Spain's Road to Empire: The Making of a World Power, 1492-1763 - Hardcover

Kamen, Henry

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9780713993653: Spain's Road to Empire: The Making of a World Power, 1492-1763

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0713993650 ISBN 13: 9780713993653

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2002

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How did a barren, thinly populated country, somewhat isolated from the rest of Europe become the world's first superpower? Henry Kamen's tremendous new book takes full advantage of its great theme to recreate the dazzling world of militant Castile from the fall of Moorish Granada and Columbus' first voyage to the imperial collapse over three centuries later. There is no better account in English of this immense, brutal adventure - a ceaseless quest for land, gold and slaves that made Spain, both for its conquered peoples and much of the rest of Europe, into a rapacious nightmare.

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Synopsis:

Henry Kamen's work re-creates the dazzling world of Imperial Spain, from the capture of Moorish Granada and Columbus's first voyage in 1492, to its expansion into Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, and the opening up of the frontiers in Texas and California in the eighteenth century. Drawing on the accounts of those who witnessed these great events, whether Aztec chroniclers, Italian explorers or Filipino sultans, Kamen balances the wonders of the Empire (the first sight of the Pacific, the astonishing voyages of the Manila galleons) with the horrors - the slavery, disease, terror and waste of human life it entailed. Throughout he emphasises just how unSpanish this Empire actually was, always relying on the cooperation (willing or otherwise) of non-Castilians for its success: Portuguese, basque, Aztec, Genoese, Chinese, Flemish, West African, Inca and Neapolitan. It was this vast diversity of resources and people which included many of its greatest adventurers and soldiers) that made Spain's' power so overwhelming.

About the Author:

HENRY KAMEN was most recently Visiting Professor of History at the University of Chicago. He is the author of PHILIP OF SPAIN and lives in Barcelona.

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