0:00 Today, Spain is the fourth largest country in Europe, spread over 195000 square miles. It shares its border with Porf in the West and France and Andorra in the North. Along with this, these Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and these Canary Islands in the Atlantic are also under the control of Spain. But this same Spain used to control this entire area of 5 million square miles in the beginning of the 19th century, which was spread from North America to Argentina in South America and not only this, but on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the Philippines in Eastern Asia was also under the control of the Spanish Empire. Here the question arises that how did a small country create such a big empire and then
0:46 what happened that in just a few years the world's first and fastest growing super power completely collapsed and remained only to this one country. This is the story of a country which became the world super power at the fastest pace in human history and then its downfall also happened at the same speed. The truth is that in today's video we will know how Spain became the world's first super power and then how the mighty Spanish Empire Let us go back to the 18th century when today's Spain was under the control of Muslims and it was then called Al Andaj. Muslims ruled Spain for about 800 years. Now in these 800 years, there was a lot of development in science, philosophy and architecture in Spain, but the
1:33 Muslim Empire had to face constant resistance from the Christians, which is called the Reconquista. These were actually battles that were fought by the Christian Empires around Spain for several centuries to expel Muslims from Spain. By the end of the 15th century, Christians had regained control of 90% of Spain and Muslims' control was limited to Granada. So in the 15th century, today's Spain was divided into three Christian and one Islamic kingdoms. Then in 1469, to strengthen Christian control and finally expel Muslims from Spain, Queen Isabel of the Kingdom of Castile and King Ferdinand the Second of Aragon married each other and together they fought the Muslim armies in 1492. of Granada and
2:20 captured the whole of Spain. After taking full control of Spain, now these Christian Kingdoms had the opportunity to explore the rest of the world and benefit from new international trade routes. Right along with Spain, the Portuguese Empire had already explored the Atlantic Ocean about 70 years earlier and discovered trade routes from beneath Africa to South Asia and East Asia, due to which it was slowly breaking the trade monopoly of the Ottoman Empire, because at that time the Ottoman Empire controlled all the trade in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. In such a situation, in 1480, an Italian explorer Christopher Columbus proposed this idea to the Spanish Empire that if the world is round, then instead of going beneath Africa to go to Asia,
3:07 if one goes to the western side of Europe, then also Asia can be reached and that too through a shorter route. At that time no one knew what was on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand liked this idea of Columbus very much because they wanted the Spanish Empire to also Discover your trade route as soon as possible like the Portuguese Empire. On 3 August 1492, Christopher Columbus set out from the Spanish city of Palo della Frontera on three small ships and reached this island after a journey of two months. He thought that perhaps he had reached an island in Eastern Asia. He named this island San Salvador and after this, he returned to Spain in 1493 via Bahaman, Northern Cuba and Hispa Niola and
3:53 told Queen Isabela and King Ferdinand that there are many undiscovered islands on the western side where no European has reached till now. The King and Queen were very happy with this discovery and they sent Columbus again in 1493 with 17 ships on a journey to this western side. This time Columbus discovered all the Caribbean Islands and also met the locals there and by 1496 he reached Spain again. Then in 1498, Columbus came here for the third time. This time he felt that he had discovered some undiscovered islands of Asia. Columbus was discovering but in this third journey he realized that he had actually discovered an unknown continent.
