El nadir de un modelo

Abstract

The presence of Italian soldiers in the Spanish army has been a constant since the late Middle Ages and certainly reached its peak during the Habsburg period. However, this presence was still important in the first half of the 18th century, when Italians were well represented at court and in the Bourbon armed forces. But from the 1950s onwards, the system of recruitment by means of allowances was in irreparable trouble and in the following years it became extremely complicated to supply the various units with men in an adequate manner. This problem led to the almost total disappearance of the regiments in service at the end of the century, and thus of a system of relations and links between the court and the Italian states that had remained strong throughout the century. The present work attempts to cover the crisis and the end of a model, represented by the system of raising troops through subsidized contracts, trying to analyze the motivations of this deep crisis.

Keywords

• asentistas
• Spanish army
• raising troops
• businessmen
• Italian soldiers
• 18th century