SPAIN 213 dinia (a conquest of Aragon), Milan, and the rest of the Netherlands to Austria, Sicily to Savoy, and Gibraltar and Minorca to England. Under his reign Aragon, Valencia, and Catalo- nia lost the last of their constitutional rights. The great affairs of the state were managed by the queen, Elizabeth Farnese, and her minis- ter, Cardinal Alberoni. In Italy, Naples and Sicily were conquered by the infante Carlos in 1734-'5, and Parma gained for the infante Philip in 1748. Philip's son Ferdinand VI. (1748-'59) was disabled by melancholy from taking active part in the government. He was succeeded by his half brother Charles III. (!759-'88), previously king of Naples, with whose reign a better era began to dawn. Hav- ing signed the Bourbonic family compact with France in 1761, he was involved in the French- English war, in which, as well as in an expedi- tion against Morocco and Algiers in 1775, and in the expensive siege of Gibraltar during a second war with England, the Spanish arms were not successful ; but the internal prosperi- ty of the country was greatly promoted by the wise administration of the king, who was as- sisted by a number of enlightened statesmen, Aranda, Campomanes, Olavidez, and Florida Blanca; agriculture, commerce, and trade be- gan to revive ; and the population during his reign showed a considerable increase. The power of the inquisition was greatly restricted, the Jesuits were expelled from all the Spanish dominions (1767), and the boundaries of the empire enlarged by the addition of Minorca and Louisiana. He was followed by his son larles IV. (1788-1808), who at first contin- led the reformatory policy of his father, but fter 1792 gave himself up to the pernicious ifluence of Manuel Godoy, duke of Alcudia. i.t first Spain joined the alliance against the 'rench republic, but was soon compelled to mclude the inglorious peace of Basel (1795), )y which Santo Domingo was ceded to France. In 1796 Godoy entered with France into the >ffensive and defensive league of San Ilde- fonso, and declared war against England. In 1797 the Spanish fleet was defeated near Cape 3t. Vincent, Minorca and Trinidad were oc- ipied by the English, and all the ports of Spain blockaded. Spain suffered so much from this war, and the financial embarrassment of the country became so great, that Godoy re- signed his position as prime minister, although he retained in fact a controlling influence in state affairs. In 1800 Spain ceded Louisiana to France, and in 1801 commenced, at the in- stigation of Bonaparte, a war against Portu- gal, the ally of England, which was termina- ted by the peace of Badajoz, and resulted in the cession of Olivenga by Portugal to Spain. By the treaties of Luneville and Amiens, Spain ceded Trinidad to England, Parma was an- nexed to the Cisalpine republic, and the prince of Parma, a descendant of the royal house of Spain, was made king of Etruria. On the reopening of the war between France and England in 1803, France demanded, in accor- dance with the league of San Ildefonso, the assistance of Spain, which, desirous of pre- serving a neutral position, agreed to pay to France a monthly subsidy of 4,000,000 pias- ters. The capture of several Spanish vessels by the English compelled Spain to declare war against England, Dec. 12, 1804. At Trafal- gar, Oct. 21, 1805, the combined French and Spanish fleets were totally defeated by Nel- son, and Spain alone lost 12 ships of the line. The misery which these unfortunate wars brought upon Spain led to the formation of a powerful opposition to Godoy, who made some feeble and fruitless efforts to extricate his country from the alliance. The success of Napoleon in the war against Prussia thwarted these efforts ; he demanded and obtained from Spain two auxiliary armies, one of which, con- sisting of 16,000 men, was sent to Denmark, the other to Tuscany. Spain had also to sub- mit to the disgraceful treaty of Fontainebleau, in consequence of which French troops were marched into the country. An insurrection compelled Charles IV. to abdicate in favor of the prince of Asturias (March 18, 1808), who ascended the throne as Ferdinand VII. Soon after, however, in a letter to Napole- on, he represented his resignation as compul- sory, and revoked it. Both father and son courted the patronage of Napoleon, who, ac- cepting the office of arbiter, invited them to Bayonne, and there extorted from both, as well as from the infantes Don Carlos and Don An- tonio, a resignation of their claims to the Spanish throne. Napoleon then called a junta of 150 Spanish and American delegates for the purpose of forming a new constitution, and on June 6, 1808, declared his brother Joseph king of Spain and the Indies. The new constitution was adopted and sworn to by the king and the delegates, July 6. On July 9 Joseph depart- ed for Spain, where insurrections had already broken out in Navarre, Aragon, Estremadura, Castile, Leon, and Galicia. England, on July 4, made peace witb "the Spanish people," recog- nized Ferdinand VII. as king of Spain, and vigorously supported the insurrection of the Spaniards, which was under the direction of a central junta. The junta, at the head of which was the aged ex-minister Florida Blanca, called into the field half a million of combatants, under Palafox, Castafios, Romana, Ballesteros, and other national leaders, who were supported by English armies under Moore, Baird, Welling- ton, Beresford, and others. A fierce guerilla warfare was waged throughout the country ; Saragossa, Gerona, Cadiz, Tarragona, and Va- lencia were heroically defended. Until 1812 the war was carried on with varying success ; yet the greater part of Spain fell into the hands of the French, who were commanded by Su- chet, Soult, Massena, Marmont, Ney, Macdon- ald, and other generals, and the Spanish pa- triots and the English maintained themselves only in the western provinces and in Portugal.
