Strengths And Weaknesses Of Spain In The 17th Century

During the years between 1598 and 1665 the Spanish Monarchy under the ruling of Phillip III and later on King Phillip IV faced many different challenges in this emerging country called Spain. However, Spain did not exist at this time it was ruled under the Habsburg Empire. What I shall be discussing in this assignment is the strengths and weaknesses that the Spanish Monarchy faced. During the start of the 17th Century what was known as the Habsburg Spain which was very much on the brink at the end of the Golden Age and even though it kept its populous empire the country fell into great turmoil towards the start of the 16th Century. The reason for this ‘decline’ was a cause of the defeat of the Spanish Armada and a corrupt financial crisis that in turn made the Spanish Crown to become bankrupt. The ‘decline’ of the Habsburg rule on Spain came into effect due to many factors which I shall expand on throughout the course of my essay, these included a line of week kings, there had been power struggles and all attention had been shifted onto the American colonies rather than that of the Spanish economy. Towards the close of the 17th Century, it also had led to the termination of the Habsburg Rule over the Spanish territory and with its conclusion it had about the War of the Spanish Succession. The Spanish state was established in …show more content…
He lived a very short life and his ruling was just as unfortunate as his father and his grandfathers. The economy was very weak and Spain once again had a small famine across the country. Spain’s finances were also in a bad way. Because Charles was quite young, and also quite unfit he wasn’t the best at ruling and was often ignored by those who were supposed to look up to him. During his reign, Spanish power and prestige declined extremely rapidly. The country had a huge line of famine and depression, low productive and epidemics between 1650 and the 1700’s . Spain’s economy eventually