland established even closer ties with Spain: the two economies
were complementary. In 1698, William of Orange successfully negotiated a series
of Dutch free-ports and settlements in Latin America: these ports would have
exclusive rights to ship goods from Latin America to Holland in exchange for a
tax. The settlements would administer themselves according to Dutch law and
remain steadfastly Protestant but its citizens would be expected to defend the
Empire from any external threat. Dutch settlements were placed in Central
America and Peru, with the intent of revitalising the economy of these regions.
It came therefore as no surprise that, following the Venetian example, in 1735
the Dutch gathered funds to begin the digging of a canal in Panama that would
link the Atlantic to the Pacific. Such a project immediately caused strains in
her relationship with Spain (who had simply never thought to dig the canal
herself): the Dutch were expecting exclusive rights to passage through the
canal. Spain would have none of it. Della Rocca and the Duke of Zealand
negotiated a compromise by which the Dutch would administer the canal, charging
a passage to all ships, and only Spanish, Dutch or allied nations could use it.
Spain would supply manpower to the project. The Flanders The Catholic Netherlands, or Belgium, was thriving as part of the Spanish
economic system. The Flanders had been one of the economic centres of Europe and
after Spanish domination had followed the same fate of the empire, declining as
Spain declined and rising as Spain rose. Having access to the Atlantic, and
being in direct contact with the more vibrant northern European economies,
however, meant that Belgium, unlike Italy, would be more fully aware of economic
trends and more capable of adapting to them. Many Italian banks would open
offices in Antwerp and Brussels and compete with the pre-existing Belgian
houses. Italy and Belgium would see their economies growing closer, despite
their geographical distance. Belgium would supply many administrators and
colonists to the Empire and to Latin America. The Northern Confederation The Northern Confederation, founded by Gustav Adolph of Sweden back in
1632, was undergoing its own vicissitudes. The member states had benefited from
the decades of relative peace: Louis the 14th’s wars had hardly
reached the northern lands. The Hanseatic League prospered and entered the
Atlantic trade. The Confederation however soon found that peace bred devils of
its own. For starters, the Protestant league was divided between Calvinists (who
won over Denmark and Saxony) and strict Lutheranism, prevailing in Sweden and
Prussia. The other member states were divided along similar lines. Protestants
are no more tolerant then Catholics and relations between the member states were
strained. Also Prussia was beginning to grow and develop under the House of
Hohenzollern, who received the title of Kings in 1701. Prussia was aggressive,
militaristic and expansionist. Prussia’s
area of expansion could only be eastwards and this brought her into conflict
with Poland. Prussia wanted an eastern outlet and Poland wanted a northern port.
The two nations’ strategic objectives were in conflict. Poland and Russia Sobieski’s rescue of Vienna had come with a price tag. He wanted
Hapsburg support in his bid to eliminate the elective-monarchy system and
replace it with a dynastic monarchic rule. With more and more of the
Austrians’ attention focused to the south-east, Soibeski’s wish was granted
and the Haspburgs backed the “White Coup” in Leopolis in 1693, where
Sobieski gathered the Diet and proclaimed himself and his dynasty kings of
Poland in perpetuity. Most nobles rebelled against this claim but Sobieski could
count of support from Austria and Sweden (against Prussian and French
interests). His forces met and shattered a rebel army outside Krakow in 1696 and
after that, backed by the aid of the Jesuits, Sobieski could consolidate his
reign. Ironically, the heavy-handed way in which the Papacy had involved itself
in Polish politics caused an initial fracture between the Polish people and the
Church: in later decades, Poland would become a hotbed of anti-clericalism. By the first decades of the eighteenth century, Poland was facing
pressure from the east where the Principality of Moscow had forged the empire of
Russia and was now marching westwards. The Russians wanted access to the warm
waters of the Mediterranean but these objectives conflicted with Austria and her
newborn Eastern Roman Empire. Russia would try to weaken Austria’s hold by
fomenting religious revolts, Russia maintaining herself resolutely Orthodox and
