How Spain came to be: chance or destiny?
The death of an infante at age two could have redrawn the Iberian map. Spain took shape through a series of dynastic accidents.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
How Spain came to be: chance or destiny?
Spain as a political entity was not the product of a carefully drawn plan, but the result of premature deaths, unexpected inheritances and dynastic lines that died out by pure chance. A quick look at the succession of the Catholic Monarchs (the joint rule of Isabella and Ferdinand in the late 15th century) reveals a string of accidents: after Isabella's death, Ferdinand the Catholic remarried and had a son who died at birth. Had the boy survived, the crown of Aragon would have separated from that of Castile, breaking the dynastic union that gave rise to modern Spain.
Infante Miguel de la Paz, heir to Castile, Aragon and Portugal, died at the age of two, dashing the possibility of an Iberian union under a single crown. And Juana la Orate (Joan the Mad), fourth in the line of succession, ended up inheriting only because everyone ahead of her died or was ruled out. If Juana la Beltraneja had inherited Castile, we might today be speaking of a union with Portugal. Defenders of manifest destiny argue that Spain was a "universal unity of destiny", but the facts suggest that every step toward unification hinged on a failed pregnancy, a child's death or an unexpected will. The question of whether Spain was founded by chance finds more than one affirmative answer in the data.
Spain as a political entity was not the product of a carefully drawn plan, but the result of premature deaths, unexpected inheritances and dynastic lines that died out by pure chance. A quick look at the succession of the Catholic Monarchs (the joint rule of Isabella and Ferdinand in the late 15th century) reveals a string of accidents: after Isabella's death, Ferdinand the Catholic remarried and had a son who died at birth. Had the boy survived, the crown of Aragon would have separated from that of Castile, breaking the dynastic union that gave rise to modern Spain.
Infante Miguel de la Paz, heir to Castile, Aragon and Portugal, died at the age of two, dashing the possibility of an Iberian union under a single crown. And Juana la Orate (Joan the Mad), fourth in the line of succession, ended up inheriting only because everyone ahead of her died or was ruled out. If Juana la Beltraneja had inherited Castile, we might today be speaking of a union with Portugal. Defenders of manifest destiny argue that Spain was a "universal unity of destiny", but the facts suggest that every step toward unification hinged on a failed pregnancy, a child's death or an unexpected will. The question of whether Spain was founded by chance finds more than one affirmative answer in the data.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (15 replies).
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