-weak-willed

-during French Wars > First French War (1792-1804), Spain faces French invasion only stopped in 1795 by chief minister Manuel Godoy

-main concession is giving Santo Domingo to France, rather Heads of Haiti > 1797-1821 Toussaint Louverture's Governorate

-following year Spain declares war on side of France

-Britain blockaded Cadiz in reaction, making a lot of money in smuggling

-eventual peace, Spain forced to give up Trinidad Buenos Aires and Menorca, bitter pills for Spain to swallow

-in years that follow, Spanish Empire trots along

-Spain tries to push for settlement, particularly in Louisiana, against the Americans from across Europe

-Godoy not the most incompetent, but isn't really buying much confidence

-with outbreak of French Wars > Second French War (1821-32), goes to war with Britain to reclaim Menorca

-immediately does away with Godoy

-outbreak of US's Wars > Luisiana War (1825-8)

-Spain cares very little, but does send fleets to bombard the US coast

-eventual peace with Spain conceding Luisiana, Florida

-with Britain having revolution, France comes to peace with it

-peace imposed on Spain by France and the British, including forced departure of Spain from half-conquered Menorca

-instead given to Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, of Malta, and of Minorca

-in its wake, Ferdinand abhors and hates alliance with French

-with him slowly imposing policy of absolutism, reactionary attitudes

-uncle, Ferdinand VII had no children

-even more reactionary than his predecessor

-supports fuero system, reinstates it in Basque country

Furthermore, in Venezuela, a brutal war came out as Francisco de Miranda proclaimed the "State of Venezuela" in 1802 with British support, the first state of a vast "Colombian Empire" he envisioned existing across all of Spanish America led by an emperor known as the "Inca". Despite some support by cabildos, the largely rural population hated it and after numerous gaucho attacks, Spain was able to remove the British from Venezuela. This horrific state of affairs only came to an end in 1805, when Britain, exhausted after the Irish Rebellion of 1796, sued for peace with France and thus Spain. Subsequently, the blockade of Cadiz was lifted and Spain could finally govern its vast empire again. However, it found that things had changed. Suddenly, the economies of the New World were connected with the US and Britain, not Spain. High trade restrictions did not stop this, and in fact led to a few republican conspiracies emerging in Spanish America, especially in Venezuela. The result was that Spain, scared of the "republican cancer" spreading from France and the US, freed up trade restrictions but still monitored it with tariffs and high punishments for smuggling, and it attempted to push Catalonia, which was already fairly industrial thanks to the spread of spinning jennies in the 1790s, as an alternative to the Anglophone world with the rise of numerous state-sponsored Catalan companies. It worked to an extent, and Catalan textiles were in high demand by Charles IV's death, something which led to Catalan industrialization amplifying and accelerating. Slowly, Spain was changing, but at his core, Charles IV denied any political reform and hated liberalism. Above all, he was a weak monarch, and Spain was in reality ruled by Manuel Godoy, not the monarch.

Ferdinand was a much stronger personality than Charles ever was, and so Godoy was immediately removed from power. Whereas Charles was a deep-seated reactionary, Ferdinand took it to a whole other level, removing all but fellow ultra-reactionaries from power and reinstating the Spanish Inquisition to eliminate liberals (Protestants, on the other hand, weren't considered awful people). The 1820s, therefore, were a decade of extreme reaction against the rising tide of liberalism. In Spanish America, the 1820s were a decade of prosperity as even Ferdinand realized that trade with the Anglophone world was irreversible. In Luisiana, however, there was strife. Many Americans viewed it as empty room for it to expand. The result was numerous filibuster expeditions, all of which totally failed but caused Spain to settle Luisiana with settlers from across the Catholic world. While in the south most of them assimilated into the French community, in the rest Spanish was spoken as a lingua franca albeit with extremely distinct and peculiar features. This decade of peace, however, came to an abrupt end when the Neapolitan Revolution broke out in 1831, resulting in the Italian Republic expanding southwards, resulting in another massive continental war. Ferdinand chose to fight for the monarchist alliance rather than for France - this led to the Second War of the Pyrenees, where France proclaimed Catalan and Basque client states, moving many French Basques to the new Basque state. Across the world, an increasingly expansionist US proclaimed war on Spain over Luisiana, beginning the Spanish-American War. Yet, Ferdinand didn't have a chance to truly fight in these wars, as he was mysteriously poisoned.

