Kulturgeschichte of Spain in its Golden Age

Review of Spain: The Centre of the World, 1519-1682 by Robert Goodwin

This is a very fun book that tells great stories, interprets events to a degree, and views art and culture as a reflection of society at the time. While politics and war are somewhat neglected, the principal events are covered fairly well. This is not an academic book, but it is enough for students and amateur historians to enjoy. For travelers, it is an ideal vacation book.

The story begins in with the ascension to power of Charles V (r. 1516 to 1556) at the death of Ferdinand (a widower since Isabelle had passed). Spain at the time was only recently united, from the special alliance that the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabelle enabled (monarchs of Aragon and Castille, respectively). At that time, the Spanish state was a complex mechanism of feudal obligations and aristocratic privileges, fractious and poorly organized to say the least. Having never been to Spain – his birthplace was in the Netherlands – Charles V arrived and took the throne from his mother, who was judged insane. As a result, he was regarded as an usurper and the aristocracy immediately began a serious revolt against him. Though his hold on power was tenuous, he was lucky: a vast amount of gold had just arrived from the new world, enabling him to hire an army. Moreover, his opponents were so divided that even when the kingship was within their grasp, they fought each other with such intensity that Charles V survived and soon became Holy Roman Emperor as well.

And so a golden age began, with Spain as the center of the first truly global empire. In short time, wealth accumulated, sparking a commercial revolution that raised almost everyone's living standards. Meanwhile, Charles V worked extremely diligently to establish the Habsburgs as the greatest sovereigns in Europe, in particular with wars against his dangerous rival, Francois I of France. He also defended the west from the Ottomans, decisively ending their westward expansion. As the Reformation gained steam, this was also a period of rising religious tension – repression under the Inquisition reached a frightening intensity and a long war to dominate one of its feudal holdings, the Netherlands, began. Ever on the move, Charles V exhausted himself with his duties, eventually retiring voluntarily to allow his son, Philip II, to take the Spanish throne, though they lost the post of Holy Roman Emperor to Charles' brother.

Philip II inherited the richest and strongest state of Europe. Not only did the arts flourish with a series of Baroque painters, writers, and architects, but Philip II created a bureaucracy that essentially replaced aristocratic privilege, bringing the administration of the Empire to greater efficiency and reach, even to more justice. Gold from the New World was essential to finance all of this, though debt with the new class of bankers played an increasing role. Spain reached its political apogee at this time, though was showing serious signs of over-extending itself, particularly in the incessant war in the Netherlands. With the catastrophic defeat of the Armada against Queen Elizabeth, the serious decline began.

The next 2 kings, Philips III and IV, compounded problems by withdrawing and letting the aristocratic administrative state run itself with the help of powerful kings' favorites (Lerma and Olivares, both Dukes). Nonetheless, with its wealth and relative peace, cultural achievements moved to the fore. It was at this time that Cervantes invented the modern novel with Quixote and Velasquez revolutionized modern painting, both incorporating more subjective points of view in their work. The book goes on at great length about the arts, a bit too much for me, and only superficially mentions other consequential events in Europe, such as the 30 Years War.

Finally, at the end of the reign of Philip IV, Spain was engulfed in a series of catastrophes that removed it as a major power player in Europe. The Netherlands was decisively lost; a devastating plague tore the heart out of Seville, reducing it from the greatest cosmopolitan capital of its time to a backwater; other commercial powers emerged, in particular Britain; and better organized states, such as Louis XIV's France, consolidated power via centralization and effective autocracy. Spain thus became a has-been nation, looking backward more than forwards, sharpening its religious obsessions, and allowing the cultural momentum to gravitate elsewhere.

This is a very fun ride. I would have liked more analysis and context in terms of what was going on in Europe, but the book is sufficiently dense with detail to keep the readers' interest. It is never pedantic and avoids academic debate and proofs while giving some attention to what is disputed currently. The book is also beautifully written, though occasionally the prose is a bit purple, e.g. one writer's enthusiastic biographers are “caught in the dizzying Charybdis of his effervescent chivalric chutzpah.” Recommended, though the inquiring reader will have to go elsewhere for more depth.