Consequences of the War of the Reapers

All wars have consequences in the territories where they are carried out, some with greater repercussions than others, but a country is never the same before and after a war. The XVII century It was a time of numerous conflicts in Spain, some of which began at the beginning of the end of the great empire that was Spain. To understand how a war can change the future of an entire population, today in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we are going to talk about the consequences of the war of the reapers.

To begin with this lesson on the consequences of the Guerra dels Reapers we must summarize in what This conflict consisted in order to understand what were the causes that caused the serious consequences.

The War of the Reapers, or uprising of Catalonia, was a warlike conflict between Spain, Catalonia and France that took place between 1640 and 1652. The war was caused by various reasons of a different nature, some of the causes were the following:

• Castilla was in crisis, both economically and militarily, due to the continuous wars that she had had to confront.
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• Projects of the Count-Duke of Olivares that they did not like in Catalonia, since according to the projects they had to help Castile by giving money.
• Conflict between the Castilian troops and the locals during the war against France, since the Castilians had had to occupy the Catalan lands.
• The realization of the Corpus of Blood, a movement of the Catalan peasants against the Castilians.

The consequences of the conflict were very numerous, being horrible for Spanish and Catalan interests, but very beneficial for France. The French country made great profits from its adventure in Catalonia, and the costs were practically non-existent.

• One of the first consequences of the war was a discontent in Catalonia during the last years of the war, as for a long time it was invaded by French troops. Catalonia went from having her lands occupied by the Castilians to having them by the French.
• Another consequence was the negative that the occupation of Catalonia resulted for Spain's participation in the Thirty Years' War. Spain had to keep troops near the Catalan border, to try to recover the region at the same time that it prevented the French advance. Spain could not count on the troops and the money of Catalonia during the last years of the conflict, which greatly influenced the defeat of the Spanish. After losing the war Spain signed the Treaty of Westphalia, which for many meant the beginning of the end of the great Kingdom of Spain.
• The war also caused a decrease in the influence of the monarchy. The king of Spain had allowed one of his richest territories to be taken by France for years, and also had lost several wars in a very few years. All this was taken as a sign of weakness of the Habsburg Crown. The king had to render accounts to the Catalans, trying to stop the hatred that had arisen against the monarch. For this, Felipe IV swore to obey Catalan laws.
• Catalonia had asked for French help, but during the war they caused big differences Between both. This only accentuated the hatred between Spain and France, which had originated in the Middle Ages due to the numerous wars between the Crown of Aragon and France. This hatred was influential in the international affairs of the following years, as demonstrated in the conflict between Habsburgs and Bourbons during the War of the Spanish Succession, when Catalonia supported the Habsburgs ahead of the dynasty French.

The Treaty of the Pyrenees

But without any doubts the biggest consequence of the Guerra dels Segadors was the Treaty of the Pyrenees. The treaty served to end the war that faced Spain and France, and was very negative for the Spanish. Many scholars think that this treaty, together with that of Westphalia, caused Spain to lose its hegemony in Europe.

In the Treaty of the Pyrenees a pardon the persecuted During the Guerra dels Segadors, since after the war there were still issues to discuss, this treaty was used to define them. As a consequence of the treaty Catalonia lost Roussillon and part of Sardinia which happened to belong to France. The case of Roussillon was very special, since the treaty said that France should maintain the Usatges of Barcelona, ​​but the French king did not take long to break with this commitment.

A year later, Louis XIV repealed the Usatges and banned the use of Catalan in the area. With this, Catalonia lost two very important regions in its history forever.