Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492-1763

664 Pages·2003·52.036 MB·English

by  Henry Kamen

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$34.95
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How
did a barren, thinly populated country, some-
what isolated from the restofEurope, establish itself
as the world's first superpower? Henry Kamen's
impressive new book offers a fresh and highly origi-
nal answer.
Empire is a global survey of the two and a half
centuries (from the late fifteenth to the mid-
eighteenth) in which the Spaniards established the
most extensive empire the world had ever known,
ranging from Naples and the Netherlands to the
Philippines. Unlike previous accounts, which have
presented the Empire as a direct consequence of
Spanish power, this provocative work of history
emphasizes the inability ofSpain to run an imperial
enterprise by itself. The role ofconquestwas decep-
tive. Spain's rise to powerwas actuallymade possible
by the collaboration of international business inter-
ests, including Italian financiers, German techni-
cians and Dutch traders, in the task of setting up
networks of contact ranging across the oceans. At
the heightofits apparentpower, the Spanish Empire
was in reality a global enterprise in which non-
Spaniards—Portuguese, Basque, Aztec, Genoese,
Chinese, Flemish, West African, Incan and
Neapolitan—played an essential role. It is this vast
diversity of resources and people (which included
man of its greatest adventurers and soldiers) that
made i's power so overwhelming.
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0303
Boston
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Boston
02116
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HOW
SPAIN
BECAME
A
WORLD POWER
1492-1763
******************
Henry Kamen
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— —
EMPIRE. Copyright © 2003 by Henry Kamen. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States ofAmerica. No part ofthis book may be
used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical
articles and reviews. For information, address HarperCollins
Publishers Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.
HarperCollins books may be purchased for educational, business, or
sales promotional use. Forinformation, pleasewrite: Special Markets
Department, HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New
NY
York, 10022.
First published in Great Britain in 2002 by Penguin Books Ltd.
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION
Printed on acid-free paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kamen, Henry Arthur Francis.
[Spain's road to empire]
Empire : ho—w Spain became a world power, 1492-1763 /
Henry Kamen. 1st American ed.
p. cm.
Originally published: Spain's road to empire. London
:
Penguin, 2002.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-06-019476-6 (alk. paper)
— —
1. Spa—in Histo—ry Ferdinand and Isabella, 1479-1516.
2. Spain—History House ofAustria—, 1516-170—0. 3. Spain
History—Bourbons,—1700- 4. Spain Colonies History.
5. Spain Relations Foreign countries. 6. Imperialism
History. I. Title.
987654321
03 04 05 06 07 uk/rrd 10
Contents
ListofIllustrations vi
ListofMaps X
Preface xxi
i Foundations 3
2 The EarlyWestern Empire 49
ANewWorld
3 95
4 Creating a World Power 151
5 The Pearl ofthe Orient 197
6 The Frontier 239
7 The Business ofWorld Power 285
8 Identities and the Civilizing Mission 33i
9 Shoring Up the Empire (i630-1700) 381
10 UnderNew Management 439
11 Conclusion: The Silence ofPizarro 487
Glossary 5i3
ListofAbbreviations 515
Notes 5i7
SelectBibliography 567
Index 577
List ofIllustrations
Black and white chapter illustrations and engravings
Chapter i The departure ofColumbus's second voyage. From Caspar
Plautius,Nova Typis TransactaNavigation 1621 (©Ameri-
can Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA)
Chapter 2 The Entrance ofCharles Vinto Bologna, 1529-30 (photo:
Gabinetti dei Disegni e delle Stampe, Florence/Scala)
Chapter 3 CaptureoftheIncaAtahualpabytheSpanish.FromTheodor
deBry, GrandVoyages, 1596 (photo:TheFotomasIndex)
Chapter 4 Execution of prisoners after the surrender of Haarlem to
theSpaniards,engraving, 1567 (photo:TheFotomasIndex)
Chapter 5 Magellan enters the Pacific, engraving, c. 1567 (photo: The
Fotomas Index)
Chapter 6 Early seventeenth-century map of South America (photo:
The Fotomas Index)
Chapter 7 Pack train ofllamas laden with silver from Potosi mines of
Peru. From Theodor de Bry, Grand Voyages, 1602 (photo:
Library of Congress, Washington DC/The Bridgeman Art
Library)
Chapter 8 Tupi Indian dancers, Brazil. From Theodor de Bry, Grand
Voyages, 1593 (photo: Library of Congress, Washington
DC/The Bridgeman Art Library)
Chapter 9 TheBattleofRocroi, 1643,engravingbyA. Boudan (photo:
Mary Evans Picture Library)
Chapter 10 The port of Vigo in Galicia, 1702, engraving by Anon,
(photo: Mary Evans Picture Library)
Chapter 11 The Inca Guyana Capac and a Spaniard discussgold. From
Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, The First New Chronicle
VI