History of Lisbon IV
Filipino Domain
Philip I of Portugal, the first Portuguese Hapsburg, is thus the first king of Hispania. Although since 1492 the Catholic monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon have dominated what is now Spain, the title of King of the Spains was initially used to when Philip II conquered Portugal and so, in fact, all the Spains.
Philip I initially attempts to reconcile the interests of the nobility in acquiring more territories in Europe, the Clergy in defeating the Protestants and the bourgeoisie to eliminate competition and piracy of English and Dutch. All boats capable of military action Lisbon, Seville and Barcelona are brought together in Armada that is sent against England. Due to a major storm and the expertise of British Admirals, the fleet is destroyed. This defeat finally converts the King of Nobility territorial interests. Large armies (the Thirds) mercenaries, paid by merchants and aristocrats controlled by large de sangre pure-Old Christian, as the Duke of Alba, are trained and cross Europe to take the cities and fertile lands of the Netherlands for the benefit Calvinists Nobility of that.
Meanwhile the Dutch and English dominate the seas, and unable to win the Spanish territorial empires of Mexico and Peru, concentrate on taking the factories, ports and coastal colonies of the Portuguese, who traffic in Lisbon. Ports are taken northeastern Brazil, Luanda in Angola, ports of East Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, Malacca and the Moluccas, the island of Taiwan, trade license in Japan and other ports.
Lisbon, with its merchants already under persecution of the Inquisition (which expropriate the crypt o-Jews and even genuine Christians), lost much of its fleet in the disaster of the Armada and they paid very high taxes to support the armies of the Spanish nobles in Europe , now loses most of its ports and products and is finally and irreversibly ruined, rapidly losing importance. In 1598 the catastrophe is deepened by an earthquake and pestilence. Finally Philip II of Portugal becomes exclusively Philip III of Spain and then your only son Philip IV of Spain when, on the advice of the Castilian nobility and the Portuguese territorial acquiescence of Nobles, absorbs the United Kingdom of Portugal from Spain. Lisbon, the great cosmopolitan city is now a provincial town without any influence with the great Spanish thoroughbred, then the governing conservative and fundamentalist Catholic Madrid. At this time the city loses population and economic activity, reducing the population to less than 150,000.
The buildings of this period fall into two categories: defenses against pirates from the north, and the religious buildings that appeal to loyalty to universal Catholic monarchy sought by the King were built Turret a massive building near the Palace Square, which has not survived the 1755 earthquake, the Convent de São Vicente de Fora, new walls with new provisions according to the military engineering of the era, such as the Tower Bugoi an island in the Sea of ??Silver, and fortifications in Cascais, and in Setúbal margin The South English and Dutch pirates, such as Francis Drake, make several attacks on some squares Portuguese, but do not dare to attack Lisbon.
With the economic decline and unemployment increases much misery and crime. The Spanish authorities are obliged to introduce a kind of police force, the sergeants who patrol the streets and control street crime, fights, gambling and witchcraft. According to some chronicles of the time, the murder rate in the early seventeenth century would be even higher, a city of 150,000 people, as today in Lisbon with 2,500,000.
The problems in the city for trade increase when the Catalans, as a people merchant of Lisbon, also oppressed by taxes Castilian, revolt in 1636. Is Portugal to Madrid comes require men and funds to defeat the Catalans in an attempt to use the of Portugal against Catalonia.
It is then that the merchants of the city are allied to small and middle nobility. They try to convince the Duke of Braganza, Dom João, to accept the throne, but this, like the rest High Nobility, is enjoyed by Madrid and only the prospect of becoming the King finally convinces. The conspirators beset the Governor's Palace, hailing the new King John IV, initially with the support of Cardinal Richelieu of France, and then resumed the old alliance with England.
The gold of Brazil
The Lisbon post-Restoration is a city increasingly dominated by Catholic religious orders. More than 40 monasteries are founded in the city in addition to the 30 existing ones. The second and third sons who receive no inheritance from his father, and before that was engaged in trade and businesses overseas, now take refuge in religious orders and live at the expense of alms-giving.
The situation of economic ruin is finally resolved, not by successful projects, but by colonial exploitation: Gold is discovered in Brazil, the current state of Minas Gerais. The Portuguese state tax charges as one-fifth of the gold mined, which begins to arrive in Lisbon in 1699 and whose revenues come quickly to several tons per year (more than 15 tons after 1730), representing almost the entire state budget.
With gold, typical works of social forces in power, the clergy and the aristocracy, are built in the new style of the Counter-Reformation, the Baroque, including the National Pantheon (or Church of Santa Engracia), several palaces and some works useful, as the Aqueduct of the Free Waters (1720).
In contrast to the wealth of the elites, the people live in poverty. The population grows with the need for hand labor for construction, to 185,000. This period are the first descriptions of Lisbon as a city dirty and degraded, only two centuries after it was known as the most prosperous and cosmopolitan Europe.
This period ends on 1 November 1755, All Saints Day, which occurs in the great Lisbon earthquake. At nine hours and forty minutes the earth begins to shake, and after about a minute, returns to calm, followed by new tremor. The population rushes to the squares with space along the river Tagus, to die drowned by the huge tsunami that comes from the Atlantic. After the earthquake, Lisbon is in ruins. The great Turret Real, Casa de Indias, the Convent do Carmo, the Court of the Inquisition, the Hospital de Todos-os-Santos are destroyed. Of the 20,000 houses of the lower classes, less solid construction, 17,000 are destroyed. Survive the rich Bairro Alto, some solid stone buildings and few other areas. Here are looting and a huge fire. In the end, of 180,000 inhabitants, more than 35,000 have died and many others lost their entire property. Is this catastrophe that gives space to the Marquis of Pombal trying to implement reforms in Portugal scientific and liberals already used successfully in Europe, the new political and economic theories of the Enlightenment.
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