IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hes/wpaper/0130.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Napoleonic Wars: A Watershed in Spanish History?

Author

Listed:
  • Leandro Prados de la Escosura

    (Universidad Carlos III and CEPR)

  • Carlos Santiago-Caballero

    (Universidad Carlos III)

Abstract

The Napoleonic Wars had dramatic consequences for Spain’s economy. The Peninsular War had higher demographic impact than any other military conflict, including civil wars, in the modern era. Farmers suffered confiscation of their crops and destruction of their main capital asset, livestock. The shrinking demand, the disruption of international and domestic trade, and the shortage of inputs hampered industry and services. The loss of the American colonies, a by-product of the French invasion, seriously harmed absolutism. In the long run, however, the Napoleonic Wars triggered the dismantling of Ancien Régime institutions and interest groups. Freed from their constraints, the country started a long and painful transition towards the liberal society. The Napoleonic Wars may be deemed, then, a watershed in Spanish history.

Suggested Citation

  • Leandro Prados de la Escosura & Carlos Santiago-Caballero, 2018. "The Napoleonic Wars: A Watershed in Spanish History?," Working Papers 0130, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    • Handle: RePEc:hes:wpaper:0130
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ehes.org/wp/EHES_130.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Regina Grafe & Alejandra Irigoin, 2012. "A stakeholder empire: the political economy of Spanish imperial rule in America," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 65(2), pages 609-651, May.
    2. Barbier, Jacques A. & Klein, Herbert S., 1985. "Las prioridades de un monarca ilustrado: el gasto público bajo el reinado de Carlos III," Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(3), pages 473-495, December.
    3. Rosés, Joan R., 1998. "Measuring the contribution of human capital to the development of the Catalan factory system (1830–61)," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 25-48, April.
    4. Tedde, Pedro, 1994. "Cambio institucional y cambio económico en la España del siglo XIX," Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(3), pages 525-538, December.
    5. Leandro Prados de la Escosura & Carlos Álvarez-Nogal & Carlos Santiago-Caballero, 2020. "Growth Recurring in Preindustrial Spain: Half a Millennium Perspective," Working Papers 0177, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    6. Carlos Santiago-Caballero, 2013. "The Rain in Spain? Climate versus urban demand as causes of agricultural stagnation in eighteenth-century Spain," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 17(4), pages 452-470, November.
    7. Simpson, James, 1989. "La produccion agraria y el consumo español en el siglo XIX," Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 355-388, September.
    8. Prados de la Escosura, Leandro & Ã lvarez-Nogal, Carlos & Santiago-Caballero, Carlos, 2020. "Growth Recurring in Preindustrial Spain: Half A Millennium Perspective," CEPR Discussion Papers 14479, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Nuno Palma, 2016. "Sailing away from Malthus: intercontinental trade and European economic growth, 1500–1800," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 10(2), pages 129-149, may.
    10. Santiago-Caballero, Carlos, 2012. "Provincial grain yields in Spain, 1750-2009," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH wp12-04, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. The Economic Consequences of the Napoleonic Wars
      by guidoalfani in NEP-HIS blog on 2018-05-29 02:35:41

