The War of the Spanish Succession was fought between proponents of a Bourbon prince, Philip of Anjou, and the Austrian Habsburg claimant, Archduke Charles.

"[1] Economic troubles, the decay of the Spanish bureaucracy, a series of defeats in wars against France, and the erosion of imperial institutions in the seventeenth century had left Charles the king of a declining empire, and his physical and mental weakness provided him with little ability to reverse the course of his country.

The vastness and wealth of the ultramarine Spanish Empire in the New World and the Philippines, along with her naval resources, had made Spain a vital part of European power politics.

European politics at the end of the 17th century became dominated by establishing an orderly succession in Spain that would not alter the balance between Europe's great powers.

Before the conflict ended, Philip's young wife, Maria Louisa of Savoy (1688–1714) died, but the Bourbon royal succession was assured with the birth of two sons.

"[3] Also eliminated with the Bourbon dynasty was the Habsburg system of conciliar government, replacing councils with four secretariats, later evolving into ministries: State & Foreign Affairs, Charity & Justice; Army & Navy, and The Indies, i.e., the overseas portions of the Spanish Empire.

Philip's selection of capable French and Italian ministers to key positions in the government reined in independent, isolated, and corrupt ministries that had flourished in the later period of Habsburg rule.

The loss of so much of the European territory promised to him by Charles II's will and Philip V's personal ambition put him at unease with the Treaty of Utrecht.

French armies invaded the Basque country and Britain and Netherlands elected to capture Spain's New World empire and disrupt precious metal shipments hoping to prevent Philip from buying the Austrians into intervention; the allies suffered greater losses in men than the Spanish but the plan succeeded and Philip was forced to sue for peace in 1729.

[7] After 1729, Philip was more reserved in his use of Spanish power and sought the close support of allies, in particular France: a more cautious strategy that yielded positive results.

Philip sought a friendly axis with his relatives in France in the War of the Polish Succession, where he succeeded in regaining the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily for his son, the future Charles III of Spain.

Ensenada sought a cautious but independent foreign policy that distanced his country from both France or Britain, and desired a stable, peaceful environment in which Spain could reform her institutions.

Ferdinand was Philip's son by his first marriage to Maria Luisa of Savoy; he had suffered under the domineering influence of his stepmother as a child, and as king, he was constantly unsure of his own abilities.

He was opposed by an anglophile faction at court led by Jose de Carvajal y Láncaster, a mixed British-Spanish gentleman descended from the House of Lancaster.

Carvajal's most enduring accomplishment was the 1750 agreement with Portugal, which ended a long, low-level conflict in Banda Oriental (southern Uruguay) between the two countries.

He learned of the "spreading administrative paralysis, breakdown of responsibility, and delays in making key decisions" and was worried that France and Spain in the event might attempt to carve up the Spanish Empire.

The architect of the first phase of Charles III's reforms was one such Italian, Leopoldo de Gregorio - a man of humble origins whose ability as a military supplier for the Neapolitan army impressed the king and raised him to royal prominence.

By far the largest landholder in Spain, the Church had been treated with great charity by the Spanish kings of the seventeenth century - Philip IV in particular donated large tracts of territory in religious piety.

Like neighboring Portugal, Spain's antiquated bureaucracy had grown dependent on the income and production from its colonies to support an unmanageable, large class of landowning, non-productive gentlemen and clergy.

The Enlightenment had been a force of anticlericalism in Europe, and Charles, in applying its lessons to Spain, saw it less stridently, seeking to strengthen the power of the crown (regalism) against that of the Catholic Church and the papacy.

He was the only titled aristocrat in Charles's administration; the king generally preferred men of lower social origin who were university graduates from outside Castile.

A criminal prosecutor named José Moñino gained prominence as the investigator of the riots and as an outspoken supporter of the king's reformist policies.

Although Floridablanca – like Carvajal before him – admired British governance and believed that a cordial relationship with George III of Great Britain was the best policy for Spain, the American Revolutionary War was too great an opportunity for Charles III to pass up, and Spain went to war against Britain alongside France and the Dutch Republic in 1779, after providing monetary assistance to the rebels.

Bernardo de Gálvez, the governor of Spanish Louisiana, led the campaign to retake the forts lost to the British since 1762; Pensacola, Florida was retaken in 1782, and The Bahamas were seized later that year.

"He deserves high a rank among the enlightened despots of the eighteenth century, for in many ways he accomplished more than such famous rulers as Frederick the Great of Prussia, and Joseph II of Austria.

"[17] John Lynch's assessment is that in Bourbon Spain "Spaniards had to wait half a century before their government was rescued by Charles III, a giant among midgets.

The chief minister at the time of Charles IV's accession, José Moñino, 1st Count of Floridablanca, was not easily ousted and had many supporters in the court, particularly in Castile.

Godoy, having abandoned his Austrian and British allies, faced a decision: whether to continue to fight the Revolutionary France that had already defeated Spain once before, or to join the French side and hope for better times.

Prince Ferdinand traveled to France, and rumors spread that he was asking for Napoleon to oust Godoy from power; the Spanish King sided with his favorite.

Riots broke out in various parts of Spain, and in the Tumult of Aranjuez, Godoy was arrested and Charles IV forced by his son and heir Ferdinand to abdicate in his favor.