XVIII - History Lab

Moroccan Embassy to Charles III

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:25 +0000

Painting showing the presence of a Moroccan embassy in the presence of Charles III. This is the embassy carried out by Uṯmān al-Maknāsī, envoy of the Moroccan sultan to agree both the renewal of peace between the two kingdoms and to discuss the release of Muslim captives in Spain. Diplomatic relations between Spain and the Kingdom of Morocco date back to the 16th century, when the Sa’adi monarchs needed Spanish protection to deal with Ottoman and Algerian expansion in the western Mediterranean. What makes this period, in which Charles III played a leading role in the 18th century, special is the desire on both sides to close a chapter of centuries of mutual harassment. This diplomatic encounter was followed by the extremely important peace agreements with the Ottoman Empire and later with Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli in the 1890s. This was also a period when political primacy was no longer in the Mediterranean and treaties of peace and friendship were being forged in an attempt to promote trade.

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Jubrique (Malaga. Cadastre of Ensenada)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:25 +0000

It is important to mention some aspects in relation to this illustration. Firstly, the importance of the church as a building that articulates the space both in the city and in rural areas should be emphasised. The ascription of society to a particular religion, in this case Christianity, decides that this type of building is the soul of the inhabited space. This is why we can see the importance of the church when it is represented with a larger size than the rest of the buildings. Originally, cities and towns were built around the religious building, which used to be the foundational infrastructure of the population. Secondly, the importance of the church as a centre of fiscal perception and at the same time as a generator of documentation relating to the resident population should be emphasised. Throughout the 18th century, projects to account for the resources that kings had, as well as the capacity of their states, expressed in terms of wealth and population, began to take shape. The fact that the population was fixed around the churches where they had to pay the tithe made it easier for the king’s officials to have access to this information. With the documentation generated in these churches relating to censuses, baptisms, marriages, etc., a large part of the censuses and cadastres of 18th century Spain could be drawn up.

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Trajectory of the children admitted to the Pious Work (1700-1791)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:56 +0000

In the modern age, the children conceived could often not be supported due to the precarious economic conditions of the families, as well as when the marriages lacked a formal and canonical character. In an attempt to prolong their lives, they were usually left at the doors of convents and orphanages. At this juncture, these types of religious centres carried out a social and welfare work that would not be replaced until the creation of state social systems in the 19th century. Parents who did not want to lose contact with their children often left them with a distinctive sign so that they would be able to recognise them in the future. Similarly, when the convent had to take care of the newborn, it needed to hire midwives, some of whom were often the child’s mother. However, the handing over of the child to such religious institutions was by far a guarantee of the child’s survival. As María José Pérez Álvarez states, infant infections caused enormous mortality at this early stage and if they survived, when they were handed over to families to be raised, mortality also lurked because of the deplorable hygienic conditions in which the population lived. Only a minority managed to survive and very few eventually managed to leave such institutions for a stable life.

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Geographical distribution of military aldermen (1707-1788)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:20 +0000

The importance of the military element in the War of the Spanish Succession was decisive for the Austracist and Bourbon forces. The prominence of the armies and militias in the field of operations was followed by the need for Philip V to control the territories of the Crown of Aragon, for which the army was a relevant element. After the collapse of the foral regime, new criteria were established for the selection of personnel for the regidurias, which until then had been recruited by means of insaculation. The militarisation of the Aragonese territory was due to the fact that most of them had sworn allegiance to Charles of Austria, which led to a distrust of the monarch, which is why a kind of alliance was established with the military corps to guarantee order and obedience. The military administration would be reinforced in these territories practically until the second half of the 18th century, specifically until 1768-1769, as José Antonio Nieves Moreno says, when the trend began to change with a progressive victory of civilianism over militarism.

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Total number of vessels chartered in the port of Alicante to Sicily (1718)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:20 +0000

The arrival of the Bourbon dynasty to power in Spain was accompanied by an extensive programme of military reforms. Among these, the need to reform the fleet was imperative. In this regard, the efforts of José Patiño were particularly noteworthy. The need for a powerful fleet was also consubstantial with the monarchy’s strategy of recovering some of the territories lost as a result of the treaties signed in 1700, which dismembered Hispanic territorial unity. In order to achieve this objective, the monarchy resorted to forced contracts with the private owners of merchant ships that crossed the Mediterranean and specifically its ports. In this sense, they were obliged to take their ships to strategic ports such as Cartagena, Barcelona and Alicante (with the penalty of 2,000 pesos if they did not do so) where they were placed under the orders of the competent military. English ships were the most predominant given their active trade with the Mediterranean, with French ships in second place. According to Armando Alberola Roma, this type of measure became necessary due to the delicate situation of the Spanish navy and was an effective way of transferring troops and supplies to the Italian territories they wanted to take over, such as Sicily and Corsica. This experience would later enable Philip V to assemble an extraordinary fleet to take the city of Oran in 1732.

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Distribution of knowledge in the curriculum for the youth seminar

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:13 +0000

In 18th century Spain, attempts were made to improve the education of the population based on the initiatives proposed by the Enlightenment. The arrival of the Bourbon dynasty coincided with an analysis conceived from elitist circles that understood that Spain was in a deep decline. This presumed decadence, the product of the last years of the Habsburgs, generated the need to reverse the situation by means of different proposals to educate the population. In this case, an educational plan proposed by González Cañaveras is presented. However, the new proposal was not presented at an innocent date, 1794. Indeed, the events of the French Revolution led the Enlightenment to revise the proposed educational plans, influencing their position with the threatened monarchies. Thus, subjects such as religion were reinforced and the learning of languages such as French, which ultimately constituted a potential vehicle for the transmission of revolutionary slogans, was nuanced.

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The age at first marriage of women and men in Castile during the Modern Era

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:33 +0000

Based on the method of reconstructing families by using parish registers, numerous micro-analytical demographic studies were carried out in Spain, mainly during the 1970s and 1980s. Thanks to these studies, it was possible to compare the reproductive behaviour of the different Spanish regions and to better outline the demographic structures. A synthesis of these results from a temporal perspective was carried out by Manuel Ardit Lucas. He found four large areas throughout the Modern Age according to the average age of marriage for women: inland Spain, with the lowest age of 21; Aragon, Catalonia and the Valencian Country, with 22; the Basque Country and Asturias-Cantabria, with 23; and Galicia, with 24, the highest age. In the 18th century, age increased by one year in all regions except for the Basque Country and the Cantabrian area, which increased by two years, thus equalling the Galicians at 25 years of age. As a particularity, in Galicia, the age of women was higher than that of men, although, obviously, this was not something absolutely general. In Spain in the first half of the 19th century, there were no major changes, although according to census data throughout the century, in contrast to what happened with celibacy, the age of marriage was falling throughout the country, especially among men. Women married slightly younger but continued to do so earlier, on average 24 years of age compared to 27.5 or 28 for men. This was close to the age that characterised the Western model of marriage.

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The post The age at first marriage of women and men in Castile during the Modern Era first appeared on History Lab.