Spain is one of two European countries that inhabit the Iberian P in the Westernmost part of Europe. During the 1700s, Spain went through major political reform following the War of Spanish Succession in the early 1700s. The country had just shifted hands from the Hapsburg Dynasty to the rule of Phillip V. In Swift's A Modest Proposal, he mentions Spain in the first paragraph when he is talking about the beggar families around Ireland. He states, "leave their dear Native Country to fight for the Pretender in Spain", which Swift is referring to James Edward Francis Stuart, who claimed he was the next heir to the English throne but was discredited by the Whigs in England. The people of Spain however supported Stuart, which is what Swift is referring to.