What destroyed the Spanish Empire?

Yeah I said it, he gets the blame for the collapse of the Spanish Habsburgs, wasn't his fault at all.

You can hear the birds in the background, I do apologise but Australia is like that sometimes, cockatoo's are quite rude.

Bibliography

Primary
Correspondance de Phillipe II sur les affairs des Pay, Bas, ed. M. Gachard, vol. 5 (Brussels, Ghent, and Leipzig: C Muquardt, 1879), p 8-10
Cowans, Jon, ed. Modern Spain: A documentary history. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. p 126-129
Stanhope, Alexander. Spain Under Charles the Second, or, Extracts from the Correspondence of Alexander Stanhope. John Murray, 1844. p 182-197

Secondary
Allen, Paul C. The strategy of peace: Spanish foreign policy and the 'Pax Hispanica', 1598-1609. Yale University, 1995. p 470-489
Elliott, John Huxtable. Imperial Spain 1469-1716. Penguin UK, 2002. p 300-301
Feros, Antonio. Kingship and Favoritism in the Spain of Philip III, 1598-1621. Cambridge University Press, 2006. p 181 -190
Fraga, Joana Margarida Ribeirete de. "Three revolts in images: Catalonia, Portugal and Naples (1640-1647)." (2013).
Hershenzon, Daniel. "The conspiracy of the ninth duke of Medina Sidonia (1641): an aristocrat in the crisis of the Spanish Empire." (2014): p 198-201.
Kamen, Henry. Spain, 1469-1714: a society of conflict. Routledge, 2014. p 183-189, 196-199
Jónsson, Már. "The expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain in 1609–1614: the destruction of an Islamic periphery." Journal of Global History 2, no. 2 (2007): 195-212.
Lesaffer, Randall. "Defensive Warfare, Prevention and Hegemony. The Justifications for the Franco-Spanish War of 1635 (Part II)." Journal of the History of International Law 8, no. 2 (2006): p 141.
Mitchell, Silvia Z. "Habsburg motherhood: The power of Mariana of Austria, mother and regent for Carlos II of Spain." In Early Modern Habsburg Women, pp. 174-194. Routledge, 2016.
Font de Villanueva, Cecilia. "Monetary reform in times of Charles II (1679-1686): Aspects concerning the issued dispositions." (2006).
Roberts, Keith. " Warfare in the Seventeenth Century." Cassell 2003: p 190-197
Spicer, Andrew. "Iconoclasm." Renaissance Quarterly 70, no. 3 (2017): p 1007-1022.
Storrs, Christopher. The resilience of the Spanish Monarchy 1665-1700. OUP Oxford, 2006. p 106 - 151
Van der Lem, Anton. Revolt in the Netherlands: The Eighty Years War, 1568-1648. Reaktion Books, 2019. p 209
Voth, Hans-Joachim. "The Sustainable Debts of Philip II: A Reconstruction of Spain's Fiscal Position, 1560-1598." Available at SSRN 1373750 (2006).

[HistoryofEverythingChannel]

Shout out to the Australian birds in the background

[BHuang]

"Charles II did nothing wrong"

*He confounded the doctors by continuing to exist*

[mitchm]

The thing that always gets me about paintings of Carlos II is that, like... *These are the idealized depictions of him, * the ones that made him look as good as possible.

[veritusahriman]

Habsburg family tree over here making Diablo 4 skill trees looking positivitely expansive by comparison.

[thejudgmentalcat]

I've never heard any historian actually blame Charles II for his...being, he really didn't do anything. His handlers did

[NickJohnCoop]

The most horrific thing about the Hapsburg’s is that they did kind of know that marrying so constantly in same bloodline was a bad thing, but to their mentality there was no other option.

[chickenspaceprogram]

"a 10 being whatever passes for Christianity in the southern US"

as an American, this is the most accurate thing I've heard today

[andarara-cp]

"Basques, you are like IRA but 10 times scarier".
At last somebody who acknowledges the dark history of ETA.
Om the internet you see IRA memes all around yet ETA mo was pretty similar (they specialized in cars going boom too) but they caused many more victims in the end

[derekharris]

A man delt a bad hand in life, and he tried his best to keep the country he ruled from collapsing in on itself.

[ForelliBoy]

refers to Charles as Carlos but not Philip as Felipe

ONE JOB

[CommissarMitch]

I visited Barcelona last week and let me put a note here;

In Barcelona, most signs are written in 2 languages: Catalan and Spanish.

Usually the Catalan is either the *Bolder letters* or the top language.

[ferborn]

As a spaniard historian: Thank you, it is not perfect but definetly better than anything I have seen on YT

[silentdrew]

Certainly brings new meaning to "Fuck around and find out"

[zlatko]

Being blamed for the decline of the empire for being born is fucking harsh.

Hopefully Carlos is doing better up above and beyond.

[fogrepairshipakashi]

Biggest lesson here:

Memes are NOT history.

[carlossaraiva]

As a Carlos myself, from Portugal, i really apprecuate you took the effort and the kindness to ise the proper version of the name in regards to King Carlos II of Spain.

[gamenmetnielspanter]

It's 6AM here in the Netherlands I have to go to school but I'm going to watch this because this is more interesting.

[Sorcerers_Apprentice]

In a strange way, the death of Carlos II led to the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean.

Carlos II died childless, which led to the War of the Spanish Succession. His sisters married into the French and Holy Roman Empires, who then fought each other for control of his lands. After the war, there was a huge surplus of labor as sailors and soldiers were de-mobilized and now unemployed. Many then became pirates, kicking off the Golden Age of Piracy.

[CircusJeanie]

Well I've learned a lot today. thanks, you're by far my favourite history youtuber.

[Matt_The_Hugenot]

Yup, it's down to Phillip II. I contend that the main benificiary of Hapsburg Spain's downfall, Louis XIV, was in turn responsible for the French Monarchy's collapse, spend all the money, start all the wars. Massive overreach at the peak of a state's powers is a familiar theme in history.