As far as the official history of Spain is concerned, the reign of Felipe II was, if anything, even more important than that of his father Carlos V, who by a slow process of piecemeal abdication from 1550 onwards left his son as king of Castile, Aragon and the Italian possession of Naples and Sicily as well as the Netherlands and newly conquered American and African territories. Felipe II became King of Portugal in 1581 and during his reign the Spanish began the exploitation of colonies as far afield as the Philippines, which were named after him. The expression "The empire on which the sun never sets" was coined during reign of Felipe II and reflects the extent and power of the Spanish empire at the time.
On the military front, the reign began well with victories against the French at Saint Quentin and Gravelines in 1557 and 1558 and a little later the major victory against the Turks at Lepanto in 1571. However, Felipe is best remembered for losing a large part of Spain's Dutch possessions, which declared independence from Spain in 1581, and the crushing defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English and the intemperate weather conditions in 1588. Although historians attribute these victories and defeats to Spain, they were in fact Atlantic campaigns serving Castilian foreign policy and Mediterranean Catalonia had no inclination to get involved.
Phillip's main contribution to the Siglo de Oro was the building of the great monastery-palace of El Escorial and his decision in 1561 to turn the nearby small town of Madrid into the capital of the Spanish Empire, beginning a building programme that would be continued by his successors. From a Catalan point of view, the decision to concentrate administration and decision-making in a town chosen mainly for its central location changed the course of history.
Stuck in the middle of Castile's vast central meseta, Madrid is the highest capital of any major European country. Unlike most other cities, it is not set on the coast or a navigable river and, although located in the centre of the Iberian peninsula, in the 16th century this made it impossible to get to. This meant a series of radial caminos reals or royal roads had to be built in order to connect the capital with the provinces and there is no other country to which the term centralism can be more aptly applied.
All public investment since the time of Felipe II has been based political rather than economic considerations and roads, railway lines and even flight routes fan out from Madrid deliberately marginalising the towns on the periphery. Prioritising the capital has meant that private investors have had to pay for transport infrastructure with the resulting need for profit, hence the high cost of toll motorways in Catalonia.
Airports in Spain are controlled by a national board AENA, which prioritises international flights to Madrid making it difficult for international businessmen to get directly to Barcelona or Bilbao. Similarly, the Mediterranean corridor, the freight railway linking Barcelona, Valencia, Cartagena, Malaga and Algeciras with Europe has been repeatedly blocked by central government in favour of a Central corridor connecting Madrid with Europe by blasting a tunnel through the Pyrenees at a much higher cost. Modern national transport policy is a direct consequence of Felipe II's decision to make the small town of Madrid the capital of his empire in 1561.
Another consequence of the decision was that unlike other provincial capitals located on rivers or the coast, Madrid had no history of commerce and so had no merchant bourgeoisie or skilled tradesmen. It was initially a city populated by courtiers and government officials and its business life was dependent on its role as a centre of government. This favoured the aversion of the Castilian nobility to work and money-making mentioned in an earlier chapter. To this day, Madrid businesses depend as much on government contracts as they do on competing for international markets giving them an unfair advantage over provincial capitals such as Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao or Seville.
Another cause for Catalan concern was the consolidation of the Spanish Inquisition and Felipe's general religious intolerance against not only Jews and Muslims but also Protestants. This not only had a detrimental effect on Catalan trade but also is a cornerstone of the Black Legend. For Northern European historians, it was the violence with which the military campaign was conducted against Dutch Protestants that sealed the Spanish reputation for cruelty. To this day, Spain's military commander in the Dutch campaign, the Duke of Alba, is the bogeyman that haunts children's nightmares in Holland.
Felipe II is famously quoted as saying "Before suffering the slightest damage to religion in the service of God, I would lose all of my estates and a hundred lives, if I had them, because I do not wish nor do I desire to be the ruler of heretics," and the violence with which the Spanish conquistadors evangelised, but also raped and tortured, the indigenous population of the Americas adds further fuel to the Black Legend.
As he strived to enforce Catholic orthodoxy through an intensification of the Inquisition, students were barred from studying elsewhere and books printed by Spaniards outside the kingdom were banned. This brought an early introduction of censorship and propaganda, which I hinted at in the Columbus chapter but was used for many other purposes.
Admittedly, the School of Salamanca flourished but none of this benefitted Catalonia, in general. or Barcelona, in particular, which being a sea port has long been an entry point for new and unconventional ideas to the peninsula. The city's prosperity has always been based on the fact that it's a difficult to control melting pot, which contrasts sharply with the closed mentality of land-locked Central Spain.
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This excerpt is taken from the Chapter 12 of my forthcoming book 'Catalonia Is Not Spain: A Historical Perspective'
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