OLIVARES | El Hombre que Quiso Salvar España y Acabó Destruyéndola

The man who destroyed the Spanish Empire, or the only one who tried to save it when it was already collapsing? This is the story of the Count-Duke of Olivares, the man who wielded more power than anyone else at the court of Philip IV and who desperately attempted to reform a vast, glorious, and exhausted Hispanic Monarchy. For more than twenty years, Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, ruled from the heart of Spanish power. He wanted to restructure the Treasury, impose discipline, distribute the burdens of the empire, curb corruption, reinforce royal authority, and prevent Spain from collapsing under the pressure of France, Holland, the wars in Flanders, and the exhaustion of Castile. But his project clashed with everything. With the privileges of the kingdoms. With fiscal fatigue. With the resistance of the elites. With the Catalan rebellion. With the secession of Portugal. And with a brutal reality: the most powerful empire in the world could no longer sustain itself as before. In this documentary, you'll witness the rise, the power, the reforms, the mistakes, the defeats, and the fall of the man many blame for Spain's decline. But you'll also see the politician who understood, before almost anyone else, that the imperial machine was crumbling from within. Was Olivares an arrogant man who hastened the ruin, or the last great statesman who tried to avert it? That's what we're going to explore here. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 The man blamed for Spain's ruin 03:25 Gaspar de Guzmán's childhood, family, and education 10:06 His rise alongside Philip IV 16:46 The favorite who wants to rebuild the Hispanic Monarchy 20:05 The Union of Arms and Olivares' grand plan 25:00 War, taxes, and the exhaustion of Castile 30:05 Catalonia, Portugal, and the collapse of the project 33:24 The fall of the Count-Duke of Olivares 40:04 Exile, pain, and his final years 44:20 Olivares' legacy and the beginning of Spain's decline #CountDukeOfOlivares #GasparDeGuzman #PhilipIV #HistoryOfSpain #SpanishEmpire #HispanicMonarchy #17thCentury #SpanishDecline #UnionOfArms #Catalonia #Portugal #Flanders #Austria #Spain #HistoricalDocumentary