Spain: The Center Of The World: 1519-1682, by Robert Goodwin

In reading a book like this one, it needs to be understood that no one writes a book of this size and scope without some kind of purpose, and likely several ones. One of the obvious purposes that the author has–and a purpose which shines through–is the way that the author manages to convey aspects of Spanish political and cultural history to an English-speaking audience that is compelling, even if more than a little bit focused on art and literature as well as the institutional failures of the Spanish empire. Yet there is also another point to this book that ought to be obvious to its readers as well, and that is the way that the author explores the Spanish empire and its overreach and the way that its military strength continued long after it had lost the capacity for rule in having the economic basis for hegemony as being a way to examine the decline of empires in general. The Spanish empire coasted on its prestige for a long while even as it struggled to balance its budgets and invented new forms of ultimately unsuccessful financial methods to deal with having an economy that depended on massive mining to support massive imports in an atmosphere of rampant inflation and equally if not more rampant smuggling. 

Among the more poignant aspects of this particular book is the way that the weaknesses of the leaders of the Spanish empire–the author certainly praises Charles V and Philip II, but even these leaders found the task of ruling over the Spanish empire to be overwhelming, and less able people like Phillip III, Philip IV, and Charles II found even less success. Indeed, the reign of Charles II was so unsuccessful, indeed, so fatal to Spanish glory and the Habsburg line that had failed, that he is not even awarded a part of the book unlike the previous four Habsburg rulers of Spain. The author, in seeking to capture the importance of dynastic matters to Spanish history–and not only with regards to the rulers themselves but also others, including provincial criollo elites, artists, and Spanish politicians and other notables–manages to do a great job here of talking about the way that different people sought to secure their dynastic prestige by passing along titles and engaging in strategic marriages to secure the hold over wealth, land, as well as to make deals and alliances and secure a key base of support in one’s endeavors, whether that endeavor is seeking an entrance into art or literature, ruling over a Spanish province, or governing a nation or an empire.

The author has at least something to say about the regional problems of Spain. Some of the regions receive a great deal more attention than others. Aside from the area of Castille where the capital of Spain tended to be found, whether or not it was in or near Madrid or another related area where a palace of one kind or another was built, Andalucia and Catalonia receive special attention far more than other regions of Spain. This is not entirely unsurprising. Catalonia has always had an antagonistic relationship with Madrid, and an attachment to its Catalan language as well as its local privileges and Corts, and the author is somewhat savage in his criticism of the economic and moral corruption of the area and its fondness for banditry and its willingness to betray Spain in order to support foreign nations like France (or later Great Britain and Austria) that were able to provide it with a higher degree of autonomy in the face of Spanish efforts to centralize power. Similarly, Andalucia is viewed fondly for the richness of the Moorish and Jewish elements of culture that were frequently denounced by those who sought to promote their limpieza de sangre (pureness of blood) against more cosmopolitan elites who had intermarried with other peoples. The author is pretty harsh against this sort of exclusionist idea as well, and the massive harm it did to the Spanish economy, as might well be imagined.

In terms of its structure, this book is nearly 500 pages long and it is divided into two parts, four sections, and 21 chapters. The contents begin with various maps as well as the Habsburg family tree, after which there is a short introduction. This leads to the first part of the book, Gold, which looks at the reign of Charles V of Austria (Charles I of Spain) in six chapters and then Phllip II’s reign in six more chapters. A prologue begins the first part of the book, and then the author talks about the realms of gold that Charles V inherited in Spain as well as Austria and the Netherlands (1), Charles’ efforts as Holy Roman Emperor (2), his marriage with Isabella of Portugal (3), the arms and letters of Garcilaso and the Duke of Alba (4), the rule of law (5), and the exhaustion and death of the emperor (6). The section on Phillip II focuses on it being an age of bureaucracy rather than chivalry, and then discusses El Escorial and the paintings of El Greco (7), St. Teresa, mystic poets, and the problems of the inquisition (8), the struggles to maintain control over the Netherlands (9), the conquest of Portugal thanks to the Duke of Alba (10), the relationship of pirates, criminals, and tax collecting (11), and the Great Armada and its aftermath (12). The second part of the book focuses on the glitter of the declining Spanish empire and the rulers of this period are associated with their powerful favorites. Philip III’s age of peace is associated with the Duke of Lerma, his chief advisor, and after a prologue there are chapters on Don Quixote as the first modern novel (13), the problems Moriscos and Catalans brought to the Spanish state (14), the art and illusion of the semana santa (holy week) (15), Velazquez and Zurbaran (16), and the politics and poetry of Gongora and Quevedo (17). The reign of Philiip IV and his favorite, the Count-Duke of Olivares, is told with a discussion of the drama of Don Juan (18), the prince of Wales in Madrid (19) in failed courtship, the triumph and disaster of the Thirty Years’ War (20), and the death and defeat that marked a fatal decline in Spanish power (21), after which the book ends with an epilogue about the reign of Charles II, notes, a note about currency and monetary values, a bibliography, acknowledgements, and an index.

Admittedly, not everyone is going to want to plow through a 500 page books to read about the complex failure of the Spanish empire in the face of a lack of real control on the part of the empire’s rulers and leaders on the economic, diplomatic, and military matters that constantly required their attention. The author makes a great note of the troubled relationship between Spain’s Habsburg rulers and the Netherlands and Spain. Originally, Charles V was viewed as being a Dutch outsider, but in so doing he was able to hold onto the Netherlands. Once the Spanish Habsburgs became associated with Spain, they were able to keep better control of Spain (asides from Catalonia) but then faced crushing problems with dealing with the independent-minded Dutch, whose independence in 1648 encouraged the Portuguese efforts to separate themselves from Spanish misrule and neglect and also encouraged the less successful Catalans, whose area was divided with between Spain and France in the aftermath of Spain’s long and painful defeat in war. Once Spain was no longer able to overawe its neighbors and rivals militarily, and once the Habsburg dynasty began to fail with Charles II, Spain’s days as a hegemonic empire were finished even in their own eyes, leading to the questions of why the days of gold and glory failed to spectacularly. This book does an able job of showing the strain and complexities of Spain’s place even at its best, and then when decline came pretty inevitably.