4:39 Columbus went on this journey for the fourth and last time in 1502. This time he discovered Central American countries like Panama, Jamaica, and Nicaragua. But during this time he fell seriously ill and had to return to Spain and then he died in 1506. Although Columbus could not discover a short route from Europe to Asia, the discovery of this new continent created a stir in the whole world and these discoveries of Columbus were going to change the trajectory of the whole world. Due to these discoveries, a problem was also created in Spain and Portugal as to who would have the control of this new land. To find a solution to this, the Treaty of Torts was signed between the two umpires, according to which the world outside Europe was
5:25 divided into these two lines. The entire area in yellow color came under the control of the Spanish Empire and the entire area in between came under the control of the Portuguese Empire. That is why in South America Despite being a Portuguese, Brazil became a part of the Portuguese Empire and today, while Spanish is spoken in the whole of South America, Brazil is the only country in the whole of South America where Portuguese is spoken. After this treaty, the Spanish Empire started the work of making a permanent settlement on this new continent. First of all, a city named Sao Doming was built on the island of Hispaniola. After this, gradually by the year 1515, people started coming to the rest of the Caribbean islands and Central and Cuba became the head quarter of the Spanish Empire in this region. On the
6:11 other hand, the work of exploring the rest of America was going on continuously. Spanish explorers had reached the Yucatan Islands when they got some reports that there is a very powerful and rich civilization on the western side and to search for it, in 1518, an explorer named Hernan Cortez landed on the coastline of Mexico with his few companions. Actually, at that time Mexico was ruled by the Spanish Empire whose capital was Nocturnal, a city built on a lake. After a continuous battle of 2 years, Hern captured Nok Tetel in 1520 and this city was later named New Mexico City and later this city also became the administrative capital of the Spanish Empire, but
6:58 a big problem here was that the Spanish people had brought many diseases with them for which the local people did not have immunity and as a result, millions of people started dying from these diseases. The Spanish Empire had just taken control of this Northern side when they got the news that there are many advanced civilizations like the Aztecs in South America. At that time, on the Western side of South America, along with the Andes Mountain Range, in this entire area where Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia are today, their civilization ruled. In the next 12 years, the Spanish Empire captured this entire area as well and this time the biggest role in their victory was of those diseases which they had brought with them from Europe because most of the local people
7:44 died of these diseases due to lack of immunity, so there were very few people to fight the Spanish. They used to escape and as a result Spanish armies used to capture the cities easily. So in 1530 Spanish Empire had taken control of this entire yellow highlighted area. Till now this Northern America which we know today as USA and Canada was not discovered. Only in 1539 a Spanish explorer Hernando Ristorado travelled till Florida Georgia and Texas but Spanish Empire did not officially establish any colony here. So while all this was happening here in America, on the other side of Pacific Ocean Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan discovered these islands in Eastern Asia which we know today as Philippines. By 1570
8:31 Spanish Empire had taken complete control of Philippines and from here it was keeping an eye on Asian geo politics. In 16th century as Spanish Empire was expanding, it was in need of resources and money and that is why it was very aggressively searching for resources in South America. Spanish Empire had many colonies in Mexico Bolivia and Peru. Gold and silver mines were found from which gold and silver were extracted and sent to Spain. By the end of the 16th century, Spain was receiving so much gold from South America that there was no space to store it. 80% of the world's gold and silver supply was going to Spain. South America's resources were getting completely exhausted and along with that,
9:17 a strange hybrid society was being formed with the arrival of Spanish people here. On one side, there was the Metis population, which were basically those people who came from Spain and married local women here. Their children were called Metis. The second class was the Crios. These were basically those children whose parents were Spanish but they were born here in America. The third was the Peninsulars. They were also called pure blood because these were those people whose parents were Spanish. They were born in Spain itself and were sent here just to rule. So this was a kind of ruling class. By the 17th century, a tremendous conflict had started between these three classes. The Crios and the Mestizos felt that now all these No one should come from Spain to rule the areas, rather only those born here should rule here. So on one hand
10:04 these internal issues had started in the Spanish Empire, while externally also the Spanish Empire was under threat. Here British and French explorers were reaching North America and they were making their colonies here. Similarly, Britain started trying to take control of Jamaica and other Caribbean Islands from the Spanish Empire and between 1654 and 1660 there were wars between the Spanish Empire and the British to take control of these islands. In the next century, the Spanish Empire expanded only to California and Texas and built cities like Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. Then in 1808, the Spanish Empire suffered a major setback when Napoleon attacked Spain and captured the whole of Spain in just one year.
10:51 Here the Creole and Métis population present in South America saw an opportunity to gain independence from the Spanish Empire and they revolted against the Spanish Empire. Between 1808 and 1810, Wars of Independence started in all these areas. First, Argentina declared Independence in 1816, then Chile in 1818 and Colombia in 1819. 2 years later, Mexico also became free from the control of the Spanish Empire and finally in 1824, Peru also declared Independence. So literally, in just 8 years, the 400-year-old Spanish Empire collapsed. By the end of the 19th century, only Cuba, Puerto Rico,
11:38 some Caribbean islands and the Philippines were left under the control of the Spanish Empire. In 1895, finally, War of Independence started in Cuba as well, in which USA was also evolved and 3 years later, the Spanish Empire accepted defeat and these last remaining countries also went out of the control of the Spanish Empire. The country which ruled over half the world for 400 years and controlled 80% of the world's gold supply, The mighty Spanish empire was now reduced to a civilization from an island, which we today know as Spain. So this was the story of Spain. We are bringing videos related to the history and downfall of the world's great umpires and if you like this idea, then do let us know in the comments so that we can make more and more such videos. These are all the sources from which we have
12:25 consulted for this video. We will wait for your comments because the next video will be based on your suggestion. Take care of yourself, Allah Hafiz.
