Summary

In 1713, after two centuries of undivided domination in Europe, the Treaty of Utrecht consecrated the dismemberment of the Spanish monarchy and its confinement to the Iberian Peninsula. The loss of Spanish Flanders and Italy has traditionally be seen as the death of the old imperial monarchies in Europe, increasing the decline of the Mediterranean powers and confirming the emergence of the sovereign states which forged the «European balance of power». It has also been considered as a turning .