Essay on Book Critique

Jocelin Camacho
December 4, 2014
Mexican American Studies 141-07
Book Critique William S. Maltby book 2009, “The Rise and Fall of the Spanish Empire”, is about how Spain achieved to be one of the most powerful empires and ended up falling just after one century of being really powerful. A nation rose from the ashes of Europe, they builded an empire unlike anything mankind had ever witnessed before and it would remain the largest empire. Spain revolutionized the world more than any modern nation in history. In the late fifteenth and sixteenth century Spain was one of the most powerful countries in the world. In the fifteenth century Spain had been ruled by two Christian kingdoms and it was Castile and Aragon. In 1469 King of Aragon Ferdinand married Isabella Queen of Castile and through this marriage began the process of unifying Spain into a single kingdom. Later a centralized government was established and authority was concentrated in the hands of the monarchy. Isabella sponsored Christopher Columbus to explore overseas and try to find any good that will help with trade. King Philip sent an armada to invade England and when invading the England won the battle. Too much spending and unnecessary wars of Spanish kings drained the national treasury. Spain declining during the wars, and then later in the sixteenth and seventeenth century Spain rivals were becoming more powerful. During the nineteenth century Spain lost most of its world countries and was forced to recognize the independence of its New World Colonies. There was no such country as Spain, just like any other empire it began from the bottom and will end up rising all the way to the top. Yet within a century Spain became the most powerful nation in Europe. Spain experienced economic, social, and political age during the sixteenth century, but due to bad planning and decisions Spain later declined as an empire. The Spanish empire went through a lot of wars during the time they were really powerful. Starting from a small empire, Spain step by step found a way to expand their empire and control more cities so it can be under their empire. “War, rather than the promotion of social or economic welfare, was the primary business of the early modern state. During much of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it consumed ten times more revenue than all other functions of Spanish government and was by itself responsible for the crown’s enormous debt” (85). Just like any other empire being in the state of war will come its ups and downs. Being in wars constantly then that will have a downfall for any empire. It takes a lot of money to for a nation to be proving so much weapon and especially if a nation is constantly on war. It is not only about just fighting another country or city, but as well as maintaining the military equipped. War causes a lot of money to a nation and if the nation doesn’t have the resources then they will need to borrow money from somewhere. Empires and nations feel the need to keep growing their power and conquering every city. By doing that empires and nations start getting in debt. I believe there is a difference between defending your empire and trying to conquer other cities just to feel more powerful. Empire don’t need to feel that they need to be the most powerful nation than other ones. There is no benefit of other countries being scared of the most powerful. Empires feel the need of showing the rest of the world how powerful they can be. Spain used religion as a social process. One of the reason why the

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Book Critique Essay