First published in 1981, Europe and the Decline of Spain deals with the slow ebbing of Spanish power, its ‘melancholy, long, withdrawing roar’ during the ‘long seventeenth century’ of pre-industrial Europe. The author looks at the fortunes of Spanish European hegemony from its apogee late in the reign of Philip II to its ultimate failure and dissolution about a century later.
The author examines the dynamic spiritual and material resources of Spain as a politico-military system of continental dominance and control. He places the system in a context of continuous general European war, and structures and events in Spain and its provinces are set in this context.
A feature of the book is the description of changing approaches to the Spanish system by its major adversaries. This, along with a fresh look at the events themselves, has conditioned a reinterpretation of Spain’s ‘political’ decline which stresses its centrality to an overview of the whole period.
First published in 1981, Europe and the Decline of Spain deals with the slow ebbing of Spanish power, its ‘melancholy, long, withdrawing roar’ during the ‘long seventeenth century’ of pre-industrial Europe.
Arvustused
Review of the first publication
[ the author] provides a racy narrative and commentary which should earn him a round of applause.
J. H. Elliott, The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 55, No. 3
Bibliographical Prologue: The Problems and Their Available Data General
Introduction: The Philippine Empire and Europe, 15801610
1. From Little Wars
to Total War, 1610 28
2. The Empire of Olivares, 162843
3. Years of
Survival, 164356
4. Years of Defeat, 165678
5. Pathology of a Power System,
16781700 General Conclusion: Eighteenth-Century Horizons, 170020
R. A Stradling was Professor of History at University College, Cardiff. He has been researching and writing on various aspects of seventeenth century Spanish history since 1965.
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