Can you imagine going up to Philip II and telling him that in about 100 years, his empire would have a Bourbon king in El Escorial? No more Netherlands, no more Portugal, no more dominance over the East Indies, etc... All of that would go north. London, Paris, and The Hague had the power and Spain would be cute in the 18th century, even have more territories snatched.
Why did this happen? Why did they fail to modernize? They had everything at their disposal, an empire which the sun never sets, something unforeseen in all of mankind at the time, and yet they failed to modernize.
Why not build observatories and fund scientists and inventors? Why not establish an illustrious Spanish East India Company? Why not build a city in the mouth of the Mississippi river? Invest in the Platine region? They had everything while England, France, and the Dutch Republic were weak.
It blows my mind how Spain under Philip IV and Charles was still thinking they were in the 16th century while in reality, they were not.
>He [Don Juan of Austria] was the illegitimate son of Philip IV and La Calderona, an actress who had initially attracted Philip because of a piece of intriguing gossip: The Duque de Medina de las Torres told the king that lover after lover had failed to deflower the young thespian because of a certain anatomical oddity (most likely a thick hymen). The king, who always wanted what he could not have, marched straight off to see her, only to meet the same fate as the other swains.
>After corrective surgery the two became lovers.
Source:
Talty, Stephan. “Portobelo.” Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan’s Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe That Ended the Outlaws’ Bloody Reign. New York: Crown Publishing Group (NY), 2007. 123. Print.
Further Reading:
John of Austria (the Younger) / Don Juan José de Austria (John Joseph of Austria)
Shortly after the succession of Philip IV, Portugal revolted in the Portuguese Restoration War. What if either the revolt was unsuccessful, or never even happened?
One thing is for sure more Protestantism insade HRE
What did the people of the Philippines islands call themselves before the spanish colonization? I imagine they did not see themselves as one people and had miltiple names. Was there an attempt after independence from spain 1898 or later america 1945 by nationalists to rename their country after something other than the "guy who first colonized and oppressed them".
Is it something to do with the educational curriculum, or do historians not regard him as a "true" King of England?
Does this daughter become queen after Mary's death, or does Elizabeth? Who is the regent, considering the girl will be quite young when her mother dies? Who would she be likely to marry?