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Prados de la Escosura, Leandro & Rodriguez-Caballero, Carlos Vladimir, 2020. "Growth, War, and Pandemics: Europe in the Very Long-run," CEPR Discussion Papers 14816, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Santiago-Caballero, Carlos, 2021. "The gender gap in the biological living standard in Spain. A study based on the heights of an elite migration to Mexico, 1840-1930," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    3. Santiago Caballero, Carlos, 2018. "Social mobility in nineteenth century Spain : Valencia, 1841-1870," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH 27620, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    4. Carlos Santiago-Caballero, 2021. "Domestic migrations in Spain during its first industrialisation, 1840s–1870s," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 15(3), pages 535-563, September.
    5. Leandro Prados de la Escosura & Blanca Sánchez-Alonso, 2019. "Economic Development in Spain, 1815-2017," Working Papers 0163, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leandro Prados de la Escosura & Carlos Santiago-Caballero, 2018. "The Napoleonic Wars: A Watershed in Spanish History?," Working Papers 0130, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    2. Leticia Arroyo Abad & Nuno Palma, 2020. "The Fruits of El Dorado: The Global Impact of American Precious Metals," Working Papers 0179, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    3. Guido Alfani, 2022. "Epidemics, Inequality, and Poverty in Preindustrial and Early Industrial Times," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 3-40, March.
    4. Prados de la Escosura, Leandro & Rodriguez-Caballero, Carlos Vladimir, 2020. "Growth, War, and Pandemics: Europe in the Very Long-run," CEPR Discussion Papers 14816, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Adam Brzezinski & Roberto Bonfatti & K. KıvançKaraman & Nuno Palma, 2020. "Monetary Capacity," Economics Series Working Papers 926, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    6. Carlos J. Charotti & Nuno Palma & João Pereira dos Santos, 2022. "American Treasure and the Decline of Spain," Economics Discussion Paper Series 2201, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    7. Palma, Nuno & Reis, Jaime & Rodrigues, Lisbeth, 2023. "Historical gender discrimination does not explain comparative Western European development: evidence from Portugal, 1300-1900," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    8. Joan R. Ros s & Kevin H. O'Rourke & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2007. "Globalization, Growth and Distribution in Spain 1500-1913," Trinity Economics Papers tep0407, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    9. Maciej Stefański, 2020. "GDP Effects of Pandemics: A Historical Perspective," KAE Working Papers 2020-057, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of Economic Analysis.
    10. Ignacio Cazcarro & Rosa Duarte & Miguel Martín-Retortillo & Vicente Pinilla & Ana Serrano, 2014. "Water scarcity and agricultural growth in Spain: from curse to blessing?," Documentos de Trabajo (DT-AEHE) 1419, Asociación Española de Historia Económica.
    11. Nuno Palma, 2017. "Harbingers of modernity: monetary injections and European economic growth, 1492–1790," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 21(4), pages 435-436.
    12. Roses, Joan R. & Sanchez-Alonso, Blanca, 2004. "Regional wage convergence in Spain 1850-1930," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 404-425, October.
    13. Arteaga, Fernando & Desierto, Desiree & Koyama, Mark, 2024. "Shipwrecked by rents," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    14. Patrick K O'Brien & Nuno Palma, 2020. "Danger to the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street? The Bank Restriction Act and the regime shift to paper money, 1797–1821," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 24(2), pages 390-426.
    15. Beltrán Tapia, Francisco J. & Díez-Minguela, Alfonso & Martinez-Galarraga, Julio, 2018. "Tracing the Evolution of Agglomeration Economies: Spain, 1860–1991," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 78(1), pages 81-117, March.
    16. Nuno Palma & André C. Silva, 2024. "Spending A Windfall," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 65(1), pages 283-313, February.
    17. Leandro Prados de la Escosura & Joan R. Rosés, 2021. "Accounting For Growth: Spain, 1850–2019," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 804-832, July.
    18. Safya Morshed, 2024. "State of forgiveness: Cooperation, conciliation, and state formation in Mughal South Asia (1556–1707)," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(1), pages 60-89, February.
    19. Carlos Álvarez-Nogal & Leandro Prados de la Escosura & Carlos Santiago-Caballero, 2020. "Economic effects of the Black Death: Spain in European perspective," Investigaciones de Historia Económica - Economic History Research (IHE-EHR), Journal of the Spanish Economic History Association, Asociación Española de Historia Económica, vol. 16(04), pages 35-48.
    20. Brian D. Varian, 2020. "The manufacturing comparative advantages of late-Victorian Britain," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 14(3), pages 479-506, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Napoleonic Wars; Peninsular War; Spain; Institutional Change; Growth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E02 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Institutions and the Macroeconomy
    • F54 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - Colonialism; Imperialism; Postcolonialism
    • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N43 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Europe: Pre-1913

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hes:wpaper:0130. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Paul Sharp (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ehessea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.