SPAIN’S GREATNESS AND DECAY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue XXIII, 4 June 1898, Page 696

SPAIN’S GREATNESS AND DECAY.

The zenith of Spain’s greatness was just about coincident with the Renaissance, and did not last long when it was once established. The foundations of Spain’s 16th century supremacy were laid in the training which her population had in the centuries of struggle to conquer their own territory from the Moors. During these ages every Spaniard became a trained and hardy soldier, and the great mass of them became ingrained not only with the traditional Spanish pride and fanaticism, but with a sublime belief not only that they were unconquerable, but that they could conquer anything. The greatest development of the national virility was secured at the almost contemporary completion of the expulsion of the Moors from Spain, and the discovery of America by Columbus in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. The magnitude of the Spanish monarchy assumed more imposing proportions under the subsequent reign of Charles V., who combined by inheritance and election the sovereignty of the greater part of Europe, and, as a result of the conquests of Cortez, Pizarro and others, practically all of the new world. But that the seeds of decay were sown in that colossal reign was shown under Philip 11.. when the Netherlands revolted against him, and Great Britain checked his naval supremacy. There is no doubt that the exercise of absolute power and the lust for wealth, and the demoralisation which sets in when a conqueror sits down to fatten on the fruits of his conquest were the main factors of Spain’s decay. A remarkable feature of that age was the rapidity of the change from rising to decaying strength. When Columbus appeared before Ferdinand and Isabella to plead for vessels to sail to the westward they had not quite attained the complete control of Spanish territory. A quarter of a century later their grandson. Charles V., ruled one of the greatest empires in territorial extent that the world has ever seen. About 70 years after the accession and 32 years after his abdication, Great Britain and the Dutch destroyed the naval supremacy of Spain. Three centuries of actual decay followed; but it would be unwise to conclude that Spain is now in the last process of dissolution. Her lowest ebb was apparently in the early part of the century, when the corruption of the monarchy and the lassitude of the people permitted Napoleon’s armies to practically overrun the kingdom without a blow, until an ill-considered act sent the whole population into a flame of guerrilla warfare. Since then, and particularly during the last quarter of a century. Spain has made some progress; and, while, bankrupt, prejudiced and isolated, she is several stages in advance of where she was under the last Isabella.