SPAIN AND PORTUGAL IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY - Spain and Portugal: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 28

the “rightful” claimant, Louis XIV's grandson the duke of Anjou, now
known as Philip V. Although most Spaniards rallied to the Bourbon
prince, the Catalans backed the Austrian archduke. For a time Karl held
Barcelona and several other eastern cities. Portugal intervened to stir up
trouble for its old persecutors in Madrid but failed to achieve any per-
manent benefit. More significant, England captured Gibraltar in 1704
and turned this fortress at the entrance of the Mediterranean into a
stronghold that it would retain for the next 300 years. As early as 1711,
however, the British and Dutch were becoming weary of their exertions
on behalf of the archduke, and by 1713 they had negotiated a separate
peace with the Bourbons, to which the abandoned Austrians had to give
reluctant agreement a year later. By the Treaties of Utrecht and Rastadt
Philip V was recognized as king of Spain (including Catalonia, but not
Gibraltar) and the colonies in America, Africa, and Asia. The Austrians
obtained the southern Netherlands (Belgium) and the Italian realms,
while further concessions were made to other interested parties.
Far from being reduced to a mere ruin, as some were already antici-
pating in 1700, Spain was, in a sense, invigorated by the War of the
Spanish Succession. Philip had proved himself an energetic and brave
leader in defense of his new home, restoring a sense of national pride
and fighting will that had been sapped in the closing decades of the pre-
vious century. Moreover, the loss of European dependencies actually
freed Spain of encumbrances that had become more trouble than they
were worth. In a practical calculation, as distinguished from one of mere
prestige, Spain was better off without these relics of Renaissance expan-
sion. Once peace had been restored Philip was free to devote himself to
the introduction of salutary reforms, many of them modeled on admin-
istrative and economic arrangements that had been introduced into
France by his grandfather's able advisers. A number of French and other
foreign officials undertook to revivify the Spanish state, making more
progress than Olivares, native son though he was, had been able to
achieve a hundred years earlier. Philip circumvented the old system of
councils, creating secretaries of state and controllers of finance who
functioned according to the modern system of ministerial responsibility
for particular functions of government. Jean Orry, Giulio Alberoni, and
Jan Ripperda, though holding office only briefly, went far beyond the
accomplishments of the traditional privado (confidential political adviser).
The French financier Jean Orry, as early as 1702 provided a complete
plan for the fiscal and administrative reorganization of Spain; Giulio
Alberoni, a native of Parma, directed Spanish foreign policy in 1717-18;
and the Netherlander Jan Ripperda was given direction of military,
naval, and financial affairs during the early 1720s.