But foreign policy did not yield equally satisfactory results. During his government, Ferdinand VI, urged by the British and the French to make common cause with one of them, had preferred a policy of peace, had also entered into an agreement with Austria and had declared himself neutral at the outbreak of the war of the Seven years. On his death, Charles III was linked to France with the “family pact” (1761). Now, no doubt, this union was indispensable, because, due to the overturning of Europe’s foreign policy, determined by the conflict with Prussia, the quarrel between France and Austria had ended, and Spain, now safe on the continent, but still forced to seek an ally in the fight against England, which was always ready to spread its hands over its colonial dominions and which had also attracted Portugal into its orbit, it had only the neighboring Bourbon monarchy at its disposal, which had interests equal to its own to defend on the seas. Furthermore, this union also brought benefits, because a treaty of alliance with Morocco (1780), that of peace, trade and friendship with Turkey (1782), peace with Tripoli (1784) and that with Algiers (1785) allowed the the Spanish navy to freely sail the Mediterranean; and because Spain managed to keep intact, or almost, its colonial dominion and to reconquer Menorca. However, Gibraltar always remained in England’s possession; participation in the Seven Years’ War and the war for the independence of the United States canceled the benefits brought to the country by the policy of reforms, once again having the opportunity to see how the expenses incurred for the defense of the possessions were much higher than the economic benefits they procured: the defense of the principle of autonomy for the English colonies contributed to the triumph of an ideal that was not the one cherished by Spain as a colonial power; given the profound crisis that troubled the French state and which increasingly alienated it from European international politics, the Franco-Hispanic union ended up benefiting France more than Spain.
According to BEHEALTHYBYTOMORROW.COM, then came the French Revolution, which, destroying the power of the firstborn branch of the Bourbon family and upsetting the foreign policy of the neighboring state, seemed to have to assign new tasks to Spain as a supporter of the rights of the Bourbons, and left her alone in the struggle against England, which could have benefited from the events: and all this while at the head of the monarchy was Charles IV (1788-1806), very weak sovereign, and power was, in fact, in the hands of the corrupt queen, Maria Luisa Theresa of Bourbon, whom politics understood as a low intrigue and also as a means to satisfy his thirst for pleasure, and of his favorite (the contemporaries they said lover), Manuel Godoy, prince de la Paz y de Bassano. For fear that it would contribute to the spread of revolutionary theories in the country, the policy of reforms came to a halt; and the war broke out when freedom was requested for Louis XVI. But the military operations did not have the desired outcome; ancien régime and the new French state, and finally, renewing the old Bourbon policy, we returned to the Franco-Spanish alliance and the war against England. However, even this policy was all a failure, for Spain gained no advantage over the continent, and in the struggle with its traditional rival it shared the failures of the Directory. Nor did the following policy have, and could not have, better success, which was a continuous swaying between the two great rivals: the Napoleonic state and the anti-French coalition; Godoy having even come to hope for a royal crown for his head, and to subordinate the interests of his country to his own interests. Once again Spain was completely excluded from sharing the benefits of military enterprises, also as an ally in which one could not trust due to the double policy followed by his minister and the discords that broke out in the very bosom of the ruling family, between the sovereign and the prince of Asturias; and, on the other hand, it was definitively defeated by England: in Trafalgar (20 October 1805) the fate of the Spanish maritime power was forever decided. And finally, having risen to arbiter of the quarrels between father and son, Napoleon ordered both of them to renounce their rights, and gave the crown of Spain to his brother Giuseppe (May 1808). in Trafalgar (20 October 1805) the fate of the Spanish maritime power was forever decided. And finally, having risen to arbiter of the quarrels between father and son, Napoleon ordered both of them to renounce their rights, and gave the crown of Spain to his brother Giuseppe (May 1808). in Trafalgar (20 October 1805) the fate of the Spanish maritime power was forever decided. And finally, having risen to arbiter of the quarrels between father and son, Napoleon ordered both of them to renounce their rights, and gave the crown of Spain to his brother Giuseppe (May 1808).
