CHAPTER XXIII. The Salic Law and the Princess Isabella--The Carlists--Regency of Christine--Isabella II.--Her Expulsion from Spain--Amadeo--An Era of Republicanism--Castelar--Alfonso XII. Recalled--His Brief Reign and Death--Alfonso XIII., 150 CHAPTER XXIV. Birth of an Insurgent Party in Cuba--Ten Years' War--Impossible Reforms Promised--Revolution Started by Jose Marti, 1895--Attitude of the American Government--General Weyler's Methods--Effect upon Sentiment in America--Destruction of the Battle-Ship _Maine_--Verdict of Court of Inquiry--War Declared between Spain and America--Victories of Manila and in Cuba--Terms of Peace--Marriage of Alfonso XIII. and the Princess Ena, 154 ILLUSTRATIONS. Charles V. _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE Columbus at the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella 108 The Surrender of Breda 118 Philip IV. of Spain 126 Heroic Combat in the Pulpit of the Church of St. Augustine, Saragossa, 1809 144 The Duke de la Torre sworn in as Regent before the Cortes of 1869 152 A SHORT HISTORY OF SPAIN. CHAPTER I. No name is more fraught with picturesque and romantic interest than that of the "Spanish Peninsula." After finishing this rare bit of handiwork nature seems to have thrown up a great ragged wall, stretching from sea to sea, to protect it; and the Pyrenees have stood for ages a frowning barrier, descending toward France on the northern side from gradually decreasing heights--but on the Spanish side in wild disorder, plunging down through steep chasms, ravines, and precipices--with sharp cliffs towering thousands of feet skyward, which better than standing armies protect the sunny plains below. But the "Spanish Peninsula," at the time we are about to consider, was neither "Spanish" nor was it a "peninsula." At the dawn of history this sunny corner of Europe was known as _Iberia_, and its people as _Iberians_. Time has effaced all positive knowledge of this aboriginal race; but they are believed to have come from the south, and to have been allied to the Libyans, who inhabited the northern coast of Africa. In fact, _Iberi_ in the Libyan tongue meant _freeman_; and _Berber_, apparently derived from that word, was the term by which all of these western peoples were known to the Ancient Egyptians.