Achieving power as a young man, Alfonso was intent on keeping Spain's wars manageable. As such, he immediately sued for peace with France, and in a highly fraudulent referendum, the Catalan and Basque people "voted" to become Spanish. The result was that Spain could focus on the US, which was quickly ripping through northern Luisiana. Comanche warriors were recruited to the cause, and a British blockade that hurt Spain came to an end after Britain fell to revolution, resulting in the formation of a kingdom with a much larger electorate and the formation of numerous republics in the Empire such as the Second Hibernic Republic. As such, many Spanish troops moved in along the Mississippi, and Comanche warriors battled American soldiers, given free reign by Spain in this regard. Battles intensified, and the American sweep into land largely Indian-inhabited with a few Spanish forts was slowed drastically as American troops moved closer to the populated Arkansas River. These tough battles were difficult, but ultimately, Comanche warriors were too sparse and the Spanish didn't care enough for a far-flung hinterland. And so, in 1837, at the Battle of New Orleans, the US took the most major Luisiano port, and despite a devastating Comanche raid occurring a few weeks afterwards, American control was fairly solid. As Venezuela erupted into revolution once more, Spain was eager to sign a peace which ignored most ludicrous American requests like asking for land as far as the Rio Grande. Eager to stop another invasion, Spain proclaimed the immediate settlement of the new hinterland and established northern New Spain as the Viceroyalty of New Vizcaya, an effort which was moderately successful but drastically overshadowed by California being suddenly placed on the map after the discovery of gold in 1841, resulting in settlers coming from as far as the Philippines. In Venezuela, the Second Republic was destroyed by gauchos after some tumultuous years of war. As the European war came to an end, peace was achieved. Immediately, Spain desired for Catalonia to see a full recovery, investing in industrial tools, and did the same to Basque country after the discovery of large coal deposits. Companies were established which gave Catalans and Basques privileges and special trade routes were established. By 1850, Catalonia had fully recovered, and Basque country far surpassed its prewar economy. Catalan and Basque textiles were distributed across the empire, worn by Spaniards as far as Javayi and the Philippines. It was an era of vast prosperity. In 1852, when Europe broke out into war once more, Alfonso chose to sit the war out as the last few times Spain fought in a European war didn't work out very well. A policy of "tranquil isolation" was developed from the affairs of the rest of the continent. Instead, Spain expanded into North Borneo and successfully propped up a Moroccan client king so as to avoid total French domination of the Barbary Coast. However, Spanish absolutism was less popular than many Spaniards thought. Numerous cabildos were overthrown in the 1850s, with the unsuccessful formation of a "constituent assembly", and republican movements in the Americas had to be brutally crushed. Seeing the necessity of reform, the last acts of Alfonso before his sudden death were to decentralize the Spanish Empire between its viceroyalties, create the democratic legislature known as the Cortes-General, and democratize the Audiencias of Spanish America.

However, democracy proved not to be the great panacea to worker's problems that many thought it would be. Even as the electorate was somewhat expanded, industrial unrest rose. The democratic system was riddled with special interests, predominantly industrialists, fighting against any industrial reform. The ideas of Elijah Mordechai, a Cisrhenian Jewish lawyer and political theorist, spread to the Spanish working class despite some antisemitism. He spoke of a revolution that would bring power to the proletariat and create a worker's state - he called it a "Mountain" in accord to French revolutionary jargon. And so, the Neo-Montagnard Party of the Spanish Empire was formed - eventually, the prefix was removed as it was considered unnecessary to distinguish it from earlier Montagnard ideology. This party competed in elections, but malapportionment meant that workers were underrepresented. Furthermore, Charles was vehemently opposed to any further reform to bring working-class people into the system, viewing reform as a useless further step. In contrast, in Spanish America, where there was a very little working class, this reform was taken highly positively as creoles and peninsulares were given full equality, though increasing industrialization in Mexico and Chile resulted in some unrest there. Furthermore, electoral victories of Catalan and Basque regional parties backed by wealthy industrialists resulted in the opening of regional legislatures, though this didn't stop highly-powerful working-class movements from emerging in both highly-wealthy regions, with the May Massacre of Barcelona especially being a rallying cry. The War of German Unification erupted in 1888, and resulted in Spanish goods being asked for by both sides which required every industrial advantage they could get. This resulted in industrial business being highly prosperous. However, very little of these benefits trickled down to the Spanish working class, which meant rising unrest. This unrest caused the March on Madrid in 1894, when the Montagnard Party marched on Madrid. This represented the sheer rise of revolutionary sentiment, and resulted in the Montagnards being banned and cracked down upon harshly by the Spanish government. Massacres marked all of their protests, and members were arrested in large numbers. In 1908, an attempted massacre resulted in tensions finally boiling over, and a coup d'etat was launched on the Spanish government, resulting in the Spanish Revolution. Charles V was executed for his crimes against workers, as were many government officials.

The Revolution conquered most of Spain in a rapid movement, although Galicia proclaimed its independence and allied with Portugal. Across the pond, although revolution was more minor, in New Spain excepting the Yucatan and Chile, the Montagnards won. Vaquero raiders in New Vizcaya, now proclaimed the Buenaventura Republic after a mythical river) whose search defined much of its early history, stopped Montagnard control there, and although New Granada and Chile were taken, Venezuela proclaimed its independence and was able to defend its territory from the Montagnards. Members of the House of Bourbon fled to Argentina, where they formed a government-in-exile. Fighting across the former Empire became the rule, but in 1916, a peace was signed, with the existing territories fully recognized as under the control of the Mountain, and the other states recognized as independent by all powers involved. Worker's councils were established in place of companies and worker's unions were fully merged with government, with democratic elections existing for every position in every company. However, this resulted in many unqualified people in positions of power, resulting in a period of hyperinflation from 1916 to 1921 which only ended with the creation of a new currency in place of the peso, the escudo. Companies failed in accurately gauging the number of required goods, and often goods were over- or under-produced, resulting in government intervention and the issuing of official biannual plans for production based on census data. By 1926, the total chaos came to an end, although there were still a great many flaws with the system of the Mountain.