Europe and the Decline of Spain

<p>First published in 1981 <i>Europe and the Decline of Spain</i> 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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>