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Book
Review – Spain’s Road to Empire
The Blurb -
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 he Caribbean, and the opening up
of the frontiers in Texas and California in the eighteenth century.
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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. Henry
Kamen demonstrates how the traditional view of the Spanish Empire as the
all-conquering enemy of Protestant Europe has distorted our knowledge of
its achievements. Shorn of this "black legend", Spain's complex
impact on world history becomes far more apparent - but also, in new ways,
just as disturbing.
The Reality –
This book is one of the best histories of the Spanish Empire I’ve ever
read. In many
ways, it is fully comparable to Lawrence
James work on the British Empire and provides a worldwide look at the
empire and the people who made it. They
were not just Spanish; Italians, Germans, Danes, Mexicans, and many others
all contributed. This book
requires careful study and opened up many new areas of the Spanish Empire
for me to study in greater detail.
The Wars that the Spanish
engaged in are not discussed in great detail aside from the War of Spanish
Succession, which also provides an overview of the war and a description
of how low the Spanish had fallen to in those times, not too different
from the British Empire in 1930. Kamen
discussed (and has a quiet chuckle over) the irony that when the Empire
started to decline in the last half of the 17th century, Spain's enemies
had to be careful not to let her fall too far, lest they drag themselves
down with her!
The outline of the empire
is discussed in some detail. This
book is defiantly worth reading and offers great potential for the
Alternate Historian.
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