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ultimately reestablished European predom-
inance in Morocco.
Europe. He subsequently distinguished
himself in battle, rising to the rank of gen-
eral. In 1766, while serving in a diplomatic
position, he was judged, due to his harsh
uncompromising temperament, to be the
right man for suppressing a rebellion in
and around M
ADRID
. On his return to Spain
he carried out this assignment with ruth-
less efficiency. Named president of the
Council of State in 1767, he presided over
the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spanish
territory and encouraged the subsequent
abolition of the order by the pope. Aranda's
animus against the clergy (which some his-
torians feel has been exaggerated) is said to
have originated during his European tour
when he became a friend of Voltaire and
other philosophes. Despite his reputation
as a disciple of the Enlightenment, Aranda
seems to have been of two minds about
reform. He undertook many salutary mea-
sures in economic and administrative areas
but pursued authoritarian policies with
such rigor as to antagonize many progres-
sive Spaniards. His critics finally persuaded
C
HARLES
III to remove him from office in
1733, but the monarch, as a mark of grati-
tude for past services, named him ambas-
sador to France. During the crucial years
leading to Spain's declaration of war against
Britain in 1779 Aranda supported the
French alliance, while F
LORIDABLANCA
who
had supplanted him in Madrid, favored
preserving the peace with Great Britain.
Although Aranda's preference prevailed,
his negotiations with British representa-
tives over the treaty that ended the Ameri-
can Revolution (1783) did not give Spain
everything she had hoped for. Aranda
returned to power briefly early in the reign
of C
HARLES
IV but soon clashed with the
new favorite at the royal court, M
ANUEL
DE
Aragon (Aragón)
Lying in Spain's northeast, along her Pyre-
nean frontier, the region that was formerly
the kingdom of Aragon includes the pres-
ent-day provinces of Zaragoza, Teruel, and
Huesca, with a total area of some 18,000
square miles.
It has been the fate of Aragon to remain
perpetually overshadowed. During the
medieval era Aragon was variously linked
with N
AVARRE
, C
ASTILE
, and V
ALENCIA
. Its
Renaissance rulers carved out a domain in
the Mediterranean, particularly in Italy. At
the beginning of the modern era it entered
into a dynastic union with Castile that
proved fatal to its pretensions. F
ERDINAND
V
(who died in 1516) was the last and great-
est of its kings. His heir, P
HILIP
II, crushed
Aragon's attempt to assert its traditional
autonomy during the late 1500s. A final
attempt to assert Aragonese freedom dur-
ing the W
AR
OF
THE
S
PANISH
S
UCCESSION
resulted in the abolition of the kingdom's
remaining rights by P
HILIP
V. Some Ara-
gonese historians maintain that the region's
finest hour came during the Napoleonic
Wars, when Aragon's capital city, Z
ARA
-
GOZA
, withstood a siege that demonstrated
the enduring stubbornness and bravery of
its people.
Aranda, Pedro Pablo Abarca de
Bolea, conde de
(1719-1798)
Spanish statesman
Member of an Aragonese noble family,
Aranda trained for a military career in
Prussia as part of a wide-ranging tour of
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