serving as an external source of pressure on the Hapsburg empire. Indeed the
Russians refused to recognise the Austrian claim to the title of Eastern
emperor, something the Czars had claimed from themselves since Ivan the Terrible
had wed the last daughter of Constantine the Paleologist back in 1467. Russia faced an enemy to the north-west. Sweden had Finland tight in her
hands and was now advancing eastwards into Karelia. After their victory at
Poltava, the Swedes seemed to be masters of the north-east, although the
Russians put up a fierce resistance further south. Peter the Great had to
withdraw the capital from St Petersburg to Moscow but funnelled troops into
Ukraine. Prussia would naturally seek to split Poland between her and Russia
while the Swedes would be natural allies of the Poles and the Austrians. Prussia
also saw Austria as a competitor in the southern German states. All this would
lead to friction between the member states of the Northern Confederation, with
Sweden and Prussia butting heads in the Council of Princes. Amidst this tension,
the other northern German states would look to Prussia more and more while
Denmark would find itself crushed (politically and culturally) between the two
contenders. Southern Catholic Germany, after the dissolution of the Holy Roman
Empire, was a hodgepodge of little states, some no larger then two thousand
inhabitants. France and Austria would contend for influence and leadership
amidst these states. One of them, the Kingdom of Bavaria, would rise to
prominence and begin absorbing many of its neighbours. However, its development
would be curtailed by the intense control of the two powers to her east and
west. Italy Italy was undergoing a period of deep economic growth. As a fully
integrated part of the Spanish economic system, Italy benefited from the
Empire’s economic rise. However she was still geographically condemned to
being a backwater, or would have been if not for the fall of the Ottoman empire
and opening of St. Catherine’s Canal. With this man-made waterway, Venice, and
Italy, suddenly became the cross-roads between the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean
and most maritime trade between North Europe and Asia would have to go through
her. This situation also lead to the consolidation of the Entete between Venice,
Piedmont and Tuscany. One of their victims would be Genoa, who saw her own
ambitions frustrated by this small concert of states. The rest of the peninsula
was divided between the small city states of central Italy, the Spanish
dominations in Milan, Naples and Sicily and the Papal States. Milan prospered as
an important economical centre for Italy and central Europe. Spanish control of
the region wasn’t as stringent as it had been decades before and the governor
was usually an Italian. Naples and Sicily tended to be more backwards. Cut off
from any major industry and commerce, this part of Italy was good at supplying
manpower for the colonies in Latin America. Cazzaniga had guessed this when he
began enrolling colonists from this part of the peninsula. Between 1609 and 1710
some 40% of the population of Naples and Sicily was settled in Latin America. As
a result, what was one of the oldest inhabited areas of the Mediterranean was
now in many parts uninhabited. Persia A new and old power in the European milieu was Persia. Following the fall
of the Ottoman Empire, the empire, ruled by the Safavid dynasty, was once more
directly in contact with the West. After the fall of Arabia to Venice in the mid
eighteenth century, Persia would become the only independant Muslim state north
of the Sahara and west of the Ganges. As a result, Muslims from throughout the
world flocked to this nation. The years between 1715 (battle of Bagdhad) and
1735 are called the Years of Reconstruction, in which the Persians, under the
dynamic reign of the Safavids, underwent a series of forced modernizations of
the military, the bureaucracy and the economy, the all to better compete with
the Europeans. Persia’s re-occupation of Mesopotamia wasn’t smooth as could
be hoped: the Sunnite majority feared the rule from their Shi’ite neighbours
but the Emperors managed to temper the zeal of the more intransigent imams. IN
1733, Bagdhad, the ancient Ctestiphon, was proclaimed capital of the empire once
more. The years that followed would see Persia exert pressure on Austria and
Venice alike, her goal the liberation of all the lands of Islam and access to
the Mediterranean. Over the next few years, contact would be made with France
and Russia, both of whom were perceived as allies in Persia’s schemes. End of Chapter One |
